In case anyone still doubts the staying power of super hero movies or doesn’t realize why multiple Hollywood studios are rushing to cram the last half of this decade full of more of them, this list pretty much spells it all out.
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Thanks to the unexpected level of success achieved by Guardians of the Galaxy, this club is now exclusively for flicks earning $300 million and up in domestic box office receipts. To put that in perspective, less than 50 movies ever have hit that mark.
Super hero movies hold down three of the top 1o spots on the all-time domestic box office list and five of the top 20. It’s a number that’s likely to grow by one in the spring of 2015, as Avengers: Age of Ultron is almost assured of running rampant in terms of ticket sales when it releases.
And yet, super hero movies are a relatively recent phenomenon, at least in terms of becoming unquestioned blockbusters. The oldest movie on the list you’re about to read came out in 2002. Twentieth Century movies need not apply.
So with full acknowledgement that we’ll have to update this list at least a few times in the years to come, let’s see where we stand right now:
10. Iron Man – $318.4 million
Many of the things I’ll be saying in the next slide in regards to the gamble Marvel took with Guardians of the Galaxy also apply to the first Iron Man movie, albeit to lesser extents. This was no guaranteed slam dunk, as Marvel’s grand plan for super hero movies was in an embryonic state, and while Robert Downey Jr. was certainly a known quantity before its release, it was as much for his troubled past as his talent. Certainly, he’d never been in a leading man role quite like this one.
Downey ended up making the Tony Stark role his own, and the rest, as they say, is history. Not only did he put Iron Man on the map (making himself very wealthy in the process), he changed all of our mental images of the character he played, with effects that even spilled back into comics. At the same time, the concept of an armored super hero was such an obvious merchandising bonanza waiting to happen that it’s somewhat surprising in retrospect that no one tried making this movie earlier.
Thank goodness they didn’t, because it probably wouldn’t have turned out the same way. This is the foundation upon which the rest of the Marvel Cinematic Universe was constructed.
9. Guardians of the Galaxy – $333.2 million
Without a doubt, this is the underdog champion of the bunch, and the bet that’s paid off most handsomely for any studio that has gambled on a big budget super hero flick. It’s hard to return to the proper mental space needed to analyze just how unlikely Guardians reaching this level really was. We’re talking about characters most of the moviegoing public had never heard of, in a sci-fi setting that eliminated the most obvious ties to other Marvel Cinematic Universe, directed by a guy whose previous claim to fame was … what? Writing the remake of Dawn of the Dead, maybe?
James Gunn and company succeeded by recognizing exactly what they had, beginning with characters whose obscurity belied how great they were. The casting was excellent, the action and humor were dished out in just the right proportions, and the story was easy to digest without insulting one’s intelligence. And if there was a film buddy tandem more ready-made for breakout status than Rocket Raccoon and Groot in recent memory, I can’t remember what it might be.
Marvel simply knocked this one out of the park. In the unlikely event that the Avengers franchise runs out of steam after a second movie, Guardians is ready to step up in its place. Who could ever have imagined that?
8. Spider-Man 3 – $336.5 million
Ah. It’s hard for me to put into words exactly how disappointed I was seeing Spider-Man 3 for the first time, especially since I loved the previous movie in the series. Just the “Emo Spider-Man” stuff alone is just … Watch this scene again if you think I’m being too hard on this movie.
Anyway, it hardly mattered that Spider-Man 3 tried to stuff way too much plot and at least one too many villains into its running time, or that it wasted the Venom concept so egregiously. This franchise had so much momentum after the first two installments that I’m pretty sure it could have been terrible and still made it well past $250 million.
And I don’t think it was terrible, just disappointing. I scoffed at the idea of such a quick Spider-Man reboot after this, but let’s be honest: this was the end of the line for the Tobey Maguire-Sam Raimi Spidey pictures.
7. Spider-Man 2 – $373.6 million
This is the favorite among critics of the Sam Raimi Spider-Man movies, and my personal favorite as well. Somehow, all involved managed to avoid the usual sequel trap, keeping the focus almost entirely on Doctor Octopus, a fitting subject as one of the wall-crawler’s most iconic villains.
The action and set pieces in this one improved upon the original, though it’s funny how the newer Sony Spidey movies make web-swinging even more dynamic in comparison. That’s not this movie’s fault, simply the passage of time and the onward march of special effects.
It certainly helped that Alfred Molina was an inspired choice as Doc Ock, almost exactly what I would picture him looking like in a live action movie. The stuff with the tentacles having minds of their own, at least to a point, was a bit much. And, yeah, some people don’t like the scene where Peter Parker is unmasked while saving the train.
I think those criticisms are nitpicking. For my money, this is the best Spider-Man adventure ever filmed. I’m actually surprised it didn’t top $400 million.
6. Spider-Man – $403.7 million
Tic tac toe, three Spideys in a row! The oldest movie on this list, I think it tops $500 million if released today with no prior movies featuring Peter Parker and another decade of computer graphics technology at Sam Raimi’s disposal. Easily.
That’s a testament to two things: one is that Spider-Man is just plain popular, and that’s not likely to ever change. Do him justice, like this movie did, and you’ve already won half the battle.
The other is that while Andrew Garfield is great casting for the web-swinger now, so was Tobey Maguire back in 2002. He looked like a scrawny semi-loser, which is exactly how Parker should look. Add in some good action sequences and Spider-Man’s trademark quips in the face of danger and you’ve got yourself a winner.
It didn’t even matter that they gave Green Goblin that ridiculous battlesuit look. Think about that for a minute: they made the villain look kind of silly and the movie still turned out fine. That’s a good super hero flick.
5. Iron Man 3 – $409 million
Call it the rebound effect. After Iron Man 2, all this movie needed to do was improve upon that, and then it could simply coast off the goodwill generated by The Avengers and end up over $400 million.
That’s pretty much what this movie did, and while I applaud it for striking out in some different directions, it still ended up in some curious places. The whole interlude with Tony rebuilding his suit with the help of that kid? Go back and watch that a second or third time and it strikes you as curiously out of place with most of the rest of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. And while I didn’t mind the twist with Ben Kingsley and the Mandarin, it’s kind of a shame that Shellhead’s greatest enemy never really made it to the big screen.
I’d like to see one more Iron Man movie with Robert Downey Jr. but I’m not sure that’s ever going to happen. If Iron Man 3 was the end except for Avengers flicks, I can’t be mad. If you would have told my 10-year old self there would be even one Iron Man in theaters someday, there’s no way he would have believed you.
4. The Dark Knight Rises – $448.1 million
Sometimes trilogies just collapse a bit under the weight of their own expectations as they come down the stretch. It happens in other genres too, not just in super hero movies.
The Dark Knight Rises is like that. If you swap it with The Dark Knight, I bet people are calling it the greatest super hero movie ever made. As it was, it was kind of like the guy who goes into his last year of college football as the supposed number one pick in the upcoming draft. People expect so much that it’s easier for them to pick at the warts.
It also has to be said that Bane, at least the version of him we got here, just wasn’t as compelling as the Joker. That’s no one’s fault, really, though since Batman has the greatest set of villains of any super hero ever, you d wonder if Christopher Nolan and his partners in crime couldn’t have come up with someone else. Easy to say with the benefit of 20/20 hindsight, for sure.
I still enjoyed this movie, and if it wasn’t quite as gripping as The Dark Knight, no biggie. If not for the Nolan trilogy, Batman and Robin might be our most recent film remembrance of Batman — and that would be a real shame.
3. Avengers: Age of Ultron – $411.4 million
Is bigger always better? Judging by the critical reaction and slightly slower start for Avengers: Age of Ultron compared to the first Avengers movie, not necessarily.
We’re here to focus on the positives, though, so let’s run them down. Age of Ultron had the second-biggest opening weekend of all time. It didn’t have to go over the formation of the team, so it literally dropped viewers right into the middle of the action, and it didn’t let up after that. Plus it boasted excellent performances by characters new to the franchise, including James Spader as the titular robotic villain and Paul Bettany finally getting to show his face, albeit under a ton of makeup, as the Vision.
One of our staffers described it as nerdier than its predecessor, and that’s probably a valid description. Maybe that’s why it hasn’t racked up quite as much love at the box office as expected, but let’s put this in perspective: it cracked this top 10 list after just 10 days of release. Age of Ultron is a blockbuster by any definition, one of historic scale. Hard to call it a disappointment when you look at it that way.
2. The Dark Knight – $534.9 million
When looking at strictly the box office numbers, what’s striking to me is how much of a gap there is between the top three movies on this list. The Dark Knight made almost $85 million more than The Dark Knight Rises, yet it trails The Avengers by almost $90 million. Those are huge differences.
As for the movie itself, it’s impossible to separate its place in super hero movie history from the captivating performance turned in by Heath Ledger as the Joker and his untimely death. Did the movie attract more attention because he died? There’s little doubt that it did, and that’s always going to make it sadly unique.
It’s also important not to engage in any retroactive history here and remember that this movie becoming a blockbuster of this magnitude was no sure thing. Batman Begins made only $206 million three years prior, and was regarded as more solid than spectacular by the world at large. Christopher Nolan and his team succeeded wildly with their vision of Gotham City and the man protecting it, and while Batman movies are probably going to keep getting made until the end of time, this is always going to be one of the most memorable ones.
1. The Avengers – $623.3 million
As a comics fan, I rode with the Avengers through some serious ups and downs over the years. How many times did I think Marvel would end up making a movie based on the team that would be one of the top-grossing films in American history? Exactly never.
It’s crazy to think how improbable this movie really was. Not only did the public have to accept the solo movies for Iron Man, Captain America and Thor, but Marvel had to have the confidence to put together its grand vision for the Marvel Cinematic Universe with absolutely no guarantee that it would pay off.
On top of that, a good script was needed, and a director who knew his way around comic book movies. Tell me you didn’t think that Joss Whedon getting the job was the kind of fantasy hiring that we do as fanboys and fangirls but never ends up panning out in real life — because it was.
It was amazing to see it all come together, and the fact that the movie was really good was almost (I said almost) icing on the cake. Will any other super hero movie ever top it? I think only another Avengers flick or a Justice League movie done right even have a chance.
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