MovieChat Forums > Superman III (1983) Discussion > Superman IIIs box office

Superman IIIs box office

posted a year ago by bozo_500 (12458)
2 replies | jump to latest

according to box office websites and wiki SIII made 60m domestic and only 20m overseas.

What BS

Ok it may have made 60m domestic but NO WAY would it only do 20m overseas!

Consider Superman The Movie made 134m domestic and 166m overseas (300m total equivalent to about 1.3b today). Superman II did 108m domestic with 82m overseas (which seems abit low considering For Your Eyes Only and Raiders both did 140m overseas the same year, both which should be comparable to Superman II). And in the same year as SIII Bond films Octopussy did 67m domestic/119m overseas, and Never Say Never Again did 55m/104m overseas, both of which would be comparable to Superman III.

so SIII probably did at least 60m overseas (based on SII doing 82m which I think is also wrong, more likely it did at least 100m probably more) , but probably closer to 80m. Therefore total 140-150m ww (roughly half of STM total gross in 1978) which would make sense (roughly 450m today)

But yeah its listed as 20m lol (which is about what SIV did overseas 😆)

[–] millsey72 (9715) a year ago

Box office sites do not lie

[–] Daf (106) 9 months ago

I do think that before, say, the 90s or so that a lot of international box office information isn't complete. Before studios were owned by worldwide conglomerates the international rights for films were often sold to overseas distributors, and I can see a lot of public reporting of grosses falling through the cracks among different companies in different markets.

That said, that very same reason could very well account for some of the peculiar international grosses of the time. Say for some reason you have to switch distribution partners in Europe or Asia or whatnot (or maybe due to some circumstance you end up not releasing in some countries at all!), that could certainly have a big effect on grosses.

Also: careful comparing worldwide numbers between franchises. It's not all apples and oranges. Superman's known globally but does lean a little America-centric, while James Bond of course does stronger business in Europe, etc.