
Believe a Man Can Fly: A Tribute to 'Superman: The Movie'
Superheroes have been all but inescapable at cineplexes so far this century, and if the big plans that extend into the foreseeable future pan out, they won’t soon be going away.
You could credit a lot of films with kicking off the superhero movie trend. Iron Man gave birth to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Spider-Man and the X-Men films proved massively successful in the wake of a number of flops. Blade blazed a trail for bigger, higher-budget films. The 1989 Batman movie was a cultural touchstone. But it’s hard to dispute that one film, Superman: The Movie, which premiered on this day in 1978, served as the progenitor of the modern superhero movie.