DC Movies vs Marvel Movies

[samurainoir]

Let's talk live action Big Screen feature films for now.

It's difficult to try and measure these things even taking into account commercial and critical respects, but it's undeniable that Marvel currently beats DC in shear Volume in recent years (although DC ruled from the late seventies through to the early nineties on Batman and Superman alone).

Off the top of my head...

Superman 1
Superman 2
Superman 3
Superman 4: the Quest for Peace
Swamp Thing
Supergirl
Batman
Batman Returns
Batman Forever
Batman and Robin
Swamp Thing Returns
Steel
Constantine
Catwoman
V for Vendetta
Batman Begins
Dark Knight
Superman Returns
Watchmen

Going back even further, do we even count the 1966 Batman given that Marvel was barely a toddler at that stage? I'm thinking we should rule out Movie serials too... Captain Marvel wasn't even owned by DC, and I think Captain America alone doesn't really stand a chance against Superman and Batman.

And do we count out Straight to Video or Never Releases like Roger Corman's Fantastic Four or the awful Captain America with the rubber ears? Man Thing went straight to DVD recently as well.

In the other corner...
Howard the Duck
Punisher (Dolph Lundgren)
Blade
Blade 2
Blade Trinity
X-Men
X-Men 2 United
X-Men Last Stand
X-Men Origins Wolverine
Spiderman
Spiderman 2
Spiderman 3
Fantastic Four
Fantastic Four Rise of The Silver Surfer
Punisher (Thomas Jane)
Punisher War Zone
Hulk
Daredevil
Elektra
Ghost Rider

and it might be worth separating out the "indie" Marvel Studios releases...
Iron Man
Incredible Hulk



What movies am I forgetting? I purposefully left out Stardust, LXG, History of Violence and Road to Perdition since I assume their rights are owned by their respective creators.

The number of films are actually closer than I thought they were. 19 DC Comics films versus 22 Marvel Films, with the vast majority of Marvel's output concentrated within the last dozen years, with DC spread out a bit more evenly across three decades.

I'm guessing commercial $$$ success is a fool's game unless we have math sevant among us who can adjust for inflation and simultaneously crunch the Box Office against the film's reported budget.

So I guess it's a free flow on which movies we liked and which ones we didn't like! Who's on top, Marvel or DC?

[thunderbolt]

you also need to look at quality over quantity. A lot of the Marvel movies are very painful to watch...Spider-Man 3, the FF movies, Blade Trinity, Ang Lee's Hulk,DD, Elektra, X3, Howard, at least 2 of the Punisher movies, Ghost Rider was boarderline ok. DC has its fair share, too...Seems like the original Bat and Supes franchises lost it after the second movie, Steel (should be dropped in Mr. Burns' bottomless pit and forgotten), Catwoman.

[Bionic Joe]

Does the two CONAN movies and RED SONJA count under MARVEL'S movies?

[kingdom warrior]

Marvel pretty much even the scored in the last few years and I'm hoping they will continue to come out with more movies.... hopefully that will get the WB off their asses and maybe we'll see WW,Shazam a better Superman movie and so on.

DC's Best:
Superman
Superman 2
Batman 1989
Batman Begins
Batman the Dark Knight
V for Vendetta
Watchmen

Marvel's best:
Blade
Spiderman 1
Spiderman 2
Ironman
X-men 1
X-men 2
Incredible Hulk

[Brue]

in '07 I pulled stats on adjusted for inflation box office gross - obviously this leaves out Dark Knight and Iron Man - Batman is now #1 and IM prob top 5 - not sure where Hulk would be. I did not look up Vertigo titles.

Spider-man $466
Batman (1989) $422
Spider-man 2 $402
Superman (1978) $384
Sider-Man 3 $337
Batman Forever $283
Batman Returns $263
Superman 2 $261
X-Men the Last Stand $240
X2$239
Batman Begins$215
Superman Returns $205
X-Men $196
Fantastic Four $162
Batman and Robin $157
Hulk $147
Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer $132
Superman 3 $128
Ghost Rider $116
Daredevil $114
Blade $100



Non Marvel DC:

The Incredibles $269
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles$205
The Mask $197
Mask of Zorro$128
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2 $125



under 100mil M:


Blade 2
Blade Trinity
Punisher
howard the duck
elektra

under 100mil DC:

Superman IV
Supergirl
Catwoman
Steel

Under 100m non DC/M
Spawn
Crow
Phantom
and many sequels


Adjusted for inflation these numbers are still misleading - worldwide gross usually makes the films profitable and merchandising puts them up more.

Some have such big budgets and they do so poorly that they are still flops at nearly 150 million dollars B&R, Hulk.
Movies like DD cost little to make comparatively.

The best return on a comic film may be Teenage MNT (1990) it cost 13.5 to make, drew in 205 at the box office world wide, have twice that in merchandise and spawn several sequels.

[kingdom warrior]

Does the two CONAN movies and RED SONJA count under MARVEL'S movies?

No they were based off the Books created by Robert E. Howard

[Brue]

Batman Dark Knight -LOVE IT *****
Iron Man *****
Incredible Hulk ***
Spider-man *****
Batman (1989) ****
Spider-man 2 ****
Superman (1978) ****
Sider-Man 3 **
Batman Forever **** < That's right - I like it
Batman Returns ****
Superman 2 ****
X-Men the Last Stand ****
X2 *****
Batman Begins ****
Superman Returns **
X-Men ****
X-Men Origins Wolverine -Haven't Seen it yet but have tried
Fantastic Four *
Batman and Robin *
Hulk
Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer *
Superman 3 *
Ghost Rider *
Daredevil ****
Blade ****
Blade 2 ***
Blade Trinity
Punisher *
Punisher War Zone Didn't See It and prob won't.
howard the duck *
elektra
Superman IV *
Supergirl *
Catwoman
Steel **

worst 3 Catwoman, Elektra, Blade Trinity dishonorable mention Hulk
best 3 Dark knight, Iron Man, Spidrer-Man honorable mention X2

Superman 1 and 2 recieved perfect scores when i watched them in the 70/80s but for various reasons did not stand the test of time for me 4/5 stars

I go against geek opinioin on Batman Forever and Daredevil - i liked 'em
i even like steel and howard the duck better than most people did.

[Brue]

recent success - marvel has a lot of good cards in their hand but DC holds the trumo card (Batman)

recent earnings Marvel is ahead but overall earnings when adjusted for inflation the nod goes to DC

if you had asked which was better pre Spiderman it was a no brainer DC but now i personally think Marvel is better

oh and some other films i didn't include above
V for Vendetta *****
Hellboy****
Hellboy 2 **
Conan *****
Conan destroyer ***
Red Sonja **
Incredibles*****
Crow*****
Crow 2***
Crow 3 *
Constantine <worst comic film ever -including serials
LXG ***

[Brue]

No they were based off the Books created by Robert E. Howard

it is a good question though becasie MArvel did have comic rights for a period and Mego adds to the confusion b/c Conan is shown on the Marvel card

[Bionic Joe]

No they were based off the Books created by Robert E. Howard

Actualy RED SONJA as we know her was created by ROY THOMAS for MARVEL,

[kingdom warrior]

Actualy RED SONJA as we know her was created by ROY THOMAS for MARVEL,

Red Sonya was created By Howard also. Thomas adapted her and tweaked Red Sonja for the comics and is given credit as a creator of that version for Marvel He took a Howard short story and turned her into the character we know now.

[toys2cool]

I don't care to me the 89 Batman and Spiderman 1 were the 2 best

[samurainoir]

Does the two CONAN movies and RED SONJA count under MARVEL'S movies?

I'm inclined not to count them for the same reason we rule out LXG or Tarzan movies, Marvel doesn't actually own Conan or Red Sonja.

[samurainoir]

in '07 I pulled stats on adjusted for inflation box office gross

Wow Brue! Awesome that you had these handy. It does help put things into perspective, at least in regards to the proportion of folks that went to see it on the big screen. Which is probably a better indicator of "success" in reaching an audience than the financial "success" that a studio would measure in profits.

Otherwise we're looking at the fact that Superman Returns is not a "success" domestically given that it's budget was $270,000,000. While Fantastic Four was, at a $100,000,000 budget.

The fact is, more people went to see Superman Returns than Fantastic Four.

And yes, quality is another matter entirely, and generally down to personal tastes, which is mostly what we are going to discuss in terms of our preferences here.

Adjusted for inflation these numbers are still misleading - worldwide gross usually makes the films profitable and merchandising puts them up more.

Not to mention Video Cassette and DVD sales/rentals. (and now digital downloads via itunes et al)

The best return on a comic film may be Teenage MNT (1990) it cost 13.5 to make, drew in 205 at the box office world wide, have twice that in merchandise and spawn several sequels.

Part of me always dug the fact that this was a creator owned property that paid out a huge windfall to two formerly starving artist types.

[Goblin19]

I think they're both hit or miss. They both have some great ones and some clunkers, with lots of mediocre in between. I do think Marvel has now headed in the right direction and we'll see more consistent quality from their titles than DC.