How popular was prime Van Damme REALLY?

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@the muntjac and I were recently having a discussion about what Van Damme's highest grossing film was. (I'm talking here about films where he was the lead actor.)

The answer is Timecop. It made $101 million worldwide. The runner-up is Street Fighter, with just a little over $99 million worldwide. Everything else trails WELL behind those two. Just for the record, his third-highest grossing film is Nowhere to Run, with a global take of $52 million.

When I really started to think about this, it surprised me. I remember thinking of Van Damme as a BIG STAR. A mega-star for a time in the early 90s.

So that got me to thinking about his competitors.

Terminator 2 made $520 million. But that's Terminator 2, right? I mean, that's a massive hit. An outlier. Okay, well try this on then: Eraser made $242 million. Yes, that's right, fucking Eraser made more than twice as much as Van Damme's most successful film.

How about some other examples? Cliffhanger made $255 million. Die Hard 2 made $240 million. And . . . oh my god, holy shit . . . Under Siege made $156 million. I never would've thought this was true, but Seagal beat Van Damme by a cool $50 million when comparing each actor's highest grossing movie.

WTF? Am I taking crazy pills?

So what's going on here? Was Van Damme never the mega-star that I thought he was during that time? Obviously I would expect Arnold and Sly's top films to have made more money, but I at least thought Van Damme would be competitive. And I don't even want to touch the fact that Steven Seagal also bested him so handily.


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Jason Statham
 
They would use him to sell a film, but he was second rate to guys like Stallone and Schwarzenegger and didn't come close to touching them in the 80's and 90's. It would be like comparing Brad Pitt to Ethan Hawk. I feel like there needs to be a no homo inserted in there somewhere :D
 
I think people liked JCVD because of his charisma. You know what you were going to get with his movies. Arnold had the benefit of having to work with Cameron. Sure, it wasn't the only reason his movies but he clearly got better roles. As for Sly, the guy is a good writer, he played in iconic roles.

If we are going to put our action stars on a scale. Sure, JCVD was clearly trailing Arnie and Sly but I believe he was way ahead of Chuck. What was Norris' highest grossing movie?
 
Friends, one of the highest viewed shows at the time, had him on as a guest.

 
DaleBoca said:
If we are going to put our action stars on a scale. Sure, JCVD was clearly trailing Arnie and Sly but I believe he was way ahead of Chuck. What was Norris' highest grossing movie?
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He's well ahead of Chuck. Chuck's highest grossing movie was Missing in Action at $22 million.
 
Box office success or not.. he and Seagal were on top of the world back in the 90s when it came to action movies.
 
I don't care about box office he was my favorite as a kid and it wasn't even close
 
If you weren't a Van Damme fan in the 80s and 90s you were most likely a homo.
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Lionel Mandrake said:
They would use him to sell a film, but he was second rate to guys like Stallone and Schwarzenegger and didn't come close to touching them in the 80's and 90's. It would be like comparing Brad Pitt to Ethan Hawk. I feel like there needs to be a no homo inserted in there somewhere :D
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thats a spot on comparison. It was well understood that he was a niche star.
 
shadow_priest_x said:
He's well ahead of Chuck. Chuck's highest grossing movie was Missing in Action at $22 million.
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MIA, LOL. Man, I think parts 2 and 3 were flipped. I didn't like those movies. They reminded me too much of Rmabo II.

And speaking of Chuck Norris flicks, did you ever see this? It was probably my favorite movie from him.

 
DaleBoca said:
MIA, LOL. Man, I think parts 2 and 3 were flipped. I didn't like those movies. They reminded me too much of Rmabo II.

And speaking of Chuck Norris flicks, did you ever see this? It was probably my favorite movie from him.

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I somewhat sheepishly admit that I think the only Chuck Norris movie I've seen all the way through is Sidekicks.

I've been meaning to check out The Octagon for years, you know, cuz ninjas.
 
He was an action star who only really catered to people who love action films. As I believe someone mentioned above, basically a Statham of his era. He never broke through like Arnold or Stallone. I, however, have been a fan since the release of Bloodsport, and have seen the majority of his films (many times). Also think he's a very amusing lunatic in real life (that is, he seems completely emotionally manic and unhinged without really hurting anyone).
 
don't judge his popularity off the gross of his films. He didn't always get the best movie role. Most of the time they were shitty movies. He himself, was a huge star back in the day and was used to carry films that were crap with shitty story lines , bad actors , etc..I feel that if he had better management in his prime and a really good agent, he would be mentioned with Stallone and Arnold. He got fucked over by Hollywood because he wanted more money for a role of a movie that I can't remember and the producer told him he will make sure he doesn't get big production films (based on an interview of his i watched) which is believable because he went such a long stretch of time without being in anything. .
 
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