In 2002, the global box office had the chance to decide what was most popular - Star Wars or Spider-Man - and the web-slinger won the battle. However Star Wars films have always been profitable at the box office, there have been several films that have won Star Wars at the box office over the years. From great moments in pop culture like Avengers: Infinity War for popular children's films like Frozen II, Star Wars There was always competition. One of the most difficult years for competition, however, was 2002.
There is a bit of overlap between Star Wars films and the superhero genre. They largely target the same audience of children and (generally) young adult males, and many of the films that outperformed Star Wars I exchanged the Jedi robes for a superhero cape, like The Dark Knight. It's no wonder, then, that 2002 Spider-Man served as direct competition for Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones. The wall-crawler fought so hard that he actually defeated Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker that year, and Spider-Man earned more at the box office.
In May 2002, Spider-Man and Star Wars finally faced off...
Spider-Man managed to beat the attack of the clones at the box office
In May 2002, both Spider-Man and Star Wars films released, and the two big franchises finally had a chance to fight for the box office. Sam Raimi's first Spider-Man film was released on May 3 and just two weeks later Attack of the Clones was released on May 16. Despite releasing just two weeks apart, Spider-Man earned US$343 million in May 2002, while Attack of the Clones earned just $216 million (through Mojo Box Office). Spider-Man also defeated Attack of the Clones in the long run, as the former grossed $825 million while the latter only earned $653 million.
Interestingly, neither Spider-Man nor Attack of the Clones were the highest-grossing film of 2002, however. Two films beat both: The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towerswhich secured more than US$923 million at the global box office, and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secretswhich grossed almost US$879 million worldwide. However, Spider-Man and Attack of the Clones released so close together and had almost the same target audience, they serve as 2002's most direct box office competition.
Which is the bigger movie franchise: Spider-Man or Star Wars?
Although he's won a few times, Spider-Man can't compete with Star Wars as a whole
However Spider-Man to knock Attack of the Clones in 2002, the story of the two franchises' battle is not the same. In total and on average, Star Wars is still a bigger and more profitable franchise than Spider-Maneven after two decades and several films. Star Wars has two more feature films than Spider-Manand grossed more than $5 billion in total box office revenue adjusted for inflation. Despite having more films, however, Star Wars also averaged nearly $300 million more in box office revenue per film than Spider-Man he did.
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Star Wars and Spider-Man Box Office Comparison (Adjusted for Inflation) |
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|---|---|---|
|
Franchise |
Star Wars |
Spider-Man |
|
Number of films |
12 |
10 |
|
Total Box Office |
$16,978,772,237 |
US$11,746,229,340 |
|
Average box office per film |
US$1,414,897,686 |
US$1,174,622,934 |
There are, of course, some mitigating factors that help explain why Star Wars is much more profitable than Spider-Man general. Star Wars has been making films since 1977 and had widespread appeal decades before comic book movies became widely popular. Additionally, two of the most recent Spider-Man the films have been animated adventures following Miles Morales, not Peter Parker, which has reduced the franchise's average salary. For these reasons, Star Wars still beats Spider-Manbut not in 2002.