The most IMPORTANT comic book related film?

[MR SigS]

i don't mean best, i mean which film got us to where we are now?

 

Did Superman show that everyone could love comic films?

Did Blade show it didn''t have to be big characters?

 

I'd say Superman. I Feel it broke the ice and was done well enough that, on some level, people started hoping for more.

 

[makeminemego]

There's probably more than one correct answer, depending on how you gauge public perception of the characters used in the movies before the projectors started rolling on opening night.

 

Donner's Superman: The Movie was for a long time the gold standard which all were held against, and rightfully so. Batman 89 was a MONSTER hit. I'm not sure where it ranks in terms of inflation adjusted gross, but it was the first movie since Return of the Jedi (or maybe Ghostbusters) that had people standing in lines around the block. Maybe they've both aged a little, but in terms of superhero popcorn flicks, they were great at the time and are still pretty darn tough to beat today.

 

Having said that......

You're talking about Superman and Batman. The two superheroes MOST ingrained in the public's consciousness. Probably due to their TV series which had stayed in heavily rotated syndication since their demise twenty years before each respective movie premiered. I take nothing away from either movie, but it wasn't exactly a surprise that two movies about the two most identifiable heroes-both with big budgets, superior on-screen talent and production design-ended up being huge hits.

 

We are where we are today (for better or worse) due to Singer's X-Men. That opened the gates. Iron Man doesn't happen without it. It proved that heroes on the fringe of public perception could-with a large budget at least-open a movie and have enough legs to get into the black.

 

Just my opinion. For what it's worth, both Captain America flicks notwithstanding, I'll take Superman: The Movie and Batman 89 vs. the field in terms of overall entertainment value and quality.

[Maccai3]

i think we're all forgetting Howard the Duck

[Left Hook-migration]

I feel the first X-Men movie helped jump-start the current trend. Up until then, most of the comic movies were few and far between. Nowadays it's one after another.

 

Even before the first movie, the TV show that paved the way was Superman. "Look! Up in the sky! It's a bird...It's a plane..It's Superman!" That's burned into the conscientiousness of several generations.

 

I came here to say Superman 78, but I've been persuaded that xmen 2000 was the modern catalyst to churn out all we've seen. Without Xmen there would still be Nolan's Batman but not the whole VERY successful marvel movies. Iron man, x-men's captain American, wolverines and yes the king, the avengers. And I say this as a true blood DC guy.

 

Xmen 2000 is the reason studios realized they could make huge, cookie cutter, but good, movies. Xmen established the formula from a business side. Without the marvel movies You wouldn't have little kids everywhere wearing super shirts and knocking on my door at Halloween in super hero costumes.

[warburger]

For me, it was the first X-Men.

 

Superman was a product of the sci-fi genre of the 80's while Batman is a character on its own. It transcended comic books.

 

Blade was really successful but people hardly knew he was a comic character.

 

X-Men was the first heavily-associated comic property that jumped into the big screen and everything else followed suit.

[kav]

I think Howard the Duck was important because it made sure never to do that again.

[rjrjr]

i don't mean best, i mean which film got us to where we are now?

 

Did Superman show that everyone could love comic films?

Did Blade show it didn''t have to be big characters?

 

Superman '78 was decent, but Batman '89 was the trend setter for the current crop of superhero movies. That movie showed the studios there was money (big money) to be made. Not only did that movie rake in the dough, but the amount of merchandise tied to that movie was also huge. It was the reason for BTAS.

 

Also, like the movies since then, that movie also has an impact on the source material, the comics themselves. Every movie since they from X-Men to Spider-Man to Avengers, have also impacted the source material.

[Bosco685]

I'm sure people won't agree with this, but I really think the first Spider-Man brought us into the landscape we are in now. That movie made big money at the time and got people talking. Most casual fans don't know that Spider-Man is a Sony property and they just think all Marvel films will be good.

 

I listened to Kevin Smith talk about how big a deal Batman was for him. I think that movie had a pretty big following when it first came out.

 

The first Batman movie was HUGE. First film in history to make 100M in it's first 10 days.

 

It made 11X budget expenses, and caused a rush to comic stores that is not the common reaction from comic book-based movies. People were buying Batman branded goods just to be part of the craze.

 

So Superman showed us we could fly. Batman showed us we could do it in style, with cash falling out of our pockets.

 

Jack Nicholson walking away with $60 MM in profits from the movie because he cut into the merchandising sales shows how big this movie truly was.

 

By the way, that merchandising profit share that Jack Nicholson negotiated. That is still the biggest on record for an actor in a superhero movie. Only the Iron Man deal for RDJ comes close.

 

Converted to 2014 dollars, that is over $114.712 MM that Nicholson took in alone for his share. That is how much money was coming in from people purchasing anything Batman branded.

[Barbarian]

V for Vendetta.

 

Crossed over from the typical superhero mold and introduced many people to the Medium.

I know some people that read the novel and were introduced that way to comics and showed them that this art form is not just Marvel and DC Super Heroes.

 

Plus it became a cultural symbol for fight against the status quo, financial corruption and corruption in general.

 

That particular depiction of Guy Fawkes mask is now known way outside the comic book world. It´s like the character escaped from fiction into the real world.

 

[zosocane]

I feel the first X-Men movie helped jump-start the current trend. Up until then, most of the comic movies were few and far between. Nowadays it's one after another.

 

Even before the first movie, the TV show that paved the way was Superman. "Look! Up in the sky! It's a bird...It's a plane..It's Superman!" That's burned into the conscientiousness of several generations.

 

I came here to say Superman 78, but I've been persuaded that xmen 2000 was the modern catalyst to churn out all we've seen. Without Xmen there would still be Nolan's Batman but not the whole VERY successful marvel movies. Iron man, x-men's captain American, wolverines and yes the king, the avengers. And I say this as a true blood DC guy.

 

Xmen 2000 is the reason studios realized they could make huge, cookie cutter, but good, movies. Xmen established the formula from a business side. Without the marvel movies You wouldn't have little kids everywhere wearing super shirts and knocking on my door at Halloween in super hero costumes.

 

I concur. X-Men (2000) followed closely by Superman The Movie (1978) are the most important comic book-related films.

[markseifert]

The first Batman movie was HUGE. First film in history to make 100M in it's first 10 days.

 

Batman '89 was THE game-changing comic film that's come out during my lifetime. No question.

 

Though when this subject comes up, like a lot of things of this nature it's clear that you had to be there to understand the impact.

 

In a group of comic geek friends that year just before it opened, one of my buddies said, "you know what's interesting... my sister just bought a Batman t-shirt and she's never been interested in a comic before in her life. I think this is going to be pretty big."

 

And he was right. Civilians were getting interested. And just as importantly, it was a movie that understood comics and took them seriously.

 

'89 was one of those magic moments in the history of the industry. Watchmen had just finished up. Sandman was getting started. DC and Marvel were ramping up. Image and Valiant were just around the corner. And Batman. There is no doubt that Batman '89 helped trigger the early-90s comic boom.

 

As much fun as I've had in comics since then, '89-90 or so was something very special. Tangible anticipation that comics culture was about to grow into something different.

 

There's a string of very significant stuff in the past 15 years or so, of course, but I'd consider them more as stepping stones. Technologically (Spider-Man 1 and X2 blew my mind at the time), evidence of the studios "getting it" (Nolan), and business-wise (the Marvel Studios concept).

 

Superman the Movie is always a bit underrated in these discussions, but Batman '89 moved the needle culturally in a way that Supes didn't.

 

 

[zosocane]

Superman the Movie is always a bit underrated in these discussions, but Batman '89 moved the needle culturally in a way that Supes didn't.

 

But what happened after Batman '89? Just a few more relatively weak Batman films. I think X-Men 2000, with its use of early CGI, is what broke things open with a flood of hero films. And I would credit Superman The Movie for proving to Hollywood that hero films work, but that FX are critical to their success.

[Ken Aldred]

When I watched Blade I felt for the first time that CGI was advancing enough to use it to do very convincing super-powered fight scenes. It wasn't quite there yet in 98, but it was getting close. A year later we got The Matrix, and a year after that, X-Men. Quick progress, really.

[markseifert]

Superman the Movie is always a bit underrated in these discussions, but Batman '89 moved the needle culturally in a way that Supes didn't.

 

But what happened after Batman '89?

 

Well, a fair bit.

 

1990: TMNT film franchise begins.

1991: Rocketeer, TMNT 2

1992: Batman Returns

1993: TMNT 3

1994: The Crow, The Mask (both also very underrated in discussions on this topic)

1995: Judge Dredd, Tank Girl, Batman Forever

1996: Crow 2, Barb Wire, The Phantom

1997: Men In Black, Batman & Robin, Spawn, Steel

1998: Blade

1999: Mystery Men

 

All great movies? Nope. But plenty of properties, big and small, got their shot. There's a few worthy attempts and underrappeciated films there. And yes, several bad ones -- and that's not even counting all the unreleased Marvel stuff. But the film industry learned and set the stage for the next decade.

 

Basically, we knew the world had changed when stuff like Rocketeer, Crow, and Dredd got their shot. Rocketeer was viewed as pretty important within the comics industry at the time. Of course, Crow blew up to be a major deal in the news because of Brandon Lee's tragic death, and The Mask was the gateway to stardom for both Cameron Diaz and Jim Carey.

 

But of course:

 

WB temporarily killed the Batman franchise with bad sequels, and then dithered far too long getting another Superman made.

 

Marvel's stuff was tied up in bad deals FOREVER -- and Corman's unreleased FF became a symbol of what can happen to comic movies in the wrong hands. Meanwhile, Sony spent years trying to unravel the legal cruft from around the Spider-Man rights.

 

I would actually count X2 as the next MAJOR stepping stone after Batman '89. Ten minutes into the film, watching the way various powers worked, watching the character interactions... I was nodding and thinking to myself, yeah, they're getting it.

 

[The-Collector]

I think the bande dessinee has had a much bigger impact on western cinema than many give it credit for. Jean Guirad in the Fifth Element and then two years later Geof Darrow on the Matrix really helped increase hollwood's willingness to stage intelligent and grandly produced sci-fi. The cultural legacy of the Matrix is huge, and while not based on a comic it does have some important features which came from the comic world.

 

 

[the authority]

Superman the Movie is always a bit underrated in these discussions, but Batman '89 moved the needle culturally in a way that Supes didn't.

 

But what happened after Batman '89?

 

Well, a fair bit.

 

1990: TMNT film franchise begins.

1991: Rocketeer, TMNT 2

1992: Batman Returns

1993: TMNT 3

1994: The Crow, The Mask (both also very underrated in discussions on this topic)

1995: Judge Dredd, Tank Girl, Batman Forever

1996: Crow 2, Barb Wire, The Phantom

1997: Batman & Robin, Spawn, Steel

1998: Blade

1999: Mystery Men

 

All great movies? Nope. But plenty of properties, big and small, got their shot. There's a few worthy attempts and underrappeciated films there. And yes, several bad ones -- and that's not even counting all the unreleased Marvel stuff. But the film industry learned and set the stage for the next decade.

 

Basically, we knew the world had changed when stuff like Rocketeer, Crow, and Dredd got their shot. Rocketeer was viewed as pretty important within the comics industry at the time. Of course, Crow blew up to be a major deal in the news because of Brandon Lee's tragic death, and The Mask was the gateway to stardom for both Cameron Diaz and Jim Carey.

 

But of course:

 

WB temporarily killed the Batman franchise with bad sequels, and then dithered far too long getting another Superman made.

 

Marvel's stuff was tied up in bad deals FOREVER -- and Corman's unreleased FF became a symbol of what can happen to comic movies in the wrong hands. Meanwhile, Sony spent years trying to unravel the legal cruft from around the Spider-Man rights.

 

I would actually count X2 as the next MAJOR stepping stone after Batman '89. Ten minutes into the film, watching the way various powers worked, watching the character interactions... I was nodding and thinking to myself, yeah, they're getting it.

 

I would vote for the Reeves/Donner Superman.

 

I like your list and maybe I missed it but Men in Black happened somewhere in there I believe. The Crow is one of my all time favorites but I must admit I watched the movie before reading the comic. I've wondered many times how much Brandon Lee's death influenced my love for this movie. I saw him in an interview and it seemed as if he was talking about what was going to happen to him during the filming of the movie. Very, very ironic.

 

A movie that helped me get people to try comics was 300. I can't tell you how many times i've heard " this was a comic ?".

[VintageComics]

Superman the Movie is always a bit underrated in these discussions, but Batman '89 moved the needle culturally in a way that Supes didn't.

 

Fully agree. Although Superman 1 was a great success and Marlon Brando's record paycheck at the time was big news, it didn't affect comics much.

 

Batman (1989) was an absolute marketing juggernaut and affected both the movie and the comic industry like no other. Batman was all over the place.

[Maccai3]

I saw him in an interview and it seemed as if he was talking about what was going to happen to him during the filming of the movie. Very, very ironic.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fufYgrgIXg

 

The Crow was the film that showed me that not all comics were Batman, Spiderman, Superman...(i was 7 at this point)

 

the sequels though

[Jeffro.]

I'm sure people won't agree with this, but I really think the first Spider-Man brought us into the landscape we are in now. That movie made big money at the time and got people talking. Most casual fans don't know that Spider-Man is a Sony property and they just think all Marvel films will be good.

 

I listened to Kevin Smith talk about how big a deal Batman was for him. I think that movie had a pretty big following when it first came out.

 

The first Batman movie was HUGE. First film in history to make 100M in it's first 10 days.

 

It made 11X budget expenses, and caused a rush to comic stores that is not the common reaction from comic book-based movies. People were buying Batman branded goods just to be part of the craze.

 

So Superman showed us we could fly. Batman showed us we could do it in style, with cash falling out of our pockets.

 

Jack Nicholson walking away with $60 MM in profits from the movie because he cut into the merchandising sales shows how big this movie truly was.

 

By the way, that merchandising profit share that Jack Nicholson negotiated. That is still the biggest on record for an actor in a superhero movie. Only the Iron Man deal for RDJ comes close.

 

Converted to 2014 dollars, that is over $114.712 MM that Nicholson took in alone for his share. That is how much money was coming in from people purchasing anything Batman branded.

 

I didn't give one whit about Batman pre-1989.

However during 1989 and for a few years later, I bought

 

Batman comics

Batman Hardcovers and TPBs

Batman t-shirts

Batman die cast vehicles

Batman buttons

Batman trading cards

Batman, Batman, Batman

 

It was freakin' HUGE!

[Jeffro.]

Of course, in hindsight, I should have taken all that money and put it into high grade SA Marvel.