Superhero Movie Flops That Were Way Ahead Of Their Time

When considering the superhero movies that bombed the hardest at the box office, a number of them definitely made the amount of money they deserved to make. But that isn't the case for all of them. A few should've been bigger hits, but didn't bring in the crowds for a number of reasons. For the movies in this feature, arguably the most impactful of those reasons was simply bad timing. The superhero genre in particular doesn't suffer gladly a movie that tries to be something that audiences aren't looking for at a given moment. 

That is to say, these films were released to a world that simply wasn't ready for what they brought to the table. The likelihood that many would have benefitted from hitting theaters at a time more suitable to what they were trying to do is borne out by subsequent superhero movies that did something similar and did end up becoming big hits. And for one of the movies on this list, that would end up happening for later monster hit superhero movies written and directed by the very same person.

One of the best comic book movies nobody talks about is "The Rocketeer," Disney's 1991 adaptation of the comic book series and character of the same name. Created in the early '80s as a throwback to the pulp heroes of the '30s and '40s, there was layer upon layer of nostalgia over everything in this movie. That was its biggest downfall, and perhaps the reason why it finished at a disappointing fourth place during its opening weekend and never really recovered.

Set in 1930s Los Angeles, the movie follows a Hollywood stunt pilot named Cliff Secord (Billy Campbell) who inadvertently becomes the titular hero after coming into possession of a jet pack. The movie fully commits to its setting and the spirit of the original comic, looking like a golden age Hollywood adventure film but with the added benefit of modern (for its time) effects and polish. Not to mention co-star Jennifer Connelly, who looked like she stepped right out of a Humphrey Bogart movie.

"Period" superhero movies — particularly those set in the same era as "The Rocketeer" — would later find great success through hits like "Captain America: The First Avenger" and "Wonder Woman." But in 1991 audiences didn't seem ready for that type of thing, especially not through a character that wasn't already well established to a mainstream audience.  

How did a Batman movie released at the height of Batman movie mania, that received huge critical acclaim, and is based on what might be the greatest animated series of all time – Batman or otherwise — end up a box office flop? There are a few reasons why "Batman: Mask of the Phantasm" wasn't the massive hit it deserved to be, with poor marketing resulting from a rushed schedule typically pointed to as the primary culprit.

However, it can't be overlooked that the average moviegoer, even one that was a superhero fan, just didn't feel the same way about animated movies back then as they do now. In 1993, that crucial 18-25 demographic wasn't nearly as eager to rush to the theater to watch a cartoon, even a Batman one. Today's teenagers and young adults who grew up on "Adventure Time" and anime don't have that same chip on their shoulders.

The other piece to the puzzle is that, for as beloved as "Batman: The Animated Series" is now, it wasn't necessarily viewed as such in its day. It was certainly popular, make no mistake. But only with the passage of time that has its legacy as a masterpiece — and its versions of Batman and Joker counted among the all-time best — been cemented. It's easy to be befuddled now as to why everyone didn't flock to a "Batman: TAS" movie, but it was still building that legacy at the time. 

The ink wasn't even dry yet on the original "Watchmen" comics before Hollywood first set its sights on bringing it to the big screen. Over the years, one filmmaker after another came and went from the troubled project. At one point, even Terry Gilliam admitted defeat as he proclaimed the comics to be unfilmable — and this is the guy who spent nearly 30 years refusing to give up on his Don Quixote movie. It shouldn't be surprising that it took all the way until 2009 before a "Watchmen" film finally hit theaters.

Directed by Zack Snyder, "Watchmen" was certainly an ambitious swing at some pretty complicated source material. Critical praise was generally positive, though as the Rotten Tomatoes critical consensus correctly predicted, "its complex narrative structure may make it difficult for it to appeal to viewers not already familiar with the source material." As celebrated as the brand was among comics fans, it wasn't exactly a household name. After a strong opening weekend that probably consisted entirely of existing fans of the comics, "Watchmen" took a nosedive in week two, finishing far short of what it needed to turn a profit.

Dark Knight Trilogy director Christopher Nolan theorizes that "Watchmen" simply came out too early. He told The Hollywood Reporter in 2023, "I've always believed 'Watchmen' was ahead of its time. The idea of a superhero team, which it so brilliantly subverts, wasn't yet a thing in movies. It would have been fascinating to see it released post-'Avengers'."

In 1999, the superhero movie genre was in a weird place. The one-two punch of failures "Batman & Robin" and "Steel" had put DC movies on ice; "Spider-Man" and "X-Men" were still waiting in the wings to lay the groundwork for the Marvel Cinematic Universe; and outliers like "Blade" and "Spawn" did fine but were hardly monster hits. It wasn't an ideal moment to release a movie that was built entirely around the idea of poking fun at superhero movies. Having to compete with "Star Wars: The Phantom Menace," "Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me," and "The Mummy" also didn't do "Mystery Men" any favors.

Based on the team of the same name from comics by Bob Burden, "Mystery Men" focuses on superheroes who indeed have powers — they just aren't particularly "super," or they come with a crippling downside. For instance, Invisible Boy (Kel Mitchell) who can only turn invisible when nobody is looking at him. 

Reviews were positive, and praised the incredibly talented cast that also included Ben Stiller, Hank Azaria, Paul Reubens, Janeane Garofalo, William H. Macy, Geoffrey Rush, Eddie Izzard, and more. But the costly comedy couldn't even break even financially and just barely cracked the top 25 at the box office for the year. "Mystery Men" is the kind of movie that would've been the perfect antidote for superhero fatigue. Instead, it playfully deconstructed a genre that barely had a presence at the time. It was like if "Shawn of the Dead" had come out just before the zombie movie renaissance, instead of right in the middle of it. 

Filmmaker James Gunn has been one of the most dominant creative forces in superhero cinema over the last 15 years, so much so that he's one of the few that can claim to have made both Marvel and DC movies. It all began with "Guardians of the Galaxy," in which Gunn took an incredibly niche Marvel comic and turned it into another massive MCU hit. However, that wasn't his first superhero movie — he actually had a swing and a miss at the genre four years prior.

In 2010, Gunn released "Super," a superhero comedy about a man who believes he was chosen by God to become a vigilante for justice. Only, he has no super powers, so he just beats the hell out of people with a pipe wrench. It was made for an extremely modest $2.5 million, which makes the fact that it still didn't make its money back almost impressive. Not many movies that only cost a few million bucks to produce can claim to still have been massive flops, but "Super" holds that distinction with a paltry $423,000 made worldwide. 

Needless to say, Gunn would have the last laugh. He proved to know his way around the superhero genre, and his adeptness at writing and directing hits therein. Had "Super" released at a time when being marketed as "a James Gunn film" would've automatically gotten butts in seats, it might have had a chance to at least be a modest hit. But as an original superhero movie from a guy nobody had heard of, it was a tough sell right in the middle of MCU domination.