17.) Thor: The Dark World (2013): I am not a huge fan of the Thor movies but I will admit that the comic books have never disappointed. This movie had an estimated budget of $170 million and wound up bringing in a smidgen over $206 million. Yikes! They just made their money back with a little profit for snacks at the cast party.
16.) Captain America: The Winter Soldier: One of my personal favorites, this movie also had a budget of around $170 million but did much better in gross revenue at $259 million. Their cast party had a petting zoo no doubt with this kind of profit.
15.) Guardians of the Galaxy: This one surprised me as it also had a budget around $170 million. I would have guessed much higher. The resulting gross sales did NOT disappoint coming in at a staggering $330 million. When you can almost double your investment you’ve got to be happy. I’ll bet they had Captain America AND Iron Man make guest appearances at their cast party.
14.) The Dark Knight: There is some controversy here about how much this movie made, but I’m going to stick with what I found on a reliable website. The estimated budget for the film was $185 million with gross sales coming in at $530 million. Wow! That’s almost a 300% return on their money. Now that’s good investing!
13/12.) Iron Man 2 and 3: The special effects in these movies were incredible. It’s getting harder and harder to believe your eyes when you watch todays special effects. It all looks amazingly real. To make these movies look real took some big bucks. Iron Man 2 had an estimated budget of $200 million and has gross receipts of $310+ million. Iron Man 3 had a similar budget of $200 million with gross sales of $408 million. Although Robert Downey Jr. has said he is tired of playing Iron Man and is ready to call it quits, don’t think that the Iron Man cash machine is going to slow down. Hopefully they won’t cast Ryan Reynolds as him as well as the other characters he’s mangled.
11.) Spider-Man 2: Sam Ramie’s combination of Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst didn’t disappoint in this movie that had a budget of $200 million. Box office tickets sales loved them as they brought in an amazing $373 million.
10.) The Amazing Spider-Man 2: Marc Webb’s rendition didn’t fare too well. What with a budget of $200 million no one was happy with receipts of $202 million. No webbing can cover up that wound.
9.) Green Lantern: It’s no secret that I am not a fan of Ryan Reynolds the actor. I’m sure as a person he’s an extremely nice guy. It’s nothing personal. This movie’s return on investment should be taken personally, though. With an investment of around $200 million this bomb of a movie generated approximately $116 million. In all fairness it wasn’t Ryan Reynolds who killed this movie. Poor writing, lack of a real plot, no character development AND Ryan Reynolds were to blame for this box office disaster.
8.) Superman Returns: Despite being a HUGE Superman fan I did not see this movie. Apparently I had good reason. This film had a budget of $209 million and barely hit $200 million in total sales. Maybe Superman should have stayed where he was and chosen not to return.
7.) X-Men: Days of Future Past: Enough cannot be said about the comic books surrounding Days of Future Past. As an appraiser I can also tell you that these comics have increased in value. The movie, however, was not so fortunate. Having a budget of $200 million this comic book success turned box office meltdown struggled to hit $234 million. A $34 million dollar return sounds great to me but, alas, in Hollywood they don’t see it the same way.
6.) X-Men: The Last Stand: The X-Men hit the list again with X-Men: The Last Stand. I personally liked both this film and Days of Future Past but it appears that I was one of the few. The initial investment here was around the $210 million mark and returned a measly $234 million. It may have very well been one of their last stands.
5.) The Avengers: Loved this movie!!! Again, I wasn’t the only one. The Avengers had a budget of $220 million which seems low based on all of the special effects they had. The return, however, was incredible, coming in at an earth conquering $623 million! It’s no wonder why they are working around the clock to continue the development of these films.
4.) Man of Steel: Another Superman movie I haven’t seen, this film had a budget of $225 million with returns of $291 million. Not a bad haul, but a disappointment for those who are comparing the Marvel and DC box office receipts.
3.) The Amazing Spider-Man: Is it me or are the Spider-Man movies getting harder to keep track of? Different people playing Spider-Man, Spider-Man and Amazing Spider-Man movies, different Mary Jane’s, what’s a comic book fan to do? It harkens me back to the football games my dad used to take me to. Program vendors were yelling, “Get your program here! You can’t follow the players unless you have a program!”. I think I need a program. This film had a budget of $230 million and had box office returns of $262+ million. Not good, but not bad. This franchise will continue to grow.
2.) The Dark Knight Rises: Yet another part of the Batman franchise makes it’s way onto this list. With a budget of $250 million this outstanding film brought in $448 million. If the Batman vs. Superman movie factored in box office take, it appears that Batman would be the clear winner!
1.) Spider-Man 3: The most expensive superhero movie ever made had a budget of $258 million and returned a smidgen over $335 million. It is becoming abundantly clear that the amount of money you spend is not always translated into total revenue earned. It’s a shame, really. In Hollywood, it appears, that you don’t always get what you paid for.
All this being said we are still waiting on total receipts for Avengers: Age of Ultron. The budget for that film was an estimated $250 million. Let’s see if that works out well in box office returns.
I think it’s safe to say that with the release schedule of Marvel and DC, among others, we will continue to see increases in budgets as production companies try to trump one another with rising returns. As fans we can only benefit from this competition, so I plan to enjoy it. Just remember to stay until the credits are over and the lights come up in the theaters or else you might miss the important stuff!!
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