Superhero movies have had a rough year, by all estimations. When it comes to the worlds of both Marvel and DC and others, 2023 saw some significant low points. Even before studios such as Warner Bros. and Disney were tasked with navigating the tricky situation of producing and promoting films amidst the writers’ and actors’ strikes, trouble seemed to brew.
DC star Ezra Miller and Marvel star Jonathan Majors have both faced assault allegations, though Majors’ legal trouble largely began after his MCU film debut in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, while Miller’s controversies and accusations have spanned the previous year before the release of The Flash. What’s more, the general identities of the DCEU and MCU franchises have been in something of a crisis lately, with Marvel’s lack of focus and DC’s failures over the years prompting a full-blown reboot on the horizon. Both studios have also received criticism for the overuse of CGI lately.
So, let’s look at the biggest superhero flops of 2023. But first, we must define when a film has made a profit at the box office. For the most part, things like production budgets and marketing costs are speculative to begin with. However, a rule of thumb cited by outlets like WatchMojo, the YouTube movie review channel, and indie production studio RedLetterMedia is that a film must make at least twice its production back at the box office just to break even. Anything north of double the production budget is considered profit. This is a way of generating a ballpark estimation of profitability based on the fact that there are marketing costs, post-production costs, and the theaters’ take of ticket sales to consider. With that as our guide, and using box office and production budget information provided by The Numbers, let’s look at every superhero movie that flopped in 2023, ranked by how hard they bombed, e.g., how far they fell short of the break-even mark.
5. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania
On a surface level, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania shouldn’t qualify as a flop, even by the rules we have laid out. However, extenuating circumstances led us to place the film on our list through technical knockout. You see, the movie had a budget of $200 million and grossed $463 million worldwide. By our own back-of-the-napkin calculations, per our rule of thumb of anything north of double the production cost being sheer profit, this would seem to place the Marvel threequel fully in the green by about $63 million.
With that said, there are a few reasons we believe Disney considers Quantumania to be nothing but a financial and critical disappointment. Despite having a larger budget than the first two Ant-Man movies, Quantumania made less than both of them. That is the opposite trajectory Marvel wants its sequels to go and certainly not the expectation for a film introducing the next big bad, Jonathan Majors’ Kang the Conqueror, into the Multiverse Saga.
Quantumania also boasts the dishonor of having the largest second-weekend drop in MCU history, at – 70 percent, no doubt bolstered by its poor word-of-mouth reputation amongst fans and critics. To most, it was a complete misfire that failed to enthrall, looked like garbage due to poor CGI, and lacked the grounded setting that enhanced the humor and fantasy aspects of the first two movies. There’s also some speculation that the film may generate more red in its balance sheet than initially thought since Forbes reported it is entirely possible more information about the movie’s post-production costs could come to light that places its profit margin in the negative when all the dust has settled, as we previously reported.
4. Ruby Gillman: Teenage Kraken
Why is a movie called Ruby Gillman: Teenage Kraken on our list of superhero films that bombed in 2023? Technically speaking, the animated Universal film that is neither Marvel nor DC-based is a superhero movie, according to co-director Kirk DeMicco (via Deadline). The movie was also made like a fish on dry land when it hit theaters and, well, you know. With a worldwide haul as low as $43 million, you would think Ruby Gillman would top our list. However, when you consider the budget for the movie was only $70 million, it becomes clear why a movie like The Flash — which had over twice that amount for its budget — would be considered the bigger flop even though the box office haul was technically higher.
According to our rule of thumb, Ruby Gillman fell short of the break-even point by about $97 million. That said, it’s still not the most hated movie. For instance, the story of an adolescent girl who can transform into a sea monster has a non-rotten 66 percent critical score on Rotten Tomatoes and an even more respectable audience score of 81 percent, with its defenders pointing out its value as a movie experience the whole family can enjoy. With that said, it still generated a collective “meh” from many audience members, with one Letterboxd review summing it up perfectly: “felt weird watching this in a theater knowing damn well that god intended for this to be viewed on a smudgy iPad in a busy olive garden.”
3. Blue Beetle
With its focus on an authentic depiction of a Latino family at its center, a back-to-basics plot reminiscent of Iron Man and Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man films, you’d think Blue Beetle would have a real shot at drawing audiences in. While the film was relatively critically acclaimed, albeit with some reviewers complaining of certain superhero clichés being present in the movie, there sadly weren’t enough people who showed up for Blue Beetle to turn a profit at the box office. The film only grossed $125 million against a $120 million budget, meaning it would need roughly an amount above $115 million more to profit by our estimation.
Unlike other DC movies this year, you can’t necessarily blame Blue Beetle‘s box office failure on the DCEU being rebooted and rebranded as the DCU. Fans of the movie will be happy to hear that DC Studios’ Co-CEO James Gunn considers Xolo Maridueña’s titular hero to be the first DCU character. However, some Blue Beetle fans have leveled the blame at Warner Bros.’ perceived lack of marketing for the movie as one possible cause for why it struggled to sell tickets.
2. Shazam! Fury of the Gods
Like The Flash, there are plenty of people out there who may call Shazam! Fury of the Gods a pretty decent movie with an unfairly negative reputation from critics. However, not enough people actually watched the film for much of a consensus to be formed. That is because, according to our ballpark guess, with a production budget of $125 million and a total worldwide box office haul of $132 million, it fell short of the break-even point by about $118 million. Call it superhero fatigue, or blame the fact of its failure on the entire DCEU being put in the trash bin in favor of a rebooted cinematic universe. If you’re Zachary Levi, you may also want to blame Dwayne Johnson for not allowing Black Adam, a character from another infamous DC flop, to show up. Either way, Fury of the Gods failed to make an impression on earth as it is in heaven.
1. The Flash
It should surprise no one that The Flash tops our list of superhero movies that bombed the hardest in 2023. However, the film has its defenders; a perfect storm of various things added up to not enough people going out to the theater to justify The Flash‘s $200 million budget. With a worldwide haul of just $268 million, it technically made more than its budget but still failed to reach the break-even point by about $132 million, according to our rule of thumb. Uncanny CGI used in tasteless ways, a controversial star in Ezra Miller having headline-grabbing legal troubles and accusations surrounding them, and a general sense of multiverse-style plots being overused in movies nowadays all added up to one of the most notorious box office bombs in all of cinema history.
