Why do we only allow DC and Marvel heroes? Because an earlier version of this quiz didn't have this restriction and there were big debates about the definition of a superhero.
But neither one qualifies as a superhero by any logical definition of the word. GI Joe, by the way, was my favorite comic book ever - highly underrated.
If Superman can be a superhero why not Optimus Prime? They're both aliens with superhuman abilities that do heroic things. But okay whatever... was an earlier version of this quiz named top-grossing comic book movies? I think it was when I made the above comment but I might be misremembering.
When I made this comment it was after the Marvel/DC caveat had been added, but I believe before something was changed from "comic book" to "superhero." The Transformers comic actually was produced by Marvel.
Yeah...Robert Downey, Jr. has actually played Iron Man in 8 different movies now--Iron Man, Iron Man 2, Iron Man 3, The Avengers, Avengers:Age of Ultron, Avengers: Infininity War, Captain America:Civil War, and Spiderman: Homecoming--not counting end credit scenes. And if you count Captain America's cameo in the school video Peter and his classmates had to watch in Homecoming, Chris Evans has been Cap in 7 different movies now: Captain America (1st one), Winter Soldier, Civil War, Avengers (1st one), Age of Ultron, Infinity War, and Spiderman: Homecoming. Of course if you don't count the (somewhat overrated) MCU, Wolvie still reigns supreme.
got 'em all again though took me a few minutes to recall The Amazing Spider-man. I often forget that one.
According to boxofficemojo The Wolverine has grossed $129,000,000 so far ($362 million worldwide) so can we finally kick DareDevil ($102M domestic/$179M global) off this list?
I was very hopeful when I saw it on the front page today, but alas no. Quizmaster updates these things quite awhile before posting them to the front page. I think it was updated in early August, before The Wolverine had crossed the Daredevil threshhold. BTW, I just rewatched Daredevil a week ago (yes, I bought the blu-ray for $4 at one point), and it just gets worse with repeat viewing.
haha.. I haven't seen that movie in many years but, I think it at least had its moments? Maybe it just seemed better at the time since there weren't many good superhero movies back then. Before the huge glut of them that we have now. At least it was better than the spinoff Elektra.
hancock is a superhero? the incredibles is a film about superheroes? the green hornet? all 3 of them would of made top 50 for highest grossing superhero films, needs to be more defined for what's classified a superhero film...
I know they aren't the exact title, but could you accept answers like "xmen 3" or "thor 2" please? They're often colloquially referred to by those names so I think it's fair.
For everyone complaining about what constitutes a superhero, I believe Marvel and DC hold a trademark for that title. GI Joe and Transformers FILMS are not products of Marvel or DC
Marvel Studios doesn't produce them, but they're official Marvel films, signified by the Marvel logo at the start of all of them. Transformers etc. don't have that.
Not sure how a logo makes a difference. The reason it's not before the Transformers movies is because Transformers are a property of Hasbro. A property licensed by Marvel to produce Marvel comic books. My argument stands.
X-Men 2 is just called X2, sometimes promoted as X2: X-Men United (or internationally X-Men 2 (that's how I know it)) while movies like The Avengers 2 have their own name without the number. I'm surprised X-Men: First Class is not on the list. It seems to have a higher box office outcome than Fantastic Four.
First Class used to be on here. But in spite of being one of the best-reviewed X-Men movies it also happened to be the lowest-grossing of the entire series (domestically); though, unless Apocalypse gets a second wind, it could beat First Class's underperformance record (and have reviews nowhere near as positive).
This quiz is in desperate need of an update! Several new movies are sure to make the list: definitely Captain America: Civil War, Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice, and Deadpool; possibly the latest Fantastic Four?
The new Fantastic Four movie was a giant failure. It grossed only $56 million in domestic box office. For the sake of comparison, the 2005 Fantastic Four movie, also considered a failure, made 3x that much money.
I can't believe I was doing so well, and I completely forgot Spiderman!!! (my 2nd favourite superhero). If I'd've thought of him id've got 5 more points! Grrrr
That's not the film's official title, and now that they make so many of these movies and reboot them so often that the numbering systems could get and in some cases have gotten a little confusing, I guess QM wanted to play it safe and just use official titles.
I've watched a few of these with my kids and grandkids, and I was happy to score 17. Sorry, superheroes are just not my cup of tea but more power to those of you who enjoy them. I'll take a nice Jane Austen film any day.
You know, with this quiz being at least five years old (with some updates) and over 120 comments, I'm surprised nobody bothered to bring up Big Hero 6.
that is a little odd. It's even listed at the source. I'm assuming the quiz author either didn't know that BH6 was a Marvel character (though it's been mentioned on other quizzes), or he assumed that too many people would not think of it as a superhero movie which is probably fair.
While I understand that this list is DC/Marvel only, could I just say that the Incredibles and Big Hero 6 are two of the best superhero movies that I've watched. Megaman too -personally think that it's very underrated-, if you want to include supervillain movies.
I feel like instead of leaving a note under the title stating that it is only DC and Marvel, it should just say in the title itself "Highest Grossing Marvel&DC Superhero Movies."
Also, it would be great to see a list of the top 50 superhero movies INCLUDING inflation.
Inflation is always interesting and I feel like it is more legitimate when dealing with what a movie actually made for its time. (101 Dalmatians did more at box office than Avatar, for example)
That way we don't have to keep on seeing all of these new movies continuously pop up in nearly every quiz.
I doubt it would make that much of a difference as the market for superhero movies keeps growing, and in the past there just weren't that many made. Donner's Superman would certainly make the cut inflation-adjusted, but other than that there would just be some minor shuffling.
Maybe update with Black Panther and the new Avengers movie?
- Funfact: Actor Chris Evans appears in this list as Captain America but also as The Human Tourch in Fantastic Four
- Funfact 2: While Batman has the most movies (7)in this list. Iron Man/Tony Stark makes the most appearances (also in Avengers, Spiderman Homecomming, Thor, and Captain America)
So is Watchmen off the list because it's not Marvel/DC (though it is owned by DC, until recently it hasn't been part of the main continuity), because they aren't considered superheroes for some reason, or because it didn't make enough at the box office?
Box Office Mojo has Infinity War's domestic total at 672 million. Worldwide, it blows Black Panther away. The rest of the world did not go as stupid crazy for BP as Americans did, but domestically it's still #1. Worldwide Infinity War, Avengers, and Age of Ultron are 1-3 and Black Panther ends up in 4th place.
This really should be updated to reflect world wide box office. Using only domestic totals never really made sense but as overseas markets are only growing more important it makes less sense with every passing year.
Great quiz. Was it just me, or did some answers fill in sequels whereas others didn't? Seem to have got most Xmen movies by just typing 'xmen' but somehow missed Spider-man 2 assuming the same would happen.
Movies that seem to be missing from this list: Big Hero 6 (223 millions), Lego Batman (176 millons) and X-Men Apocalypse (155 millions, about 800K more than Fantastic Four). Also, Ant-Man and the Wasp will be getting on this list in a week or two.
I think Spider-Man Homecoming is in the wrong spot. It shows that it made 334 m, behind The Winter Soldier that made 260 m. Unless you're still updating the totals? lol
Agreed. Though, purely for tradition's sake as far as I can tell, many people still only look at domestic box office, this is really outdated thinking. Back in the 40s, 50s, and 60s, sure, the American box office was pretty much all that mattered. But these days most big movies make 60-80% of their money overseas. Big budget American films are produced and marketed with this very much in mind now.
Assuming that you are going to update this to include mega success Avengers: Endgame, maybe consider swapping out domestic box office for international finally? Domestic numbers get less and less relevant every year. I know the list on BoxOfficeMojo that includes only superhero films uses domestic totals but I could do the research to make it an international list if you wanted me to.
Tried to type in "The Avengers" and it wasn't accepted for Number 3, also I feel like X-Men Day's of Future Past and Venom should be here as they are Marvel and DC and are on what I believe you used as the source.
The Christopher Nolan Batman trilogy is the best of the lot, and moreso if you aren't especially partial to superhero movies. The Batman movies are more methodical and darker than the other movies on this list, and have a lot more character study than reliance on superhero cliches.
I would second the Nolan Bat-trilogy, the last two of which make this list. So that means Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, and the Dark Knight Rises. Excellent films, particularly the 2nd one, and while knowing something about the characters going in will enhance your enjoyment of the films it's not really necessary and they are much more grounded than most superhero movies. No superpowers in any of them.
Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 1 and 2 you might like if you would enjoy a goofy adventure/comedy set in space. Thor: Ragnarok maybe, as well, by the same rationale.
Deadpool 1 and 2 are both hilarious deconstructions of the superhero genre.
Mangold's The Wolverine (2013) and Logan are both really good, too, and like the Nolan Bat-films if you know about the X-Men source material before going in it will enhance your enjoyment of the films but it's not totally necessary. Very much worth checking out, but definitely skip the first one (X-Men Origins: Wolverine)
I would call the Nolan films more an exploration of certain themes than they are character studies. Character, plot, and comics book lore all take a backseat to themes in these movies, especially the last one. A lot of Nolan's films do this actually and they're all great.
Also maybe the first Iron Man film (2008). I showed that to my dad who hates superhero and fantasy films and he liked it. If you watch Iron Man and like it well enough then maybe you could try watching Captain America: The First Avenger. If you liked that well enough maybe then you could watch Thor. If you still weren't terribly bored then you could try watching the first Avengers film (Marvel's The Avengers). and who knows then maybe you'd be a Marvel convert. The best films in the MCU come in the later phases (The Winter Soldier, Civil War, Ragnarok, Infinity War, Endgame) but without the groundwork laid by the phases that preceded them, you won't get nearly as much out of them. So I'd start with Iron Man, which actually I know many people still regard as the best of all MCU films.
X-Men: First Class and X-Men: Days of Future Past are among my personal favorites but I wouldn't ever recommend them to someone who doesn't like the genre.
You don't need to have a special interest in superheroes to enjoy superhero movies. But if you outright dislike the concept of super powered individuals (or someone having enough gadgets, armor, and weaponry to be considered one), then you're going to have an issue whenever that deus-ex-superia appears onscreen, no matter how low-key it does so. That said, I think Logan and The Dark Knight are the ones that could very easily swap genres with just a few tweaks. They're basically Shane and Heat... but with comic book characters.
A few years later... now I think Joker might be the one film above that might have the best shot at appealing to someone who doesn't like, or perhaps even actively dislikes, superheroes. That film is so completely different tonally than most of these that I often forget about it as my mind skips over it when it's scanning for "superhero" films. Essentially a comic book-inspired remake of Taxi Driver.
It definitely has a shot but the thing that kept Avatar and Titanic at the top for so long is that they both had incredible staying power. Titanic's opening weekend was something like 22 million dollars. But it was in theaters forever. (AMAZING that it took 22 YEARS for a non-Cameron film to sink the boat! even with inflation, 3D, and IMAX)
I think it will get past Avatar for global box office because international now accounts for a much larger percentage of box office than in 2009. As of today, it needs around $500M more to beat it, and that seems very achievable. What it won't beat, though, is the domestic box office record of Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
Avatar made 72.7% of its box office overseas. Endgame so far has made 71.6% of its box office overseas. So I don't think that's why it has a shot at beating Avatar, even though Endgame's opening in China was incredible.
I think you're probably right that it won't beat The Force Awaken's domestic total. I doubt that any Star Wars movie will break that record, either, after Disney effectively killed the franchise.
Incredible that Endgame is already #1 on this list and has cleared $2 billion. As I write this comment, that movie has only been in theaters for twelve days. That's insane.
I'm trying to make sense of what a "nerd movie" is. It could be anything ranging from a Hollywood classic to any non-American movie to low-budget independent dramas to obscure exploitation flicks. In fact these are more "nerdy" than superhero stuff, given that Marvel is the most mass-appealing thing in cinema right now.
Nerds are basically people who get really invested in something and so learn a lot about it. There are history nerds, geography nerds, fantasy or sci-fi nerds, comic book nerds, tech nerds, gaming nerds, movie nerds, sports nerds, music nerds, fashion nerds, and people who are deeply religious I would describe as nerds, as well. All the same type of people they just nerd out about different stuff. And, of course, these are the sort of people who come to trivia websites. Not surprising to find any of these types here.
However, this quiz has far fewer comments than many other quizzes, so, was there some special reason you felt the need to be condescending here, even if it meant stating something that's obviously not even true? The Countries of the World quiz has 1003 "recent" comments.
He leaves condescending comments on quizzes about popular movies all the time. He obviously thinks very little of these films or the people who enjoy them. If you haven't seen it you're not paying attention. And "very few" is still more none. This quiz does not have more comments than any other.
There are A LOT of very samey films on that list. The plots are very generic. But, I guess people must like them, if they keep going to see them. Each to their own.
Next update will have to include Spider-Man: Far from Home in the top 10, as it's made about $1.13 billion. And I'm still pulling for Big Hero 6 to be included!
leave out the Dark Knight + D K rises and this could be a list of the worst movies ever , when will this glut of teeny superhero movies end , the bottom of the barrel must surely have been scraped with aquaman and antman . Is there no imagination left in Hollywood anymore.
I got bored with Aquaman but I thought Ant-Man was fun. Endgame was an unprecedented cinematic achievement, nothing like it before has ever been done or even attempted (10 years of blockbuster films with distinct but intertwining stories all culminating in two massive event films, what a payoff!), and it was executed so damn well, too. The Russo Brothers, Waititi, Favreau, Whedon, Branaugh, Nolan, Burton... these are some of the most talented filmmakers alive today. And Hollywood has always been pretty derivative, but, you're using these movies as an example of "no imagination?" That's actually kind of funny. I wonder if Stan Lee ever got accused of having no imagination.
You misunderstood what I meant .Stan Lee had a great imagination , some of his comic book stuff is great some average some bad .What I meant was Hollywood for the last while seems to concentrate on superhero stuff .there is a lack of variety in mainstream movie making. If you want to see want can be done using comics as a source the Sin City movies are a great example the first one is a classic. and the best superhero (if Batman can be classed as a super hero )adaptation was the wonderful Batman animated series with Mark Hamill voicing the joker.
Not quite! Captain America: The First Avenger isn't on there, either. Nor is Spider-Man: Far From Home, but that one's just because the quiz hasn't been updated to include it, because it definitely made enough to be here.
Yup, now the oldest movie on the list is 2002's Spider-Man. Actually, the three movies in Raimi's trilogy are together the three oldest movies on here.
Not necessarily. What with the finale of Loki... and all the stuff that has leaked about the next Spider-Man movie... it seems like Phase 4 of the MCU is going full-on multiverse and I assume what that means is that in the MCU.. or... MCM, rather... all of these different comic book movies exist simultaneously, but those not officially canon in the MCU could now be considered as having happened in some alternate reality (or branching timeline) of the multiverse. Evan Peters showing up in WandaVision I think is another nod to this being a fact, and Deadpool is going to be showing up in the MCU, or in some MCU-adjacent film, at some point, too. I won't say what is all-but-officially-confirmed to be in Spider-Man No Way Home, in case people are trying to avoid spoilers, but I think whenever it comes out, the above theory will be shown as accurate.
As pointed out, you're missing Far From Home. And you still haven't fixed the fact that Big Hero 6 is omitted and there's no caveat discounting animated films.
Why wouldn't it count? I mean, the point is moot since the "live-action" caveat was finally added, but Big Hero 6 was based on a main-continuity (though admittedly obscure) Marvel superhero comic. It even had Stan Lee in it!
Just my own opinion but... Batman v. Superman > Man of Steel > THE Suicide Squad > Shazam! > Wonder Woman > Zack Snyder's Justice League > who cares all the rest were terrible. Though Aquaman may have been the least terrible of the terrible ones. Possibly even better than the Snyder cut of Justice League... which was better than the horrendous theatrical cut in some ways, but also worse in other ways, and still not actually a good movie.
other people have probably commented this but joker should not be incuded on this list. not a criticism of quizmaker as technically it is of course, but i think everyone knows that it's not.l
There are some baaaad movies on here. Hang your head in shame if you paid money to put Thor 2 & 4, Iron Man 2 & 3, or those Avenger movies on the list.
According to boxofficemojo The Wolverine has grossed $129,000,000 so far ($362 million worldwide) so can we finally kick DareDevil ($102M domestic/$179M global) off this list?
Marvel, however, does not produce all of the films made about their comic books.
They did it for X-Men
...this must be one of the most frequently updated quizzes on the site. I wouldn't mind seeing the number of answers expanded a bit though.
Also, it would be great to see a list of the top 50 superhero movies INCLUDING inflation.
Inflation is always interesting and I feel like it is more legitimate when dealing with what a movie actually made for its time. (101 Dalmatians did more at box office than Avatar, for example)
That way we don't have to keep on seeing all of these new movies continuously pop up in nearly every quiz.
- Funfact: Actor Chris Evans appears in this list as Captain America but also as The Human Tourch in Fantastic Four
- Funfact 2: While Batman has the most movies (7)in this list. Iron Man/Tony Stark makes the most appearances (also in Avengers, Spiderman Homecomming, Thor, and Captain America)
Although I suggest updating it!
Barry B. Benson is a type of superhero.
Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 1 and 2 you might like if you would enjoy a goofy adventure/comedy set in space. Thor: Ragnarok maybe, as well, by the same rationale.
Deadpool 1 and 2 are both hilarious deconstructions of the superhero genre.
Mangold's The Wolverine (2013) and Logan are both really good, too, and like the Nolan Bat-films if you know about the X-Men source material before going in it will enhance your enjoyment of the films but it's not totally necessary. Very much worth checking out, but definitely skip the first one (X-Men Origins: Wolverine)
X-Men: First Class and X-Men: Days of Future Past are among my personal favorites but I wouldn't ever recommend them to someone who doesn't like the genre.
Definitely all four Avengers movies.
I think you're probably right that it won't beat The Force Awaken's domestic total. I doubt that any Star Wars movie will break that record, either, after Disney effectively killed the franchise.
However, this quiz has far fewer comments than many other quizzes, so, was there some special reason you felt the need to be condescending here, even if it meant stating something that's obviously not even true? The Countries of the World quiz has 1003 "recent" comments.
There are A LOT of very samey films on that list. The plots are very generic. But, I guess people must like them, if they keep going to see them. Each to their own.
Also added Far From Home, not sure why QM missed this one.
i clearly remember the title saying superhero movies