Movies / Comics To Film News

Comics To Film 101

By Patrick C Oliver
January 14, 2007 - 02:01

X-Men II

To the casual observer, that the film industry has a new found love for comic book influenced films, especially now that many of them appear to be making money. This is not so.

The film industry has had a long, and bittersweet relationship with big screen comic book adaptations, which, arguably turned consistently sweet again, with the success of the Spider-man and  X-Men movies and more recently, Hellboy and Batman Returns. (These are, of course ‘superhero’ films, there have been other non-superhero influenced comic book adaptations, and I’ll touch on those later.)

To the untrained eye (don’t worry, I’m including myself in this group!) the general rule of thumb seems to be, if a film makes back its budget in box offices sales; it’s a limited success. If it doubles its budget; it’s getting a sequel!  

The two heavyweights when it comes to comic book publishing are DC Comics and Marvel Comics, these two publishing companies have been a rich source of material for the film industry and will probably continue to do so, as they both boast a host of characters.

The film industry is also starting to mine some of the smaller (in comparison to DC and Marvel) comic book publishers, for imaginative and potentially money spinning material. For instance, Hellboy released as a film in 2004 and directed by Guillermo Del Toro, is published by Dark Horse comics.

A brief nod to early comic book and comic strip adaptations.

I’d like to say a word or two if I may for some of the earlier comic book or more

Popeye by Fleisher Studios

commonly comic strip adaptations. They may not have be considered blockbusters now, but without them, and the many copycat films no doubt spawned by them, we may not have had the large number of adaptations that we have today!

Popeye (1929) was one of the earliest, and possibly most recognised of the comic strips to make it onto the silver screen. He featured in a Betty Boop cartoon.

Flash Gordon (1934) is another well known character to have made it onto the big screen several times in the past. The most recent version (1980) starring Topol, Max Von Sidow and Brian Blessed, also featured a pre-Bond Timothy Dalton and a cameo from a past member of the Blue
Peter children’s Television program, Peter Duncan.

Prince Valiant (1937) first appeared in a newspaper comic strip, it has since been adapted for film twice in the Fifties and in the Nineties, when it was also made into a cartoon series.

The Big Earners

Flash Gordon

It’s no coincidence that the most successful comic book adaptations so far have been from mainstream characters. This is because they are to some extent part of popular culture.

Prior to writing this article, I would have said that the biggest grossing comic book adaptations were Superman – The movie (1978)  with $300M worldwide and Batman (1989) with $411M worldwide…..Well, I’d have been wrong! Though those are quite respectable and impressive amounts of money, the biggest grossing comic book adaptation so far, is Spider-man (2002) with a whopping $821M worldwide! 821,000,000 million dollars!! That’s frankly quite astonishing. Good production values, strong direction and little to no deviation from the source material ensured this film was box office gold.
 
The following is a potted history of comic book adaptations of recent times and how much they have earned at the box office.

Superman – The movie (1978), though not the biggest earner was probably, up until Spider-man came along, the benchmark for comic book adaptations. Critically acclaimed, it satisfied the fans and the studio and tapped into the all important ‘family’ market with grandparents, parents and children all able to - and wanting to – watch it. And taking in excess of $300 million (over fives times its budget!) at the box office is no mean feat.  

Superman 2 (1980), is that rare thing. A sequel that actually stands up well to scrutiny in the eyes of the fans and movie going public! $108 million at the box office….
 
Superman 3 (1983) taking $59 million in the USA, it must have made at least half that much in the rest of the world.

Batman (1987) was another successful dip into comic books. To be fair, like Superman, the character had history and was quite firmly embedded in the public’s imagination, having had regular re-runs of the 60’s live action television series and several engaging cartoon television series also. It took $411 million at the box office and more than recouped its $35 million budget. It was well received as a film, Tim Burton’s vision was applauded and a sequel was never in doubt.
 
Batman Returns (1992) was slightly less successful than its predecessor, but still made a respectable profit it’s dual villains and love interest putting bums on seats. It made $282 million which was got business considering its $80 million budget.

Batman Forever (1995) also had a good showing at the cinema making $336 million from an initial budget of $100 million.  

Spider-man 2

Spider-man (2002) the success of this film must have surprised even the most commercially savvy studio executive! Good production values, strong direction and little to no deviation from the source material ensured this raked in over $821 million worldwide from a budget $139 million. The studio must have rubbed their hands with glee, the had a hot property, that if handled right would keep the cash tills ringing for years to come.

Spider-man II (2004) may have been a slight disappointment for some of the fans, but $783 million showed very good business for a sequel satisfyingly displayed the same high standards of the first film. The budget had been bigger at $200 million, but it was a safe bet that investment would be coming back by the truck load!

Hulk (2003) despite having made $245 million at the box office from thereby more than making back it’s initial investment of  $120 million, this film was seen by many as a flop. Many thought it could have had more action, or destruction or just been paced better - possibly so.  I for one enjoyed this big screen rendering of a Marvel character. It had a certain amount of depth and wasn’t a mindless rampage of a movie, which I suspect is what some people, wanted to see more of from the title character. A sequel is currently in the works.

Daredevil (2003) made $178 million from an initial budget $75 million, which, for a film that was generally perceived to be a bit of a failure, is actually very good. It recouped just over double its budget! Now that is always good business by my reckoning and it even spawned another film. The other film based on the popularity of the character, Elektra, was dreadful. It bombed.

Fantastic Four

The Fantastic Four (2005), which I thought was poor, but was quite well received brought in approximately $300 million against a budget of $100 million. That is a very good business in anyone’s book..

The X-Men (2000) was a stone cold success, any small gripes from fans about costumes and characters were blown away, in the main, by the quality of the film. It went on to make $295 million. Its budget was $75 million. A sequel was inevitable, especially as the comic book had such rich storylines to pick from.

X2 (2003) making $406 million from a budget of $110 million was good business. And introducing some new characters and a new protagonist were very good ideas. This sequel cemented the franchises footing and satisfied most of the fans and viewing public.
 
X-Men III: The Last Stand despite all it early problems with re-writes and changes of directors, this film upped the action quotient and opened strongly in its opening weekend with an estimated $107 Million, which took it to fourth spot in the all-time list behind Spider-man. The other three titles on the all-time list (so far) for opening weekend gross being, "Spider-Man," "Star Wars: Episode III" and "Shrek 2". Those other films didn’t open on a holiday weekend and so didn’t benefit from the extra ‘boost’ that can bring. Not bad for a second sequel. Not bad at all.

Batman Begins (2005) $371 million. Budget $150 million.
Taking things back to the start and providing some new elements proved a success with a public and fans hoping for something a lot better than the last Batman outing. With a solid cast and a well thought of director this delivered and reaped acclaim from critics, fans and the movie going public alike.

Superman Returns

Superman Returns (2006) Budget was approximately $260 million. It has taken approximately $337 million worldwide at the box office so far, but with Bryan Singer at the helm, lots of pre-publicity and a summer release date, this should have been huge. It has plenty of time to make more money yet though, what with the DVD release yet to come.  

Non-mainstream comic inspired movies?

Men in Black (1997) Which coined in $589 million worldwide with a budget of $90 million, is another example of a non-mainstream film coming from a source not widely known, but with an advantage over some of its fellow films… he actors were well known and reliable, the director proven, and the phrase, ‘Men in Black’, was well known to the public.
    
Men in Black II (2002) this was always going to make money and $441 million compared to a budget $140 million tells it’s own story. This film was basically a rehash of the first film, though it had some nice touches it was, in the end, a disappointment.
 
Mystery Men (1999) with a budget of $68 million and with several actors now considered ‘names’, taking $29 million at the box office might have been considered a flop by many. I don’t consider it as such. Considering its origins (the characters would have been even less known than HellBoy for instance) personally, I think that taking $29 million in those circumstances was an outstanding achievement.

Men In Black

Ghost World (2001) was Oscar nominated and won many, many awards. It took $8 million worldwide from a budget of $7 million budget. That isn’t bad for a quirky independent film. Not bad at all.  Two thirds of the lead actors in that film have continued to write their names in cinematic history.

American Splendour (2003) was another multiple award winner and made approximately $8 million worldwide. I don’t know what the budget was, but it may have been similar to that of Ghost Worlds.

Hellboy (2004), $99 million return on a $66 million budget for a non-mainstream character that will have been new to very many people, isn’t bad at all! This film, on the face of it doesn’t quite fit into the ‘it made back it’s budget – let’s make another one’ bracket. But considering it is adapted from a non-mainstream character, this can be considered a success.
 
The Punisher (2004) $33 million with a budget of $33 million, not quite a roaring success but not quite a failure either. And certainly better than the 1994 effort which had a budget of $10 million and only managed to take $284,000 at the box office! There is currently a sequel in the works.

Editor’s note: Tank Girl was released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. in 1995 and starred Lorri Petty as Tank Girl. Tank Girl was based on British comic book which had been partially reprinted by Dark Horse and ran from 1988 to 1995. In the film, Tank Girl fought the evil Department of Water and power in 2033, after a world wide disaster has made water rare.

Dishonourable mentions

Supergirl

Batman & Robin (1997) actually made a reasonable amount of money ; $237 million at the box office from an initial budget of $125 million. So, from that perspective, it was a success. Unfortunately, it got panned by everyone that saw it. So much so, that the studios decided to take a break from the ‘Batman franchise’ for a while. It was a terrible film, it aimed, or appeared to aim for the camp qualities of the Sixties series and failed abysmally.

Bulletproof Monk (2003) was not a bad movie, it had its moments. Unfortunately, a poor script and an over-reliance on wirework ruined what the viewer senses could have been so much more! It’s a shame, as the acting wasn’t half bad from most of the cast, if only they could have been given more to ‘feed’ off. The film took $37 million, not quite recouping the initial outlay of $52 million.

Captain America, there have been two stabs at bringing this popular comic book character to life. Both films were very much of their time, and whilst not strictly terrible they couldn’t be said to be good either.

Catwoman (2005) It took $80 million! How? And that was against a budget of $100 million. When I heard what direction the story was going to take, I thought one thing ‘turkey’! The film wasn’t well received and from the dark murmuring of fans unhappy at the tinkering with the character prior to release, things didn’t look promising. $80 million…I’m actually surprised that it made as much money as it did.

Dr Strange. It’s too terrible to even talk about. No. Really it was.

Electra (2005) it made $56 million at the box office from an initial budget of $43 million. Not bad. Except for the fact that the trailer alone looked like a bad rip off of the Mortal Combat films, and that is never a good thing.   

Nick Fury Agent of Shield (1998), this was a TV film that I had the misfortune of catching a glimpse of. I’m not sure that I have a seen a film worse than this, and I didn’t even watch all of it! Terrible.
 
Supergirl (1984) from a budget of $35 million, it racked in just under half of that figure. Whilst not being entirely bad, it was not entirely good either, Supergirl made a good stab at presenting the film going public with a super heroine movie. It had a reasonably solid cast, and tried to duplicate the Lex Luthor and Otis dynamic in it’s villainess and henchwoman, Selina and Bianca, but for all that it didn’t quite capture the public’s imagination.     

Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (1987)
Oh dear. This was a case of a halfway good idea poorly executed. This is a film that does not even register on the minds of most comic book fans.

Upcoming films

Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer

Shazam - The wisdom of Solomon, the strength of Hercules, the stamina of Atlas, the power of Zeus, the courage of Achilles and speed of Mercury, Billy Batson is the holder of the power of S.H.A.Z.A.M; he is Captain Marvel.  - (2007)

I have a passing knowledge of this character  – this is either going to be another ‘Superman: The Movie’, in that it will successful because it appeals to both the fan and family market alike, or it will all go horribly wrong……I hope that it is the former.

Spider-man 3 (2007), with an alleged budget of $250M could well be one of the most eagerly anticipated movies of 2007 for fans, old and new. With teaser trailers and posters being

There is a new Nick Fury film currently in development, I understand that Marvel have changed the character slightly, thereby reviving interest.  

A sequel to the Hulk is in the works with a slated release of 2008, and a radiation powered villain in the shape of The Abomination. This is a very pleasant surprise, as I was under the impression that the previous film hadn't been well received.

Mystery Men

Ant-man (2008) is also in development stage, and will chronicle the adventures of scientist Dr Henry Pym. It has Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead & Hot Fuzz) attached as co-writer and director.  

Captain America (2009) looks to be going into development, it can only be better than the previous two versions of that film!

Iron man (2009) looks to finally be moving ahead – having stalled for the past few years - with Jon Favreau ably taking on the directorial duties and Robert Downey Jr playing the lead character, Anthony Stark. Filming is due to start in February 2007.
 
For those of you fearing that the creative well will soon run dry, or who, indeed live in fear of yet more comic book adaptations…..I have but one thing to say - there’s plenty of life in the old (Comic book adaptation) dog yet!

Last Updated: August 31, 2023 - 08:12