hairy Top 10 Movies Based on Dark Horse Comics

Dark Horse Comics was founded in 1986 in Portland by Mike Richardson and ever since then this independent company had published numerous profound titles like Sin City, The Mask, Concrete, Give Me Liberty, Hard-Boiled, Yojimbo and many more and still to this day created some of the finest comic books ever published to date. Their stories took risk in creating and had built properties on movie licensing based upon films and television to create a fine collection of comic books to continue the franchise like Star Wars, Indiana Jones and Buffy The Vampire Slayer with more stories and adventures for the fans. When their comics were adapt to films, everything else became history.

Have you ever wonder which of their films that was adapted the most successful? Well, here is the Top 10 Most Successful Dark Horse Comics Movie Ever Adapted Into Film (based on Worldwide Profits from Box Office Mojo)

Frank Miller, writer and illustrator of DC's The Dark Knight Returns & Sin City creator created a mini-series called 300, based upon the Battle of Thermopylae in a retelling fictional story on comic books. Together with Lynn Varley, the success of the mini-series had some mixed reaction. While it was not as as successful as Sin City graphic novels, 300 stands much better chance when it was adapted into a film under the direction of Zack Snyder, fresh off from his successful debut of remaking George A. Romero's Dawn of the Dead in 2004.

What Zack Snyder did doing a shot-by-shot on the comic book series and making it as faithful as the graphic novel, which impress Frank Miller a lot. Starring the then unknown actor Gerard Butler as King Leonidas, the film was made under the budget of USD $70 million. It became an instant success with North America takings of USD $ 210,614,939 in total with USD $456,068,181 worldwide! Although it receives mixed reviews, the movie was clearly one of the best Dark Horse Comics adapted graphic novel ever for film to this day.

In 1991, writer John Arcudi and artist Doug Mahnke created The Mask and was an instant success about a masked vigilante that goes around cleaning up the street of crime... in his most demented way unimaginable. The success of The Mask was noticed by New Line Cinema and had hired Chuck Russell to direct with Jim Carrey as Stanley Ipkiss, wearing the mask and cleaning up crime in his own way. The difference between the comic book and the movie was pretty huge:-

1. The comic book version was more violent and profanity was at all time high even though it was funny.
2. The Mask was actually wored by many and not just Stanley Ipkiss alone.
3. Stanley Ipkiss had dark desires to kill people when he wore the mask whoever stands in his way unlike the movie, which was more PG rating.

Still, the success of the comic book was doubled after the movie version was released with even more success in the box-office worldwide! While much to the success of the film, talk about sequels with Jim Carrey in it was expected but sadly the actor decline and 11 years later, a sequel called Son of the Mask starring Jamie Kennedy was released but to poor response. To this day, there are no talks whether there will be a new The Mask sequel and so far Dark Horse Comics had published numerous adventures. There was a The Mask - The Animated Series but it ran for 3 seasons with not much success.

To this day whether there will be The Mask sequel remains to be seen but it was the number one most successful Dark Horse title ever made big in film.

When Dark Horse Comics manage to get the license to published stories of 20th Century Fox's Aliens and Predator films into comic book form, it was just a discussion in the boardroom when Chris Warner uttered the words "Aliens Versus Predator" that they had a story to go by and the idea was green light to make it into a comic book series. In 1990, it became an instant success. Two of the greatest science fiction monsters come together in an all out onslaught where the humans were caught in-between. Film adaptation were in talks but it took more than a decade when Paul W.S. Anderson became the director of the first ever that excited fans all over the world.

The movie was released with much success but reviews were mixed and many fans were not happy with the end product. The negativity surrounded on the film became much worst but this did not stop from making profits in the box-office worldwide. A sequel to the first entitled Aliens Vs. Predator: Requiem directed by Colin and Greg Strause was released in 2007 and received even more worst reviews ever. Still that did not stop the film from earning worldwide profits but it was not as successful as the first.

Whether you like it or not, Aliens Vs. Predator was successful even though were panned. Will there be a 2nd sequel remains to be seen but talks are on the way if there ever was one to be release in the near future.

Here's the truth - I never enjoy Hellboy. I never did enjoy the comic book series and I never did enjoy the film. But then, I had to watched it because well, its free. The thing I had heard about Hellboy 2: The Golden Army was that it was better than the first and so I won a pair of tickets and give it a try.

I still did not like it.

Anyway, the sequel prove to be more successful than the original, with worldwide taking of USD $160,388,063. Director Guillermo del Toro once again proved he can make it better with the sequel and truthfully, it is more colorful than the first with more special effects and an even more action. With the release of the sequel, Dark Horse re-released the graphic novels and was pleased with the result of the success of the film with positive reviews.

Will there be another Hellboy sequel? Let's wait and see...

One of my personal favorites and I can never get tired of watching the trailers, Sin City was helm by three directors - Robert Rodriguez, Frank Miller and a special guest director Quentin Tarantino. The movie itself covers three main stories - The Hard Goodbye, The Big Fat Kill and That Yellow Bastard with one short story called The Customer Is Always Right all blend into one. It stars an all star cast (Bruce Willis, Jessica Elba, Clive Owen, Benicio del Toro, Rosario Dawson, Mickey Rourke, Jamie King, Elijah Wood, Josh Hartnett and the late Brittany Murphy), everything was made from the pages of the comic book into film, exactly almost word by word.

Before the movie, Frank Miller created Sin City as a short story that ran even further to become one of the most successful reason to buy Dark Horse Presents issues. A crime noir with no pretty boys, Frank Miller had everything written and drawn as intended and should be and because of demand, he created a few more successful mini-series and one-shot comic books.

The final Sin City story entitled To Hell and Back ends in 2000 and ever since then no new stories were ever publish until the film version was released in 2005. Talks of Sin City 2 are in the works but no word when it will ever release since then.

Sin City received positive reviews from all over for its style and flair of visual noir. Will the sequel (and talks of a possible trilogy) be able to top the first remains to be seen.

The sequel to first film was more of a slugfest than focusing on the story at hand. It was all out killing with violence and gore as intended with this time the infestation is on a small town. Continue where it left off from the first movie, directors Colin and Greg Strause for the first time reveal the homeworld of the Predators. Still, it was once again the humans caught in-between and the casualties are high. Although the movie felt more of unintelligent and everything else is action all the way, it receives a lot of negative reviews that is even higher than the first.

But this movie does not stop it from ever earning lots of profits. Although in North America alone it earned USD $41 million (a mere earning profit from their USD $40 million budget), it still earns a lot worldwide even though it was criticize badly.

Will there be a 2nd sequel in the works? If there is demand who knows...

This is one of the first ever of a comic book and movie release side by side for Dark Horse. Timecop movie and its sequel was written by Dark Horse founder and publisher Mike Richardson while the comic book mini-series adaptation was written by Mark Verheiden with artist Ron Randall. The movie stars Jean Claude Van-Damme as Max Walker, a police officer than goes through time to stop random paradox created by time travelers. The movie is very well written and soon it became a box-office sensation, earning profits of USD $44 million in North America and USD $101 million worldwide.

While the sequel Timecop 2: The Berlin Decision was released in 2003 it did not star Jean Claude Van-Damme but the main protagonist was Jason Scott Lee, it was not released theatrically but rather straight to home video.

As time goes, Timecop remains to be one of the most entertaining Dark Horse adaptation that was created simultaneously as a comic book and movie at the same time.

As I have said before, I never like Hellboy. When it was released in 2004 in Malaysia as Super Sapiens (and I can never understand to this day why they change the title to Super Sapiens), the movie was an instant hit to many fans. Hellboy first appearance was in John Bryne's Next Men issue #21 in 1993 and soon, Hellboy: Seed of Destruction mini-series was released in 1994 with rave reviews. Mike Mignola, creator of Hellboy had written many adventures of Hellboy and create many spin-offs from the series (B.P.R.D., Witchfinder & Abe Sapien) with novels and merchandise that are more successful than any other Dark Horse film ever.

In North America in gross USD $59 million but worldwide it had received USD $99 million in profits. While the sequel is more successful than the first, Hellboy was a good stepping stone to introduce the movie audience the world of supernatural and he is there to stop it.

And I still did not like Hellboy.

Sometimes the first movie always be the hit and the sequel will fail. This is a classic one. Son of the Mask was a commercial failure in many ways so unthinkable, that many wonder why is this even made in the first place. It stars Jamie Kennedy and Alan Cumming 10 years after the first film when Loki (played by Cumming) want the Mask. Enter Tim Avery (played by Kennedy), an aspiring artist was given the Mask by his dog Otis. All hell broke loose.

We know that Jamie Kennedy can never be as good as Jim Carrey and even though without Carrey, the movie falls short in the story and everything else was a mess. The movie's budget was USD $84 million and earned only USD $17 million in North America and worldwide only USD $57 million. It was the most nominated in 2005 Golden Raspberry Awards, winning the Worst Remake or Sequel and won several 2005 Stinkers Awards.

With a sequel that can make at least USD $57 million worldwide, it's a wonder how it can even make it to the Top 10 for this list.

Mystery Men the movie was originally inspired by Bob Burden's creation. The first appearance of Mystery Men was in Flaming Carrot issue #17, under the publication of Renegade. When Bob Burden publishes his works in Dark Horse, a republication of Bob Burden's Original Mystery Men took place in 1999 with the movie comic book adaptation in the same year itself written by Bob Fingerman and drawn by Chris McLoughlin. While the line-up for the Mystery Men are different compare to the movie version, they share the same theme of being a group of mysterious heroes.

The movie version features another star-casting actors like Ben Stiller, Claire Forlani, Janeane Garofalo, Eddie Izzard, Greg Kinnear, William H. Macy, Lena Olin, Paul Reubens and Geoffrey Rush that is entertaining and fun to watch. Sadly, the movie did not cover the budget (which was USD $68 million) and earned only USD $29 million in North America and worldwide USD $33 million.

The movie had its moments and was much more popular in rental of the film than it was on the silver screen. Will there be a sequel to the Mystery Men is rather doubtful.

There are four other Dark Horse Comics that did not make it into the list:-

1. Virus - North America: USD $14 million/Worldwide: USD $30 million
   
2. Dr. Giggles - North America: USD $8 million
   
3. Tank Girl - North America: USD $4 million
   
4. Barb Wire - North America: USD $3 million
   

While since the last Dark Horse Comics movie adaptation was in 2008, the future remains to be seen whether there will be any projects based on Dark Horse but fingers crossed, we will definitely see more to come if any project is highlighted.