With the recent (cough) success of Iron Man 3 at the box office, and the anticipation for the rest of the CBM to do the same (Man of Steel, Thor 2, etc.) I collected a short list of how the other comic book movies fared over a 12-year span. From the list we can find out which studio has been consistently drawing top box office attractions with their own comic book films. Please do note that I only considered the top 100 films for the year, based on gross box office returns. Readers and contributors may find this list interesting.
CBM’s and related movies compared with the top grossing film for that year. Gross domestic earnings are reported in millions of dollars (M)
My thanks to www.boxofficemojo.com for the information.
Year Rank Film Distributor/Producer Gross Earnings (M)
2000 1 How the Grinch
Stole Christmas Universal $260
8 X-Men Fox $157
2001 1 Harry Potter and the
Sorcerer’s Stone WB . $317
2002 1 Spider-Man Sony $403
8 Men in Black 2 Sony $190
24 Road to Perdition Dreamworld $104
2003 1 The Lord of the Rings:
Return of the King New Line $377
6 X2: X-men United Fox $216
14 Hulk Universal $132
27 Daredevil Fox $102
44 League of Extraordinary
Gentlemen Fox $ 66
2004 1 Shrek 2 Dreamworld $441
2 Spider-man 2 Sony $377
59 Blade: Trinity New Line $ 51
83 The Punisher Lions $ 33
2005 1 Star Wars Episode III:
Revenge of the Sith Fox $350
8 Batman Begins WB $205
13 Fantastic Four Fox $154
29 Constantine WB $ 75
32 Sin City Dimension $ 74
65 The Legend of Zorro Sony $ 46
2006 1 Pirates of the Caribbean
Dead Man’s Chest Buena Vista $423
4 X-men:
The Last Stand Fox $234
6 Superman Returns WB $200
36 V for Vendetta WB $ 70
(To be concluded)