Not too long ago Generaldarkside posted an Editorial about Marvel and DC films. The discussion that followed made me wonder just how have the two done with their movies. Everyone has their personal opinion, their loves and hates, but how did the movies really do?
Hollywood has one simple yardstick. They care about one thing and that is it. You know what it is but I will say it... Profit. They want to make their money back at least a couple of times over to pronounce a movie 'successful'. Those that go beyond that level get nicer tags. Blockbuster is of course the top of the heap. As it stands right now you have to break the $500 million mark to qualify.
Whenever you look at numbers there are always things to consider besides what is shown in black and white. Movies these days are not just made for US Theaters. Long gone are the days when American Box Office is the only thing that counts. These days it is a rare filmmaker that does not consider the International audience. So in all my comparisons I am using World Wide Box Office as the basic final value for the film.
Whether or not a film actually makes money is dependent on a lot of factors. Every film has an advertising budget. The initial money is based on what they think the film is going to do. So for something with a budget of $50 million they may plan $1 million at first. If the movie does well enough they may very well advertise more. The gamble is how much do you do? It is easy to spend more than you can recover. This is not normally listed as part of the budget but it counts.
There is a big set of positives as well. DVD sales can range from $1 million to $100. Selling the rights to TV and others can be huge and are always something. And then finally the real monster... Merchandising. Frankly some movies can easily multiple their profit with merchandising.
What I wanted to measure Marvel and D.C. produce the bulk of the comics that I have read. Most of the Characters I care about belong to one of the two. They are also the major players in CBMs. I know there are great things done by other companies and I give my apologies for the slightly narrow focus.
What I have done is dug up basic Budget and Worldwide Gross numbers for most of the Marvel and DC films starting in 1989. There are far fewer movies before that point and data is harder to obtain. My 2 main sources are listed at the bottom of this Editorial.
The goal of any movie is to make a profit. That means it has to make more money than it cost to make. When advertising and other expenses are added to the basic budget costs that means you need a little more than just the amount of the budget.
So if a film does not make it's money back it is a true failure. If it barely makes it's budget back then it is still pretty much a failure. The first line I draw is if a film makes twice it's budget. That should mean that it is indeed a success. Doing 3 or 4 times the budget is even better. And if you hit 5 times your budget or more then you are talking Blockbuster.
Marvel Films
D.C. Films
Budget, Gross and Profit are all in Millions of $ Budget is the basic cost to produce the film. Gross is the World Wide Gross Revenue. Profit is the difference between those two. Ratio is Revenue / Budget.
DVD and other income along with Advertising and other expenses are not considered. Frankly it is hard to get most of that data.
Here are some of my observations based on the Tables presented.
1. The Kings of the CBMs - The Two Batmans I knew TDK had made a billion $ but I was surprised at how successful Burton's Batman turned out to be. I knew it was a Blockbuster but not quite the level that it had really obtained. On my Success scale it actually deserves an 11! The Dark Knight is perhaps a 6 which is still at the very top.
2. The Big Stinkers From 1998's Blade to 2003's X-Men II Marvel had a pretty good run. But in 2003 Hulk and the 2004 Punisher both failed. 2005's Electra and 2008's Punisher: War Zone complete the set of 4 big stinkers for the Comic Industry Leader.
1989's Batman is of course the King of CBMs at this point. The follow-ups did not do as well but were solid successes. 1997's Steel only cost $16 million but it still managed not to make money. Sorry Shaq. We love you but the movie was really bad. 2004 Catwoman. 2006's Superman Returns barely made it's money back and annoyed people the world over. 2008 The Spirit and 2010 Jonah Hex both look to be failures. Sadly the 2009 Watchman also makes this list. This brings D.C. total to 6.
Not a big difference there. Marvel does have a much better win/loss ratio.
3. Marvel has more consistency but DC has the big guns Marvel has more movies connected to it but the same number of failures. D.C. has had the 2 biggest CBMs ever but also a very high profile failure in Superman Returns. Movies are never less than a calculated risk and both have recent missteps.
Except for Punisher it looks like Marvel has a solid line of success running back to 2005. Kick-Ass did not do well in the USA but it almost reached $100 million once it got overseas.
4. CBMs almost never fail. Almost none of these movies lost money. In fact when you consider the whole picture (merchandising and DVDs) the chances are that every single one was profitable. A few for each did not do well at all. But everything else, and that is the bulk of them, did pretty good. Fans may love them or hate them but people went to see them regardless.
Look at the Spider-Man Series. Spider-Man I was a certified Blockbuster. It gets a 5 but if the scale went to 6 it would get that. Spider-Man II which has been called the best in the series made a little less money than the first. And because it cost more it slips down to a 4. Isn't that odd?
Even worse is Spider-Man III. Supposedly the worst in the series it made more than I by a fair bit. Because of increased cost it slips down to a 3 on the Success scale though. Seems weird if it is such a bad movie that it would do so well.
Fantastic 4 II is pretty universally hated. So much that III was canceled. But it still doubled it's budget earning it a solid 2. This is one case where Fan and Audience reactions obviously counted more than usual. This movie made more than enough to justify the final part. Good decision but a little odd too.
Overall Observations There is a very solid market for SuperHeros. They don't always please everybody. Fans suffer from the Paradox and little can be done about it. But the only real question about a CBM is how well will it do? Not will it be a success.
In a way that is a fairly nice thing to know.
What is the Paradox you ask?
Well the only reason characters like Batman, Iron Man and Spider-Man exist is because of their Fans. All the people who bought their comics made them into something worthy of a film right? But we comprise a small part of the general audience. So when movies get made out of our beloved Heros and yes Villains too, they are made for everybody BUT us. That is the Fan Paradox.
If we are lucky we get a Director who is either a Fan or respectful enough of us to care. They avoid decisions that are contrary to the spirit of the character. They do make changes but they try to do something we can accept. But that is it. They cannot make perfect reproductions of what is in the comics because those only appeal to us, that tiny fraction of the population.
Let me put it another way. If a movie that was a perfect representation of the Character, Story, and Setting of a comic would indeed do well then comics themselves would sell in the millions. But in truth a good selling comic does 100,000 or so.
I think Fans have an impact but it is more on the level of a multiplier. We do not determine the fate of a film but we increase the ups and downs. If we get behind the movie then I think more people do go to see it. If we really hate it I am not so sure that has the same impact. Enthusiasm is contagious, hatred a little less so perhaps.
It might be more accurate to say that while Fans are the final word on the accuracy of a film we are not on the overall quality of it. When we say we love it that tends to mean both that it is a generally good film and that it does the character or story right. If on the other hand we say we hate it that might mean it is just a bad movie. Or we are being too picky again and want too much. Remember the Paradox.
Only another Fan has much of a chance to telling those two reactions apart. So when we dis a movie I think a lot of people just ignore us. But from the numbers above I will admit it is hard to see where Fan reaction plays a part.
What is very, very clear from the data above is that we will be seeing SuperHero CBMs for a long, long time. They are doing remarkably well and all signs point to more of the same.
Sources:
The Numbers Wikipedia
American SuperHero Films D.C. Film List Marvel Film List