Until fairly recently, the vast majority of superhero movies were considered untouchable at the box office. Unfortunately, a combination of the pandemic, diminishing interest in China, and moviegoers wanting more from the familiar formula has seen that change.
Down the line, that may go a long way in helping this genre shrug off claims of so-called "superhero fatigue." Right now, though, Hollywood insiders and box office analysts alike are struggling to figure out why The Marvels looks set to go down in history as the MCU's lowest-grossing movie. 2023 as a whole has been a disaster, though, and one need only look at the DCEU's failings for proof of that.
Presented here - in no particular order - are the most surprising box office disappointments from the Marvel and DC Universes (and beyond). As well as delving into their dire domestic and international cumes, we take a crack at trying to figure out where these movies went wrong.
This might shock you, but not all of them were bad, and we also delve into why at least some of them deserved better. So, to take a look through some of the biggest superhero movie flops, click on the "Next" button below...
10. Jonah Hex
With a stellar cast that included Josh Brolin, John Malkovich, Michael Fassbender, and Megan Fox, it's hard to believe Jonah Hex has a lowly 12% score on Rotten Tomatoes.
The 2010 movie being written by Crank and Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance filmmakers Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor was a dead giveaway that their take on the DC Comics hero would disappoint fans, though no one could have predicted how poorly this movie would perform at the box office.
With a paltry $10.5 million in the U.S. and $350,000 overseas (we're assuming it went direct to DVD in most places), Jonah Hex didn't even come close to making back its $47 million budget. The character would later appear in Legends of Tomorrow but hasn't been used in a solo project since.
9. Green Lantern
Despite some concerns about the quality of VFX in the trailers, there was an awful lot of excitement surrounding Green Lantern ahead of its release in 2011. After all, Green Lantern was one of DC's best titles thanks to Geoff Johns!
So, with Casino Royale director Martin Campbell at the helm, it seemed like nothing could go wrong. Unfortunately, nearly everything that could, did, and it was an unmitigated disaster.
Boasting a massive $200 million budget (a nearly unprecedented figure at the time), it was always going to be tough for the DC Comics adaptation to turn a profit. However, it crashed and burned with $116.6 million at the domestic box office and a mere $103.25 million internationally. And yes, that's exactly why Green Lantern has been on the shelf ever since.
8. Catwoman
Female-led superhero movies didn't receive much love before the likes of Wonder Woman and Captain Marvel came along, and the blame can mainly be attributed to studio bosses having a clear lack of understanding about what makes these characters tick.
Take Catwoman; focusing on Patience Phillips instead of Selina Kyle, it took the cat burglar down a bizarre, supernatural route. A generic action flick (and not a very good one at that), Catwoman's A-List cast resulted in the budget ballooning to upwards of $100 million, and this early 2000s blockbuster didn't do Batman numbers at the box office.
Accumulating just $40.2 million in the U.S. and another $41.9 million internationally, Halle Berry's hopes to follow Storm with a major DC role were quickly dashed.
7. Dredd
Opening to positive reviews back in 2012, Dredd massively exceeded expectations and was a tense, action-packed low-budget thriller that did the comic books justice.
Karl Urban proved himself the perfect choice to play this character, and the bad taste left in our mouths by the version starring Sylvester Stallone quickly vanished while watching this badass interpretation. Unfortunately, it seems the character simply doesn't appeal to a wide audience as Dredd only managed to earn a, ahem, Dredd-ful $13.4 million in North America.
Overseas numbers weren't much better at $22.2 million, and with a $50 million budget, we're not surprised those sequel talks have never led anywhere. The 2000 A.D. world remains largely unexploited on screen, and this is a big reason why.
6. Morbius
A major embarrassment for Sony after the success of Venom: Let There Be Carnage and Spider-Man: No Way Home., Morbius wasn't a movie anyone seemed to enjoy sinking their teeth into.
A perplexing mid-credits scene set the stage for the Living Vampire to join the Sinister Six, though we can only hope that nightmare never becomes a reality. Likely ensuring Leto never gets to indulge in "Morbin' Time" ever again is the fact this Marvel movie not only earned the wrath of fans and critics alike but also stood out as one of 2022's biggest flops.
Earning a bloodless $73.9 million in the United States and Canada, and $93.6 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $167.5 million, Morbius was "rotten" in every sense of the word. It did, however, only cost $75 million to make...
5. Shazam! Fury of the Gods
2019's Shazam! was a hit with critics and performed well financially. However, after a four-year wait for this follow-up, the magic had been lost and audiences no longer seemed interested in Billy Batson's story.
After a dismal second weekend which saw it suffer a -68% drop, Shazam! Fury of the Gods made only $12.1 million, for a U.S. total of $56.1 million and, even more disappointingly, $102.4 million worldwide. With a $101 million budget, it's another disaster for Warner Bros.' DCEU, especially in the wake of last October's Black Adam.
However, were it not for that movie's bloated $200 million budget, the $393 million it made is vastly more impressive than what this sequel looks set to manage. Why did it flop? There are countless possibilities, but we doubt Shazam will find a place in the new DCU.
4. Elektra
2003's Daredevil wasn't a particularly good movie, but it had its moments, and Jennifer Garner did a fine job as Elektra. Her story was rushed, as was her death, but seeing her taken out by Bullseye was a nice homage to the comic books and a solid way to potentially set up a Daredevil sequel.
That never happened, but Garner was contracted to appear in a spinoff...whether she liked it or not. While Elektra only cost $43 million to produce, it disappointed with $24.4 million at the domestic box office and $32.27 million overseas.
The movie may have earned a little more than it cost to make, but numbers like that aren't enough to convince a studio to greenlight a sequel, and the Man Without Fear was sidelined until 20th Century Fox let the rights to these characters revert to Marvel in the early 2010s.
3. The Marvels
Reviews for The Marvels have been largely positive (if not exactly glowing) but heading into the Captain Marvel sequel's opening weekend, it was clear interest in the movie was fairly limited. A poor marketing campaign? An audience unfamiliar with two of the three leads? The fact "Captain Marvel" was missing from the title?
Honestly, it's hard to figure out what went wrong, but we still think the movie deserved better than a dismal $47 million opening weekend. As things stand, it's expected to earn between $210 million and $240 million worldwide when all is said and done, making it the MCU's lowest-grossing movie to date.
There's a lot about this movie that works, but it may have been a misfire to deliver a silly team-up in place of an epic cosmic adventure. Not helping matters in The Marvels' case was the fact its budget ballooned to $275 million, a surprise when it clocked in at just over 90 minutes when all was said and done.
2. The Flash
We don't like to say a movie deserved to fail, but it was hard not to s[racial slur] when "the greatest superhero movie ever made" ended up, a) being anything but, and b) earning the sort of money which will send it down in history as Warner Bros.' biggest box office flop.
Grossing $270.6 million worldwide on a budget which is thought to have ballooned way beyond $300 million, not even some last-minute reshoots courtesy of James Gunn's input could save the day. From terrible visual effects to those weird cameos and a problematic leading man, there was little here to love.
However, Michael Keaton's return as Batman was largely a triumph and Sasha Calle made a lasting impact as Supergirl. Modern audiences just didn't have a big enough connection to Keaton's Caped Crusader, though, hence why not even Batman could help The Flash at the box office.
1. Fantastic Four
The first two Fantastic Four films were cheesy disappointments, and while fans weren't overly excited by Josh Trank's grounded vision for Marvel's First Family, his work on Chronicle inspired confidence.
Plagued by behind-the-scenes issues, this was one of the worst comic book movies of all time, and Simon Kinberg stepping in to helm reshoots completely decimated the filmmaker's vision. That left us with two separate takes on the Fantastic Four mashed together for a terrible result.
Trank disowned the Fox-produced Marvel Comics adaptation right before it was released, a move analysts believe knocked $10 million off its opening weekend. After costing $120 million to produce, it would later scrape up $56.1 million in the U.S. and middling $111.8 million internationally.