With six major live-action comic book adaptations totaling over $4.76 billion, it's clear that 2016 was a banner year for superhero cinema. Warner Bros. rolled out Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and Suicide Squad, two huge installments in their ongoing DC Extended Universe. Disney/Marvel continued their own cinematic universe with the release of Captain America: Civil War and the latecomer, Doctor Strange, which is still playing in theaters (so the film's numbers will continue to change). 20th Century Fox also got in on the act with a pair of their own Marvel properties: the WGA Awards-nominated Deadpool and X-Men: Apocalypse.

But with that much competition, there are bound to be winners and losers at the box office. There were record-breakers and record-setters among this bunch for sure. Some of the best seasonal opening weekends, all-time opening weekends worldwide, and franchise bests came in this bunch. And since there are so many ways to measure box office performance, it's no surprise that no one film walked away with all the accolades ... though it was close. So, thanks to Box Office Mojo, we've put together the final numbers (or as close as possible in the case of Doctor Strange) for the year in superhero cinema.

Did your favorite take the cake? Some of the numbers might surprise you, both in terms of standout box office performances and stunning shortcomings from otherwise surefire properties, filmmakers, and A-list casts. Every film in this list tallied at least $155 million domestically and $500 million worldwide, which is no small task, so it's worth keeping in mind that these films are the cream of the box office crop, and any separation among them are based purely on the numbers and nothing else.

Continue reading to find the 2016 winners in the following categories:

  • Best Opening Day (Domestic)
  • Best Opening Weekend (Domestic)
  • Best Audience Retention
  • Best Overall Domestic Box Office
  • Best Overall Worldwide Box Office

Best Opening Day

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Image via Warner Bros.

This one shouldn't come as a big surprise considering it featured two of the most popular comic book superheroes in history together in its title, and it also featured the heroic big-screen arrival of Wonder Woman. Not only did Batman v Superman easily win the best opening day domestically with $81.6 million, over $6 million more than the next closest competitor, it's also fourth overall for all-time worldwide openings. It currently sits behind only Star Wars: The Force AwakensJurassic World, and the closing chapter of the Harry Potter film franchise.

Here's a look at how the other five films panned out on opening day in the U.S.:

  • Captain America: Civil War - $75.5 million
  • Suicide Squad - $64.9 million
  • Deadpool - $47.3 million
  • Doctor Strange - $32.6 million
  • X-Men: Apocalypse - $26.3 million

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Best Opening Weekend

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Image via Marvel

Here's where Marvel's latest installment in the Captain America franchise started to distance itself from the competition. In fact, it only lagged behind Batman v Superman at the box office on its opening day; after that, it surged passed it and never looked back. Positive word of mouth and the fact that pretty much every Marvel superhero glimpsed on the big screen in the MCU up to that point was included in the film lead to a huge turnout for Cap's debut.

That's not to say the rest of the superhero cinematic efforts didn't enjoy lucrative weekend showings. Batman v Superman holds the record for the best opening weekends in March, the spring, and the Easter holiday. Deadpool easily owns the best opening weekend in February, the winter season, and the four-day President's Day holiday, as well as the best R-rated opening weekend ever! A slim $1.3 million separated Deadpool and Suicide Squad, which now holds the record for the best August weekend opening. They can keep the seasonal records; Cap takes the best weekend turnout of the year.

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Best Audience Retention

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Image via Marvel

While this metric doesn't exactly count the dollars, it does count the audience members who plunked their hard-earned cash down to take in a flick. The percentages on this chart show the retention of audience numbers who showed up after opening weekend, whether they were returning viewers or first-timers. Tops on this list was the surprise crowd-pleaser, Doctor Strange, which lost less than half of its audiences in its second weekend in theaters.

That's pretty impressive considering the other films on this list and the audience drop-off they experienced. Deadpool benefitted from positive buzz and kept 42.6% of its audience in its second weekend, just ahead of Captain America's 40.5%. The bottom half of these films struggled to keep even two-thirds of their opening weekend audience numbers: X-Men: Apocalypse, which trails in every other metric on this list, kept 34.7% while Suicide Squad managed to hold onto 32.6%. Batman v Superman did its damage over its opening weekend, but only about 3 in 10 people showed up for its follow-up frame.

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Best Domestic Box Office

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Image via Marvel Studios

This is a fun plot for stats nerds out there. You can actually see the regular weekend bumps in the box office as you track the dollars over time. And it's just as apparent that Captain America: Civil War is far and away the winner here. It separated itself from the competition early on and didn't really slow down much until after it had crossed $400 million, a mark no other film came close to, domestically. Disney/Marvel squeezed every conceivable drop out of the film's box office over a nearly 140-day run, the longest of the films by far.

Deadpool was the real surprise here, staying ahead of Suicide Squad's pace and even outlasting the behemoth known as Batman v SupermanDoctor Strange is still chugging along for what looks like a mid-$230 million finish, while X-Men: Apocalypse was a domestic disappointment by comparison with just over $155 million and less than two months spent in theaters.

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Best Worldwide Box Office

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Image via Marvel

When you have to start measuring box office dollars in the billions, you know things have just gotten silly. Captain America: Civil War is the only member of the billionaire's club in this group, meaning that Tony Stark holds bragging rights over Bruce Wayne at their next investors meeting. It's not even close. More than $280 million separate Cap from its nearest competitor, the year's other "vs" film, Batman v Superman. And while those two top films have comparable beastly budgets around $250 million, the third place finisher Deadpool had an estimated sub-$60 million budget. That's an excellent return. The other three PG-13 films had comparable budgets to each other within the range of $160 to $180 million.

As far as miscellaneous records to bring the year's report to a close, Batman v Superman holds the top spot for Warner Bros.' DCEU and the Superman franchise. Deadpool, ironically, ranks #1 at the box office in the X-Men movie franchise. And, in no surprise, Captain America: Civil War easily dominates the title character's film franchise and claims the third spot in a list of the best box offices of films released in the last 365 days, though it's still in fourth in the MCU.

How will the state of Superhero Cinema shift in 2017? Stay tuned to Collider to find out!

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