It was recently revealed that Doctor Strange was named the 11th most profitable film of 2016, and as was pointed out in that article, Hollywood’s revenue system is rather difficult to pinpoint. A film pulling in quite a lot at the box office does not automatically mean it’ll make a considerable profit at the end.
Deadline continued with the countdown and we finally have reached Captain America: Civil War‘s position on the board, and unlike what some might imagine, the film is considered only the 8th most profitable film of the year despite having the largest global box office of the year, a discrepancy which highlights the more complicated nature of Hollywood economics.
Once again the rough breakdown of the numbers is as follows:
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Global Box Office: $1,153.30
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Cinema Cut: $473,6
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Overall Studio Profit: $193,40
As was the case in the previous article, this does not include home release data, which you can find in the below-added source. This leads to a Cash on Cash Return 1.31, which means for every dollar spent they get a return of 31 cents. Do not worry, you did in fact read that correctly, while Civil War made a considerable amount more than Doctor Strange, it was only more profitable by one cent.
This doesn’t mean Civi War wasn’t a great investment for Marvel Studios, howver. It may not have been more profitable than it’s smaller counterpart, but it helps give more publicity to smaller productions. It is one advantage of the MCU concept, as a overall franchise can give smaller film productions a larger audience through which they also turn a stronger profit. With big blockbuster films growing in scale, some having budgets around $250 million, it makes sense that they would try to use this opportunity to gain back the investment through their newer publications. It would fit their overall plan with Phase 4, as we will see more new releases within the MCU with the coming years.
Source: Deadline
