Cinema has grown rather vague about the meaning of failure. Films once written off as box office catastrophes now sit proudly on cult shelves, and filmmakers who once left the wreckage quietly now defend it in public. No film illustrates this better than Howard the Duck, long the textbook definition of a Hollywood debacle, the kind of flop that other flops cite when seeking comfort.

Lea Thompson, who has spent decades answering for a certain wisecracking duck, chose a different approach.

It was 1986 when Howard the Duck waddled into theaters, a live-action adaptation of the Marvel Comics character. George Lucas served as executive producer, Tim Robbins starred, and the studio had every reason to expect a hit.

The film earned $37,962,774 worldwide against an estimated $37 million budget, figures that show a movie barely breaking even on paper and plainly missing the mark in the court of public opinion. However, during a conversation on Taboo’s Comics and Kicks, Thompson argued otherwise. 

"It made a lot of money. It made its money,” Thompson said.

As per Thompson's statement on Taboo's Comics and Kicks, the movie was definitely not running on thin ice financially, contrary to popular belief. To Howard the Duck's favor though, its earnings, although massive, were pitted against Star Wars that made more than what Thompson's film internationally in its initial run at the box office domestically.

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Despite the chaos, the movie was far from the only downhill run Marvel would have at the box office.

For more than a decade, Marvel has been shorthand for blockbuster success, the kind of studio whose name on a poster was treated as a down payment on a billion dollars, thanks largely to Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. But not every film can fly with a cape and a hammer in hand, and the company has had its share of duds with three movies standing out. Firstly, The Marvels.

It opened to $47 million in the U.S., the lowest opening weekend in MCU history, and reportedly cost Marvel the sequel plans for several of its less successful franchises.

It was accompanied by Chloé Zhao’s ensemble epic, Eternals, which grossed $402.1 million worldwide on a $236.2 million budget, a total that sounds respectable until marketing costs are added to the ledger. Stealing more stars from the list was The Fantastic Four movie in 2015.

 Josh Trank’s reboot, produced by 20th Century Fox before the Disney acquisition, grossed about $167 million worldwide against a reported budget of around $120 million, with an opening of $25.6 million in the U.S. Marvel’s ledger of flops is long enough to keep any studio humble, but Howard the Duck remains its most loyally defended entry.

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What do you think about Lea Thompson's argument? Let us know in the comments.