{"id":42860,"date":"2025-08-04T08:55:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-04T08:55:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/42860\/"},"modified":"2025-08-04T08:55:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-04T08:55:10","slug":"superman-is-about-to-break-a-17-year-old-dc-curse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/42860\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Superman\u2019 Is About To Break A 17-Year-Old DC Curse"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"superman\"<\/p>\n

Box office hounds are currently looking at<\/a> the horse race between Superman and Fantastic Four, the former of which will apparently top the latter unless some dramatic shift takes place in the imminent future.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not just a \u201cwin\u201d for DC and the new DCU, it\u2019s something that goes well beyond that. If this happens with Superman, and it\u2019s almost certain it\u2019s about to, this will be the first time a DC movie was the highest-grossing comic book movie of a given year since 2008. Can you guess what that was? Yep, Christopher Nolan\u2019s The Dark Knight.<\/p>\n

Of course, 2008 was also when the MCU began with Iron Man. The DCEU did not kick off until 2013 with Man of Steel, but in that five year gap there was nothing that topped Marvel (even The Dark Knight Rises), and even the biggest DCEU movie, Aquaman, did not beat out Marvel\u2019s big entry that year, Avengers: Infinity War (of course it didn\u2019t).<\/p>\n

What\u2019s the full list? I think it\u2019s interesting to take a look at. I\u2019m going to start at 2006 just to give a frame of reference (the previous two years were Marvel too, naturally):<\/p>\n

2006 \u2013 X-Men: The Last Stand
\n 2007 \u2013 Spider-Man
\n 2008 \u2013 The Dark Knight
\n 2009 \u2013 X-Men Origins: Wolverine
\n 2010 \u2013 Iron Man 2
\n 2011 \u2013 Captain America: The First Avenger
\n 2012 \u2013 The Avengers
\n 2013 \u2013 Iron Man 3
\n 2014 \u2013 Guardians of the Galaxy
\n 2015 \u2013 Avengers: Age of Ultron
\n 2016 \u2013 Captain America: Civil War
\n 2017 \u2013 Spider-Man: Homecoming
\n 2018 \u2013 Avengers: Infinity War
\n 2019 \u2013 Avengers: Endgame
\n 2020 \u2013 No Marvel movies were even out due to COVID, DC had Birds of Prey and Wonder Woman 1984, the latter of which was released simultaneously on HBO Max. Bizzare, bad year, as we all know.
\n 2021 \u2013 Spider-Man: No Way Home
\n 2022 \u2013 Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness
\n 2023 \u2013 Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3
\n 2024 \u2013 Deadpool and Wolverine
\n 2025 \u2013 Superman, which will beat out Fantastic Four, Thunderbolts and Captain America: Brave New World this year.<\/p>\n

Looking ahead to 2026 and beyond, this trend is unlikely to continue. If it hits its release date, the upcoming Spider-Man: Brand New Day is likely to crush Supergirl at the box office. After that, there are two Avengers movies that could go up against The Batman Part II one of those years, but I don\u2019t think that would beat either.<\/p>\n

Still, this is a significant achievement for Superman and DC. One that may not happen all that often from here, but with Marvel\u2019s relative declines, who knows, it may start occurring more and more.<\/p>\n

Follow me on Twitter<\/a>, YouTube<\/a>,<\/a> and Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series<\/a> and The Earthborn Trilogy<\/a>.<\/p>\n