Deadline ranks Marvel's Ant-Man on its yearly "Most Valuable Blockbuster" list

Deadline ranks Marvel's Ant-Man on its yearly "Most Valuable Blockbuster" list

The folks at Deadline Hollywood have crunched the numbers beyond simple box office gross. So how much did Ant-man really make after all of the costs are tallied, and how does it stack up against the other comic book films of the last few years?

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By Chewtoy - Mar 21, 2016 08:03 PM EST
Filed Under: Ant-Man
Source: Deadline Hollywood - 2015 Most Valuable Movie Blockbuster Tournament

We get regular box office reports to let us know how our favorite movies are doing, but do those numbers really tell the whole story?  For the past 3 years, Deadline Hollywood has been taking a closer look at the total grosses and costs of the major money earners and ranking them on a yearly "Most Valuable Blockbuster" list.  

Starting with the box office broken into "Domestic", "Foreign" and "China" totals, they then determine how much of that money actually came back to the studios in Theatrical Rental gross.  Next they add in Home Entertainment grosses for both Domestic and International, and then Television as well as any other revenues.  From that Total Gross Revenue they subtract the production costs, releasing costs (foreign and domestic), home entertainment costs, interest, residuals, particiaption, overhead and distribution fees to come up with a final number representing the total profit earned by the film.

In the current (still in progress) countdown of 2015's biggest blockbusters, Marvel's Ant-Man ranked 14th with total profits of $103.9m, ahead of the likes of Spectre and Spongebob Squarepants, and right behind Mission Impossible Rogue Nation

Despite having a lower box office gross than some other big comic films of recent years, Ant-man ranks well in actual profits.  Here are how the most profitable Comic Book Movies have done in total estimated profits since Deadline began their yearly list with the 2013 releases:

Iron Man 3 - $391.8m
Guardians of the Galaxy - $204.2m
Big Hero 6 - $187.3m
Captain America:  The Winter Soldier - $166.2m
Thor The Dark World - $139.4m
Ant-Man - $103.9m
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - $81.31m
X-men Days of Future Past - $77.4m
The Amazing Spider-Man 2 - $70.4m
Man of Steel - $42.7m

Deadline's countdown of the most profitable films of 2015 continues, and Marvel's Avengers Age of Ultron will surely be high on the list.  Will it be enough to overtake Iron Man 3's spot?  We'll have to wait and see.

 

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Kyos
Kyos - 3/21/2016, 10:11 PM
Looking forward to the Deadpool numbers in the future!
Chewtoy
Chewtoy - 3/21/2016, 10:24 PM
@Kyos - Deadpool is definitely going to be a monster on next year's rankings, what with its low production costs.
DeusExSponge
DeusExSponge - 3/21/2016, 10:15 PM
Wow, didn't realize that comic book movies don't make that much profit.
DeusExSponge
DeusExSponge - 3/21/2016, 10:21 PM
In comparison to their box office gross that is.
Chewtoy
Chewtoy - 3/21/2016, 10:31 PM
@DeusExSponge - yeah, although it really goes for all blockbusters. There is such a heavy investment in them in order to make back those profits. You can easily see how a film underperforming can be a big loss for a studio though.
MarkV
MarkV - 3/21/2016, 10:48 PM
Iron Man 3 is a [frick]ing stain on CBMs
Spock0Clock
Spock0Clock - 3/22/2016, 12:38 AM
Great article, Chewtoy. Box office grosses are useful metrics in some respects, but these are the kinds of numbers the studios really care about. Also a great reminder of how much ancillary business these films generate (those hundreds of millions of dollars are going somewhere).
Spock0Clock
Spock0Clock - 3/22/2016, 1:13 AM
You know, reading these breakdowns for Marvel films gave me a thought. Everyone generally assumes that once the first phase Avengers have fulfilled their contracts that they'll basically disappear (killed or sidelined or what have you), because Marvel was originally very tight with the cash and tried to lock people into exceptionally long contracts. And still do, by all accounts. The assumption has been that actors who fulfill their contracts will take their now-elevated star power to other projects and studios for a big paycheck.

But what if Robert Downey Jr. is actually the model example rather than the exception? What if Marvel actually develops a sort of tenure system, where if you're popular enough you can expect a big check to keep coming back, because Marvel's success isn't just its name and stories, but the ongoing drama of these characters (and actors) over the course of so many films?

Just a thought. As we start to get an idea of the direction of Marvel in phase four, we may find that there's not as much turnover as we expected there to be.
breakUbatman
breakUbatman - 3/22/2016, 1:48 AM
Nice article, especially interesting for me I was looking at Crouching Tiger figures the other day.

I'd really be interested to know how much business or revenue actually stems from each individual franchise or character for that matter. It would be a hard metric to assess though. I'm sure Iron Man, Hulk, Batman, Spidey and Wolverine must be quite high in terms of cinema.
blitzkreg
blitzkreg - 3/22/2016, 2:30 AM
Deadpool definately is the most profitable. It's grossed over half a billion dollars on a less than 60 million dollar budget. Hope Ryan gets a bigger paycheck for the sequels.
Chewtoy
Chewtoy - 3/22/2016, 9:38 AM
@blitzkreg - It'll be interesting to see where it lands when all is said and done. If we make the leap in assuming that all of the other costs and revenue are comparable with X-Men Days of Future Past, then the fact that it had around $140m less in production costs to pay off would put it around $220m in profits at this point, which is good enough for second on that list.

If they spend considerably less to market it (or possibly even more, considering it was a much more unknown property than the regular X-Men) than that number could shift quite a bit though. Plus, it's not quite done earning at the box office either.
Jaspion
Jaspion - 3/22/2016, 2:34 AM
Oh, this makes those articles about how much BvS must earn to make a profit more serious.
Fortunately it seems the movie is good.
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