In the world of comic book adaptations, first impressions often determine a film’s financial fate. While a weak opening can occasionally be salvaged, failing to attract audiences from the start makes it difficult for a movie to achieve the “event” status that leads to blockbuster success. Some of the most infamous superhero flops struggled with disastrous openings, both in terms of revenue and audience reaction.

We’ve put together a list of 10 superhero films that audiences effectively rejected upon release—whether due to lackluster ticket sales or widespread disappointment with the final product as reflected by poor Cinemascores. Films affected by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021 have been excluded from this list.

One notable entry is the 2015 film “Fantastic Four,” which was a second reboot attempt to bring Marvel’s famed superhero family to the big screen. Earlier efforts, like the 2005 “Fantastic Four” and its 2007 sequel “Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer,” were moderately successful at the box office. However, the 2015 version, penned by Jeremy Slater, Simon Kinberg, and director Josh Trank, was a significant misfire.

Written by Jeremy Slater, Simon Kinberg, and Josh Trank, and directed by Trank, 2015’s “Fantastic Four” marked the second of three attempts in the 21st century to turn Marvel’s most iconic superhero family into blockbuster entertainment. The first, consisting of 2005’s “Fantastic Four” and its 2007 sequel “Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer,” hadn’t been a world-shattering phenomenon, but still raked in decent amounts of cash. Years later, 2025’s “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” blew everyone away at the box office. The 2015 version, though, was an unmitigated disaster.

Starring Miles Teller as Reed Richards, Kate Mara as Sue Storm, Michael B. Jordan as Johnny Storm, and Jamie Bell as Ben Grimm, Josh Trank’s “Fantastic Four” received universally negative reviews, and had a box office run to match. Initial tracking placed the film’s expected opening weekend just shy of the results for the previous decade’s “Fantastic Four” and “Rise of the Silver Surfer.”

But, discouraged by the abysmal critical response and the movie’s lack of connection to the then-in-full-swing MCU, North American audiences turned up in even smaller numbers than expected, supporting “Fantastic Four” to the tune of just $25.6 million over its opening weekend. And, with a C- Cinemascore evincing zero positive word-of-mouth, box office numbers dropped dramatically. “Fantastic Four” ultimately concluded its global theatrical bow with a gross of just $168 million against a $120 million budget, making it a massive bomb for 20th Century Fox.

2003’s Ben Affleck-starring “Daredevil” isn’t particularly well-loved among comic book fans, but was a moderate box office success, grossing $179 million against a $78 million budget. The door was thus left open for “Elektra,” a spin-off focusing on the eponymous mercenary assassin, played by Jennifer Garner. Directed by Rob Bowman, “Elektra” premiered just under two years later in January 2005, with the thought being that if the early-year release table proved beneficial for “Daredevil,” the same could happen for its franchise follow-up.

“Elektra” arrived to theaters hampered by a hype-free premiere timeframe — it opened on the second weekend of the year, as the unceremonious first blockbuster release of 2005 — and to even worse reviews than “Daredevil.” And despite being produced on a smaller $65 million budget, “Elektra” proved calamitous for 20th Century Fox out of the gate.

It ended up grossing just $12 million at the North American box office on its opening weekend, ranking fourth — handily beaten by fellow premiere “Coach Carter” as well as December holdovers “Meet the Fockers” and “In Good Company.” Worse yet: That opening weekend, however meager, ultimately accounted for more than half of the movie’s total domestic intake. All in all, despite a not-terrible B Cinemascore, “Elektra” only managed to gross $56.8 million worldwide, failing to make back its production budget.

When people think “teen-friendly superhero school comedy from the mid-2000s,” they most likely think of “Sky High,” an underrated superhero movie that made bank in 2005 and has since risen in popularity. But another movie that fits that exact description was 2006’s “Zoom.” Scripted by Adam Rifkin and David Berenbaum from a story by Rifkin, “Zoom” adapts the children’s book “Amazing Adventures from Zoom’s Academy” by Jason Lethcoe. Peter Hewitt of “Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey” directs Tim Allen as Jack Shepard, a retired superhero who gets hired to coach a new government-sponsored team of young supes.

The proximity to “Sky High” didn’t do “Zoom” any favors, and neither did its absolutely abysmal reviews. The movie opened in August 2006 to $4.5 million in the domestic market, bested by fellow new releases “Step Up,” “World Trade Center,” and “Pulse.” Its B- Cinemascore, a substandard result for a family-friendly film, translated to not-so-great legs at the box office. “Zoom” went on to gross just $12.5 million globally.

It’s even worse when you factor in the movie’s $35 million price tag. Failing to break even is one thing, but “Zoom” barely made back a third of its production budget; it was an outright fiasco for Columbia Pictures. And insult was added to injury when the movie made a strong showing at both the Razzies and the final edition of the since-discontinued Stinkers Bad Movie Awards.

“Catwoman” routinely makes lists of the worst superhero movies ever made, if not the worst movies outright, but it’s still difficult to grasp just what a laughingstock it was upon its 2004 release. Directed by French filmmaker Pitof, “Catwoman” eschews the Selina Kyle mythology from the Batman comics, instead focusing on the original character of Patience Phillips (Halley Berry), a graphic designer who develops feline superpowers as the result of an industrial accident.

“Catwoman” had a sizable production budget of $100 million, a huge investment for 2004 — but it was clear from the jump (no pun intended) that said investment wouldn’t pay off. Following some of the direst reviews ever for a release of that scale, the movie made $16.7 million on its domestic opening weekend in July 2004. Its solid B Cinemascore was on par with comparable hits like “Daredevil” and “Elektra.”

Ultimately, though, the combination of truly scathing critical reception and a miserable opening weekend doomed “Catwoman” to be the opposite of catnip for worldwide audiences. It ended its run with only $82.4 million from theaters, significantly below its production budget. In recent years, however, removed from the specter of its financial failure, “Catwoman” has begun to garner a sizable cult following.

For years, virtually every non-solo “X-Men” film was a box office success. Beginning with 2000’s “X-Men,” the original trilogy consisted of hit after hit — followed by the popular prequel installments “X-Men: First Class,” “X-Men: Days of Future Past,” and “X-Men: Apocalypse” raking in mountains of cash. It was an impressive balancing act for a series with a timeline that grew increasingly complex (maybe even convoluted) as the prequels interfaced with the continuity of the original 2000s series.

But with “Dark Phoenix,” that hot streak came to a screeching halt. Written and directed by Simon Kinberg as a do-over of “X-Men: The Last Stand,” “Dark Phoenix” tested poorly in early 2018 and went through significant reshoots. This prompted 20th Century Fox to push back its release date from November 2018 to February 2019, and then again to June 2019.

By the time “Dark Phoenix” had finally wobbled its way to theaters, the air of a flop was already hovering over it, not helped by the generally negative critical reviews. It ended up making $32 million on its domestic opening weekend, losing to “The Secret Life of Pets 2” and scoring an ominous B- on Cinemascore. Ultimately, the worldwide box office intake was $252.4 million — slightly above the $200 million production budget, but still far from profitability.

2024 saw the release of a new film adaptation of the James O’Barr comic series “The Crow.” 1994’s “The Crow,” marked by a bizarre and unsettling on-set event that claimed the life of star Brandon Lee, was a noteworthy box office success, grossing $94 million against a $23 million budget. The enduring popularity of the comics prompted another Hollywood adaptation, which went through several revamps before landing on director Rupert Sanders, with Bill Skarsgård in the role of Eric Draven a.k.a. the Crow, and FKA Twigs as Eric’s girlfriend Shelly.

“The Crow” hit theaters in August 2024, and was immediately given the cold shoulder by the public. On its first North American weekend, “The Crow” made a mere $4.6 million, finishing eighth at the box office — behind the second weekend of the 15th anniversary re-release of “Coraline.”

An underwhelming B- Cinemascore and subsequent box office disaster narrative cinched the film’s fate; it spent just three weeks in U.S. theaters, and racked up a worldwide total of $24.1 million, with a domestic intake lower than the opening weekend of the 1994 film. Considering that the 2024 version had a $50 million budget, this was an utterly abysmal result, all but guaranteeing that the sequel hook in the ending of “The Crow” won’t be delivered on any time soon.

2004’s Guillermo del Toro-directed adaptation of Mike Mignola’s “Hellboy” was not a box office smash, but was well-received enough to inspire a sequel. 2008’s “Hellboy II: The Golden Army,” also directed by del Toro, overcame the commercial prickliness of its source material and became a bigger financial success. An eventual remake arrived in 2019, with a script by Andrew Cosby and direction by “The Descent” helmer Neil Marshall. David Harbour, then at the height of his “Stranger Things” fame, played the titular half-demon hero.

On paper, the remake had everything in place to be a success, especially in such a high watermark year for superhero cinema. But in the end, “Hellboy” absolutely tanked. Released in April 2019 with the weight of broadly negative reviews bearing down on it, “Hellboy” ultimately opened to just $12 million in the U.S. and Canada.

To make matters worse, its Cinemascore was a ghastly C, demonstrating that even the few who showed up weren’t too keen on it. All in all, the film grossed $55 million globally against a $50 million budget. Instead of a sequel, it was followed by yet another reboot with the 2024 direct-to-VOD title “Hellboy: The Crooked Man.”

In the over four-decade long history of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise, a number of theatrical film adaptations have come along. Although every “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” movie released between the ’90s and 2000s had done well at the box office, the 2014 version was on another level. A Nickelodeon-produced reboot following Viacom’s 2009 purchase of the property, it made $485 million worldwide — making a sequel all but inevitable.

“Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows” opened in early June 2016. Like its predecessor, it was met with unenthusiastic, if slightly more positive, reviews. But assertions that “Out of the Shadows” was marginally better than the first “Turtles,” did little to help the movie secure a good opening weekend. The sequel grossed $35.3 million on its domestic opening, edging out the second week of “X-Men: Apocalypse” to win the weekend, but falling way, way short of expectations set by its $135 million budget. 

Although the Cinemascore was an encouraging A-, an improvement over the first film, the box office performance of “Out of the Shadows” continued to disappoint throughout its summer bow, finishing with a domestic gross of $82 million. Even the ultimate worldwide total of $245 million wasn’t enough to save “Out of the Shadows” from becoming the first full-blown theatrical flop in the franchise’s history.

There was, allegedly, a “Shazam!” sequel in 2023. If you don’t remember it — or, equally possible, weren’t even aware of it — it was directed by David F. Sandberg, who also helmed the first film, and saw Zachary Levi and Asher Angel reprise the titular teenage boy who can turn into a super-powered adult through the utterance of “Shazam.” Contrary to the 2019 “Shazam!,” however, “Shazam! Fury of the Gods” did not find an audience, becoming the biggest box office dud of the DC Extended Universe up until then. And the writing was on the wall as early as its opening weekend.

Originally scheduled for a 2022 release, “Shazam! Fury of the Gods” was delayed to March 2023 due to complications brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. While it did the bare minimum of topping its domestic opening weekend as the only blockbuster premiere, it did so by grossing a disastrous $30.1 million — significantly below the soft but solid $53.5 million opening of its predecessor.

Worse yet, despite a pretty good B+ Cinemascore, “Fury of the Gods’s” box office performance didn’t improve in subsequent weeks, ultimately staying in North American theaters for less than two months and making $134.1 million worldwide. For reference, this was a smaller box office intake than those of “Wonder Woman 1984” and “The Suicide Squad,” both pandemic releases with simultaneous HBO Max premieres.

In addition to his work as a comic book writer and artist, Frank Miller is also a filmmaker. He co-directed 2005’s “Sin City” and 2014’s “Sin City: A Dame to Kill For,” both based on his own comics, alongside Robert Rodriguez. In 2008, Miller had his only solo directorial credit on “The Spirit.”

Created by Will Eisner in 1940, The Spirit was the protagonist of a Quality Comics insert in newspapers supplied by the Iowa-based Register and Tribune Syndicate. The character was featured in several Eisner-penned stories across different publishers before officially joining the DC Universe — just in time for Miller’s film adaptation. Scripted by Miller himself, “The Spirit” opened on Christmas 2008, and did not prove to be effective holiday season counter-programming. 

With a budget of $60 million, Miller’s dark and violent neo-noir saga had a domestic opening weekend of $6.4 million, being only one of that week’s five new wide releases to finish outside of the top 5; “Marley & Me,” “Bedtime Stories,” “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” and “Valkyrie” all beat it handily, along with holdovers “Yes Man” and “Seven Pounds.” Audience rejection was manifested in a C- Cinemascore, and “The Spirit” concluded its run with $39.1 million worldwide — less than two thirds of its budget.