[SuperMatt18]

The one that I think is getting overlooked here is the original Spider-Man.

Before that the most successful commercial superhero movie was Batman at $250M ($400M World Wide) but then after that no other Super Hero movie made more than $200M in the 13 years after that.

Until Spider-Man.

That movie grossed $400M domestically, $800M+ worldwide, and was a critical success at 90% on rotten tomatoes.

Really it was the framework for the modern super hero movie franchise that followed.

And the success of that movie is what kicked off the Super Hero re-boot: Between 1989 (Batman) and 2002 (Spider-Man) there were only really 8 traditional comic book super hero movies.

Between 2002 and 2010 there were 20+. And you saw the return of the Batman series (Begins Trilogy), X-Men getting a huge push, Fantastic 4 series, Superman Returns, Iron Man, Daredevil, Punisher, the start of the Marvel Cinematic universe etc.