Why comic book movies are dominating the Hollywood Box Office

For those of you who know me, you are probably not at all surprised by the fact that I chose to write my first post on this blog about comic book movies. If you do not know me yet, hello my name is Lindsay Koenig and I am a huge nerd. But according to the Hollywood summer box office, I'm not alone.

This summer Marvel Studios, owned by Disney, released a film based on a little known comic book called Guardians of the Galaxy. This was considered a pretty big risk for the studio because unlike previous films they'd released such as Captain America or Iron Man, Guardians of the Galaxy was not a popular comic book series. Not only this, but Guardians was by far the most "comic book like" of all their previous films; featuring a colorful cast of alien characters such as a talking tree and raccoon. The studio had no way of knowing if this quirky film would make any money at the box office.

But Marvel Studios needn't have worried. The film opened with a whooping 95 million dollars in it's opening weekend. Not only that but it has since made over 251 million dollars and has secured it's place as the top grossing film of the summer and is on track to be the highest grossing film of the year.

Guardians of the Galaxy wasn't the only comic book film to roll in the dough this year, however.
In fact, 4 of the top 10 grossing films of 2014 are comic book movies. Here's a look at some of the other big money makers.

Amazing Spiderman 2

Released May 2, 2014

$202 Million 

X-Men: Days of Future Past

Released May 22

$232 Million

Captain America: The Winter Soldier

Released April 4th

$259 Million 

So what is it about comic book films that makes them so successful? And why are some studio's comic book movies more successful than others?

To figure this out I'm going to start with the most successful studio out of the many currently producing comic book movies: the Disney owned Marvel Studios.

Back in 2008, Marvel Studios released it's first film. Iron Man became the first in what would become one of the most successful film series of all time. Iron Man was a huge hit not only with audiences, but also with critics. Before 2008 (which also featured the success of Warner Brothers comic book flick The Dark Knight) comic book films were looked at as a bit of a joke, or one notes without much depth to them other than actors in spandex fighting bad guys. 

What made Iron Man so unique, and I believe ultimately so successful, is that there is much more to the film than it's action and explosions.

Firstly, the main character of the film is flawed. Tony Stark feels like a real person, not the typical "do-gooder, responsible hero" type character one might except from a children's cartoon series. Because Tony Stark feels like a real person it is easy for the audience to relate to him and become invested in his story. I would argue that Marvel does an excellent job of making all their heroes seem like real people with real flaws, problems, and emotions. It would be easy for a larger than life character like Iron Man or Captain America to slip into something like a caricature, but these films do a great job of grounding their heroes and making them accessible to the audiences.  

Secondly, something that I found hugely important to the success of a film such as Iron Man, is the respect for the source material. While many might find the subject matter to be a bit of a joke, or something silly or goofy (see the Batman films outside of the Dark Knight Trilogy); Marvel Studios has been extremely respectful to it's source material. There is an element of seriousness to Iron Man and the other Marvel films, even when events on screen would seem far fetched in real life. The stakes are real for these characters, which makes it real for the audience. If you don't understand what I'm getting at think about it this way, Iron Man doesn't make "boom" "pow" nosies when he is fighting bad guys, does he?

Thirdly, and what I would argue most importantly, is that Iron Man deals with issues that are relevant to our world and society today. Within the first few minutes of the film our main character is captured by terrorists. Not only this, but Tony Stark's character arc involves him dealing with the fact that his company not only sold weapons to the American Military but also to terrorist groups, and Stark realizing his responsibility for what his company has done. These plot lines hit pretty close to home, especially in a world where terrorism is such a prevalent issue. By tackling such topics, Iron Man becomes more than just a movie about a superhero.

Since Iron Man, many other comic book flicks have tackled important societal and emotional issues. Iron Man 3 dealt with anxiety and post traumatic stress disorder, while Captain America: The Winter Solider had a heavy political subplot about government and power. Even Guardians of the Galaxy, for all it's crazy space shenanigans, contained undertones about loss and dealing with grief. 

Marvel Studios isn't the only studios whose comic book films deal with issues outside of what might be excepted for the average Hollywood action flick. 20th Century Fox's X-Men franchise deals largely with the way society treats minorities, while Warners Brother's Dark Knight films focus on issues such as terrorism and corruption.

These are just a few of the many reasons I believe comic book movies have been so successful in recent years, and why they continue to dominate the box office. I can only open that other genres start to pick up on what makes these films so successful. If every popcorn flick was as good as the average comic book film, Hollywood would be in good shape.

Bring Our Heroes Home

I've always had a particular affinity for super-hero flicks. Spiderman was one of my first "favorite movies" outside of Disney animated films. I had read some comic books prior to the release of the film, and there was something special about watching the ink leap off the page and onto the big screen. Although I love the Nolan Batman, throughout my life, I've always been an ardent Marvel fan. There haven't been too many "duds" in the Marvel cinematic line-up, save a few, particularly those coming from 20th Century Fox. Recently, Marvel Studios has done a spectacular job under the tutelage of Joss Whedon and Disney. I think they've stuck a chord with the general public, a chord that reflects the nature of the Marvel Comics themselves. However, there is still an incomplete feeling in the total Marvel Universe, stemming from property rights.

In 2012, "The Avengers" became the 3rd highest grossing film of all time, and the highest grossing super-hero film. Although these summer blockbusters usually tend to do really well, there was something special about this film. I think the success of the film derives from the fact that this is essentially a crossover. It takes six heroes, four of whom had modern film adaptions, and pitted them against a common enemy. In each of the previous films based on only one hero, the hero struggles to save the world against a single enemy. If we assume that the badder the villain, the more action there will be, then a villain must be really really bad to warrant six super-heroes, and therefore the film will have a ton of action. In another sense, the very idea that some of a fan's favorite characters will be featured in the same movie is a big enough draw in itself.

"The Avengers" did not reinvent the wheel when it comes to crossovers. Crossovers have been a particularly good way to increase viewership in almost every medium in the past century. Successful video games such as Supersmash Bros. and Marvel vs. Capcom pit different characters in battle. Cartoons like "Scooby Doo" often featured notable celebrities and characters in episodes such as Scooby Doo Meets Batman and Bravo Dooby Doo. There were also numerous Flinstones and Jetsons crossovers. This trend doesn't apply only to cartoons and video games, successful television shows, geared toward adults, share characters, or feature characters from other shows for brief periods of time. There have been numerous CSI crossovers between "CSI: New York", "CSI", and "CSI: Miami". In comedy, the show "Friends" shared the character Ursula Buffay with "Mad About You".


The crossover has been an important tool throughout Marvel's history. There have been 86 official Marvel Comics crossovers to date, as well as an innumerable amount of brief, one issue cameos. Perhaps most recently and notably are Marvel's critically acclaimed Civil War comics, which pit nearly every super-hero in the Marvel Universe against each other in spectacular fashion. Featuring multiple heroes together has been at the roots of Marvel's success, success that the "The Avengers" was able to tap into.

As of right now, Marvel Studios, owned by Disney, still has control of the rights to a majority of the heroes in the Marvel canon. However, the heroes they don't own are integral parts of the the Marvel Universe. Twentieth Century Fox has the rights to the X-Men, Fantastic Four, Daredevil, and Elektra. Sony Pictures owns both Spiderman and Ghost-Rider. Lionsgate owns Punisher, and New- Line Cinema owns Blade.

Now, I'm not saying that the fact that the Marvel properties are scattered leads to inherently bad films. This wouldn't be either fair or true. Movies such as X-Men : First Class, have been spectacular. The Spiderman films, both in the early 2000's and recently, have been a consistent hit. However, they seem very one dimensional, being trapped in a microcosm of the larger Marvel Universe. I'm sure it's frustrating for the people working on the projects as well. There was recently a story about how Hugh Jackman was supposed to make a cameo in the Sam Raimi Spiderman movies as Wolverine, but was unfortunately not able to because of legal issues. That's so unfortunate because the Wolverine- Spiderman dynamic is one of the most fun in the entire Marvel Universe. There so many things that can be done with a complete set of heroes, and it's unfortunate that there are things standing in the way of creating the best product possible. The reason phase one of Marvel's plan of movies was so successful was because the creators realized that each individual story played into a larger one, and gave little nods  to the fans here and there to get that point across.

So, I'm making a plea to Disney. Your buying powers are simply amazing. You flexed your muscle last year by purchasing Lucasfilm for a whopping 4.6 Billion. Bring your stranded super-heroes home. It's in your best interest. Your current model is working. It's what I want, and it's what you should want. Make the Marvel cinematic universe whole.

Avengers: Age of Ultron

With Carl Potts arriving tomorrow, the following seemed pretty appropriate to post about.  I should hope that most of you are aware that there is in fact an Avengers movie franchise, brought to us by Marvel Studios.  This franchise has brought us three Iron Man films, one Thor film with another shortly on the way (October 30), one Hulk film, one Captain America film with another on the horizon, and of course the huge blockbuster that was the Avengers last summer.  

The Avengers grossed $1.5 billion dollars worldwide in Summer 2012.  This gave it the title of "Most Successful Week of All Time" and places it third for "All Time Box Office" (behind James Cameron's Avatar and Titanic).  I personally saw this film 3 times in theaters, which I don't often do.  With the intense box office numbers, it came as no surprise when Marvel Studios announced in July that there would be a sequel to The Avengers and it would be titled "The Avengers: Age of Ultron".  

At the end of The Avengers, there is a short teaser that features Marvel villain, Thanos (see right).  

With the announcement of Age of Ultron, the rumors and speculation that Thanos would be the next villain for The Avengers 2 were readily abandoned and speculation as to who would play Ultron immediately commenced.  As of the end of August, Marvel Studios announced that James Spader would play the role of Ultron. Spader has most recently been in the spotlight for his new show, The Blacklist, which scored top ratings for its time slot last Monday evening.  Spader has just recently sat down with Joss Whedon, the director of Avengers, and his also gotten his entire body scanned to assist with CGI and the creation of Ultron (Spader and Ultron below).

For Spader there will be a fair amount of travel involved if The Blacklist sees itself renewed, as the Avengers sequel is being shot at Shepperton Studios in England (and The Blacklist is of course shot in LA).  

The other recent tidbit announced for this movie comes directly from director Joss Whedon, who has promised that the Avengers sequel will feature even more of Black Widow.  He recently said the following:

"Natasha is a huge part of the sequel because you do want to concentrate on the people who don't have their own franchises. Although she in 'Cap 2,' [and] she's great. She was the most fun for me because she's not a hero, you know, and it's something that I read—and I feel bad that I can't remember who wrote the book—but it's in one of the books explaining, 'These guys are heroes, you are a spy. It's a different thing—it's a different skill set—and you don't have their moral high ground or any of that good stuff.' And that just makes her so interesting to me. So yeah, the stuff I've got going on with her in the second one is killer."

Many fans have been calling for a prequel for Black Widow and Hawk Eye, as they allude far too often to "Budapest" in the first Avengers film.  It seems that the origin story of them meeting may wind up to be something Marvel is too greedy to pass up. 
Overall I would say I am incredibly excited to see what Marvel is going to be producing not just from Age of Ultron, but other projects as well.  

Avengers

Hollywood loves it's franchises, for they are extremely marketable. If the book, item, show, ect, is popular enough, it will become a movie. This is has happened most often with comics. So far Batman, Spiderman, The Hulke, ect, have become movies. There's nothing wrong with this, in a lot of cases these movies are good, but the stories are starting to get a little predictable.

Stop me if you've heard this one before, "Some all powerful government thing has an energy source that can be used as a continuous renewing source of energy. But there's a bad guy who wants to use it for his own ends. Stealing ensues, there's brain washing, a short fight scene, we've all seen it before. So our friendly neighborhood government agency gathers a team to take out the bad guy and get the energy source back. However there is a clash of the personalities and this idea falls flat, until some emotional trigger makes them wake up and realize "We are screwed if we don't get our act together!!!" This culminates is the traditional small group of good guys vs. the bad guy and his army of minions from another galaxy. And as is traditional the good guys win because of a combination of luck, the smarts of a couple of the characters, and sheer brute strength."

We have seen this in countless movies over the last ten years, namely in Super Hero movies (see Batman, Spiderman, the Fantastic Four 1&2, ect). Frankly this is starting to become a formula, and therefore boring.

The Avengers is decently done. The cinematography is o.k. and the effects are decent, but we hardly get more than a couple of seconds with them. This leads to the theory that the producers shaved a couple of thousand off the effects budget. but this is just a theory. The real problem with this movie is the story.

It's not that it's not well written, it's written decently and some parts give some interesting insight into the characters. Heck in some parts the characters have you completely fooled, and that is GREAT!!! When a character fools you it makes you believe in the story, it puts you in the movie. However the story in and of itself was boring. It's been done, several times, and that's all that can be said about it.