Most Expensive Superhero Movies Ever Created

New superhero movies come out with such regularity, it's almost impossible to keep up with them all. That's for good reason though—the massive success of the superhero movies and franchises makes them an irresistible genre for producers, writers, actors, and just about everyone else involved in Hollywood.

With Marvel and DC in hot competition, it's also no wonder that people are pouring tons of money into the production of these movies. Could there be a more expensive genre? The incredible special effects, the best actors in the industry—these movies cost a lot to make. Here are the most expensive superhero movies ever made, including their cost adjusted for inflation (AFO).

It's easy to forget that most of the seemingly endless number of popular superhero movies and franchises only came out in the last seven years or so. Which means its also easy to forget that at the time of its release, the original X-Men trilogy was one of the only major superhero franchises, really only competing with the Tobey Maguire Spider-Man series. It should come to no surprise that this franchise was massivelysuccessful, leading to a final installment with a budget that, for the time, was practically unheard of.

Although the actual numerical cost of production for X-Men: The Last Stand doesn't place it amongst the most expensive superhero movies ever made, that's because it was made in 2006. Even if that doesn't seem like so terribly long ago (well, not to me at least), twelve years is plenty long to make a massive difference in standard costs. Before we adjust the cost of production to reflect inflection, this movie cost $168 million, and after this adjustment, the movie ran something along the lines of $209 million.

It's hard to get a real number for the actual costs of production involved in The Amazing Spider-Man 2, but it's definitely upwards of $200 million before AFO—one estimate even putting it closer to $300 million— and around $212 million after it.

With some obvious exceptions, fans tend to agree that the first movie in most trilogies and series is usually the best—or at least, the most well-liked. Viewers have no real expectations going in to a first movie, but it can be hard for sequels to live up to the expectations that first installment builds. But it's still not surprising that later movies tend to have larger budgets.

As with X-Men, the earlier Spider-Man series, and many others, the later of the two Amazing Spider-Man movies was more expensive than the first, though even the first almost certainly topped $200 million. And it's no surprise—after the success of the first installment, producing a high-budget sequel would be irresistible in Hollywood.

Given the success of the X-Men series in the 2000s, it's also no surprise that the new installments met with major success—and major funding. The obvious expense in Days of Future Past, and all the X-Men movies really, is the special effects. It can't be cheap to make people fly, transform, stick to ceilings, walk through walls, throw things around without touching them. Giving superpowers to actors takes a lot of background work.

Let's not also forget, of course, those very actors don't come cheap either. While many superhero movies feature one major player (Thor, Iron Man, Wonder Woman, etc.), the X-Men series involves dozensof big-name actors and actresses, from old faces like Patrick Stewart, to the up-and-coming A-listers like Jennifer Lawrence. With a cast to die for and genuinely realistic special effects, it's no wonder this movie cost $205 million at the time of production, and $217 million AFO.

Green Lantern is another that, by the numbers, didn't have a significantly larger budget than many other superhero movies—in fact, the estimated budget of mostof those beloved recent Marvel and DC movies is right around $200 million. Green Lantern on the other hand, unlike that set of recent successes, came out in 2011, leaving a fairly substantial inflation gap. That $200 million became closer to $223 million, after adjusting for inflation.

Now, I'm not surprised a movie featuring one of the public's favorite celebrity couples was expected to rake in the profits. Who wouldn't pay to watch Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively save the world? Unfortunately, a lot of people felt that way, after the somewhat dismal reviews this movie got. Highly-priced or not, this movie contains some of the worst superhero movie visual effects ever.

The use of crossovers in comic book universes is pretty much the norm—but The Avengers was one of the first recent big-budget movies to include (almost) all of the popular characters. Now, it seems almost strange to watch a superhero movie that only has onemajor hero, but that wasn't quite so true in 2012.

With a cast that included pretty much every A-list actor worldwide, it's no surprise that The Avengers was one of the most expensive superhero movies ever made with a production value at $220 million, and $241 million AFO—though, as the franchise grows, later installments of the world-saving team will have ever larger budgets.

The DC vs Marvel debate has died down a bit in recent years, but in 2013, Marvel's massive successes with the Avengers franchise lit a fire among comic fans and producers alike. Although DC's Dark Knight was one of the most well-received and highly rated superhero movies, and its prequel and sequel certainly weren't flops, it still stands to reason that a new DC superhero should take the spotlight, giving the somewhat tired Batman a break.

With this thought, Man of Steel attempted to resurrect the superhero of all superheroes—Superman himself. With an all-in budget of $225 million ($243 million AFO), the middling reception was certainly not due to lack of action or special effects. More likely, the mid-air battles and buildings crumbling to rubble just weren't enough to balance the unnecessarily grim take on one of comic's most inspiring superheroes.

You won't find many people saying that the first installment of this trilogy, Batman Begins, is in any way bad. In fact, it was very well-reviewed and well-received. You might, however, find a lot of people who don't really remember it. It was The Dark Knight, with a budget of $180 million, that brought Christian Bale's Batman to the foreground of superhero movies. In the wake of this success, The Dark Knight Rises was guaranteed to draw viewers—enough to more than justify the $250 million budget, which can now be calculated at around $274 million. The final installment of the trilogy, though not quite as strongly heralded as its grim predecessor, did up the stakes on the special effects and action sequences, making for a decidedly epic chapter in the Batman franchises.

When Man of Steel didn't meet its box-office hopes, they upped the star power—or rather, the superhero power. With the stakes raised, it should be no surprise that the production of the film cost $263 million. $275 million after adjusting for inflation. Like Marvel's steady build-ups to The Avengers,and various other cross-over films, the DC comic book heroes began converging with a grim, but action-packed, clash of characters, including the introduction of Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman— which could be the highest grossing superhero origin movie of all time.

While the X-Men franchise met with massive success and popularity, they did not have the superhero market cornered by any means.

In fact, Spider-Manand Spider-Man 2 were two of the most expensive superhero movies of the 2000s—and they weren't even the most expensive of the series. It was Spider-Man 3 that topped the charts at a whopping $258 million budget in 2007, which would be about $313 million today.

The success of the franchise overall basically guaranteed a positive outcome for the latest of the Avengers movies. The first in this list to reach a budget of over $300 million, Avengers: Infinity War reflects the well-founded confidence that producers have in this series. Indeed, it was a smashing hit. While some expensive flops (looking at you, Green Lantern) show that money isn't everything in Hollywood, the massive successes of movies like The Avengers and its sequels do show the value of investing in great actors, writers, producers, and, of course, special effects.

While Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice began introducing a few of our favorite superheroes, it was Justice League that brought them all together, combining characters from movies and television shows alike.

Whether the $300 million ($307 million AFO), all-in strategy paid off in terms of movie quality, I will leave up to you. Though the film ultimately seemed to succeed in the box office, as one of the most expensive superhero movies ever made, its necessary payoff was much higher; leading to a successful movie, but no cause to celebrate for Warner Bros.

Finally, this brings us to themost expensive superhero movie, inflation or no; although, the $365 million AFO, and $387 million afterwards are still impressive figures. Although it was released three years after the first time the crew was all together, fans had no time to forget about it, as those years were filled with Marvel universe hits to keep us all excited about the next big bang. And a big bang it was. Though probably not the bestof the superhero genre, nor even of the Marvel movies, Age of Ultron did a lot right, and fans were definitely not disappointed—which is high praise, coming off of a movie as successful as The Avengers. In this case, the success of the movie isn't just in high-budget effects and action sequences. While it has plentyof that, it also perfectly captures the heart-warming, just campy enough, epic spirit of the Marvel universe.