Marvel might rule the cinema today, but before the MCU was king, they released some real
stinkers. Animatronic ducks, multiple attempts at a Fantastic Four franchise, and Nicolas
Cage in leather Marvel's failures are legion. These are the Marvel movies that flopped at
the box office.
Unlike most of the films on this list, Blade: Trinity actually did fairly well at the box
office. Unfortunately, the key word there is "fairly." After the success of the first
two films in the saga of Marvel's vampire-slaying Daywalker, Blade Trinity's budget was bumped
up far beyond its predecessors. Despite the extra cash, and a plot involving vampire dogs,
Blade: Trinity made almost exactly the same amount as the first Blade film did, about
131 million dollars.
That was a huge profit for a surprise hit made on a budget of 17 million, but a little
less than they hoped for with Trinity's 65 million-dollar budget. Blade 2 also had a
smaller budget than Blade: Trinity, but it made about $20 million more, making it clear
that the Blade was daywalking himself right into some diminishing returns.
"'Cause the world isn't nice."
The behind-the-scenes drama was ramping up as well. One particularly infamous story involves
star Wesley Snipes strangling the film's director, David S. Goyer, in front of the crew. If that's
what's going on behind the scenes, it's no wonder the producers started to think that
the profit Trinity brought in just wasn't enough for the producers to deal with the
headache of making more Blade films.
Blade is reportedly getting a reboot into the MCU with Mahershala Ali set to star. Let's
hope he keeps to the scripted violence and skips the director-strangling.
It's hard to imagine what Marvel was thinking when they decided that the first feature-length
film based on one of their comics should be...Howard the Duck. To be fair, Howard was sort of the
Deadpool of his day, a comedy oddball in the superhero universe that frequently broke the
fourth wall.
The film, which was jointly produced by Lucasfilm and Marvel, is generally regarded as being
a hot mess. There's an odd ickiness to the whole affair, starting with Howard's romance
with Beverly, which asked audiences to be totally cool with watching a duck hook up
with a very human lady. Maybe Lea Thompson was trying to find the one love scene that
would be even skeevier than the one she got when she kissed Marty in Back to the Future.
The plot is meandering, the jokes never quite land...there's really no shortage of reasons
the film barely made back its budget of $37 million.
Interestingly, Howard the Duck is actually part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe already
thanks to a couple of cameos. We wouldn't bet on another starring role anytime soon,
though.
This is another bomb that comes with an asterisk. Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance, the second
film starring what is arguably the world's most famous on-fire skeleton that rides a
motorcycle and punishes sinners, ultimately didn't do terribly at the box office. It wound
up bringing in $132 million against a $57 million budget. However, a few red flags went
up with this one that land it solidly in the "flop" category.
For one thing, Spirit of Vengeance made nearly $100 million less than the first Ghost Rider
film. That's a huge drop off, especially considering the films were released only a few years apart.
Secondly, the domestic take in particular went down significantly, which mattered a
lot more in 2011 than it might today. One other factor is an extremely technical element
known to filmmakers as "Nicolas Cage."
"I'm gonna let him out!"
Cage was one of the most marketable movie stars around in the late 1990s and early 2000s,
but somewhere near 2010 the backlash began, as Cage started taking more questionable roles.
Admittedly, starring in a supernatural superhero movie directed by the two guys who made the
wildly fun, over-the-top Crank films probably seemed like a safer bet. Who knew the audiences
would be the ones wanting vengeance when this one turned out to be so bad?
The Incredible Hulk is considered one of the few missteps Marvel made with their Phase
One films. Edward Norton seemed like a slam dunk pick as Bruce Banner, and you’ll certainly
find his vocal backers around the internet, especially in video comments sections, but
Mark Ruffalo has really taken the role of Hulk/Banner and made it his own.
On paper, The Incredible Hulk is hardly a bomb. It almost made back its $150 million
budget, and ultimately brought in another $129 million, for a worldwide gross of $264
million. It does not, however, come close to replicating the success of Iron Man. Robert
Downey Jr's first MCU film blew audiences away and raked in nearly $600 million, and
that was with a smaller budget than The Incredible Hulk. It’s not hard to see why this one
was a bit of a disappointment for the brass.
In 2007, the trend of big budget superhero movies was just starting to ramp up. The X-Men
and Spider-Man franchises had brought in hundreds of millions of dollars, and Batman Begins
proved that DC could revive their biggest characters with a popular critical hit, too.
Fans were also gearing up for the following year, which would see The Dark Knight and
a movie starring one of Marvel's most enduring B-listers, Iron Man, that looked like it might
be fun. Fantastic Four: Rise of the SIlver Surfer, a sequel to the first FF movie in
2005 that was adapting one of the most groundbreaking and beloved stories in comics history, was
in the perfect spot to be a smash hit for Marvel's first family.
All things considered, Rise of the Silver Surfer wasn't that bad when it came to profitability.
The film had a massive $130 million budget, but ultimately landed at a worldwide gross
of $301 million. Not bad...until you see it stacked up against other superhero franchises
like the Spider-Man films, which brought in over twice as much. Rise of the Silver Surfer
was definitely a financial disappointment.
It didn't fare better with the fans, either. Confronted with the challenge of creating
a big screen representation of Galactus, the planet-chomping Devourer of Worlds, the filmmakers
decided to ditch the classic comic book look and make him something much less silly: a
cloud. A really mean cloud.
After this release, it's no surprise that Hollywood bigwigs decided the FF just couldn't
hack it with the big boys, and put them back on the shelf. It would be years before they
would return for another shot, leading to the equally disastrous 2015 Fantastic Four
movie. We probably should've seen this one coming, though. C'mon, Chris Evans? Who would
ever buy that guy as a superhero?
Check out one of our newest videos right here! Plus, even more Looper videos about your favorite
stuff are coming soon. Subscribe to our YouTube channel and hit the bell so you don't miss
a single one.