Movies With Butter

Maybe the Hulk is destined to remain a supporting character in Marvel's cinematic universe. The previous two stand alone movies didn't perform well enough at the box office to give the studio optimism that the Hulk can carry a movie all by himself, at least not at the budget it was getting.

Marvel tapped Ang Lee to direct Eric Bana as the title character in 2003's Hulk, but the movie made only $245 million at the global box office. With a budget of $137 million, the figure was not enough to push the it into the black. For that, it had to count the ancillary income streams like home video and cable.

The 2008 reboot, starring Ed Norton as the green giant, made $18 million more at the global box office than its predecessor, but since the movie cost $13 million more, it's actually a wash.

Marvel is not giving up on the Hulk having his own movie though. Marvel's Kevin Feige believes that a stand alone Hulk movie can work, but the studio won't do anything until after The Avengers 2.

Since The Avengers 2 won't be out until May 1, 2015, there's some time for Marvel to try and crack the code on the new Hulk movie, but the sooner the studio learns that the character is best used as a supporting character like in The Avengers, the better off it'll be.

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