2. Early years
The first superhero serial
"The Adventures of Captain
Marvel" emerged in 1941
following the rise of
superheroes in comic books,
and was a saturday movie
serial for children. The serial
would play in the local movie
theatre and children would
go and watch it on the big
screen, each episode lasting
about 18 to 20 minutes.
3. • Similar serials to this emerged for the next few
years such as Batman (1943), Captain
America (1944), and Superman(1948).
4. Later Saturday serials saw a
large decline, putting a stop
to superhero movies apart
from a big screen extension
of the Batman television
series starring Adam West in
1966, and a few more
comedy orientated films
with original superheroes
such as the French film Mr
Freedom(1969).
5. 1978-1990s
In 1978 Superman the first
major superhero feature
film was released thanks to
a new interest in science
fiction brought on by the
release of star wars in 1977.
The film was extremely
successful using the newest
special effects and led to 3
sequels ending with
Superman IV: The Quest for
Peace.
6. Superman's success led to
the creation of many
more superhero movies
during this period
including
Robocop(1987), The
Punisher(1989),Teenage
Mutant Ninja
turtles(1990), Batman(198
9) and Batman
Returns(1992).
7. All these movie adaptations
were of comic book characters
who already had fan bases to
target, something that changed
in 1994 with The Crow became
the first independent comics
superhero film to establish a
franchise. The success of The
Crow bridged the gap between
superhero movies and the more
modern action films of the time
with how violent it was, leading
the way for the superhero
action movies of the 21st
century.
8. The first major
success inspired by
this new more action
orientated superhero
was Blade (1998) and
its sequels, attracting
viewers with its
darker themes and
violence.
9. The 2000s
The 2000s had many
profitable superhero
franchises making an
appearance or comeback and
multiple superhero movies
were released every year from
2000 to 2010. The first two
major films of period were Xmen(2000) and SpiderMan(2002) which both filmed
multiple sequels and achieved
major success and helped a
new wave of modern
superhero films.
10. Films like Hulk(2003), Hellboy(2004), Fantastic
Four(2005) and Iron Man(2008) were released
during the 2000s and there were many others
with several new superhero movies released
every year.
11. Many superhero movies that had featured in the 80s and
90s had reboots like the batman series which made a
massive comeback with the movie Batman Begins(2005).
Another unique case in 2006 was the movie superman
returns which was a sequel to superman 1st an 2nd but a
reboot of the 3rd and 4th movies after there failure in the
80s. These reboots had the benefit of having much more
modern filming equipment available compared to when
they were first and took a much more action heavy
approach.
12. In this period many non western superhero movies
were released and achieved success. Examples include
Casshern(2004), a Japanese film adapted from the
anime of the same name which made fifth place in the
US film charts and stayed in the top ten for five weeks
and Ra.One(2011) an Indian science fiction superhero
movie that went onto win one National film award, one
Filmfare award and four International Indian Film
Academy awards.
13. Animated
Animated superhero movies rarely make it to cinema and are
usually direct to video as such usually they are not well
known apart from a few that achieve popularity such as The
Incredibles(2004) and Megamind(2010) both of which came
from well known companies.
Many good animated superhero movies exist but don’t do
well at the box office. Like Batman: Mask of the Phantasm
which received great reviews and was called the best
animated film of 1993 while being ranked 8th best superhero
movie by the Times Magazine, but it only just passed its $6
million budget with its various home video releases after
limited success.
14. The future
In 2012 the 3 top positions on the box office chart
were taken by superhero movies with Avengers at
number 1. This trend looks like it will continue as films
like Guardians of the Galaxy and Ant man are in
development and if the success of other Marvel
superhero film is any indicator they will be a great
success.
