Billy Zane Led An Underrated '90s Superhero Movie That Flopped At The Box Office

Before Batman and Spider-Man, there was the Phantom. Created by Lee Falk in 1936, the comic strip reached a point in which it appeared in 500 newspapers and was read by 100 million people around the world daily. A big Hollywood superhero movie finally followed in 1996, starring Billy Zane as the titular masked avenger.

In "The Phantom," Zane's Kit Walker becomes the 21st Phantom, the next person in his family lineage to be chosen as the Ghost Who Walks. His purpose? To fight evil. His latest threat is the rich businessman Xander Drax (Treat Williams) who wants to bring magical skulls together to help him rule over humanity. In this action-packed adventure movie that often feels like it's about Indiana Jones in a purple suit, the Phantom keeps his vow and battles Drax and his goons. He isn't alone in his quest, though, as his ex-girlfriend Diana Palmer (Kristy Swanson) helps him.

Despite "The Phantom" being a movie that looks like an actual comic book on the screen, the majority of audiences ghosted it. The '90s superhero movie cost $45 million to produce, but it only made $17.3 million domestically. Zane was signed up for three follow-up movies, but after "The Phantom" disappointed at the box office and received middling reviews, Paramount Pictures didn't pursue its future.

Look over Billy Zane's career and a number of banger performances in flicks of various quality pop out. From "Back to the Future" to "Titanic" and even the cheesy-cool "Sniper" movies, the actor has done it all. One would think that the box office failure, or the so-so reception toward "The Phantom," would sour him on his turn as a classic comic hero, but that couldn't be further from the truth.

Speaking to The A.V. Club in 2024, Zane called Kit Walker "one of his favorite characters" and how the movie was a love letter to a different time in Hollywood. "I was raised on adventure, and I think it's so easily overlooked as how critical it is to young boys and girls," the actor said. "Thank goodness it's still in the fiber of [Steven] Spielberg and will always be there to that degree, but action has kind of eclipsed adventure, and this was truly a nod to classic Hollywood cinema."

What most fans don't know is how Zane pursued the role of the Phantom for almost a decade. As he revealed to Film Scout in 1996, he heard about plans for a movie as early as the late '80s. "I read the 'Phantom' comics when I was in Australia shooting 'Dead Calm' and when one of the crew told me that there were plans for a movie, I went for it," he said. That's a love that can't be forgotten.