The box office this summer wasn't exactly amazing as many were hoping it to be. Despite some huge hits, a lot of films ended up with disappointing numbers. There is a good news for us who love comic books and comic book movies though. Three big CBMs opened this summer, and all three managed to make a lot of money. More below.
May 4th, 2012. That was the US release date of the biggest movie of this year (so far) and the third highest-grossing movie of all-time. Of course, I'm talking about The Avengers, a Joss Whedon and Marvel Studios' superhero spectacle with great characters that we have been following in their own films since 2008. The Avengers opened with staggering $207 million in its opening weekend, setting a new record. The film didn't overperform just in North America. It was a monster at the international box office too, grossing $891 million to date, for a worlwide total of $1.51 billion. A truly incredible number, so congrats to Marvel Studios and everyone involved in making these films for sticking to their formula until the very end. It's not THE END of these films though. Phase One of Marvel Cinematic Universe has been completed, so it's time for Phase Two, where we will see Iron Man 3, Thor: The Dark World, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Guardians of the Galaxy and The Avengers 2.
Next up, it's
The Amazing Spider-Man, directed by Marc Webb. This is a film that didn't have a lot of support (mostly because everyone thought it was too soon for a reboot, even though it's really not), but despite all that, the film was a big hit for the studio. While it's the lowest-grossing Spider-Man film, it's also the highest-grossing reboot ever. Reboots are always risky, sometimes it pays off, sometimes it doesn't. In North America,
The Amazing Spider-Man grossed $261 million, which is a solid number. Internationally, it did a little bit better with $487 million, for a global total of $748 million. The sequel is already set for May 2nd, 2014.
And finally, an ending of Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy:
The Dark Knight Rises. A highly anticipated film that was the only big box office contender for breaking
The Avengers' record. While it didn't exactly match the opening weekend of the Joss Whedon-directed film,
The Dark knight Rises opened with a big $160 million, and went on to gross $443 million in North America. International market was even bigger, where it collected $623 million, for a worldwide total of $1.06 billion. The trilogy is now completed, and we'll see when will Warner Bros. reboot the character in a new way.
Thanks to
Exhibitor Relations, we have these numbers that show the biggest films of the summer, and it's great seeing all three comic book movies in the top five (domestic, international and worldwide):
I'll end this by saying that I'm just glad that I had the opportunity to watch all these films on the big screen, because their success is not only great for sequels and reboots, but for all the other comic book properties that fans are waiting to see. Bring on 2013!