Best Superhero Films: What 130 published online rankings say the top 5 superhero movies of all time are

Welcome to our Reel Fives pre-launch superhero movie rankings. After conducting research, our Reel Fives team has found 130 published superhero movie rankings (the publications with the top superhero movies ranked). For each ranked list of top superhero movies we have taken the five superhero movies they ranked as their top five. The 130 superhero movie rankings lists are included at the bottom of this post and include expert superhero movie rankings as well as user aggregated superhero movie rankings from sites like ranker.com. We will also post the Reel Fives pre-launch rankings superhero movie sub-genres for Marvel supehero movies, for DC superhero movies, and for animated superhero movies. Although Reel Fives' overall superhero movie rankings are based on the top movies through the aggregation from rankings of superhero movies we found, for the sub-genres we will use these same published rankings rather than, say, searching online for rankings lists on the specific sub-genres. We gave this latter approach consideration but came to the conclusion that we will get a much broader information base if we stick to using only 'broader' genre published movie rankings rather than ranking for each sub-genre separately. While we realize that some movie sub-genres have almost as large a number of rankings as the parent genre, for consistency we have stuck to only considering parent genre movie rankings this for all sub-genres. For example, there are many DC superhero movie rankings lists that are published online, possibly as many as there are for supehero movies in general. While this is a list of top superhero movies, the list below actually includes six movies since two movies are tied based on the 130 rankings sources, Sam Raimi's Spiderman (2004) and Christopher Nolan's Batman Begins (2008), tied for fifth place making the top five in 28.3 percent of our sources.

Percent of top fives in which superhero movies were included

The fact that DC and Marvel comic book-based superhero movies hold the top spots is not surprising. More interesting though is that when only looking at movies ranked in the top five, Marvel and DC are quite even, neither resoundingly appear to be favored by published movie rankings lists. DC superhero movies hold spots one, four, and five. Marvel superhero movies hold spots two, three, and five. This means that the average ranking, among the top five movies for both Marvel and DC superhero movies is exactly 3.3. However, taking the average percentages for the three superhero movies representing Marvel and DC places DC-based superhero movies slightly ahead. The average percent of lists for the top three DC superhero movies is 49% while that for Marvel superhero movies is 41%. No doubt this is driven by The Dark Knight (2008) being the outliar in the group, with presence in 83% of the top fives lists (see graph above). However, the disparity between DC's The Dark Knight (2008) with 83% presence and Marvel's The Avengers (2012) with 57% presence can in part be due to having some of the rankings take place after 2008 and prior to the release of The Avengers (2012). There is little we can say on how much this biases the numbers, however, since we (currently) do not have information on how superhero movie rankings lists that were published prior 2012 would place The Avengers (2012). In addition, there is the potential bias that Superman (1978), being by far the oldest movie, slipped due to the more recent movies having pulled viewers' attention.

All in all, given that the DC characters of Batman and Superman are more storied by virtue of being substantially older, the significance of the Dark Knight (2008) in being the first superhero movie ever to win an academy award for a high profile category (Heath Ledger best supporting actor in 2009), and the significance of Superman (1978) in single-highhandedly creating the modern superhero movie genre, it makes sense that DC has a slight advantage. We suspect that the upcoming release of Batman V Superman in 2016 will shake the rankings and possibly cement DC as having the top superhero films. It is worth noting, however, the lack of variation (and possibly potential) in DC-based superhero movies. While Marvel has put out several arguably successful franchises including the X-men, Sam Raimi's Spiderman, and Iron Man trilogies along with the backstory movies leading up to the Avengers, DC has almost purely relied on brilliant movies made for their top two superheros: Batman and Superman. For our overall discussion of the superhero genre see our sneak peek article here.

Reel Fives pre-launch top 5 superhero movies ranked

1. The Dark Knight (2008)

Percent of  tops fives in which it appears: 83% 

Director: Christopher Nolan

Budget: $180,000,000
Comic book affiliation: DC

(watch in Amazon)

 2. Avengers (2012)

Percent of  tops fives in which it appears: 57% 

Director: Joss Whedon

Budget: $220,000,000
Comic book affiliation: Marvel

(watch in Amazon)

 3. Iron Man (2008)

Percent of  tops fives in which it appears: 39% 

Director: John Favreau

Budget: $140,000,000
Comic book affiliation: Marvel

(watch in Amazon)





4. Superman (1978)

Percent of  tops fives in which it appears: 35%

Director: Richard Donner

Budget: $55,000,000
Comic book affiliation: DC

(watch in Amazon)

(tied) 5. Batman Begins (2005)

Percent of  tops fives in which it appears: 28%

Director: Christopher Nolan

Budget: $150,000,000
Comic book affiliation: DC

(watch in Amazon)





(tied) 5. Spiderman 2 (2004)

Percent of  tops fives in which it appears: 28%

Director: Sam Raimi

Budget: $200,000,000
Comic book affiliation: Marvel

(watch in Amazon)

 Here the 130 published movie rankings lists: 

Hitfix	(Their top 25 superhero movies ranked)
io9	(Their top 105 superhero movies ranked)
imdb	(Their top 100 superhero movies ranked)
Telegraph	(Their top 21 superhero movies ranked)
Empire Online	(Their top 30 superhero movies ranked)
Screen Crush	(Their top 25 superhero movies ranked)
Thrillist	(Their top 84 superhero movies ranked)
Gamespot	(Their top 30 superhero movies ranked)
Techradar	(Their top 15 superhero movies ranked)
Dorkly	(Their top 69 superhero movies ranked)
Ranker	(Their top 177 superhero movies ranked)
Watch Mojo	(Their top 10 superhero movies ranked)
Vulture	(Their top 25 superhero movies ranked)
Orlando Sentinel	(Their top 50 superhero movies ranked)
The Street	(Their top 10 superhero movies ranked)
Rolling Stone	(Their top 15 superhero movies ranked)
Monster & Critics	(Their top 10 superhero movies ranked)
Maxim	(Their top 15 superhero movies ranked)
Hollywood	(Their top 20 superhero movies ranked)
The Script Lab	(Their top 10 superhero movies ranked)
The Guardian	(Their top 10 superhero movies ranked)
Submarine Channel	(Their top 5 superhero movies ranked)
The Top Tens	(Their top 10 superhero movies ranked)
Time Out	(Their top 20 superhero movies ranked)
We Got This Covered	(Their top 50 superhero movies ranked)
Games Radar	(Their top 50 superhero movies ranked)
Matts Movie Reviews	(Their top 10 superhero movies ranked)
All Womens Talk	(Their top 8 superhero movies ranked)
Unreality Magazine	(Their top 10 superhero movies ranked)
Ebay	(Their top 10 superhero movies ranked)
Filmefy	(Their top 13 superhero movies ranked)
Flick Chart	(Their top 100 superhero movies ranked)
College Humor	(Their top 15 superhero movies ranked)
The Cinemaholic	(Their top 10 superhero movies ranked)
List Challenges	(Their top 40 superhero movies ranked)
You Nerded	(Their top 10 superhero movies ranked)
My Little Empire	(Their top 30 superhero movies ranked)
The Key103	(Their top 10 superhero movies ranked)
Flicks	(Their top 10 superhero movies ranked)
Yahoo	(Their top 20 superhero movies ranked)
Kesq	(Their top 5 superhero movies ranked)
Comic Book Movie	(Their top 100 superhero movies ranked)
Comic Book Movie	(Their top 30 superhero movies ranked)
Oner Room With a View	(Their top 10 superhero movies ranked)
CBS	(Their top 5 superhero movies ranked)
Best For Film	(Their top 10 superhero movies ranked)
Film School WTF	(Their top 100 superhero movies ranked)
News Day	(Their top 10 superhero movies ranked)
clclt	(Their top 10 superhero movies ranked)
erik lundegaard	(Their top 10 superhero movies ranked)
Virgin Media	(Their top 20 superhero movies ranked)
acomic book blog	(Their top 10 superhero movies ranked)
98.1 the hawk	(Their top 10 superhero movies ranked)
Stuff	(Their top 10 superhero movies ranked)
Pinterest	(Their top 25 superhero movies ranked)
Slide Share	(Their top 5 superhero movies ranked)
real style network	(Their top 8 superhero movies ranked)
wattpad	(Their top 5 superhero movies ranked)
prezi	(Their top 10 superhero movies ranked)
Mubi	(Their top 10 superhero movies ranked)
The Reel Deal	(Their top 10 superhero movies ranked)
Movie Mavericks	(Their top 5 superhero movies ranked)
Bog Bit	(Their top 20 superhero movies ranked)
Wikia	(Their top 10 superhero movies ranked)
Top Ten of City	(Their top 10 superhero movies ranked)
Revision 3	(Their top 8 superhero movies ranked)
Spin 1038	(Their top 10 superhero movies ranked)
They Young Folks	(Their top 10 superhero movies ranked)
imdb	(Their top 50 superhero movies ranked)
ign	(Their top 25 superhero movies ranked)
Flights Tights & Movie Nights	(Their top 100 superhero movies ranked)
Influx Magazine	(Their top 10 superhero movies ranked)
Invision Free	(Their top 60 superhero movies ranked)
Screen Rant	(Their top 10 superhero movies ranked)
etcanada	(Their top 10 superhero movies ranked)
Forth 2	(Their top 10 superhero movies ranked)
Crizic	(Their top 10 superhero movies ranked)
What Culture	(Their top 10 superhero movies ranked)
I Check Movies	(Their top 30 superhero movies ranked)
Comic Vine	(Their top 10 superhero movies ranked)
Rock 101	(Their top 15 superhero movies ranked)
Super Hero Movie Talk	(Their top 10 superhero movies ranked)
Den of Geek	(Their top 10 superhero movies ranked)
Red Carpet Crash	(Their top 25 superhero movies ranked)
Seattlepi	(Their top 20 superhero movies ranked)
Ask Men	(Their top 10 superhero movies ranked)
The Geek Generation	(Their top 10 superhero movies ranked)
Charged	(Their top 5 superhero movies ranked)
Hollywood Lollipop	(Their top 25 superhero movies ranked)
Reckon Talk	(Their top 17 superhero movies ranked)
100 Top List	(Their top 10 superhero movies ranked)
Share Ranks	(Their top 26 superhero movies ranked)
Hub Pages	(Their top 10 superhero movies ranked)
Movie Fanatic	(Their top 23 superhero movies ranked)
Pop Culture Blog	(Their top 5 superhero movies ranked)
Wash fm	(Their top 10 superhero movies ranked)
John Collings	(Their top 13 superhero movies ranked)
Maxim	(Their top 10 superhero movies ranked)
Tech First Post	(Their top 5 superhero movies ranked)
Midlands Movies	(Their top 15 superhero movies ranked)
My Movie Thoughts	(Their top 10 superhero movies ranked)
ktar news	(Their top 5 superhero movies ranked)
The Upperloop	(Their top 5 superhero movies ranked)
All Time Best 10	(Their top 10 superhero movies ranked)
The FilmFellas Blog	(Their top 10 superhero movies ranked)
Grinch of Salt	(Their top 30 superhero movies ranked)
Rotten Tomatoes	(Their top 39 superhero movies ranked)
Cinema Blend	(Their top 6 superhero movies ranked)
Yahoo	(Their top 30 superhero movies ranked)
Playboy	(Their top 113 superhero movies ranked)
Rate your Music	(Their top 62 superhero movies ranked)
Forbes	(Their top 20 superhero movies ranked)
Techno Buffalo	(Their top 105 superhero movies ranked)
Shoreline Beacon	(Their top 11 superhero movies ranked)
sfgate	(Their top 20 superhero movies ranked)
capes on film	(Their top 127 superhero movies ranked)
letterboxd	(Their top 90 superhero movies ranked)
ifanboy	(Their top 40 superhero movies ranked)
movie melt	(Their top 38 superhero movies ranked)
Gamepro	(Their top 30 superhero movies ranked)
simple film critics	(Their top 29 superhero movies ranked)
Hero Machine	(Their top 10 superhero movies ranked)
wdlafm	(Their top 5 superhero movies ranked)
oldschool	(Their top 10 superhero movies ranked)
culture brats	(Their top 19 superhero movies ranked)
What Culture	(Their top 5 superhero movies ranked)
Mutantville	(Their top 10 superhero movies ranked)
College Times	(Their top 5 superhero movies ranked)
The Shelf Is Half Full	(Their top 12 superhero movies ranked)
The Celebrity Cafe	(Their top 10 superhero movies ranked)

Identifying the top movies is our mission.
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