Superman is easily one of the most beloved superheroes. Christopher Reeve and Henry Cavill’s portrayals of the Man of Steel are equally adored. But according to a new study, Superman sadly reigns as the worst superhero franchise of them all.
The analysis reviewed the average Rotten Tomatoes scores for every entry in a franchise and compiled the results. Superman ends up with an anemic average approval rating of just 48 percent. On the high side, 1978’s original offering “Superman: The Movie” has a robust 94 percent critical approval. On the low end, the franchise gets massively bogged down by 1983’s “Superman III” and 1987’s “Superman IV: The Quest for Peace,” with critical approval ratings of just 30 percent and 11 percent, respectively.
“For movies, we looked at all films which fall under each franchise, including subseries within a larger franchise (for example the likes of The Avengers, Iron Man and Captain America within the Marvel Cinematic Universe) and reboots of series (for example we took all the Spider-Man movies as one franchise, including those played by Tobey Maguire, Andrew Garfield and Tom Holland),” said the people behind the study.
Shockingly, Batman comes in second last, despite the fact that Christopher Nolan’s trilogy is lauded as among the greatest of all time and “The Dark Knight” installment is largely considered the best superhero film ever made. All told, the times Christian Bale donned the mask and cowl the critical ratings were 84 percent, 94 percent, and 87 percent. However, earlier duds such as “Batman and Robin” with George Clooney wearing the cape and cowl hamstring the franchise with a paltry 12 percent approval rating.
As for the highest rated franchises of all time, Deadpool and Avengers rank in the Top 5. Check out the full list below for the Top 3.
Bottom 5
1. Superman: 48%
2. Batman: 59%
3. DC Extended Universe: 59%
4. Wolverine: 67%
5. X-Men: 67%
Top 5
1. The Incredibles: 96%
2. Guardian of the Galaxy: 89%
3. Captain America: 87%
4. Avengers: 86%
5. Deadpool: 85%
