Superhero films

超级英雄电影

Superman v Spider-Man

超人大战蜘蛛侠

Comic-book characters continue to conquer the box office

漫画人物延续征服票房之势

Jun 15th 2013 |From the print edition

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“MAN OF STEEL”, the new Superman film, opens on June 14th in America and some other countries. In the film, Superman dons his cape and (spoiler alert!) saves the world single-handedly. Turning comics into films has produced superheroic profits. Since 1978, when the first Superman epic came to the big screen, DC Comics, which besides Superman has the rights to Batman, Catwoman and others, has seen its films gross nearly $8 billion worldwide.

《超人》续集《钢铁之躯》于6月14日在美国等国上映。影片中，超人将重披战袍，（剧透警示！）单枪匹马拯救世界。将动漫改编成电影，已创造出超级英雄式赢利模式。自从1978年第一部史诗大片《超人》被搬上荧屏，DC漫画又先后创作出蝙蝠侠、猫女等超级英雄，这些漫画改编的影片至今已获得近80亿美元的全球票房总收入。

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Track the big-screen battle between DC and Marvel over time with our interactive graphic

我们的交互图表展示了DC和Marvel之间旷日持久的荧幕之战

But sometimes even superheroes encounter a greater force. DC (owned by Time Warner) has been beaten at the box office by its arch-enemy Marvel, whose characters include Spider-Man, the X-Men and Iron Man. Marvel’s films have grossed nearly $14 billion. “The Avengers” took more than $1.5 billion in cinemas worldwide, and is one of the highest-grossing films of all time. Disney, which bought Marvel for a steep $4.2 billion in 2009, now looks smart.

但是，有时超级英雄也会遇到更强大的对手。DC公司（时代华纳公司所有）在票房上已经被旗下拥有蜘蛛侠、X战警和钢铁侠等人物的劲敌Marvel公司击败。Marvel的电影票房总收入已近140亿美元。《复仇者》从全球院线豪取逾15亿美元，成为有史以来票房收入最高的电影。2009年，迪斯尼公司以42亿美元天价收购了Marvel，现在看来是聪明之举。

Success in film today is all about having vast libraries of intellectual (sic) property to draw on. People will pay to watch superheroes and super-spectacles even when the economy is bad. In emerging markets, film fans are lapping up Hollywood’s epics. But splashy films require splashier spending on special effects. Superhero films’ budgets have soared, and now often exceed $200m.

如今，影片的成功全赖于动用大量的知识（原文如此）产权成果。为了看超级英雄和宏大场面，人们愿意掏腰包，甚至是在经济不景气的时期。在新兴市场，影迷对好莱坞大片正如饥似渴。但叫座的电影需要在特效上投入更大的财力。超级英雄电影的预算在不断飙升，现在动辄2亿美元以上。

From the print edition: Business