If there's a solid bet for big-budget Hollywood movies these days, it's the superhero genre.
One of the biggest movies of this summer was (for yet another year) a Marvel mashup, "Captain America: Civil War." Meanwhile, Warner Bros.' DC Comics title "Suicide Squad" struggled, breaking a record in its first weekend and then quickly dropping based on bad reviews and worth of mouth.
But "Squad" can't even come close to the most epically disastrous superhero movies. Long before they were Hollywood's cash cow, comic-book adaptions were known as a notoriously mixed bag. For every Tim Burton "Batman" there was... "Blankman."
Here are the wide-release superhero movie titles with the lowest box-office grosses, going back to 1978, as reported by Box Office Mojo:
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10. "The Meteor Man" (1993)
Adjusted gross: $16,769,200*
An original superhero movie starring Robert Townsend, "Meteor Man" is about a teacher who becomes a superhero when Washington, DC, is taken over by street gangs. Critics didn't think it quite worked though, with Roger Ebert saying it "contains big laughs and moments of genuine feeling, but it seems to be put together out of assorted inspirations that were never assembled into one coherent storyline."
*Note: All figures adjusted for inflation.
9. "Blankman" (1994)
Adjusted gross: $16,454,000
Damon Wayans in his "In Living Color" days starred in a comedic take on superhero movies. He plays a naive repairman who loves Batman. It probably wasn't intended for primetime, though the admittedly funny movie became a cult hit on video.
8. "Zoom" (2006)
Adjusted gross: $15,851,500
Tim Allen took his own shot at the superhero genre with this family/sci-fi affair also featuring a then-unknown Kate Mara. Panned by critics, it couldn't recoup its $35 million budget. If you have no memory of the film, you're far from alone.
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