Riding a superhero high, Hollywood’s marketing machine roars back to life

A Marvel superhero, a Pokémon and a Dalek walk into a bar ... bad joke, or billion-dollar marketing windfall? Hollywood’s film and television studios are banking on the latter as almost 200,000 people descend on San Diego for the world’s biggest annual Comic-Con.

With somewhere close to 150,000 visitors expected through the turnstiles over 4½ days– everyone from families to pop culture diehards – and tens of thousands more people around the city, the mood board says Batman, Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four, but the studio accountants have their eyes on the bottom line.

They’re off and running … Comic-Con gets under way in San Diego.Credit: Andrew Park/Invision/AP

San Diego Comic-Con was born a comic-book convention in the old-fashioned sense: vendors, in a convention centre basement, buying and selling comic books.But in recent decades it has become the backbone of Hollywood’s film and TV marketing calendar.

In 2025, however, the intersection of commerce, fandom and marketing is at a bit of a crossroads. Spider-Man, Star Trek, Doctor Who and retail brands such as Lego, Hasbro and Funko are here with bells on, but some of the biggest labels, including Star Wars and the wider DC Studios and Marvel Studios brands, are missing.

That said, the absence of the majors has the knock-on effect of lending oxygen to projects and brands that might struggle otherwise to get air at a convention where top-tier schedule clashes are the norm.

Alien: Earth and Predator: Badlands, surfing off the back of Alien: Romulus and the Predator show Prey, are staging panels in the convention’s iconic Hall H, the main stage where the biggest and best of Comic-Con get to show their wares.

Hall H is also playing host to a Star Trek Universe panel, which is expected to feature the much-loved Strange New Worlds, which just kicked off its third season, and the coming series Starfleet Academy. Another panel, for Dexter: Resurrection, will feature Michael C. Hall.

Three other Hall H biggies: Project Hail Mary, from directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller, and featuring Ryan Gosling, Peacemaker, which will feature director James Gunn and star John Cena, and a panel unveiling the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, which will feature Star Wars creator George Lucas himself.

Where’s Wally? He’s at Comic-Con. Where else would you expect him to be?Credit: Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP

Meanwhile, the convention’s “preview night” was anchored by a major Doctor Who “activation”: the UNIT Black Archive. Based on the show’s in-universe storehouse of alien artefacts, the archive sends fans through an experiential encounter with UNIT officers, in a clue-gathering “escape room”-type ride.

Not to leave the rest of the world too far behind, the experience can also be played virtually, here.

A Cyberman head in the UNIT Black Archive: “The stuff of nightmares reduced to an exhibit,” says The Doctor (Christopher Eccleston).Credit: BBC

Since its inception in 1970, Comic-Con has moved from the fringes into the mainstream, and the event has increased in size exponentially. There are now Comic-Cons everywhere, but the San Diego event remains the flagship, and the one by which the film and TV industries set their marketing calendar.

This year’s Comic-Con also comes off the back of the launch of two of the biggest genre films of the year, Warner Bros’ Superman and Disney’s The Fantastic Four: First Steps. Both films are reboots for ageing brands, and have drawn the kind of positive reviews that leave studios and studio marketers giddy.

That surge also seems to have given Comic-Con an injection of confidence. The four-day event is sold out, and is expected to sink more than $US150 million ($230 million) into the local economy.

But to some extent, both of those brands are missing from this year’s lineup. Marvel Studios has a suite of comic and game-themed panels in the schedule, but it is not presenting anything from its top line.

When art imitates life? A LEGO re-creation of Comic-Con … at Comic-Con.Credit: AP

There’s a bit of a timing glitch to blame – The Fantastic Four: First Steps is just out and Avengers: Doomsday is still filming. Plus, Disney puts most of its marketing eggs into another basket, the studio-owned D23 convention, which has risen to become something of an alt-Comic-Con.

And while Warner-owned DC Studios has a panel for the television series Peacemaker, which will feature Superman director James Gunn, nothing else from Gunn’s expanded reboot of the DC titles is scheduled. And that seems like a bit of a loss with Superman freshly open and winning rave reviews and pulling in big dollars, and Supergirl, starring Australian actress Milly Alcock, heavily hyped in Supe’s wake.

San Diego Comic-Con runs until Monday, Australian time.