Years Before Spider-Man, Sam Raimi's First Superhero Movie Was A Surprise Box Office Hit

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( Welcome to Tales from the Box Office , our column that examines box office miracles, disasters, and everything in between, as well as what we can learn from them. )

"Sam introduced me to Liam Neeson, and I told him how excited I was to be working at Universal on a horror movie. And he just looked at me and said, 'This is not a horror movie.'" Those are the words of former Universal head of creative advertising David Sameth, speaking with The Hollywood Reporter in 2020. The Sam in question was Sam Raimi, director of "The Evil Dead," and the movie in question was "Darkman."

Neeson was right. While Raimi's unconventional, dark, gritty superhero movie does have some horrific elements, nobody could accuse it of being a hor