Superman (1978)

Superman (1978) remains the genre's defining origin story, with Christopher Reeve making audiences believe a man could fly. Its $300 million worldwide gross in 1978 more than doubled the average superhero movie's earnings at the time, and its 94% Rotten Tomatoes score eclipses the typical 71% approval rating. Its 8.3 IMDb rating is 1.2 points higher than the genre average, and the pioneering special effects cost $55 million, equivalent to $260 million today, setting a benchmark for practical VFX that only Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy later rivaled.