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 

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/

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.

The Real World Of Superheroes

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In this blog post I plan to address why superheroes are so important and inspirational in everyday life. To establish my answer I will be presenting information from two different articles. The first article I will be using is Why America Loves Superheroes by the Digital Universe and The Psychology Behind Superhero Origin Stories by Smithsonian.com.

To begin with, lots of people have a general interest in superheroes and many look up to them even if they are just fictional characters. Why they are so important is that people can see them as role models and will try to better themselves based on the life of this fictional character. In the article by the Digital Universe, a superhero fan named Josh Melara lays it out perfectly. He states that “Superheros are strong, successful, able to make the best of any circumstance, they get the girl, they kick butt and they always come out on top,” and he continues to tie it into his life by stating “that’s like every guy’s fantasy and, if I could ever be even a fraction of that, I’d feel pretty good about myself.” So basically superheroes live the perfect life, and that is an unrealistic standard for anyone on the planet today. However, bits and pieces can be taken away to better your life and the person you are just from the ideals that can be presented in a comic book. Melara continues on talking about Batman and how he has inspired him. He states that Batman “he doesn’t have superpowers to rely on; he is just a man who has worked very hard to become what he wanted. It gives me the belief that even though I’m just a guy, I can become something great.” Even though Batman is an amazing fictional character, he still can inspire millions across the world. Melara continues on to talk about how Superheroes gave him faith in humanity again because maybe there are people just like them out there. It is crazy just how much good these characters can do even when they only exist in a book or on a screen.

The second article deals with the background stories of heroes and how strangely related they are to everyday human life. It describes the backstories of Batman, who had his parents murdered, and Spiderman, who got his powers by chance and lost his Uncle Ben, and more. Many people do not believe that these ridiculous stories have anything to do with our everyday lives. However, they would be surprised to how similar they actually are. In the article the author ties the relationship between these fantasy stories and reality by stating “I think origin stories show us not how to become super but how to be heroes, choosing altruism over the pursuit of wealth and power.” So granted you won’t become the Dark Knight after one life event but you can learn how to better yourself and your life through this story. The author states that these background stories tie into our lives in three ways. The three ways are trauma, destiny, and chance. Trauma is related to many superheroes as many if not all of them have lost something important. From Batman’s parents, to Superman’s home world, to Wolverine’s girlfriend, all of them have lost something important and it took a toll on them. Tying that into the real world, everyone has lost something important to them that can lead them to some emotional hurt and trauma. So in reality, these stories tie more into real life than one would think.

In conclusion, superheroes mean a lot more to society than I think they get credit for. I believe they give a lot to everyday society and can do a lot of help even if they are restricted to the fictional world.

Marvel vs. DC in global retail

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The world of superheroes goes far beyond just movies and comic books. All over the globe you can find merchandise in the forms of shirts, bumper stickers, cups, you name it. And considering the popularity that these figures have and that it is only continually growing, one can only imagine the astronomical number of profits that these merchandise can bring in. In the article “Which Superhero Earns 1.3 Billion A Year?” it shows just the crazy amount that these heroes bring even if it is a select few.  I believe that these movies are so popular globally because of the amount of merchandise being sold which increases the knowledge & popularity of superheroes and movies about them.

Anywhere that you go now you can find superhero merchandise. It has grown into a global empire in just the past few decades and now it is incredibly popular all over the place. There are people walking around with Captain America shirts, Batman keychains, Thor phone cases, Superman tattoos, it is just crazy how popular these things are. In the article, it states that in 2013 Spiderman singlehandedly produced “1.3 Billion” in global sales. One character who was bit by a spider and can climb walls produced a profit of over a billion dollars. That is crazy, but when you think about it, how many kids are dressed up as spider man on Halloween? A lot, I dressed up as him myself, twice. It’s not even just during Halloween that Spiderman is so popular. Whenever there are kids in a toy store they are drawn to the action figure section which is filled with Spiderman toys. Also, Spiderman or any superhero can be placed on a ridiculous amount of items. Things such as cups, plates, water guns, shirts, bumper stickers, halloween costumes, soap dispensers, toy cars, and even more. It’s more than likely that at least once a day you’ll see the trademark red and blue of our favorite web-slinger.

However the crazy thing is how far world-wide superheroes have spread. In the article, it shows a graph of the profit of superheroes in the U.S. and Canada, and then it shows the profit in all the other countries. 

What is crazy is that Spiderman produced about $400 million in profits in the U.S. and Canada. Yet, in every other country he produced a profit of over $900 million. Even being far and away the most popular character this number is just mind boggling. Batman is the second most popular superhero with a global profit of about $500 million. This shows that me and my dad seem to have a good taste in superheroes as his favorite hero is #1 and mine is #2. With the already incredible popularity of superheroes and the fact that this popularity is only continuing to grow, one can only imagine the amount of profit that will be brought in during the coming years. Especially, with the large slate of movies that are set to come out over the next 5 years. So this is yet another enticing factor for both movie studios and movie goers to buy into these types of movies.

In my next blog post I plan to research why superheroes are so important and inspirational in our everyday lives.

Effects of Superhero movies on movie studios

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In this post I will discuss the reason that movie studios produce so many superhero movies using information from the article “James Franco Explains Why Studios Keep Remaking Superhero Films ” by Melia Robinson on Business Insider. I believe that movie studios continually produce these movies because the belief that people will always go see them because they have that superhero label on them.

In the article, James Franco talks about his experience in superhero movies, as he was in the original Spider man Series as Harry Osbourne, and what he thinks of them now. The article is centered talking about the recent release of the newest Superman film Man of Steel that starred Henry Cavil as our favorite Kyrptonian. Many people went and saw this film even though there have been plenty of Superman films before it, yet this one still produced “a record breaking $128.6 million” its first weekend in theaters. Many would believe that this film would be great and incredibly successful, however this isn’t the case. As the article states “critics weren’t wowed” and only “56% of reviewers liked it.” But this film dropped a 100 million dollars in one weekend and people didn’t even like it that much. This is what draws movie studios to try and produce these movies because of the revenue they can bring in, even if the movie isn’t as successful as they hoped it would be. James Franco backs this point by saying that since these movies have such a large financial upside “everyone from  studios to filmmakers are going to want to get in on making comic-book movies.” Not all movies are going to be home run hitters like The Avengers who dropped over 1 billion dollars in profit, but a 100 million is a pretty good chunk of change in itself so no wonder superhero movies are being produced left and right.

Moreover, this is even true if the movies are remakes such as the Superman and Spiderman series. Many Superman and Spiderman movies were made in the early 2000’s and before this. Yet, reboots such as Man of Steel or The Amazing Spiderman and being produced now and in the near future and having large amounts of success. So why would movie studios use all this money and time making movies that already have similar if not the exact same theme as the previous ones. Simply because they have the superhero label on them. While comic book lovers may argue that The Amazing Spiderman and Spiderman are completely different stories, that plays no factor into why normal movie goers would go see it. They don’t really care about a different story, they just wanna see their favorite webslinger fly across the big screen. Even though the first Amazing Spiderman only produced “more than 260 million” which was less than any of the original trilogy, they have 3 sequels already planned to hit the big screen until 2018. These movies weren’t nearly as successful as the first trilogy yet they have already planned to have a total of 4 movies made just because of the pure financial incentive that these movies bring.

In conclusion, as a large superhero fan myself, I will most likely see any movie that has a super hero label on it even if they aren’t that popular, such as Ant-Man. Many people feel the same way as me because these movies are usually very well done and really cool with all of the special effects produced in them. Therefore, these draw large audiences even if it is the second round of these movies, as evidenced in the article. And with both Marvel and DC having many movies planned into the future including highly anticipated Captain America: Civil War and Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice, these movies are going to be popular for a very very long time.

    In the future I plan to research the the merchandise that these types of movies bring.

Value of Superhero Movies to Audiences

Source: :http://news.mtv.ca/

http://www.wisegeek.com/why-are-superhero-movies-so-popular.htm

In this brief essay with info from wisegeek.com I argue that factors such as freedom, imagination, and amazement are the reasons that super hero movies are so popular. To begin with, the article "Why are Superhero Movies so Popular?" by Wise Geek states “ watching a superhero movie is a great chance to relax and not think about stress or difficult things in your life.” So even if people aren’t the biggest fans of superheroes these movies can just take your mind off things for a couple hours. I completely agree with this statement because I have done this before. If I’m ever upset I’ll watch The Dark Knight Rises or The Avengers and I’ll come away feeling happy. Everyone in the world has problems and some people don’t know how to cope with them. These movies can take your mind of things and place better thoughts into your mind such as what will happen in the sequel or what are this guy’s powers. I believe that this statement is something that a lot of people over look about superhero movies. However, there are more factors than just the distraction and freedom from the real world.

In addition, the wide world of superheroes is filled with interpretation and imagination. The universes are massive and there are so many heroes and backstories. This is why seeing these universes come to fruition on the big screen is very enticing to all audiences. Back to the article, it states when comic book lovers go to see the movies, these movies are “ the realization of their favorite worlds.” I agree with this statement because it is really cool to see what these movie studios can do and who they cast especially when they find the perfect person for the role. Such as Robert Downey Jr. as Iron man or Christian Bale for Batman. Seeing their favorite worlds on the big screen sparks instant debate and then the movie becomes more and more popular. On the other hand, this isn’t even the biggest attraction.

Moreover, many moviegoers who don’t like superhero movies that much can go and appreciate the crazy technological advances that are shown off in these productions. Wise Geek states that “ these movies tend to be powerhouses of action, stunts and excitement, immersing the audience in a colorful and fully-realized world.” I agree with this statement completely because some of the things that occur in these movies are mind blowing. The stunts, and the animation, and the incredible attention to detail are impressive to even the hardest critics. Even if you have no knowledge of superheroes, just the pure excitement of the movie can draw you in no problem.

In the future I plan to research the draw of these movies to movie studios.

Surge in Superheroes

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• Briefly explain why you are interested in studying your topic:  
• I’ve always been interested in superheroes since I was a kid and recently the movies have become incredibly popular over the past few years. When I was younger it was mostly kids who were interested in this kind of thing but now you see teenagers and adults who love superheros and the popularity has increased dramatically. Now there are conventions, TV shows, billion dollar movies, and all sorts of merchandise.
• The overall question I plan on answering by the end of the project:
• Why has the popularity of superheroes and superhero movies surged over the past few years?
• Sub questions I will need to answer in order to answer the overall question:
• How have superheroes changed?
• How has the increase in animation and movie technology increased people’s interest in these movies?
• Why are adults becoming as interested in superheroes as kids?
• How has the amount of information about superheroes peaked people’s interest? Ex: Powers, Comparisons.

• My plan of research (what specific Library Databases, specific websites, names of authors, people, etc. will I pursue to find the answers to the questions above):
• ProQuest
• Marvel.com
• DCcomincs.com
• Gale Virtual Reference Library

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