5 Cancelled Superhero Movies That Would Have Made Billions

4. James Cameron's Spider-Man

If anyone knows how to make a billion dollars at the box office, it's James Cameron. How is it that the same director has managed to reach such massive heights on two separate occasions, both times with motion pictures that weren't even sequels or established properties? What does Cameron know that the rest of Hollywood doesn't? After the success of Titanic and Avatar, is there any doubting that the man could have ensured a way for his 1995 Spider-Man movie to gross over a billion dollars all the same? Nope - even if by today's standards it sounded absolutely horrific from beginning to end, with some of the most absurd plot points you've ever heard of having somehow found their way into Cameron's sort of script (it was also filled with sex and profanity). Then there's the little notion of Leonardo DiCaprio as Peter Parker, and Arnold Schwarzenegger as villain Doctor Octopus (seriously), which is... well, bizarre.

But given that James Cameron is something of a technical master, it's probably safe to assume that the visual innovations would have been enough to draw people into the theatres on the promise that they would see things that they'd never seen before - the first proper superhero movie, had the studio had the means to green-light it (the project was ultimately cancelled over distribution rights and Cameron's previous film obligations). Had this been made, though, the director - genius that he is - likely would have found a way to ensure this as a major event; a billion dollar movie... long before Titanic, even.