The most notable comic book creators in the world regularly butt heads when it comes to making blockbuster movies. Their rivalry is arguably the biggest and fiercest in global entertainment.

Note: Disney now owns Marvel while Warner Brothers bought DC.

In 2004, Marvel released ‘The Avengers’ starring Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man and Chris Evans as Captain America. It would go on to become the largest grossing superhero film of all-time raking in $623 million at the global Box Office. The top three includes DC’s ‘The Dark Knight’ in 2008, which starred Christian Bale and Heath Ledger, taking $535 million at theatres. In third place came another Avengers film, 2015’s ‘The Avengers: Age of Ultron’ featuring a slew of high profile superheroes, which garnered Box Office sales of approximately $459 million.

With DC releasing ‘Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice’ this year, they were hoping for similar yields brought in by ‘The Dark Knight’ in 2008 while using the collective appeal of Superman and Batman to further widen the film’s reach. However, it was deemed a poor film by most of the mainstream media, which was mirrored by its cinema takings. The film took a lowly $330 million after Warner Brothers splurged $250 million on its budget.

Thus, after such a release it’s left DC trailing Marvel significantly in 2016. Marvel has already had two huge Box Office hits including ‘Captain America: Civil War’ ($403 million) and ‘Deadpool’ ($361 million).

However, regardless of Marvel’s superior Box Office takings over the years as well as in 2016, it doesn’t necessarily mean they and Disney are having it all their own way. Yes, Marvel have reaped in millions from merchandising especially during the brilliantly marketed ‘Whose Side Are You On’ clothing ranges for the ‘Captain America: Civil War’ movie as well as so many of their usual commercially licensed games. And although, there haven’t been any dedicated releases as of yet for the 2016 films, we should expect similar titles to the Iron Man 2 slot game which is featured among UK Gala Casino’s array of commercially-licensed games based on popular films.

To prove that DC reign in certain areas, let’s use Spider-Man as the perfect example, and probably the reason why he featured in the recently released ‘Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice’ movie. Spider-Man has raked around $1.3 billion for DC and Warner Brothers in terms of merchandising sales according to the Hollywood Reporter, a feat no other Marvel superhero has matched. Although, as the Hollywood Reported showed in a series of graphs, the Avengers have the highest growth potential and are likely to catch Spider-Man in the near future.

What do you think DC and Warner Brothers can do to change the momentum in favour of them in the coming years?

Do you think Marvel will continue to reign in 2016?