Superhero Box Office Showdowns - 2012 and Beyond

They said the genre was in decline. They said the superhero movie fad was almost over. Well, a decade into this golden age for superhero cinema, 2012 is the biggest year yet. Now that the dust has begun to settle, lets take a look at the final stats for 2012 and examine some of the epic clashes poised for the next two years.

Marvel's The Avengers Aims To Infinity and Beyond

Disney must be feeling pretty good about their $4 billion investment in purchasing Marvel a couple years back as Marvel's The Avengers has already passed the $1 billion mark at the worldwide box office thanks in part for its record breaking $103 million second weekend take in the US. With a few hundred million more likely, the gauntlet has been thrown down and Batman may have a tough time rising to the challenge. Either way, The Avengers performance has to be a good thing for the future of Superhero movies. The genre is as alive and well as it ever has been. Hopefully this will open the doors for the likes of the Flash, Wonder Woman, and the Justice League as well as for other Avengers like Miss Marvel, Ant-Man, and Black Panther. Its a good time to be a geek.

How Does The Avengers Opening Weekend Total Measure Up?

Turns out that even factoring in inflation numbers (shown in gray) Marvel's The Avengers still out earned all previous movies based on Marvel or DC properties. Including inflation, The Dark Knight remains in second place with $175 million narrowly edging out Spider-Man 3's adjusted total of $174 million. At this point, a $500+ million total for The Avengers is all but assured - it should be sitting near $375 million by the end of this coming weekend. The question that remains is whether or not it will exceed The Dark Knight's adjusted take of $588 million to become the all time superhero box office champ.

Avengers to Assemble Box Office Record?

With $80.5 Million banked on Friday alone, The Avengers looks likely to reach $175 to $180 Million this weekend which would be the biggest ever - bigger than HP7-2's $169 Million and bigger than The Dark Knight's $158 million. Not only would this put Marvel's The Avengers on track to become Marvel Studio's biggest movie yet, but it will already have nearly surpassed the domestic totals for Thor, Incredible Hulk, and Captain America. Impressive. Will the Dark Knight Rise to the challenge and retake the record?

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Captain America Overtakes Green Lantern at the Box Office

After his second weekend at $117 million, the Star Spangled Man with a plan has been promoted past Green Lantern in both the domestic and worldwide box office earnings. Although Cap's earnings have slowed, he still looks to land somewhere around $160 million domestic, which will most likely be enough to earn the franchise a sequel... Major America perhaps?

Captain America Declares Box Office Victory

Captain America made a mighty splash at the box office this weekend amassing $65.8 million. The total was enough to edge out Thor for the biggest superhero opening of the year (by just 100,000).

No Disguising Transformers Weekend Victory

And just like that, Transformers: Dark of the Moon is on the board. After Independence Day, the domestic total sits at $181 million, already ahead of the Mighty Thor. The Trany's worldwide total still lags the thunder god's for the time being sitting at a pretty $391 million with lots of gas yet in the tank. Perhaps I should remove Transformers from this superhero race, since its going to rally skew the comparison of the other heroes.

I am having a hard time spinning Green Lantern's performance which has really tanked. At least it passed the $100 million mark and at least it passed The Green Hornet. Not a huge accomplishment granted, but at this point you have to take the small victories. I am not sure what is going on with the worldwide market, but hopefully some progress is made on that front to lessen the disaster.

The X-Men and Thor both continue to plod forward hoping to catch a few extra bucks before the First Avenger arrives in 2 more weeks.

Cars Nabs the Weekend Checkered Flag

Cars 2 raced into theaters this weekend easily coming int first with a $68 million take. What did that mean for the superhero films? Well, Green Lantern took a steep tumble, accruing just $18 million toward a $89 million cumulative take. X-Men mustered another $6.6 million and is still headed toward a sub $150 million finish. Thor continues its slow march toward $180 million. This upcoming week should be interesting with the Transformers launching a full on assault on the box office and the other films hopefully getting a 4th of July boost.

Green Lantern's Mildly Bright Box Office Take

Its pretty obvious to anyone reading this site that I have been pulling for Green Lantern to be a huge hit. Well, I will just cut to the chase and say that once again DC has failed to win over the mainstream in a way that Marvel has consistently done. And I was majorly off in my prediction.

I will concede that Green Lantern is a bit of a tough sell. Its full of odd creatures and zaniness that can easily seem goofy to the uninitiated. In addition, "Green Lantern" isn't really a guy but a title. This distinction fueled some people's confusion over why the movie Lantern, Hal Jordan, wasn't black like in the Justice League cartoon which focused on John Stewart. On the other hand, the Green Lantern comic as of late has consistently been DC's biggest seller. There are dozens of rich characters from which to draw and thousands of Green Lanterns. I had such high hopes that the movie would tap into the Green Lantern's potential. It kinda didn't. Additionally, it was massacred by the critics when it was really more along the lines of an X-Men 1 or Fantastic Four than a Catwoman or Jonah Hex. And despite what audiences heard, the movie looked amazing.

Anyway, GL opened to $52.6 million, less than Thor or X-Men: First Classes openings. Its still possible the movie could have an amazing run if it were to catch on with the family crowd, but even then $150 million is looking like a challenge at this point. The problem is that of the 3, Green Lantern was the most expensive. So, while calling this a flop is ridiculous, we have yet to see how this will affect DC's grand schemes to develop its own movie universe... I am sure there will be plenty to report on over the next weeks.

X-Men continues its pace in accord with X-Men (2000) looking at a $150 million finish. Thor continues to slowly lose its thunder maintaining a trajectory of $180+ million. How will Captain America fair in this super saturated summer? Stay tuned.

In Its Second Week, X-Men Out-Supered

In not terribly surprising news, X-Men: First Class dropped to second place for the weekend behind opener Super 8. The second weekend total of $25 million elevated the mutants to a $99 million domestic total to date, officially surpassing the total of The Green Hornet. The X-Men still has some gas in the tank, having kept nearly an even pace with the original X-Men film. Look for a finish close to $150 million. Thor continues to chug along. At nearly $174 million, Thor looks to peter out at about $180 million.

Next weekend, Green Lantern opens as a bit of a wild card. Images of the movie have been plastered everywhere, but some negative buzz has fed skeptics. Remember DC has a lot riding on this movie's success including plans for a Lantern Trilogy and a Flash franchise. My gut tells me it will do fair to good since it does look like it has potential for a broader audience than X-Men or Thor. It definitely looks more family friendly than X-Men, but whether or not that translates into camp is yet to be seen. I am keeping my fingers crossed for an opening around $65 million and a near $200 million finish.

Wolverine-less X-Men: First Class Declawed at the Box Office

Owing to the poor reputation of X-Men Origins: Wolverine along with the absence (almost) of Wolverine in this film, X-Men: First Class opened to a relatively soft $56 million. For comparison the original X-Men opened to $54 million 11 years ago. X-Men: The Last Stand, the series biggest earner, opened to $102 million in 2006. What this means is that X:Men: First Class may struggle to keep the X- Franchise alive in its current form in spite of favorable reviews. Perhaps producers should offer up a true reboot rather than trying to have their cake and eat it too with an in-continuity (kind of) pseudo reboot/prequel without most of the fan favorite mutants.

The opening positions X-Men behind Thor for opening weekend take and places the mutants on a trajectory to finish behind Thor, just like I predicted. Thor scooped up another $4 million lifting its domestic total to $169 million.

Animated Thor Sales Tell a Sad Tale

First week sales for Thor: Tales of Asgard are in and according to The-Numbers.Com which estimates DVD sales, the news is not great. Granted, Blu-Ray sales, which are an increasing piece of the pie, are not taken into account. Nevertheless, in the Marvel line of films sales for Thor only surpassed those of the disappointing Next Avengers movie mustering just $951 thousand bones. The estimate was less than half of those for first week sales of February's All Star Superman DVD from the DC line.

Its been sad to watch as DVD sales in general have dwindled, but in particular watching the reduction in the profitability of the Direct to Video superhero sales has me a tad fearful even for the future of the DC line. Having said that, this Thor movie seemed an odd choice and tough sell and it ended up performing about the same as the previous chance Marvel took on teen superheroes. In any case, if Marvel DtV's rise like the phoenix from its ashes hopefully these figures will encourage more Hulk Vs type stories and less super kids.

By Odins Beard, Thor Readies For Box Office Competition

During its fourth weekend in the box office, Thor suffered modest declines earning another $12 million during the Memorial Day holiday, good enough for 5th place. The current domestic total of $162 million continues to increase toward a hopeful $180-190 million. Thor's worldwide total of $411 million is already impressive when compared to the Incredible Hulks total worldwide take of just $268 million - though I am guessing Hulk sold more "Hulk Hands" than Thor has sold rubber hammers. This Friday, fellow Marvel heroes in X-Men: First Class may inflict some damage on Thor's box office legs as they two films cater to similar audiences. It remains to be seen which of the two films will end up with the bigger opening weekend total. Tune in next week once the dust settles to fins out.

Thor's Poop Deck Plundered By Pirates

In his third weekend at the box office, The Mighty Thor dropped to third place behind Pirates 4 and Bridesmaids rounding up another $15 and a half million. The 55% drop from last weekend, though still respectable, was due in part to many of the premium priced IMAX and 3D screens being allocated for the newer releases. Thor is currently sitting on a domestic total of $145 million and nearly $400 million worldwide. From this point in its run onward, The Incredible Hulk still banked another $20 million. Thor has been consistently outpacing the Hulk and so another $30 to $40 million looks likely before the run is over. Oh, and less than 2 weeks until X-Men!

The Mighty Thor's Box Office Hammer Continues to Swing

During its second weekend, The Mighty Thor amassed another $34.5 million, enough for the weekend crown. The current total has given the God of Thunder at least a temporary box office lead among 2011 super hero films, passing up The Green Hornet. With $119 million domestic and an additional $225 million for foreign receipts, Thor is currently wielding a worldwide total just shy of $350 million with two more weeks before the Men, X throw their hats in the ring.

Quest for the Box Office Crown - Thor's Thunderous Opening

Summer hast officially begun with Thor the God of Thunder hammering home $65,811,000 during his opening weekend. While this is a solid opening, it may place a $200 million finish slightly out of reach for the bearded one. The original Iron Man opened with 98.6 million and went on to earn $318 million. The same trajectory would give Thor a $212 million finish. On the other hand, Marvel Studios other non-sequel The Incredible Hulk opened with 54.5 million on its way to $134.8 million. Hulk's trajectory would land the son of Odin at $170 million. The safe bet is that Thor will land somewhere in between at around $190 million. While that is not quite as high as I had originally predicted, the sum should be pleasing enough to the execs back in Asgard to green-light a sequel for the Mighty Thor.

Quest for the 2011 Superhero Box Office Crown - Bold Predictions

Its May! The summer movie season in upon us beginning this Friday May 6th with the opening of Thor. X-Men: First Class opens in a month on June 3rd followed in just two more weeks by Green Lantern on June 17th. Although the Transformers aren't strictly superheroes, I have included them here. Transformers: Dark of the Moon opens in less than two months on July 1st. Captain America will close out the season on July 22nd.

Its time to lock in my predictions for the domestic box office earnings of these films which I will be updating throughout the summer.

Thor - $240

Not as accessible as Iron Man, but pretty much two full weeks without major competition should pay big dividends. With nearly $100 million in the bank already from the International market, Thor looks to do just fine.

X-Men: First Class - $175

I am thinking audiences may be X-Mened out. This movie does look pretty good, but with an all new cast and no Wolverine, people may be confused.

Green Lantern - $275

This is the one I am really pulling for. Assuming this movie is good, a sequel has potential to be even more incredible. So, my outlook is hopeful and biased. Unfortunately, GL is parked in the middle of the most summer competition and so it better make its green quickly.

Transformers: Dark of the Moon - $350

Surely the quality of Transformers 2 will have an impact, but the trailer for this is pretty ridiculous, in a good way. The 4th of July has also been friendly to the disguised robots and will probably be again.

Captain America: The First Avenger - $165

I love the guy, I really do, but of the five movies listed here, this one gets me the least excited. Partly, that's because I really don't have much to go on at this point. By the end of July, geeks are going to be broke so Captain America will have to settle for sloppy seconds.

To recap, even if my dollars are off, I expect the final order to be:
Transformers for the win
Green Lantern to place
Thor to show
X-Men to survive
Captain America to lick his wounds

Hex has Worst DC Opening Since Steel

Click on the chart and get ready to laugh. Although Jonah Hex beat out Marvel's 2008 third attempt at the Punisher (barely), you have to go way back to 1997 and Shaq Fu's sub-million dollar opening weekend to find a worse opening for DC. Even Supergirl (1984) and Superman IV (1987) opened stronger in uninflated dollars. Even 2008's The Spirit opened bigger with an embarrassing $6.5 million! Luckily Hex will get a second chance on the Batman: Under the Red Hood animated DVD. That Jonah Hex short may give the character back some dignity, but its unlikely Jonah will be back on the silver screen anytime soon... or ever.

That Flushing Sound Means Jonah Hex has Arrived

As of tonight, the eve of Jonah Hex's debut, the movie has a solid 00% rating on rottentomatoes.com and if the 70+ minute running time is any indication, this is a real stinker. Hey, Dumbo was just over an hour long, but I just don't think Jonah can stack up against a flying elephant. At this point it is not even a forgone conclusion that Hex will beat out such superhero bombs as Howard the Duck's $16 million or even Punisher: War Zone's $8 million. Who would have thought that with $24 million, The Losers would be DC's big summer winner. Hopefully next year's Green Lantern sets things right.

Iron Man Does it Again at the Box Office

Yesterday, on day 40 of its release, Iron Man 2 passed the elusive $300 million mark at the box office. Though its pace has slowed, IM2 is $10 million ahead of the original film's total after an equal number of days. The movie has anywhere from $10 to $20 million left to earn, but it most likely will not pass the original's 2008 domestic total of $318 million. Nevertheless Iron Man has been one of the few bright spots in a lackluster summer movie season and thus far remains the summer box office champ (with Toy Story 3 just around the corner). Way to go Tony!