After the Hollywood film industry entered the 21st century, it entered a stage of rapid development, especially the maturity and improvement of the commercialization system, which not only further increased the limit of the movie box office, but also produced the feat of "Avatar" exceeding 700 million and "Star Wars 7: The Force Awakening" exceeding 900 million, and also increased the average box office level of movies from 100 million to 200 million. At the same time, it also allowed the surrounding industries born with movies as the core and as the starting point to flourish and vigorously develop, and then formed a huge commercial empire.

Among them, comic adapted movies undoubtedly occupy a top priority.

Starting with the stunning outbreak of "Spider-Man" in 2002, it was not only the first work in North American film history that had a box office of over 100 million on the weekend, but also the cumulative box office of North America exceeded 400 million, becoming the seventh work in film history that reached this level - and among the six previous works, two were the "Star Wars" series. Therefore, this naturally gave major North American film companies an inspiration: "Star Wars" was developed into the most important series in North American film history, and its commercial value has been continuously explored. So, does the comic film led by "Spider-Man" also have such potential?

As we all know, Disney has been ranked among the top Hollywood for thirty years, not because of the great success of their film works, but because the theme parks and surrounding sales centered on animation and fairy tales are still prosperous. And comics obviously have similar attributes.

The development of the world has shocked the world. After "Spider-Man" and "X-Men" have achieved glory one after another, the Marvel Universe, which was opened with works such as "Captain America", "Thor", "Iron Man" and "Avengers", swept through thousands of troops and opened a new era. As of 2015, comic adapted movies have occupied six seats in the top 20 film box office rankings in North America, and Marvel has won four.

The entire Marvel Universe has developed into the world's most well-known series of works, and its ability to attract fans has continued to flourish. Disney, which has completed its acquisition of Marvel, has created a new era, giving full play to its advantages in the second-dimensional culture to the extreme, and has truly changed the composition and development direction of the film market. However, as Marvel's biggest rival in the comics market, DC Comics has been unable to recover and is suppressed and difficult to turn over.

Ironically, DC Comics once pioneered the comic adaptation of movies and achieved incredible glory, but in the end it became a Marvel Pathfinder. She could only watch the competitors sweep the troops and create a glorious era of comics.

This also makes the loyal fans of DC Comics feel sorry for their failures. They always adhere to the view that "comics are non-mainstream, DC is orthodox", and look forward to DC Comics being able to regain market initiative and regain glory.

But, is this really the case?

Turning the hour hand back to the 1930s and 1940s, DC Comics and Marvel Comics were created one after another. For a long time, comics have been considered to be a subculture that only free young people, especially otaku, would like, and they could not be put on the table at all. Even in traditional concepts, comics were rejected as a literary art. But it is undeniable that the advent of comics is gradually forming a special two-dimensional subculture.

Before 1968, DC Comics was the ruler of the market, "Superman" and "Batman" were their ace pillars. The average sales of the two series reached 700,000 copies, easily killing all comic characters, and pioneering the heyday of comic heroes. It reached its peak in the 1960s, and when it was the most exaggerated, DC Comics sold more than three times that of Marvel!

However, after 1968, Marvel Comics caught up, and the "Fantastic Four" became a key factor in changing the times. The average sales volume reached 600,000 copies, gradually overtaking its competitors. The high school heroes portrayed by "Spider-Man" won the support of countless otaku. After the average sales volume exceeded 400,000 copies, this made Marvel Comics always maintain its sales lead in the next twenty years, occupying more than 60% of the market share, and at its peak it could even reach 70%!

In fact, DC Comics almost went bankrupt in the 1980s and was even willing to sell all its comic characters to Marvel. However, since DC Comics could not be sold at all at that time, Marvel refused to accept it as a junk stock.

It is undeniable that DC Comics and Marvel Comics divide the world. The two companies joined forces to dominate the entire market, but from a historical perspective, DC first rose, and Marvel then overtaken. So, why do DC Comics fans have been emphasizing that "DC is orthodox"? This requires turning their attention to the movie market.

After witnessing the powerful influence of comics' 2D subculture, Time Warner acquired the peak DC Comics in 1969, taking the film adaptation rights of all comic heroes in his hands, and committed to bringing comics to the big screen, but they succeeded!

Warner Bros. brought "Superman" and "Batman" to the big screen, creating a classic superhero image that has been famous in history. Even in the 1980s, when information dissemination was not developed, the image of superheroes was popular all over the world, deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, and even became synonymous with superheroes for a time, truly changing people's views on comic superheroes. This also transformed the comic characters into pioneers who were enough to change the cultural trend.

Superman and Batman completely dominated the movie screens of the 80s and 90s. Although the sales of DC Comics still hardly improved, these two characters shone brightly on the big screen, making playing superheroes the dream of every Hollywood actor; relatively speaking, Marvel's "popularization" journey seemed very struggling.

Marvel once launched the movie version of "Captain America" ​​in 1944, but ended in a crushing defeat. Later, "Doctor Strange" and "Hulk" under Marvel were all made into TV movies. The 1979 version of "Captain America" ​​did not even get the opportunity to be released on the big screen and directly entered the home video tape market. Until 1986, the release of "The Soldier from the Sky" was the second work that Marvel had been released, but unfortunately the box office was still defeated.

In terms of the film market, as of the release of "Blade Warrior" in 1998, only three Marvel works have received release opportunities and achieved poor results. Even for "Blade Warrior", this work has achieved remarkable returns in the style of an R-level film, with low costs, but its influence is very limited.

It can be said that under the leadership of Superman and Batman, Marvel Comics had almost no power to fight back. After entering the 1990s, sales in the entire comics market were declining, but DC Comics relied on movie adaptation to maintain its vigorous vitality. Marvel lacked the support of other forces and gradually began to decline. In 1996, Marvel Comics filed for bankruptcy.

Thirty years from Hedong, Thirty years from Hexi, Ten years ago, Marvel witnessed the bottom of DC Comics; but just ten years later, the situation between the two has been reversed, and the decisive key factor is the movie.

This is also the source of fans' opinions. DC Comics relies on Superman and Batman to dominate the film market for more than 20 years, and Marvel has not been able to get out of the "two-dimensional subculture" circle of comics for a full half century. It can be said that for ordinary viewers who do not read comics, Superman and Batman are representative figures of comics. As for Marvel... "What company is that?"

However, after entering the 21st century, it was Marvel that really exploded in the film market and led to earth-shaking changes in the entire film market.

This not only makes DC Comics unacceptable, but also makes many Americans puzzled. Even major Hollywood film companies are quite surprised. If you study the causes of history, market, timing, decisions, etc., you cannot ignore it, but simply put, success and Batman are both successful and Batman, and defeat are both superman and Batman.

Warner Bros. discovered the commercial value of comic adapted movies a long time ago, so he has been persistent in developing the possibility of DC comic adapted movies since the 1970s, successfully shaped the two characters Superman and Batman. In the second half of the 1990s, the disastrous defeat of "Batman and Robin" made Warner Bros. fall apart, and even comic adapted movies became infamous for a while, which also made Warner Bros. put the rights to adapt comics on the shelf. In addition, the success of the "Harry Potter" series, so they temporarily gave up any attempt.

The great success of "Spider-Man" in 2002 made Warner Bros. take out the DC comic adaptation rights again - they were naturally Superman and Batman who were the first to consider.

But things are obviously not that simple. Because Superman is too famous, he has been moved onto large and large screens countless times in the past thirty years. The image of tights and red underwear has been deeply rooted in people's hearts and has become an iconic heroic accessory. Without any novelty in the movie, it is difficult for the new movie audience to experience aesthetic fatigue to enter the cinema. Superman's adaptation has become a dead end that is spinning in place, especially the image of Clark Kent cannot produce chemical reactions, so Superman's development has been continuously hindered.

The Batman series handed over to Christopher Nolan has a new vitality. Christopher injects dark elements into Batman, reconstructs the series' story and ins and outs, and discusses the opposing but dependent philosophical core between justice and evil, elevating comics to a new level. "Batman Prequel: The Dark Knight" has become a classic in film history.

In this case, Warner Bros. naturally began to lean towards Batman, which also made the adaptations of DC comics have a dark temperament, while focusing on in-depth discussions on the personal struggles and responsibilities of heroes, but they ignored the important fact: not every comic is suitable for the dark style, and not every director is Christopher Nolan.
Chapter completed!