2017 was a big year for comic book based movies with four studios vying for moviegoers attention. We are looking at seven releases by Sony, Fox, Marvel and Warner Bros. The Quality this year for superhero movies has never been better with an audience rating averaging 7.67 stars out of ten. All things considered the seven movies we are talking about were good and all of them were fun to watch, and some of the movies were outstanding.
let’s start out with Sony’s movie made with the help of Marvel Studios – Spider-Man: Homecoming. It made a cool 880 million worldwide and 334 million in the USA. It was a star-studded success with Michael Keaton, Robert Downey Jr. and newcomer Tom Holland with the role he seems to be born to do, Peter Parker/Spider-Man. Audiences loved it with a 7.6/10 rating at IMDb website. Sony’s profits with box office take and Marvel makes a killing in the toy and movie merchandise market. A good start for the Marvel Studios first ever take on a Spider-Man solo movie.
The next studio Fox in the vain of Deadpool, last years surprise success, produced an R rated movie called Logan. It topped out at 617 million worldwide and 226 million in the USA. This was the farewell performance of Hugh Jackman as Wolverine and Patrick Stewart as Professor X and they went out with a bang. Great performances by these veteran actors and a surprising performance by Dafne Keen as Laura Kinney possibly the future version of X-23 known by X-Men fans. The R rated audience gave this the highest rating of the seven with an 8.2/10 stars rating at the IMDb website.
The next studio to release superhero movies was Marvel Studios with Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. It made 864 million worldwide and 390 million in the USA. Directed by James Gunn it featured Kurt Russell as Ego the living planet and father to Peter Quill/Star-Lord played by Chris Pratt. With the usual players in the Guardians, Pom Klementieff played Mantis a being with the power of Empathy. Sylvester Stallone plays Stakar Ogord a character better known as Starhawk, in the comics part of the original Guardians of the Galaxy. This one had everything in it except the kitchen sink and pleased audiences with a rating of 7.8/10 at the IMDb website.
The next movie released by Marvel was Thor: Ragnarok which made 846 million worldwide and 310 in the USA. Directed by Taika Waititi this Thor movie was full of laughs and great performances by Jeff Goldblum as the Grandmaster, Tessa Thompson as Valkyrie, Karl Urban as Skurge, and of course Cate Blanchett as Hela. With a cameo by Benedict Cumberbatch as Doctor Strange, this one had plenty of star power and was enjoyable to watch. Chris Hemsworth played his best Thor alongside Tom Hiddleston as Loki and Mark Ruffalo played an awesome Bruce Banner/Hulk. Another hit by Marvel it was rated 8.1/10 by moviegoers on the IMDb website.
The final studio that released comic book based movies was DC Films part of Warner Bros. Motion pictures. The movie directed by Patty Jenkins named Wonder Woman made 822 million worldwide and a whopping 412 million stateside. Not since the Christofer Nolan’s Batman movies have DC superhero movies done this well in the USA. The movie was well acted by Gal Gadot as Diana/Wonder Woman and Chris Pine as Steve Trevor, Diana’s connection to the world of men and eventually love interest. Connie Nielsen played Hippolyta queen of the Amazons and Diana’s mother. Robin Wright played Antiope the greatest warrior of the Amazons and Diana’s personal trainer. The time spent on the Island of the Amazons was magnificent you wanted to believe it was real. Lucy Davis is the delightful Etta Candy, secretary of Steve Trevor and comic relief as Diana learns the ways of war and man’s world. Danny Huston plays Ludendorff a general of the German army that wants to win the war with chemical warfare created by Dr. Maru portrayed by Elena Anaya. David Thewlis played Sir Patrick and Ares the God of War. This is the best movie that DC Films has produced since the creation of the DC extended universe. Well-liked by critics and moviegoers rated it 7.6/10 on the IMDb website.
Another movie by Warner Bros. aimed at children but shared by some adults was The LEGO Batman Movie. It made 312 million worldwide and 175 million in the USA market. At about 80 million to make it was a great money maker for the WB. With the toy and movie merchandise market, the profits are great. It was a silly look at the Batman mythos that pitted Batman against every conceivable villain in the DC world attacking him and how he learns to get help from others. The kids were mesmerized and enjoyed the movie. It was rated 7.3/10 on the IMDb website and would even be higher if the kids could vote for their favorite movie.
The last movie we will look at is Justice League again by DC Films. It is still in theaters and has made about 650 million worldwide and a surprising only 225 million in the USA. This movie is considered a failure because it had a high cost to make and had every big hitter in the DCEU and featured the formation of the Justice League, DC’s version of the Avengers in Marvel. The movie was enjoyable to watch and has a decent story but had a lot to see crammed in just 2 hours of action. The CGI looked rushed and was made fun of openly by critics and fans and may change the line up of coming movies planned by DC Films. The heavily criticised movie was still liked by moviegoers with a rating of 7.1/10 stars on the IMDb website.
After looking at the performance of superhero movies in 2017 I would say that these movies are as popular as ever and just these seven movies made $4,991000. That’s just under five billion worldwide with an average of 713,000 million per movie. The domestic take is $2,072000 that is just over two billion dollars. The fact is people are very selective about the movies they see but a movie that is good they will see in great numbers. Billion dollar movies are rare and should be the exception for an exceptional movie. Hang in there, the movie industry is getting better at producing good comic book movies and we all are enjoying some great stories and action-filled films. What a wonderful time to be a movie fan. 🙂 Walt
Marvel has the right stuff, Feige has produced pure gold balancing creative talent with good plans for the future. Hope DC will learn that without Snyder. Still, superhero and fantasy movies are doing well at the box office.
Walter Hamada, one of the executives behind the massively successful Conjuring horror movies made by Warner Bros.’ New Line division, has been named the president of DC-based film production.