Why superheroes are box office superstars

The three-hour-long film, whose many stars include Scarlett Johansson, Chris Hemsworth, Chris Evans, Robert Downey Jnr, Mark Ruffalo and Jeremy Renner, has broken some box-office records, pulling in $1.2bn in global receipts.

In fact, of the current 21 worldwide top-grossing films ever, listed on the website Box Office Mojo, no fewer than nine are superhero movies: Avengers: Infinity War, Marvel's The Avengers, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Black Panther, Avengers: Endgame, Incredibles 2, Iron Man 3, Captain America: Civil War and Aquaman.

The sprawling and intensely lucrative Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) has included such films as the Iron Man trilogy, the Avengers films mentioned above, Ant-Man, Black Panther, The Incredible Hulk and Captain Marvel, which starred Brie Larson.

"This storytelling strand, the Infinity series, has been going since Iron Man, in 2008," says Alison Rowat, the Herald's film writer, "so a whole generation has grown up with these tales.

"The films have given audiences traditional things, like heroes to care for. They've given them everything from comedy to tragedy and straight-up drama. Above all, they've given people a reason to keep coming back and find out what happens next.

"They're very clever in that they are standalone films, but with links. One film will throw up a strand that another picks up on. Fans love that kind of thing: it makes them feel as if they are part of a club, insiders.”

Like other critics, Rowat has noted the attention to detail in these superhero films. "The most successful of these films are made by what you might call fan-boys who are steeped in the genre.

"In the new Endgame film, there's a lovely scene where all the Avengers are getting together again, and they go to Thor's home. In the background you see this bottle of amber liquid and you think, 'Can that really be a bottle of Irn-Bru?' And it is. It's that sort of attention to detail that makes you realise why these films are so beloved by the fans."

The directors of Endgame, brothers Joe and Anthony Russo, have been taken aback by the success of the film. “We were definitely surprised. We knew the movie was good but you can never predict something like this,” Anthony said last week. “With this kind of runaway success, the phrase standing on the shoulders of giants comes to mind, because the MCU has been building for so long. The audience has a depth of emotion for these characters."

Not everyone, however, is in love with the MCU or with superhero films in general.

Jodie Foster, for one. “I worked 50 years to become a director,” she has said. “It took me this long, and I’m going to make a superhero movie? I don’t think so.”

As Empire film magazine pointed out a few months ago, there are those who see Marvel Studios and the MCU as the epitome of everything that is wrong with modern blockbusters, and "rail against the homogenisation of mass entertainment, and lay the blame for all the copycat shared universes and interlinked franchises that have sprung up in its wake.

"But that," Empire went on, "almost wilfully ignores the creative success of these movies. Funny, thrilling, laced with great character work, a Marvel Studios movie ... is as surefire a guarantee of a good time at the movies as it's possible to get."

'Fairy-tales for grown-ups'

THE late Stan Lee upended the comic book industry in the 1960s, creating Spider-Man, the X-Men, the Fantastic Four and most of the Avengers, amongst other lastingly popular characters.

In a 2013 TEDx Gateway video talk, he said: "For me, superheroes will always spark the imagination of people around the world, regardless of their background, because I think that people are always looking for something that represents the ideal person or the ideal situation.

"Almost all of us loved fairy-tales when we were young. Just remember stories of giants and witches and wizards and monsters and things that were so colourful and bigger than life. But then, you get a little older, and you're too old to read fairy-tales, but you never outgrow your love of that type of story. And if you think about it, superhero stories today are really like fairy-tales for grown-ups. The characters are bigger than life, just like in fairy-tales. They have the same type of super-powers; some can fly, some are extra-strong, some can be invisible...."

Game of thrones

COULD Avengers: Endgame go on to topple Avatar from its $2.8bn all-time box-office record? It is just possible.

As The Hollywood Reporter said this week: "After making history and obliterating records across the globe, Avengers: Endgame is destined to become only the fifth movie to clear $2 billion at the worldwide box office, not adjusted for inflation.

"The looming question now: Does the Disney and Marvel superhero pic have a shot at dethroning Avatar's $2.78 billion and becoming the top-grossing movie of all time worldwide? Box office analysts say that would be a tough feat, but they aren't ruling anything out after Endgame opened to a record-shattering $1.22 billion globally, including an unheard-of $356 million in North America and $866 million overseas. The international tally includes an all-time high of $330.5 million in China."

Longer, better?

LIKE Superman and Spider-Man, Batman has proved irresistible over the decades to film-makers.

Batman himself was the subject of four successful films between 1989 and 1997: Batman and Batman Returns, both directed by Tim Burton and with Michael Keaton as the caped crusader, squaring up to first Jack Nicholson then Danny DeVito; Joel Schumacher's Batman Forever, starring Val Kilmer; and Schumacher's Batman and Robin, with George Clooney and Chris O'Donnell in the title roles.

More recently, Batman was revived to considerable acclaim by Christopher Nolan, with Christian Bale taking the lead role in Batman Begins (2005), The Dark Knight (2008) and The Dark Knight Rises (2012). The last film is currently 27th in Box Office Mojo's all-time list of worldwide top-grossing hits.

As superhero films become longer and more ambitious, so too do they reflect the staggering improvements in computer graphics, with entire new virtual worlds opening up on the big screen and captivating millions of movie-goers. But there are film enthusiasts who argue that something has been lost amidst the spectacular special effects.

"That tends to divide people, actually," observes Alison Rowat." You'll get people who say the older superhero movies are the best ones because they were straightforward - the guy rescues the girl and they live happily ever after.

"Not everyone has got the patience to sit through them. Some think that the current crop maybe take themselves too seriously. They still do have their faults. There's always a big fight scene at the end, which can be interminable.

"They keep getting longer and longer, too. Avengers: Endgame is three hours long and that is not to everyone's taste either. I went to an 8am screening of Endgame and the cinema was pretty busy, but it was interesting that the three-hour run-time had quite a few people calling for a return of the old intermissions."

In the future ..

IT'S safe to say we have not yet seen the last of the superhero movie event. "It can definitely go on because they have generated their own audience and they can keep going back to them," says Alison Rowat. "But it's like everything else - you need to be careful not to kill the goose that lays the golden eggs. Already, you’ve got older cinema-goers turning up at cinemas and thinking, oh no, not another superhero movie. But it's all about constantly reinventing the genre. The great thing that is coming out of this Avengers series is Black Panther. That is very exciting and will get people coming back for more. The same goes for some of the women superheroes that they've got coming along too. That will be the future, but it requires to be carefully done."