This year Marvel will start their third phase of movies. Iron Man will take on Captain America in "Captain America: Civil War." At DC, Ben Affleck’s Batman will go up against Henry Cavill’s Superman in "Batman Versus Superman: Dawn of Justice." Most recently at FOX, "Deadpool" has taken movie theaters by storm, setting records in the box office for R-rated films and showing people that superheroes don’t always play by the rules. Later this year, movie goers can expect even more superhero films including "Suicide Squad, Doctor Strange" and "X-Men: Apocalypse."
If you take a look at the top 10 grossing movies of all time worldwide, you will see "Marvel’s The Avengers" coming in at number 5 with $1.5 billion, "Avengers: Age of Ultron" at number 7 with $1.4 billion and "Iron Man 3" closing in at number 10 with over $1.2 billion. It is pretty obvious that these movies are bringing out the nerd in all of us. So why are these superhero movies so popular now, even though they have been around for decades?
Marvel and DC comics started in the mid-1900s and the movies started a few years later. After the first few movies were released, a new one was released almost every year; they are still going strong today. However, not every movie did well at the box office. The biggest draw for people to view superhero movies is quality.
Over the years, technology has gotten better and better. We are now living in an era where the movies look extremely realistic and the expectations are higher than ever. With green screens and uniquely designed cameras, directors and editors have endless possibilities when making movies. If they want to make someone fly, a villain shoot fire out of his mouth or even have a city fall from the sky, that’s no problem for modern movie makers.
The movies are easy to market because they have an eager audience for existing successful story lines. Most people know a little about the main characters and the stories are generally somewhat familiar because they are based loosely off the comics, some more than others. Most of the die hard comic fans will go into a movie and want to see how close it comes to the printed comic.
Unless a movie is based off a book or a real life event, there aren’t any other situations where someone can go into a movie and already know the outcome before it gets to the end. This puts a lot of pressure on the director because there will be a huge fan base up in arms if something is wrong. Additionally, there are famous celebrities lined up constantly saying they would love to be involved in these cinematic universes. This is probably because they recognize how much money the production companies are making and realize they aren’t ending anytime soon.
Comics have also shown how women superheroes are completely badass. Marvel has been able to make Scarlett Johansson’s character, Black Widow, completely independent. Yes, in the movies she will occasionally find a love interest, but she is fighting as another equal in the team, not waiting for a man to come and save her.
Young girls can look at these characters and instead of thinking, “I need a man to save me or sweep me off my feet” like most movies imply, they learn that “I can do it all by myself.” In the past year, my 6-year-old sister has progressed from Disney princesses being her favorite thing in the world to wanting girl superhero action figures and dressing as Wonder Woman for Halloween.
The movies also bring out the kid in everyone. Whether you’re the football star of your high school, the middle school class president or even the CEO of a company, the audience demographic is diverse. With most of the movies being PG-13, except "
The Marvel and Disney combination has done so well in the box office and every movie is a hit. They have even been so successful that they have started to do spin-off TV shows that connect with the movie universe. ABC is currently running one show, "Agents of S.H.I.EL.D.," and has several more lined up to start soon. They now have two shows on Netflix with at least three more to come. After watching Marvel destroy the box office, DC has upped its game; after seeing the Superman movie, "Man of Steel," have a similar effect, they have announced a huge line up of movies to come in the next six years. They also have five shows between The CW, FOX, and CBS, including "The Flash" and "Supergirl."
With all-star cast members and money flying out the wazoo, these companies are planning on running these movies for many years to come. With thousands of existing comic book stories to work with while writing new stories, the possibilities are endless. Superheroes are a huge part of the American culture and these movies won’t be going anywhere for a very long time.
