When you think of the movies of today what is one area of source material that you would say is dominating themes of Hollywood movies lately? I will give you a minute to think about some of the bigger block buster movies of the last year. If you thought about comic books and graphic novels than you know what I am talking about. Seems like every time you do a little search of what the latest rumors are about movies that Hollywood studios are looking to make. More often than not the original source material for the idea behind that movie is a comic book or a graphic novel.

Lately it feels like the people in Hollywood land have run out of original ideas and there is some sort of comic book element or graphic novel story line weaved into the movie. Don’t get me wrong here I loved the recent crop of movies that we have seen lately. Batman, Iron Man, Incredible Hulk and now the Watchmen have all been great films to watch and for the most part have given big props and stayed closer to the original source materials then in movies past. All I will say about that is the Fantastic Four movies, there was so much potential there and it all just went so terribly wrong.

Oh well they can’t all be winners though enough about that. On to more positive comic books in the movie news. The latest rumors on the new Thor Movie that is being directed by Kenneth Branagh is that he hay have the right actor to step into the role of Thor. Word has it that Alexander Skarsgard who is best known right now for his work on the HBO shows Generation Kill and True Blood is a leading candidate. Let’s keep our fingers crossed that they get this movie done right. Like it or not the Hollywood studios seem to be enamored with comic books and graphic novels right now.

Hollywood film makers are looking for inspiration for their box office hits from comic books. It has become a recent trend to recreate the action found on the pages of a comic book onto a theatre screen. We all love the onomatopoeias that bring the action to life as we read through our favorite <a rel=”nofollow” onclick=”javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview(‘/outgoing/article_exit_link’);” href=”comic/”>http://www.mycomicshop.com”>comic books</a>. POW, THUMP, AARGH, KA-BOOM! However, the excitement is moved up a notch as you sit in a theatre with surround sound and a huge movie screen watching the bad guy suffer from an explosion and hearing the loud banging from the explosion.

In 2009, there are eight movies to be released that are about characters from comics such as Wolverine, Dragonball, Transformers, and Astro Boy just to name a few. In the past three years or so, some more recognizable movies were made about comic book heroes such as Spiderman, Batman, Superman, and who could forget Heath Ledgers appearance as a villain in The Dark Knight. Comic book movies are some of the highest grossing films in Hollywood. The Dark Knight is the highest grossing film coming in at over one billion dollars, $1,001,921,825 to be exact. This movie was comparable, profit wise, to Titanic, The Lord of the Rings, and Pirates of the Caribbean. The second biggest gross opening day was when Spiderman 3 was released. Opening day for the film acquired close to $60 million. The total gross profit was $890,871,626. Even looking back as far as twelve years ago, Men in Black was released in 1997 and made $589,390,539.

Not only do comic book movies make a lot of money, they can positively affect, change, or launch an actors career into stardom. Heath Ledger was incredible in the Dark Knight as the Joker character. He had what producers call the chill factor, where you get goose bumps from watching him act, and won an Oscar, a Golden Globe, the Screen Actors Guild award, and a Bafta. Critics have been known to say that this role was career defining for him. Will Smith was proven to be a force in the film industry after his role in Men in Black. He became a leading man in Hollywood and starred in other box office hits such as Independence Day. He also starred in another comic book movie, Hancock. Robert Downey Jrs career was brought back to life after he starred as Tony Stark in Ironman.