Long-awaited superhero flicks “Aquaman” and “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” won the hearts of the moviegoers in December 2018, as revealed by their startling performance at the year-end box office.
DC Films’ “Aquaman” on Thursday December 19 reached the $300 million mark in worldwide revenues and is expected to beat “A Star is Born” and “Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald,” to become the biggest earner among film company Warner Bros.’ highest grossing movie for 2018.
Marvel Studios’ surprise animated hit “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse,” a loose adaptation of a hit comic book storyline on the one hand set the record fo the highest December opening for an animated movie after it earned $35.4 million in just its first three days in cinemas in the United States.
Both movies gained applause from critics. “Aquaman” was praised for its intense action sequences, graphics and world-building while “Into the Spider-verse” was lauded for its extraordinary animation, humor and unique treatment of the popular comic book character.
While they are neck-and-neck at the box office, many comic book fans have counted them as part of the top superhero movies of 2018.
2018 Superhero Films Ranked:
1. Spider-man: Into the Spider-Verse
2. Incredibles 2
3. Black Panther
4. Aquaman
5. Deadpool 2
6. Avengers: Infinity War
7. Ant-Man and the WaspYours?
— Ryan (@morris_movies) December 19, 2018
I tried to review Aquaman and Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse on the same blog post because I may be an insane man. Please help. https://t.co/jMWnCfrBEY pic.twitter.com/qjstra4LwG
— The Quite Nerdy Blog (@quitenerdyblog) December 18, 2018
Another big year for the superhero genre
2018 was seen as a successful year for the superhero genre, the dominant big-screen movie genre in the past decade. Disney, the company that owns comic book giant Marvel brought had one of its best performing years in its history. As early as September 2018, it recorded having brought in $6.46 billion.
Three of its 2018 movies, “Avengers: Infinity War,” “Black Panther” and “The Incredibles 2” are already among the top 15 highest grossing films of all-time. “Infinity War” is the first superhero film to earn more than $2 billion while the critically-acclaimed “Black Panther” has been shortlisted for a number of Academy Awards and is even believed to be a contender for the Best Picture Award.
2019 is expected to be an even bigger year as it will have the most number of major superhero film releases in the history of mainstream cinema.
Among the Marvel movies expected to premiere in 2019 “Captain Marvel,” “Avengers: Endgame” “Spider-Man: Far From Home” and “X-Men: Dark Phoenix.”
DC meanwhile will be releasing “Shazam!,” “Wonder Woman 1984” and “Joker.” It is also reportedly lining up “Birds of Prey,” “Cyborg,” and “Green Lantern Corps” for 2020.
A reboot of the movie adaptation of the Dark Horse comic book series “Hellboy” is also set to premiere in April 2019.
