10 Famous Films That Failed To Turn A Profit Thanks To Hollywood Accounting

Batman hasn’t been the only superhero movie subjected to shady Hollywood accounting. Spider-Man, the first instalment in Sam Raimi’s intended quadrilogy, made a staggering $821.7 million worldwide – a pretty penny even against its sizeable $139 million budget.

But when it came to paying Stan Lee, co-creator of the Spider-Man and many other Marvel characters, the 10% profit he thought he was owed Marvel basically retorted that Mr Lee should take a look at the small print in his contract which actually only entitled him to a percentage of Spider-Man’s net profits which we all know by now usually amounts to diddley-squat.

Lee rightfully sued Marvel in 2002 for his fair share of the pie and was eventually awarded a multi-million dollar payout a few years later but it seems he still got shafted as the agreement stated the payout put an end to any future profits from Marvel films for the comic book icon.