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The Real Reason We’re Getting So Many Super Hero Movies (And TV Shows)

By Nick Tylwalk

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It’s great to hear movie studios talk about the rich universes and compelling characters from our favorite super hero comics. As a longtime fan, I totally agree with those sentiments.

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Let’s not kid ourselves, though. Movie studios are in business to make money, not tell the best stories. And as long as super heroes and comics stay hot at the box office (and to a lesser extent, on television), we’re going to continue to see more movies based on them.

A story today in The Hollywood Reporter forcefully drove home that point. Disney was the most profitable film studio in 2014, riding the mega-success of Guardians of the Galaxy and the holdover power of Frozen (which released in late 2013) to its first victory of the decade. It should be noted that Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Big Hero 6 finished fourth and 10th at the box office for the year, respectively.

Warner Bros. had topped the list every year since 2010, but it slipped this year thanks to some expensive movies that underperformed. The studio still finished a respectable third, which THR credited to “cost containment” (a nicer word for layoffs), along with Gotham and The Flash having strong debut seasons on TV. What is WB doing to try to reclaim its number one status? Yep, doubling down on super heroes, calling DC movies one of its “three pillars” going forward.

And while it’s oversimplifying things to suggest that Paramount is in last place because it has no super heroes — though one of its most successful films, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles reboot, is a comic book property — or that Sony is floundering because of the lackluster performance of The Amazing Spider-Man 2, those truths definitely don’t help.

We already know Disney/Marvel and Warner Bros./DC are going to try to ride this wave until the end of the decade, at which point they will either see that they’ve beaten the trend into the ground if they are experiencing diminishing returns or ante up with more. I’d say both options are equally likely at this point.

For the other studios, they might have to explore the wider world of comics beyond the Big Two. The rampant success of The Walking Dead proves there are other genres that can be mined for movie or TV gold. Just to name one popular non-super hero book off the top of my head, couldn’t Saga make the jump to the screen and make some money? If super heroes are a must, let’s not forget the other universes that are out there.

The bottom line is this: Hollywood doesn’t give up on a trend until it stops minting money. Until we see a year go by when super hero and comic book IPs stop taking the top spots at the multiplexes and drawing decent or better ratings on TV, we’re going to keep getting more of them. It’s awesome as a fan, though a little sad to know it’s going to end with every dollar milked from this particular cash cow.

Until then, all we can do is sit back and enjoy the ride.

Next: What are the top-grossing super hero movies of all time?

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