I compared some of the key areas that most people look at between studios to give my take on the current state of affairs
Movies-
Marvel are top at the moment but this is more a case of by default rather than anything else. They have more movies than DC.
However DC have been Making superhero movies for a while and arguably showed the world the potential success of superhero movies through the superman movies with christopher reeves and the tim burton batman movies.
Also we can in a way also credit Warner bros with kicking off the marvel cinematic universe when they made blade movie, this preceded all the marvel movies made by any other studios and one could argue was the inspiration for everything else that came after.
I would say that comparison between cinematic universes is way off simply because all that exists at this moment in time is DC 1 movie to marvels 13. But even that one movie made about 670 mil, if you count the 200 mil in endorsement deals made before the release you can see why we are getting a follow up. But the right time to compare cinematice Universes will be after say 4 movies.
It would have been unfair to compare Iron man 1 to furios 7 simply because furios 7 is the seventh movie in the franchise while Iron man 1 was the first.
However if you compared the first movie in the MCU iron man (580 mil) to the first movie in the DC cinematice universe man of steel (670mil) then man of steel is the more successful. I have no doubt that Batman v superman will build on that.
TV
Marvel TV
Agents of shield - which is on ABC (a much larger network than CW) averages 4 million viewers
Peggy carter - which is also on ABC had a finale of 4million viewers.
Daredevil & Jessica Jones- Are on Netflix but Netflix do not release viewing numbers or ratings so hard to tell how succesful they are, but the reception on both particularly daredevil is mostly positive.
DC TV-
Supergirl- By far the most watched comic book show on tv, average is 8 million viewers a week, despite the rampant sexism in the comic book world and the rush to undermine her show without watching it, it is more successful than agent carter and agents of shield put together.
Gotham on fox averaged 5 million viewers in season 1.
The flash - the big story of last year was how the flash came from nowhere to become the best comic book show on tv it averages 4 million viewers, the difference however is how the flash is on CW which is a much much much smaller network than ABC agents of shield
Arrow- also on the much smaller CW averages between 3.5 and 4 million viewers a week
TV summary - You have to give it to DC- their shows are exceeding expectations and way more succesful than anything marvel is doing on TV
video games
Marvel games - have not had any smash hit games, there is the recent disney infinity games but the sales figures are hard to find. Howver most people on here would be hard pressed to name a successful (Or for that matter any) marvel video game.
DC games- have the arkham series and these are by far the biggest comic book based video game series ever made, also injustice gods among us became the first fighting game to go number 1 since mortal kombat.
In fact i believe earlier on in the year Warner bros games division was unveiled as the number 1 games company in the world, imagine if that was marvel, that would have been on every news station on earth.
Games summary- Dc beats marvel here, its actually got to the point were marvel have approached them to make the marvel lego games next year, if ever there was an endorsement or vindication of DC games success, thats one.
comics
Marvel comics- currently leading the market by share, at the end of 2014 Marvel had 37% of the market (by unit), this will increase in 2015 with the addition of star wars. having said that there are no marvel titles in the top 10 last year that wasnt featured in a movie, you can infer that all the sales have been boosted due to movies and not neccesarily due to stoy.
DC comics- In second place but not as far as some might think, at the end of 2014 DC comics had 32% of the market, but if you factor in that marvels sales had a big boost due to the cinematic universe and now DC are getting a cinematic universe by the end of next year i believe this will change
comics summary- marvel are leading here and this wont change next year, i will argue that dc are getting there sales due to story while marvel are getting sales due to hype from movies. but when DC starts it shared universe i expect the scales to tip back to what it was in 2012 and 2013
animated series-
Marvel animated- Have the ultimate spiderman and avengers animated series, the reception of this hasnt been great and the general consensus is that these are distincly average. there animated movies have not been great either and seem really underinvested.
DC animated- Currently dont have anything running apart from teen titans go. However have made many landmark and timeless animated shows. a legacy of terrific animated series like batman, justice league, young justice and have a terrific track record in making animated movies, some of my favourites include under the red hood, flashpoint, Gods and monsters, The Dark knight and so much more.
animated summary- DC animated is better, it has way more hits and way more outstanding shows.
In summary i would say these two companies are doing a good job, the mind boggles to what marvels position would be if as expected batman v superman is successful. They would have nothing to talk about with this potentially game changer with this in mind i can understand why marvel are a bit worried and constantly trying to attack WB.
For me personally i think its great that we have two companies that are in the fray. but regardless of what happens i think the winners are the fans.
let me know your thoughts below.