Thriving Superheroes

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Over the course of this blog post, I had the task of researching the profitability of superheroes to movie studios and why they are so popular today. During the course of the past few weeks I have researched topics such as popularity, profitability, and impact on people’s lives. After completing my research I now have the ability to answer my research question. Superheroes and superhero movies are so popular today because of their profitability and the effect that they have on people's everyday lives.

To begin with, there isn’t a type of movie more popular today than superhero movies and there is a reason for that. People love to go see superhero movies so it doesn’t even really matter if it is a remake or not. In the article  “James Franco Explains Why Studios Keep Remaking Superhero Films ” by Melia Robinson on Business Insider,  James Franco talks about this by using the examples of the new Spiderman movies and the new Man of Steel movie. His basic point is that people are going to go see these movies anyway even if the same type of movies came out only a few years earlier, and they will still turn a pretty good profit. Which is evident with Superman and Spiderman as they both have previous movie series that had been released in the early 2000’s. Yet, the remakes made over 100 million each. Movie studios notice this and that is why every studio wants to try their hand at getting a superhero movie because they know how much profit they can gain from it. Take Avengers for example, the ultimate superhero team, behind the justice league in my opinion,  that was brought to the big screen produced over a billion dollars in profit in the box office. That is a ludicrous amount of money, and what brought it in was simply a three hour movie. However, all of the profits don’t just come from the box office. These types of movies are enticing as well because of the amount of merchandise sales that are gained from them. Most kids love superheroes,so when they go to a store and see a Spiderman toy or a Batman shirt, they’re going to want to get it. However, today it’s more than just little kids who love the merchandise. People from all ages, myself included, will gladly spend money on a Green Lantern coffee mug, or a Wolverine phone case. This is evident all across the world as well. In the article  “Which Superhero Earns 1.3 Billion A Year?”, it shows just the sheer amount of profits that can be gained over the course of one single year, by ONE individual 

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This graph shows just the sheer amount of profit that these heroes can bring. I mean does nobody else find it ridiculous that a teenage kid who got bit by a spider produced over $1.2 billion in profits in ONE YEAR. But take a second to think about it, how much do you see something related to Spiderman or donning his trademark blue and red colors or his spider? More than you notice because it’s very normal now. Superheroes are all over the place, which is evidenced in this graph by the huge amount of sales in countries other than the U.S. and Canada.

However, the profits aren’t everything as they are more for the studios and the companies themselves rather than the actual movie goers. For the movie goers these heroes have a much deeper meaning than just fictional characters on a screen. These heroes can represent things such as an escape, a role model, or even someone to relate to for anyone and everyone. Think about it, every superhero story has problems and tragedy in it. Well, so does the real world. In the articles  Why America Loves Superheroes by the Digital Universe and The Psychology Behind Superhero Origin Stories by Smithsonian.com. it describes how people relate to these stories in their own life through triumph, tragedy, grief, and all other sorts of emotions and problems that are encountered throughout everyday life. So even though these characters don’t exist in our world they still bring a tremendous amount of help to millions of fans and regular people. Some people also can find role models in heroes and want to better themselves because of it. Take Batman for example, he has no powers yet he fights villians and other heroes with incredible power. Even so, he rarely comes out on the losing end. How this affects others is many people would see that this man made himself and look what he has become. This then influences people to think about how they can make themselves better. All of this comes from a man dressed in a bat costume. But even on a larger scale, these heroes provide something that is sometimes very hard to find, and that is hope. The typical superhero story involves a hero who overcomes adversity, beats the bad guy, and gets a reward for it. But the main message of these stories is that good will always beat evil. And in today's society that can sometimes be hard to see. But through and through these characters provide that glimmer of hope, even if it simply acts as a distraction for a period of time. However, the one thing these characters give people more than anything else is belief. Every single superhero has something special about them, that's why they're super. Whether it's the ability to fly, a special green ring, a shield, invisibility, etc. All of them posses their own specialty, but the best thing is that so does every single human being in the world. And these heroes bring it out in people. When people see these heroes and all their awesome traits, they believe that they are awesome too and that they have a power of their own. Whether that is being the best cook, or driver, or whatever. This is so great because it brings people confidence and happiness that really couldn't be brought by anything else.

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In conclusion, superheroes and superhero movies are so popular today partly because of the effect that they have on society today. They seem to be around for the long term after going from comic books, to TV shows, to multi million dollar movie productions. I believe that this is a great thing because of the long list of benefits that these super beings can bring to society. I personally get chills whenever I watch some of my favorite superhero movies and I'm always interested in learning more. Such things as who would beat who in a fight, or if the world was getting invaded who would I choose to protect it are always crossing my mind and I know I'm not the only one. I may be biased since my father loved comics as a kid and his favorite types of presents are anything and everything doing with Spiderman, but I think that the entire world can agree with me on this. Whether it’s the movie studios or the fans across the globe these characters and movies only bring good things.