Iron Man, the Hulk, Captain America ... How Much Are These Superheroes Actually Worth?

For 75 years, Marvel has done one thing: create heroes for imaginary worlds and sell them.

Six days after Avengers: Age of Ultron opened in mainland China, its box office there was closing in on 1 billion yuan, and by the end of the weekend its worldwide gross had passed US$1 billion. The "Marvel magic" has worked again.

Iron Man, the Hulk, Thor, Captain America ... these characters, which Marvel has introduced one after another over the past several decades, now rule two worlds, on screen and off. In the movies, they are the last hope of Earth and humanity. In real life, they drive fans wild and are constantly upgraded and consumed.

Sum up what Marvel has done over the past 75 years in one sentence, and it is this: keep creating heroes for imaginary worlds and keep selling them. From comics to movies, from games to merchandise and other spin-offs.

As the Avengers roster has grown, so has the superhero business.

QDaily went through the sales figures these heroes have generated over the decades to estimate what each of them is worth. Some data is missing and our method has its limits, so the estimate is far from precise. But the numbers still show how much commercial value superheroes carry.

What Is the Avengers 2 Lineup Worth?

The Avengers series is the most successful superhero film franchise of recent years. Its two movies have together grossed more than US$2.5 billion worldwide, and their cast is one of the most lavish in film history.

To be clear, the "lineup" here means more than actors such as Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans and Scarlett Johansson. It also includes the superheroes they play: Iron Man, Captain America, Thor. Some fans buy tickets for one particular hero, not for any particular actor.

These superheroes are worth far more than you might think. Take Iron Man, a mainstay of the Avengers. His three movies grossed US$2.423 billion worldwide. On top of that come US$494 million in DVD revenue, US$37.46 million in comic book revenue, and 6.03 million copies of various games.

Add up the "wealth" created by the mainstays of Avengers 2, and the lineup's total worth comes to a startling US$5.24 billion. By The Movie Times' count, the 26 films starring Hollywood A-lister Leonardo DiCaprio have grossed just US$2.28 billion to date. These characters are worth nearly three DiCaprios.

Iron Man: How Marvel Sells a Superhero

Bundling the Avengers together, as we did above, is a little unfair to each individual hero. So let's look at what Iron Man alone is worth. The character first appeared in a comic in 1968. In the 47 years since, 509 different comics starring Iron Man have been published. Since 2001, Iron Man comics have sold 11.3 million copies, bringing in as much as US$37.46 million.

Iron Man is not just a classic Marvel superhero; he has a special place in the company's history. Through the 1990s and the first years of the 21st century, Marvel was in deep financial trouble. Only in 2005, when it set up Marvel Studios, did it manage to secure a US$225 million loan from Merrill Lynch.

Marvel gritted its teeth and put about US$140 million of that money into making Iron Man. The film was Marvel's last stand: if it flopped, Marvel would be left with nothing. Luckily, Iron Man took in US$585 million worldwide and pulled Marvel out of its hole. The series then built on that success. The three Iron Man films have grossed US$2.38 billion worldwide in total, making it one of the most profitable film series in the world.

Encouraged by the success of the comics and the movies, Marvel quickly started developing Iron Man spin-offs. DVDs of the three films have sold more than 17 million copies, earning US$300 million. Two Iron Man games published by Sega have sold 6.03 million copies across the major gaming platforms. Marvel also licensed Iron Man's image, bundled with the other Avengers, to Hasbro for toys. The licensing fee alone came to US$285 million (the license runs from 2006 to 2020).

Who Buys These Superheroes?

Many people assume that the fans of superheroes who fight and brawl on screen are overwhelmingly young men. They are not. In July last year, Brett Schenker compiled social data from Facebook and found that women make up 36.84% of Marvel's audience, up 12.39 percentage points from 2013. Schenker concluded that Marvel had made some changes aimed at women.

Interestingly, when Schenker broke Marvel's audience down by age, he found that while men outnumber women among younger fans (aged 17 to 45), the share of women rises with age, and among people over 50, women far outnumber men. In the 62-to-64 age group, women make up 60%. Still, by age alone, Marvel's audience is mostly young: fans under 29 account for 64% of the total.

There are other interesting figures too. Marvel fans who say they are single are as numerous as those who say they are not (in a relationship or married). Among the singles, though, men far outnumber women. As for education, the largest group of Marvel fans, about 40%, hold a bachelor's degree. About 33% have less than a bachelor's degree.

Marvel's Value Is Its Superheroes

Marvel may be riding high today, but it has been through plenty of hard times.

In 1939, Martin Goodman founded Timely Publications, the forerunner of today's Marvel. That October, the first Marvel comic went on sale. It introduced Marvel's first superhero, the Human Torch, and its first great villain, Namor the Sub-Mariner. The comic was an unprecedented hit, with a print run of nearly 900,000 copies. In March 1941, Marvel introduced Captain America and caused another sensation: his debut helped Marvel sell 1 million copies.

But the good times did not last. After World War II, superhero comics went into decline. Young readers lost interest in comics steeped in individual heroism. Goodman stopped publishing superhero comics and turned to other genres, including horror, westerns, comedy and detective stories. During this period, Timely Publications was renamed Atlas Comics.

In 1961, Atlas Comics was formally renamed Marvel. DC Comics' Green Lantern, launched in the late 1950s, had rekindled public interest in superhero comics, so Marvel picked its superheroes back up too. In November 1961, Marvel launched its first superhero team, the Fantastic Four, and that comic re-established Marvel's place in superhero comics.

Over the next few years, Marvel introduced the Hulk, Spider-Man, Thor, Iron Man and others. It also became known for giving its superheroes rich, detailed characters. The best-known example comes from The Amazing Spider-Man. The famous line "With great power comes great responsibility" captures the doubt and confusion Peter Parker once felt.

Marvel then changed hands several more times. In 1986, its parent company, Cadence Industries, sold it to New World Pictures. Just three years later, Marvel was sold again, to MacAndrews & Forbes Holdings. In 1994, Andrews Group and MEG reorganized Marvel into Marvel Holdings. In 1996, Marvel was dragged into a power struggle between Carl Icahn and Perelman. On December 27 that year, Marvel formally declared bankruptcy; it later emerged from bankruptcy with help from several parties.

In those turbulent years, frequent changes of owner and the decline of the comics industry as a whole plunged Marvel into an unprecedented crisis. To ease its financial troubles, Marvel decided to sell the film rights to its superheroes. In 1999, it sold the film rights to Spider-Man to Sony for US$7 million. Sony made about US$1.6 billion from the first two Spider-Man films, of which only US$75 million went to Marvel.

In 2005, unhappy with that split, Marvel set up its own film studio. It secured a US$225 million loan from Merrill Lynch, and Kevin Feige bet everything on Iron Man. The gamble paid off: it pulled Marvel out of trouble and launched a period of rapid growth. In 2009, Disney bought Marvel Entertainment for US$4.24 billion in cash and stock. From 2013, under Disney's lead, Marvel began buying back the superhero film rights scattered among various owners.

Whether it was Disney, which ended up buying all of Marvel, the earlier owners who bought Marvel and sold it on at a profit, or the buyers who exploited Marvel's distress to pick up some of its licenses, every deal was driven by the same thing: the huge stock of superhero rights Marvel owns. To all of them, Marvel's value was the value of its superheroes.

Marvel Has a Careful Plan for the Future

As things stand, Marvel should hold on to its dominant position for some time. Movies will remain its most profitable business. The Marvel Cinematic Universe has only just completed Phase Two, and a dozen or more superhero films are still to come. Until Avengers 3 opens in 2019, Marvel need not worry about drawing audiences.

The superhero comics, published for more than 50 years, can keep going too. The comics industry as a whole has been shrinking in recent years, but it would be an exaggeration to say the market is finished. The same goes for games and toys: Marvel's toy license with Hasbro runs through 2020. So Marvel can take its time and stick to its current plan.

Last year's hit Guardians of the Galaxy (more than US$700 million worldwide) matters even more to Marvel. First, it shows that Marvel can make even its lesser-known superheroes as successful as Iron Man and Spider-Man. Second, it shows that Marvel has built a brand of its own and no longer depends on individual heroes. Finally, the film is set in outer space, which widens the world of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and gives Marvel more room to tell new stories.

All of this means Marvel can produce big commercial hits without relying on the Avengers. That creative ability is plainly vital to the company.

Beyond its own creative strength, Marvel has a major opportunity overseas. Take China: Marvel films already do very well there, but the Chinese film market is still growing, so there is clearly plenty of room for Marvel's films to grow with it.

And with Disney's powerful distribution and brand-management machine behind it, Marvel's earnings beyond the box office, from DVDs, games, toys and other spin-offs, will become its fastest-growing and most promising business. The superhero business will go on.