Top Box Office Takes For Superhero/Comic Book Movies

[aTOMiC]

Well as of this weekend Iron man has pulled in $177mil domestically, $342mil world wide and has pulled into 11th place all time for superhero themed films. With a budget of $140 mil it's already paid for itself just in domestic take alone. I predict IM will probably grab 6th or 7th place ($220-$230 mil) when it finally completes its run giving it a place just below the original Batman and possibly just above or just below X-3. Frankly I think IM is superior to both of those films but you can't argue with the box office numbers. Of course that means IM will rest above all of the other Marvel films except for the Spiderman series which is pretty good considering IM wasn't a fraction as well known as Spiderman, Superman and Batman. Nice job.

[Xar]

Well as of this weekend Iron man has pulled in $177mil domestically, $342mil world wide and has pulled into 11th place all time for superhero themed films. With a budget of $140 mil it's already paid for itself just in domestic take alone. I predict IM will probably grab 6th or 7th place ($220-$230 mil) when it finally completes its run giving it a place just below the original Batman and possibly just above or just below X-3. Frankly I think IM is superior to both of those films but you can't argue with the box office numbers. Of course that means IM will rest above all of the other Marvel films except for the Spiderman series which is pretty good considering IM wasn't a fraction as well known as Spiderman, Superman and Batman. Nice job.

According to ComingSoon.net and SSH:

Despite dropping to second place, Marvel Studios' "Iron Man" added an impressive $31.2 million in its third weekend to push its total to $222.5 million domestically. The Paramount release also collected another $25.6 million internationally, bringing its overseas tally to $206 million and worldwide total to $428 million. Directed by Jon Favreau, the Robert Downey Jr. starrer was made for $140 million.

[aTOMiC]

After the Memorial Day weekend, Iron man has pulled within a few million of Incredibles and will likely jump to 4th all time box office for Superhero movies by the end of the week. Well done Shellhead!
Any possibility of IM catching even Spiderman 3 is remote but the film is still chugging along.
BTW under "Comic Book Adaptation" IM is already in 4th place.

www.boxofficemojo.com/genres/chart/?id=superhero.htm

[Menolly]

I never understood these comparisons...
Ticket prices are so much higher than when the older films were released, so Iron Man sold fewer tickets to overtake Batman, right?
I know the studios go by money brought in, but isn't a better comparison number of patrons attended?

[dANdeLION]

I have 15 of those films on dvd.....

[DukkhaWaynhim]

Do these counts include total revenue, from things like promotional tie-ins, toys, video games, DVDs? Or is this just box office?

dw

[aTOMiC]

Do these counts include total revenue, from things like promotional tie-ins, toys, video games, DVDs? Or is this just box office?

dw

Just domestic box office totals. You can get total box office world wide as well.
I should have mentioned that that data comes from Box Office Mojo.

www.boxofficemojo.com/

[aTOMiC]

I have 15 of those films on dvd.....

On both dvd and vhs I have all but Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

[CovenantJr]

I never understood these comparisons...
Ticket prices are so much higher than when the older films were released, so Iron Man sold fewer tickets to overtake Batman, right?
I know the studios go by money brought in, but isn't a better comparison number of patrons attended?

Agreed.

[Cail]

The site has a conversion factor for ticket prices.

[Menolly]

The site has a conversion factor for ticket prices.

Then isn't that the comparison we should concern ourselves with?
I still don't understand why we would compare on box office take when it's apples and oranges until adjusting for inflation is brought into it.
I am open to having it explained to me though.

[Cail]

Not really.

Here's the adjusted figures, but what they fail to take into account is how the world has changed.

For instance, Gone With the Wind didn't have to compete with the internet, cable TV, or any other modern trappings. Until 1980 or so, there was no home video market, so you either saw a movie in the theater, or maybe you might catch it on TV in a year or two. Up until 15 years or so ago, it took 6-12 months for movies to come out on VHS, and they cost $50-$100 when they came out in order to protect the rental market. Up until 10 years or so ago, there were no DVDs, and the home theater market was still tiny.

Any film that does huge business now, even with the sky-high ticket prices, is arguably doing better than the films of 30 years ago.

[Menolly]

Ah...OK.

But even adjusted, Spiderman is still the top super-hero film, whereas Batman jumps into second, if I'm reading this right.

[Cail]

Right, but I question the merit of the adjustment due to the social changes that have occurred over the last century of filmmaking.

[aTOMiC]

ACCURACY OF FIGURES
Adjusting for ticket price inflation is not an exact science and should be used to give you a general idea of what a movie might have made if released in a different year, assuming it sold the same number of tickets.

Since these figures are based on average ticket prices they cannot take into effect other factors that may affect a movie's overall popularity and success. Such factors include but are not limited to: increases or decreases in the population, the total number of movies in the marketplace at a given time, economic conditions that may help or hurt the entertainment industry as a whole (e.g., war), the relative price of a movie ticket to other commodities in a given year, competition with other related medium such as the invention and advancements of Television, VHS, DVD, the Internet, etc…

From Box Office Mojo

[Menolly]

*nodding*

But I still think it would be more accurate than to base it strictly on box office take. The same factors still come in to play regarding whether or not the public will go to a film now. I don't see how using box office take is more valid, with everything factored in.

But again...that's me.

[dANdeLION]

Thank you, guys, for annoying me enough to make me split this from it's original thread....

[Menolly]

...s'ry, Leonine One...

[dANdeLION]

I saw 21 of those films in the theatre.

[The Dreaming]

Hulk made more than Superman II? What the hell is wrong with this country...