This past year has been really great for us comic book fans. This year we had The Green Hornet, Thor, X-Men: First Class, and Captain America: The First Avenger. As if that wasn't enough, Cowboys and Aliens was just released, and Conan The Barbarian will be soon be upon us.
Amazingly, the next 2 years promise to offer much of the same comic book movie goodness. 2012 will see The Amazing Spider-Man, Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengence, The Dark Knight Rises, and The Avengers. 2013 will give us Man of Steel, Thor 2, and Iron Man 3.
So how will these movies do? For 2012 here's how I'd say things will go down.
Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengence: It's tough to say how well this movie will do. The first one was panned by comic book fans and movie critics unanimously, yet it made a ton of money. One really has to wonder though how well it will do a 2nd time around with so much negative buzzaround the 1st one. And no matter what Nicolas Cage says, most fans are not happy to see him returning in the title role. It also doesn't help that neither he or the directors have been able to say definitely whether this film is a reboot or a sequel.
The Amazing Spider-Man: This movie will probably do fine. Spider-Man is pretty recognizable franchise and I'm sure that many fans and casual movie goers will want to check this movie out. The previous trilogy was pretty sucsessful, even if it ended on a sour note. Fortunately this reboot seems to be quite different from that interpretation. The tone of the trailer reminded of Batman Begins and I'm looking forward to seeing the Lizard finally getting his due as the villain. The only thing this movie has going against is that while it is a recognizable franchise that people will check out, many people may be Spideyed out after having already seen 3 movies with the character. That being said, it will still rake in more cash than Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengence.
The Dark Knight Rises/ The Avengers: Out of all the CBMs hitting next year, these 2 will undoubtedly hit the heaviest