Wed Jul 23, 2008 — by Van Jensen

How the Superheroes Saved Movies

Five films rake in $500 million in a month

We've heard plenty about the dominance of the superhero in Hollywood, but a new story in the UK Telegraph puts some numbers together and shows just how much movies are benefitting from the comics influx.

After a huge run of successful comics films, The Dark Knight (which happened to open with a record $158 million weekend) was just the cherry on the ice cream:

It becomes the fifth film with a comic book or graphic novel theme to dominate the box office in recent weeks following Universal's blockbuster Iron Man, as well as Hellboy II, The Incredible Hulk and Wanted. Together they have generated more than $500 million (£250 million) in US takings alone.

Sequels to this year's hits are already planned and dozens more offerings based on comic books are in the pipeline.

"They have become Hollywood's safety net," said Jeff Bock, of Exhibitor Relations, the box-office analyst.

It would be interesting to see a breakdown of how much of that gigantic sum is actually coming back to comics publishers.

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