We get regular box office reports to let us know how our favorite movies are doing, but do those numbers really tell the whole story? For the past 3 years, Deadline Hollywood has been taking a closer look at the total grosses and costs of the major money earners and ranking them on a yearly "Most Valuable Blockbuster" list.
Starting with the box office broken into "Domestic", "Foreign" and "China" totals, they then determine how much of that money actually came back to the studios in Theatrical Rental gross. Next they add in Home Entertainment grosses for both Domestic and International, and then Television as well as any other revenues. From that Total Gross Revenue they subtract the production costs, releasing costs (foreign and domestic), home entertainment costs, interest, residuals, particiaption, overhead and distribution fees to come up with a final number representing the total profit earned by the film.
In the current (still in progress) countdown of 2015's biggest blockbusters, Marvel's Ant-Man ranked 14th with total profits of $103.9m, ahead of the likes of Spectre and Spongebob Squarepants, and right behind Mission Impossible Rogue Nation
Despite having a lower box office gross than some other big comic films of recent years, Ant-man ranks well in actual profits. Here are how the most profitable Comic Book Movies have done in total estimated profits since Deadline began their yearly list with the 2013 releases:
Iron Man 3 - $391.8m
Guardians of the Galaxy - $204.2m
Big Hero 6 - $187.3m
Captain America: The Winter Soldier - $166.2m
Thor The Dark World - $139.4m
Ant-Man - $103.9m
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - $81.31m
X-men Days of Future Past - $77.4m
The Amazing Spider-Man 2 - $70.4m
Man of Steel - $42.7m
Deadline's countdown of the most profitable films of 2015 continues, and Marvel's Avengers Age of Ultron will surely be high on the list. Will it be enough to overtake Iron Man 3's spot? We'll have to wait and see.