With Avengers: Infinity War slated to smash box office records, I got to thinking why exactly superhero movies, more specifically those based on comic books, have continued to dominate the box office over the past two decades or so.
To me, the reason why these films became so popular in the first place is obvious; they offer the grandiose excitement of comic books on the big screen, something that was only possible through animation in the past because the technology was not there yet. However, they have continued to stay popular because of new advancements and movements in the industry which have pushed these film beyond their previous limitations.
The first true comic book boom occured with the release of 1978’s Superman because of its unique special effects that, while extremely dated by today’s standard, offered viewers at the time a chance to see the first popular superhero come alive.
From there, a ton of different comic book superheroes movie adaptations were made, most notably the Batman franchise which made hundreds of millions at the box office. However, these movies started to bore viewers, mostly because filmmakers were putting out trash like Batman and Robin, a movie that gave viewers a chance to see batt-crotch, batt-butt, and some more of George’ Clooney’s batt-parts that most people would rather not see.
The first superhero movie that I remember watching, and the one which started the next, bigger superhero boom, was Spider-Man (the Tobey Maguire version of course).
To my young eyes, the scenes of my favorite superhero swinging through the streets of New York City was pure joy and amazement. In my opinion, the release of this film, as well as 2000’s X-Men, marked a turning point in superhero movies because they were the first ones to visualize the full extravagant action of comic books through realistic looking movies.
One of the best examples from Spider-Man is the bridge fight between Spider-Man and the Green Goblin, a scene that showcased Spider-Man’s superhuman powers in a way that no other superhero movie had done before. At the time, Spider-Man was the highest grossing superhero movie ever made, and adjusted for 2018’s inflation, it is still number four on the list.
While Spider-Man started the boom which continues to this day, The Dark Knight changed the landscape of comic book movies because it was not only lauded as a “good superhero movie,” but as a masterpiece in cinema. Sure, a lot of comic book films before were received extremely well by critics, including Iron Man released just two months earlier, but The Dark Knight set a new standard because of its blend of awesome action, a great story, and fantastic acting (headlined, of course, by Heath Ledger who posthumously received an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor).
The Avengers, released in 2012, started the Marvel domination of the industry as we know it today. While the Marvel Cinematic Universe was kicked off by Iron Man and a couple other films, The Avengers was the movie that fantastically merged a bunch of different superheroes together in one universe, which is the new standard for these movies.
With the huge release of Black Panther, and the expected even bigger release of Infinity War, Marvel’s dominance does not seem like it is going to stop anytime soon.
However, there have been recent films which have threatened to shift this market dominance and change the landscape of superhero movies once again. Wonder Woman was the first great attempt by DC to match the standards set by Marvel, and it was by far the best superhero movie ever made to star female protagonist.
Furthermore, Deadpool marked massive success for an R-rated superhero film because of its adult humor and vivid violence, and it was followed up by Logan the next year. As long as these movies continue to adapt to and set new standards, I do not see them losing popularity anytime soon.
