In the age of cinematic universes, many film fans would be shocked to remember how much money some truly awful superhero films made at the box office. During the 2010s, Disney's 2009 purchase of Marvel Studios paid dividends, producing the greatest collective franchise in Hollywood history. Warner Bros. tried its super-variation, the DCEU, which attempted to catch up with the MCU, leaving many comics fans disappointed.
In hindsight, it's easy to think every DCEU movie was a flop and all the MCU movies made money because fans loved them. However, when looking back at box office history, neither of those thoughts is entirely accurate. While not every film on this list is loathed universally, each DC or MCU movie has a surprising story behind its box office success.
10 Superhero Movies That Made It Big at the Box Office
Suicide Squad ($749.2 Million)
Many call David Ayer's Suicide Squad an abomination to filmmaking. It features the infamous "Damaged" Joker, played by Jared Leto. Besides the money in Warner Bros.' pocket, the greatest positive of this film was Margot Robbie's Harley Quinn, who made two other DCEU appearances.
At the time, the star power from Will Smith (Deadshot) and the 'cool' appeal to this film, trusted by its original music like Imagine Dragons' "Sucker for Pain," helped this stinker become a box office sensation.
Thor: Love and Thunder ($760.9 Million)
When thinking of what has gone wrong with the MCU post-Endgame, many fans (or former MCU-watchers) would point to Taika Waititi's Thor: Love and Thunder as one of its biggest failings. However, it performed well during Summer 2022 as the second-highest earning film in its franchise and turned a profit for Disney and Marvel Studios. This means a fifth Thor film can't be ruled out, even if Waititi is not expected to return.
Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice ($874.3 Million)
In many ways, this was DC's response to the MCU back in 2016. Instead of methodically introducing its characters in solo films before a major team-up, Warner Bros. jumped the gun after Man of Steel to Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice. While some may defend Zack Snyder's vision, especially the extended version, it was widely panned at the time, receiving nowhere near the love of the rival film Captain America: Civil War. Besides all of this, a ton of comic book fans around the globe filled theaters to see this movie, making it the second-highest earner from the former DCEU.
Snyder has previously said that BvS wasn't received well because audiences didn't want the "hardcore deconstructivist, heavily layered, experiential modern mythological superhero movie" that he created.
Captain Marvel ($1.13 Billion)
Opening ahead of one of the biggest films ever released has many benefits. Captain Marvel was the first female-led solo movie in MCU history. It opened in theaters a few months before Avengers: Endgame, which directly connected to that movie.
At the time, it wasn't crazy to think Captain Marvel made $1 billion, despite its middling reception, because Marvel was the hottest thing going. Following its direct sequel, The Marvels, becoming the biggest flop in MCU history, it's surprising to see how high the original soared at the box office.
Aquaman ($1.15 Billion)
One of the highest-earning DC films ever, Aquaman was an unmatched international hit. Everyone across the globe wanted a piece of Jason Momoa's Arthur Curry, as the 2018 film earned a staggering $816.9 million outside of the U.S., of which $291.8 million came from the Chinese box office.
Aquaman was actually relatively well-received, making it one of the DCEU's best movies, but the heights it was able to reach are a bit jarring looking back. Unfortunately, its direct sequel, Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, was the final of five straight DC flops.
Iron Man 3 ($1.2 Billion)
A year after The Avengers cemented the MCU as a game-changer in Hollywood, Iron Man 3 reaped all the benefits of kicking off Phase 2 and continuing the overarching narrative. Far and away the highest-grossing Iron Man film, the 2013 movie roughly doubled the global earnings of Iron Man 2 just three years prior.
Ironically, the end of this trilogy was met with mixed reviews, with many fans calling it the weakest of the three Iron Man films to this day.
Venom ($856 Million)
The spark that lit the fire that built Sony's Spider-Man Universe, Venom, starring Tom Hardy as Eddie Brock, benefited from a few key contributors unrelated to the film's quality.
In the last 2010s, comic book movies were at an all-time high in popularity. Spider-Man had joined the MCU, putting himself and his villains of great interest. Finally, the character of Venom was popular around the globe; most notably, the film scored $269.2 million in China, more than it earned in the domestic market.
X-Men: Apocalypse ($543.9 Million)
Following critical successes in X-Men: First Class and X-Men: Days of Future Past, X-Men: Apocalypse was a real stinker at 20th Century Fox. Once again, this was in an era of heightened comic book movie popularity, but Apocalypse stands out as one of the worst films in the Fox X-Men collection.
Less than $600 million isn't exactly breaking records, but it's still a major success. Many fans may think it's more in line with 2019's Dark Phoenix, which earned a measly $65.8 million total at the domestic box office.
Spider-Man 3 ($890.8 Million)
Tobey Maguire strutted his stuff to nearly $900 million in 2007, the most successful Spider-Man film of the Sam Raimi trilogy, and adjusted for inflation, it would be over $1.3 billion. For those who can remember, the hype was real for Spider-Man 3, earning $151.1 million during its three-day opening weekend.
Commonly known as the worst Spider-Man film of the 2000s, the third installment exemplifies how commercializing a blockbuster can pay off. However, Maguire's box office success wasn't done there. His return in Spider-Man: No Way Home thrust the franchise into one of the MCU's highest-earners.
Justice League ($661.3 Million)
One of the most maligned comic book movies of all time, Justice League still may have earned Warner Bros. a profit in 2017. The film, which set back the DCEU a decade and began the #ReleaseTheSnyderCut craze, was quite frankly a hit.
Justice League didn't perform as well as Man of Steel or Batman v. Superman, which was a problem, but it also didn't completely fall on its face at the box office, as some may think they remember.
