MORBIUS And 7 More Superhero Movies That Bombed At The Box Office

MORBIUS And 7 More Superhero Movies That Bombed At The Box Office

Morbius has proven to be a major box office disappointment for Sony Pictures in the midst of negative reviews, but it's not the only superhero movie to bomb at the box office, as you'll find out here...

Feature Opinion
By JoshWilding - Apr 12, 2022 12:04 PM EST
Filed Under: Morbius

The saying "money talks" is relevant in many walks of life, but perhaps nowhere more so than in Hollywood. Reviews are important, but we've seen plenty of Rotten movies earn untold millions while far too many Fresh titles crash and burn. Ultimately, if a new release is going to spawn sequels and spinoffs, it needs to make money, and that's definitely the case for comic book adaptations.

Morbius has somewhat derailed Sony Pictures' ambitious Marvel Universe plans by flopping critically and commercially, and that got us thinking about other huge superhero movies that bombed.

Presented here in no particular order, we've rounded up the most surprising box office disappointments from the Marvel and DC Universes (and beyond). As well as delving into their dire domestic and international cumes, we take a crack at trying to figure out where these movies went wrong. This might shock you, but not all of them were bad, and we explain why they deserved better.

To take a look through some of the biggest superhero movie flops, click on the "Next" button below! 
 

8. Green Lantern

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Despite some concerns about the quality of VFX in the trailers, there was an awful lot of excitement surrounding Green Lantern ahead of its release in 2011. Green Lantern was one of DC's best titles thanks to Geoff Johns, and with Casino Royale director Martin Campbell at the helm, it seemed like nothing could go wrong. Unfortunately, nearly everything did and it was an unmitigated disaster.

With a massive $200 million budget (a nearly unprecedented figure at the time), it was always going to be tough for the DC Comics adaptation to turn a profit. However, it bombed with $116.6 million at the domestic box office and a mere $103.25 million internationally. That's why Green Lantern has been on the shelf ever since, but we think it's about time Hal Jordan is given another chance in theaters.
 

7. Jonah Hex

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With a stellar cast that included Josh Brolin, John Malkovich, Michael Fassbender, and Megan Fox, it's hard to believe Jonah Hex boasts a lowly 12% score on Rotten Tomatoes. However, the 2010 movie being written by Crank and Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance filmmakers Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor was a dead giveaway that their take on the DC Comics hero would disappoint fans.

Despite that, no one could have predicted how poorly this movie would perform at the box office. With a paltry $10.5 million in the U.S. and $350,000 overseas (we can only assume it went direct to DVD in most places), Jonah Hex didn't even come close to making back its $47 million budget. The character would later appear in Legends of Tomorrow, but hasn't been used in a solo project since.
 

6. Catwoman

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Female-led superhero movies really didn't receive much love before the likes of Wonder Woman and Captain Marvel came along, and the blame can mainly be attributed to studio bosses having a clear lack of understanding about what makes these characters tick. Take Catwoman; focusing on Patience Phillips instead of Selina Kyle, it took the cat burglar down a bizarre, supernatural route.

Basically a generic action flick (and not a very good one at that), Catwoman's A-List cast resulted in the budget ballooning to upwards of $100 million, and this early 2000s blockbuster didn't do Batman numbers at the box office. Accumulating just $40.2 million in the U.S. and another $41.9 million internationally, Halle Berry's hopes to follow Storm with a major DC role were quickly dashed. 
 

5. Dredd

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Opening to positive reviews back in 2012, Dredd massively exceeded expectations and was a tense, action-packed low budget thriller that definitely did the comic books justice. Karl Urban proved himself the perfect choice to play this character, and the bad taste left in our mouths by the version starring Sylvester Stallone quickly vanished while watching this badass interpretation.

Unfortunately, it seems the character isn't one that appeals to a wide audience as Dredd only managed to earn a, ahem, Dredd-ful $13.4 million in North America. Overseas numbers weren't much better at $22.2 million, and with a $50 million budget, we're not surprised those sequel talks have never led anywhere. The 2000 A.D. world remains largely unexploited on screen, and this is a big reason why.
 

4. Morbius

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Morbius' run at the box office may be far from over, but it's still earned a place here. As we write this, Sony's Marvel Comics adaptation just broke Dark Phoenix's record for the biggest second-weekend drop, and currently sits at a $57 million in the U.S. With Sonic the Hedgehog 2 now ruling the roost and Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore on the way, it's unlikely to earn much more.

Internationally, it's risen to $69.3 million, but these numbers are a major embarrassment for Sony after the recent success of Venom: Let There Be Carnage and Spider-Man: No Way Home. Needless to say, we're not expecting to sink our teeth into a sequel, and Jared Leto can't be desperate to return after starring in yet another bad comic book movie.
 

3. Wonder Woman 1984

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Wonder Woman 1984 is something of an enigma, especially as it didn't receive a traditional theatrical release back in December 2020. With the pandemic still raging, Warner Bros. decided to have the sequel debut in theaters at the same time as HBO Max, and with the option to watch from the safety of home when the big screen experience wasn't remotely appealing, most people chose the former.

As a result, the movie grossed just $46.5 million in the U.S. and $120 million overseas. With a $200 million budget, Warner Bros. was estimated to have lost upwards of $100 million on the sequel (we hope it was worth those extra HBO Max subscribers). A Wonder Woman 3 is happening, though after the negative reviews 1984 received, it might be time to go back to the drawing board.
 

2. Elektra

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2003's Daredevil wasn't a particularly good movie, but it had its moments, and Jennifer Garner did a fine job as Elektra. Her story was rushed, as was her death, but seeing her taken out by Bullseye was a nice homage to the comic books, and a solid way to potentially set up a Daredevil sequel. That never happened, but Garner was contracted to appear in a spinoff...whether she liked it or not.

While Elektra only cost $43 million to produce, it disappointed with $24.4 million at the domestic box office and $32.27 million overseas. While it earned a little more than it cost to make, numbers like that aren't enough to convince a studio to greenlight a sequel, and the Man Without Fear was sidelined until 20th Century Fox let the rights to these characters revert to Marvel Studios in the early 2010s. 
 

1. Fantastic Four

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The first two Fantastic Four films were cheesy disappointments, and while fans weren't overly excited by Josh Trank's grounded vision for Marvel's First Family, his work on Chronicle definitely inspired confidence. Plagued by behind-the-scenes issues, this was one of the worst comic book movies of all-time, and Simon Kinberg stepping in to helm reshoots completely decimated the filmmaker's vision.

That left us with two separate takes on the Fantastic Four mashed together for a terrible end result. Trank disowned the Fox-produced Marvel Comics adaptation right before it was released, a move analysts believe knocked $10 million off its opening weekend. After costing $120 million to produce, it would later scrape up $56.1 million in the U.S. and middling $111.8 million internationally. 
 

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TheHumanSpider2
TheHumanSpider2 - 4/12/2022, 12:08 PM
Wonder Woman 1984 doesnt count!

And this list is missing Justice League, and more importantly, BATMAN V SUPERMAN.
Goldboink
Goldboink - 4/12/2022, 12:37 PM
@TheHumanSpider2 -
The SnyderMovies made money, just not the kind of money they should have.
TheHumanSpider2
TheHumanSpider2 - 4/12/2022, 12:39 PM
@Goldboink - They lost money at the BO.
bs77
bs77 - 4/12/2022, 12:42 PM
@Goldboink - They made money by virtue of everyone wanting to see the most iconic comic characters ever created together on the big screen. I think the vast majority of people that spent money on Snyder movies would like a refund. Most of them are darn near unwatchable. Meanwhile Marvel cashes in on comic characters nobody wanted to see in movies... How did you screw this up so badly WB?
TheHumanSpider2
TheHumanSpider2 - 4/12/2022, 12:51 PM
@bs77 - That aside (the potential money they left on the table is imposible to calculate, but we are talking about BILLIONS):

BvS needed to make $900M to break even, it made $890M.
JL needed to make $800M to break even, it made $650M.

In Justice League case, the final budget counting the Whedon's reshoots, and what Snyder spent on his cut, it was over $500M.
Goldboink
Goldboink - 4/12/2022, 1:18 PM
@TheHumanSpider2 -
BvS made $875 global and even the compromised JL did $650. Not the Billion that they wanted but not a bad payday all things considered.
Goldboink
Goldboink - 4/12/2022, 1:20 PM
@bs77 -
Yea, there's the thing. How to you screw up Superman! WB and all concerned should be tried for malfeasance in the management of a precious IP.
ModHaterSLADE
ModHaterSLADE - 4/12/2022, 12:24 PM
Dredd was great. I'd love to see a live action series down the road.
tylerzero
tylerzero - 4/12/2022, 1:55 PM
@ModHaterSLADE -

Yes and yes.
Chewtoy
Chewtoy - 4/12/2022, 7:46 PM
@ModHaterSLADE - You’d think that Netflix would be game to at least do a sequel film, if not a series.
ModHaterSLADE
ModHaterSLADE - 4/12/2022, 8:09 PM
@Chewtoy - Exactly. Would be a great avenue for it as popular as comic based properties are nowadays.
OmegaDaGrodd
OmegaDaGrodd - 4/12/2022, 12:33 PM
WW84 came out during a pandemic, so we really have to stop the flop talk for it and any others that came out during 2020 through 2021

And as bad as it's performing, Morbius isn't actually doing that bad relative to budget. "Flop" is normally when something doesn't even make much more than it's budget total
TheWalkingCuban
TheWalkingCuban - 4/12/2022, 1:20 PM
@OmegaDaGrodd - nevertheless a sequel would be bad business and I sure don’t expect one
bs77
bs77 - 4/12/2022, 12:37 PM
I hate to see Dredd on this list. It's better than every DCEU movie, hands down. I never get tired of watching it. GL was a misfire, but I still like parts of it. My dad was a huge GL and Flash golden age fan and I grew up on those characters in the 80s. It wasn't exactly the GL movie I wanted, but just seeing GL on the big screen was a thrill. My dad got a kick out of it too. It's a guilty pleasure, like a lot of Ryan Reynolds movies...
Dope21
Dope21 - 4/12/2022, 1:00 PM
First off WW84 did flop. Even though it was during pandemic it didn't even get CLOSE to the adjusted figures. One of the most deserving of the hate films ever. Destryoed a franchise. As overrated and popular as the first film was think to yourself when was the last time you've heard someone talking about or anticapating WW3. Nope. Franchise is dead in the water.

Also Superman Returns should have made the list. It's only second to GL as the biggest BO comic bomb doing 140mil- after ticket sales.

Justice League also factully didn't break even. Probably the biggest most meaningful flop in the history of comic films.

BvS wasn't an actul "flop." It bearly broke even. But it to was a huge blunder failing to launch the DCEU. it didn't actully flop, yet did considering that investment was meant to launch a never ending universe of films. It didn't make nearly enough at the BO.

No Birds of Prey? Completely flopped while having it's entire theatrical run before pandemic. Didn't the new SS flop as well?

DC is factully the most under performing failed comic studio of all time. Took it hella easy on DC and they still dominated the fail list. And to think these DC fanboys had enough nerve to be so arrogant. To this day still having the biggest mouths while DC remains the biggest joke of all time🤦🏾‍♂️
JFerguson
JFerguson - 4/12/2022, 1:08 PM
[frick] morbius

slickrickdesigns
slickrickdesigns - 4/12/2022, 1:17 PM
Where was X-men Dark Phoenix? That was pretty bad.
TheWalkingCuban
TheWalkingCuban - 4/12/2022, 1:19 PM
Punisher war zone, hellboy remake, bloodshot
Luigi
Luigi - 4/12/2022, 1:21 PM
@TheWalkingCuban - I completely forgot there was a Hellboy reboot
TheWalkingCuban
TheWalkingCuban - 4/12/2022, 1:38 PM
@Luigi - haha never watching that ever 😂😂
JobinJ
JobinJ - 4/12/2022, 5:17 PM
@TheWalkingCuban - warzone was god awful
TheWalkingCuban
TheWalkingCuban - 4/12/2022, 5:33 PM
@JobinJ - couple decent kills but barely blips on the radar in a movie so cringeworthy
pyramosteu
pyramosteu - 4/12/2022, 1:26 PM
I'm not a big fan of WW84 but releasing it on HBO Max at the sametime as cinema is just mindboggling. I feel the village idiot could make better decisions than some of the WB and Sony execs.
Lokiwasright
Lokiwasright - 4/12/2022, 1:30 PM
Bombing doesn't mean you are a bad movie 3 of those are actually good movies.

Bombing like the world trade at the box office only means people either didn't want to go to the movies or were broke.
Dope21
Dope21 - 4/12/2022, 1:32 PM
@Lokiwasright - lol you can see yourself out now
Winston19
Winston19 - 4/12/2022, 2:10 PM
This article bombed harder then the actual movies.
JRM1995
JRM1995 - 4/12/2022, 2:20 PM
Marvel has some of the worst films both critically and regarding Box Office returns.

-Both Ghost Rider films
-Both Punisher films
-Elektra
-Daredevil
-X-Men Dark Phoenix
-X-Men Origins Wolverine
-X-Men 3
-All 3 Fantastic Four films
-The New Mutants
-Blade Trinity

Man of Steel out performed every Phase One MCU film Worldwide, and a good number of Phase Two films as well.
Oberlin4Prez
Oberlin4Prez - 4/12/2022, 2:25 PM
@JRM1995 - it's Josh. Idk why anyone is shocked about this list. He's got his axe to grind and it will never include the MCU.
Dope21
Dope21 - 4/12/2022, 2:37 PM
@Oberlin4Prez @JRM1995 - Yall are delusional. He took it easy on DC. You guys are in denial.

And MoS only profited 60mil. It had the biggest advertising in the history of WB. It bearly broke even due to an insane attepmt to market and launch a shared universe.

CBM never attacks DC. Always hating on the MCU. Just any negative truth what so ever is more then you fanboys can handle. Imagining DC is under some kind of attack.

What you guys interpret as an attack is simply reality
TheWalkingCuban
TheWalkingCuban - 4/12/2022, 2:39 PM
@JRM1995 - you want to bring all pertinent data into the discussion? Nah, this is too much fun, can’t wait to see Superman v Flash
Oberlin4Prez
Oberlin4Prez - 4/12/2022, 2:47 PM
@Dope21 - I said nothing about DC. I'm just pointing out the obvious omission of any MCU projects or the projects mentioned by JRM1995. Josh is a pot stirrer, plain and simple. It's why he makes these stupid lists. No harm in pointing out what everyone already knows.
Dope21
Dope21 - 4/12/2022, 2:57 PM
@Oberlin4Prez - he is a pot stirrer. With 90% of the stirring being aimed at the MCU. The DCEU is the most failed, BIGGEST hollywood flop of all time and only mentioned ONE movie. And that was out of pure obligation. WB dropped the ball on Wonder Woman not Josh.

CBM is basically still under commision where they are not allowed to hate on DC. All of the negative list articles are always near exclusively MCU. And they love inserting negative personal opinion in even MCU news articles. With DC it's just THE news.

DC got off hella easy in the article and you're still crying. And really i already know what your deal is. Wonder Woman screwed the pooch and youre in denial about it.
Oberlin4Prez
Oberlin4Prez - 4/12/2022, 3:02 PM
@Dope21 - again, literally didn't mention DC exclusively, in fact, you're the only one that did. So stay mad. Byeeee
Dope21
Dope21 - 4/12/2022, 3:20 PM
@Oberlin4Prez - "literally didn't mention DC exclusively"

You didn't have to. I already know. Also DC failed where it counted most. That's the problem. Some projects can fail some can't. DC is out here failing with WONDER WOMAN, SUPERMAN, JUSTICE LEAGUE, GREEN LANTERN and soon to be FLASH!!

During the comics boom no less. Inexcusable
ElvenKingSlayer
ElvenKingSlayer - 4/17/2022, 8:47 AM
@JRM1995 - you're forgetting the Punisher with Dolph Lundgren
Humperdoo
Humperdoo - 4/27/2022, 12:02 PM
@Dope21 - You’re name is fitting. Batman prints DC money.
BillyBatson1000
BillyBatson1000 - 4/12/2022, 3:23 PM
Dredd was a masterpiece compared to some of the films on that list. But it needs to be a TV series, using the same budget-disguising tricks the 2012 film used. Develop the other characters, smaller-scale plotting and Dredd front-and-centre. Karl Urban back-in-the-helmet wouldn't hurt either.
Nunyabiz
Nunyabiz - 4/12/2022, 4:00 PM
I liked Dredd, Green Lantern and Jonah Hex….
dragon316
dragon316 - 4/12/2022, 4:27 PM
I like dredd and green lantern Electra sucked same with catwoman so that’s reason we never got fantastic four sequel marvel said there will be one before it hit theaters I don’t follow box office numbers
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