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Is Marvel or DC better?
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The Marvel movies have made more money; their popularity shows they are better

The Marvel movie universe is a juggernaut and the most successful movie franchise of all time. Money talks, and when a movie franchise rocks the box office to the extent that Marvel has, its popularity becomes a clear indicator of its quality.

The Argument

Movies which are popular with audiences are popular for a reason; they are good, quality, widely-appealing films. When a film makes it big at the box office, the amount of money it has made shows just how popular it is. It's clear that the Marvel movies have been much more successful than the DC movies. Of the top ten superhero movies between the two, Marvel claims all but one. The starkest difference can be seen between the two franchises' crossover events. Marvel's The Avengers, released in 2012, made 1.5 billion dollars at the box office, while Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice, released in 2016, only made around 900 million. Avengers: Infinity War made 2 billion dollars at the box office; Justice League made 650 million (even less than the preceding Dawn of Justice).[1] Marvel's movies are simply more lucrative, and DC has fallen behind in almost every contest. With Marvel's Phase 4 looming on the horizon, and with the failures of Justice League still lingering in fans' minds, this battle for the box office is not very competitive.

Counter arguments

Marvel has seen success at the box office, and DC has its shares of failures. But don't dismiss DC's efforts too quickly, as it's proving it can learn from its mistakes. After Justice League flopped, Aquaman performed much better, taking in 1.1 billion dollars at the box office. And the highly acclaimed Joker earned over a billion dollars as well. Not only that, but its return on investment (ROI) was 1,949 percent - the highest rate out of all of Marvel and DC's films. DC is quickly closing the gap and catching up to Marvel's box office success.[2] But even if that weren't the case, how good a movie is isn't wholly determined by its profits. For example, James Cameron's Avatar made even more money than Avengers: Endgame (until the latter released in theaters for a second time). Does that make Avatar a better movie than Endgame - or even a good movie at all? On the contrary, the consensus is that Avatar was quite forgettable, despite its enormous budget and revenue.

Proponents

Premises

Rejecting the premises

References

  1. https://observer.com/2020/03/marvel-vs-dc-box-office-mcu-dceu-ticket-sales/#:~:text=The%20%2455%20million%20picture%20earned,%24500%20million%20in%20pure%20profits.&text=While%20Marvel%20may%20still%20top,between%20the%20two%20is%20shrinking.
  2. https://observer.com/2020/03/marvel-vs-dc-box-office-mcu-dceu-ticket-sales/#:~:text=The%20%2455%20million%20picture%20earned,%24500%20million%20in%20pure%20profits.&text=While%20Marvel%20may%20still%20top,between%20the%20two%20is%20shrinking.
This page was last edited on Monday, 22 Jun 2020 at 17:51 UTC

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