DC Tops Marvel in DVD Sales

DC Tops Marvel in DVD Sales

While Marvel Comics may be the king of the comic book rack, DC Comics is the champion in comic book-related animated DVD sales.

News
By bsprecher - Jun 05, 2009 09:06 AM EST
Filed Under: Animated Features

The explosion in comic book-related films in the last few years isn't confined to the big screen, or to live action. Both of the "big two" comic book publishers, DC Comics and Marvel Comics, have released a number of high-quality direct-to-DVD animated features based upon their characters.

According to Wizard magazine and The-Numbers.com:

Superman: Doomsday - 9.4 million
Batman: Gotham Knight - 8.0 million
Ultimate Avengers 2 - 7.8 million
Ultimate Avengers - 6.7 million
Hulk Vs. - 5.4 million
Invincible Iron Man - 5.2 million
Justice League: The New Frontier - 5.2 million
Dr. Strange - 3.9 million
Wonder Woman - 3.4 million
Next Avengers - 2.9 million

Marvel's next animated release is Thor, designed to raise interest in the character slated for a live-action feature film in 2010. DC is releasing the animated origin story Green Lantern: First Flight in July.



Green Lantern: First Flight debuts July 28th!

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LEEE777
LEEE777 - 6/5/2009, 9:06 AM
Well like ive said....

DC is more QUALITY!!! ; )
ironknight27
ironknight27 - 6/5/2009, 9:15 AM
What I like about DC's animation is that they get some famous voices that really suit the characters (for the most part).
droopy1317
droopy1317 - 6/5/2009, 9:35 AM
haven't seen any of the animated movies. are they really good?
LEEE777
LEEE777 - 6/5/2009, 9:37 AM
TRANSFORMERS ARE EVERYWHERE =

TRANS7 ; D
LEEE777
LEEE777 - 6/5/2009, 9:41 AM
droopy1317 @ Yes they are very good! I recommend the JUSTICE LEAGUE: FRONTIER, BATMAN: GOTHAM KNIGHT, WONDER WOMAN, oh and HULK VS!!! Also i bet GREEN LANTERN will deliver! ; )
animeex
animeex - 6/5/2009, 9:42 AM
Nice pic!!! And yes Droopy, they are good. I can't say that Hulk vs I totally agree with. I know the Hulk is all that, but Thor is a god and beat too easy. Wolverine put up more of a fight. Of course, Wolverine was the story I wanted to see. LOL! I do like both the DC and Marvel dvds. I do agree that DC's are much better. I can't wait to see GL. I wonder what the movies would be like if they let the dvds writers do the live action movies.
THEHAWK
THEHAWK - 6/5/2009, 9:44 AM
Yeah, going to have to go with Leee, the DC animateds are better. I frikin loved New Fronteir, I showed it to my buddy, who hates comics and cartoons, he loved.

Oh and Lee....WHERE ARE YOU GETTING THESE PICTURES?!?!?!? Keep em coming

HAWK out
LEEE777
LEEE777 - 6/5/2009, 9:44 AM
Animeex @ If that happened, the Live action movies would be pure gold!

HAWK @ ; )
animeex
animeex - 6/5/2009, 9:45 AM
YES!!! And thanks LEEE. It is too bad they won't go there.
ironknight27
ironknight27 - 6/5/2009, 9:46 AM
David Boreanez was a good pick for the voice of Hal in Justice League:Frontier. I was hoping he was going to do the voice in the upcoming movie.
ThunderCougarFalconBird
ThunderCougarFalconBird - 6/5/2009, 9:49 AM
droopy1317 - I have Superman: Doomsday, Batman: Gotham Knight and Hulk vs. and yes they are good. I'd say Batman is the weakest out of the 3 but thats not saying it's bad! Far from it! It's just because it's several shorts done by different people. The stories work really well together but some of the animation is "love it or hate it". I would have prefered to see the same story as one movie and one style of animation.

I hope to further my collection. Does anyone know where I can find a list of all these DVDs released? Or is the above all of them? I tried searching but the closest I got was a Wiki list with all the animated series too. I just want these feature DVDs.
Spock
Spock - 6/5/2009, 9:54 AM
I haven't seen the Avengers but I think GL will produce more interest with the Anime then Thor. Now both of those movies will be a good competition in live action.
Betty
Betty - 6/5/2009, 10:09 AM
I can believe this, definitely! I would've thought Wonder Woman woulda done better. I thought Superman Doomsday was only ok.
Shaman
Shaman - 6/5/2009, 10:28 AM
CAN'T WAIT FOR WORLD'S FINEST!!!!!! Oh and GL of course :))
MarkCassidy
MarkCassidy - 6/5/2009, 10:34 AM
If marvel spent a few quid on there animated movies they might give DC a run for there money some day. Get decent animators, good script writers and maybe hire voice actors whos last job wasnt doing the English dubbing for obscure Manga movies.
InstigatorGIRL
InstigatorGIRL - 6/5/2009, 10:38 AM
Yeah Live Action wise Marvel does way better. But in animation DC rules. But New Frontier and Gotham Knight was boring as hell sorry to say... I LOVED Wonder Woman and Hulk Vs.! Awesome movies.
ironknight27
ironknight27 - 6/5/2009, 10:40 AM
@Rorshach01-LMAO! Yeah the marvel movies are not horrible but they just need to be willing to shell out a little more money to make their animated movies better.

@ IntigatorGirl-I liked only about two stories from Gotham Knight but I just wished they had the same style of animation for the whole damn thing.
adamant877
adamant877 - 6/5/2009, 10:44 AM
BmanHall: That's easy, it's because (until JUST recently) DC thought that it only had two tentpole characters worthy of a live action treatment.

Marvel really needs to step it up in this department! After the Green Lantern movie comes out, DC could BURY Marvel if they start producing profitable, lesser known live action films!
InstigatorGIRL
InstigatorGIRL - 6/5/2009, 10:51 AM
@Iron Knight Agree completely on the animation.
ironknight27
ironknight27 - 6/5/2009, 10:53 AM
@InstigatorGirl- To me some of the animation was just bad. I guess I am just not use to that type of animation. The Deadshot story was good though.
Havok2
Havok2 - 6/5/2009, 10:54 AM
I have all of the above list and I don't really think the two complanies can be compared.
Marvel Animated Features are kids films with elements of adult interest (such as suicide in Dr Strange or Wolvy being an arsehole in Hulk Vs - the way it should be!).
DC Original Animated Features are aimed for older audiences with more mature content and angstier themes (such as death, realistic crime, insanity and poverty).
Both deserve credit in their own right due to being highly successful.

Also, I don't mean to nit-pick but surely if Marvel have made more money (regardless of number of films) through animation, doesn't that mean that they are winning?
JonSolo
JonSolo - 6/5/2009, 10:56 AM
Very true adamant, the lesser known characters have alot of potetial and the studio heads just want the quick buck. Stocked about GL
WeaponX
WeaponX - 6/5/2009, 11:00 AM
It's hard to believe Superman: Doomsday sold that much. It was butchered crap. Marvel do need to spend a bit more money on their animated projects, like Rorschach01 has mentioned, but I wouldn't go so far as to bash professional voice actors. Steve Blum has done an awesome job with Wolverine.

On the animation front neither company has "wowed" me, when they get to "Appleseed" levels then I'll start including animation as part of the grade. I'm just glad that we're finally getting to see some DC characters get a little one on one treatment from WB. Like Wonder Woman, Justice League, Green Lantern (let's get Flash going for F sakes) even if it is just animation.

With so much on Marvel Studios plate at the moment, live-action wise, I don't think they have the amount of resources focused on their animation department as much as DC/WB does. So it's not really that much of a surprise that DC are putting out better on average animation DVDs.
MarkCassidy
MarkCassidy - 6/5/2009, 11:19 AM
Hulk vs was very good i have to say, they stepped it up for that movie. But everything else was pretty embarrassing.

I really liked all the different animation styles and stories in Gotham Knight, made it something original at least. I also loved New Frontier and WW. Doomsday was good, but it did piss all over the source material. It still provided a better scrap than Smallville did! With GL and Public Enemies on the way, Marvel need to do something special to stay in the game. Whos left? maybe Namor? I think they should try to do a really great Inhumans animated movie
JerusalemJr
JerusalemJr - 6/5/2009, 11:24 AM
Dc has a secret weapon with their cartoons though, Bruce Tim. Plus Mark Hamill as the voice of the Joker? Best, ever.
ironknight27
ironknight27 - 6/5/2009, 11:26 AM
@Ror- Public Enemies looks really good. I personally would like to see Hawkeye in an animated movie.
spanky
spanky - 6/5/2009, 11:42 AM
i didn't know it was a competion
thwhtGuardian
thwhtGuardian - 6/5/2009, 11:48 AM
I loved the animated WW movie it was amazing, I can only think that the reason that it was over sold by doomsday is because doomsday was marketed big time. The comercials for that movie were everywhere, and they were badass. Where were you the day Superman died? it was perfect merketing... to bad the movie was to short to fit the whole story. WW was much better story wise and the voice acting was amazing.
AS for for Marvel, Hulk Vs. was good... and the rest well as someone else pointed out they were made for little kids.
I'm pumped for the GL movie, it looks sweet
JerusalemJr
JerusalemJr - 6/5/2009, 12:17 PM
We are humans Spanky, everything is a competition
BillyBlack
BillyBlack - 6/5/2009, 12:45 PM
Too true JJ

Hey Rorschach01

Doomsday was still miles ahead of Singer's "Pooperman Returns" WHAMMY!!
ironknight27
ironknight27 - 6/5/2009, 12:51 PM
I liked the voice talent for the Doomsday movie and the action but it could have been better. The problem with this movie is that there was so much story that went on in the comics that I understand it was hard to condense into a 2 hour movie (was it 2 hours? i don't remember).
WeaponX
WeaponX - 6/5/2009, 12:53 PM
Justice League: New Frontier was awesome because they put Batman and Superman in the background and brought up the other guys to the forefront like Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Martian Manhunter and Flash (mostly GL and Flash). It's success proved they can turn a profit showcasing other heroes that weren't Batman or Superman and when Green Lantern: First Flight comes out it will undoubtably drive the point home further.

Marvel could try a gritty Daredevil and if they did an Age of Apocalypse trilogy that would be awesome. Even though the second season of Wolverine and The X-Men looks to be gearing towards that I'd still would like to see a bigger budget attempt at it.

Inhumans would be great too, the guy hired to play Black Bolt would have the easiest job.
droopy1317
droopy1317 - 6/5/2009, 1:06 PM
cool beans. which one first?
MarkCassidy
MarkCassidy - 6/5/2009, 1:10 PM
haha, yeah i didnt think of that! I guess they wouldnt need to hire anyone, just have someone scream at the end..cos you know hes gonna!

Jojo i used to think all DC had was Batman! Then i read a few Justice League comics..then branched out to some 2nd tier characters. As it stands i think they are just as good as Marvel now. Characters like The Question, Booster Gold, Martian Manhunter, Etrigan, the new gods etc are all worth checking out.
joob234
joob234 - 6/5/2009, 1:15 PM
i liked dr. strange, just putting my thoughts out here
Supermike
Supermike - 6/5/2009, 2:03 PM
No shock really DC comics know Live action movie are so boring and a thing of the past I mean look how horrible the dark Knight was batman totally screen time was what 11 mins
thwhtGuardian
thwhtGuardian - 6/5/2009, 2:43 PM
@ Supermike
Are you serious!? The Dark Knight...boring? Not only was it probably the best comic book movie ever, but it's a stunning film in it's own right.
jimdrums
jimdrums - 6/5/2009, 2:58 PM
I think that Green Lantern is one of the best stories that could have potentially more than one sequel, can you imagine if they made sucessful animated versions of both the Sinestro core wars and then the Parallax saga or vice versa, damn!!!
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