At the San Diego Comic-Con Marvel Studios’ Kevin Feige announced that the movie and TV rights to the Punisher had reverted to Marvel from Lionsgate, which produced two films, The Punisher (2004), and Punisher: War Zone (2008). 

The original Punisher movie, which cost $33 million to produce, earned $54.7 million worldwide, which means that the film might have broken even with DVD and ancillary sales (the rule of thumb is that the theatrical gross has to double a film cost to reach the break even point).

Punisher: War Zone however earned just $10.1 million worldwide against a cost of $35 million.  Lionsgate could have produced another Punisher film if it so desired, but it has obviously informed Marvel that it is giving up on the franchise. 

Just because Lionsgate hasn’t been able to create a franchise out of Frank Castle, it doesn’t mean that Marvel can’t have some success with the character.  Back in 2005 New Line gave up on Iron Man and the rights went back to Marvel Studios and the rest is history (see “Marvel Starts Over on Iron Man Film”).

But it could be that revenge-themed Punisher is a better fit for some sort of TV production than for the big screen.  With the announcement that Jeph Loeb has been named Marvel’s Head of Television it seems apparent that the company is trying to focus more efforts on expanding its small screen presence (see “Jeph Loeb Named Marvel TV Honcho”).