There’s something about seeing our favorite Comic Book superhero or villain on the big screen that inspires the price of its collectible status. Many facets of collecting are influenced by this cinematic phenomena. There are multiple examples of movies and upcoming televised series releases driving interest higher in comic books.

The 2001 movie 61* about the famous 1961 season where Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle made an attempt to break Babe Ruth’s home run record inspired collectors back into the hobby. Unlike movies about sports, super-heroes and comic book movies tend to be massive draws to the movie theaters. The top movie franchises of all-time are littered with comic book characters.

The site GoCollect, a mainstay in the world of comic books, highlights that “comic book investing” based on movies can be subjective and is not perfect, but they are clear about this one aspect — Movie news is one of the biggest drivers in comic book sales.

The original Spider-Man with actor Tobey Maguire introduced millions of new fans to a superhero created well before their time. So what does that do to the price and what is being released in 2022? Spider-Man: No Way Home rapidly hit $1 billion in sales (the first to do so since the pandemic). It just so happens that Amazing Fantasy #15, Spider-Man’s first appearance, became the highest comic book sale of 2021 (Image below by Heritage Auctions) and the highest of all-time shortly before its release. That is no coincidence.

Collectors Dashboard evaluates high-end collectibles as an alternative asset class. This means collectibles are attracting the same capital that could have been invested into stocks or bonds. Many collectibles now cost thousands of dollars (or much more). Collectors with a passion to own a collectible for years frequently have to compete directly against investors whose only desire is to make a profit in the future.

We have put together a preliminary calendar ahead of the movie releases. This will be expanded upon shortly, and there are going to be others that were either overlooked or not included. And we would also point out that any and all of these dates are subject to change, and some may have already changed since we began compiling the data.

One comic book character coming with a reboot in November 2023 (expected) is the famous vampire hunter known as Blade. Wesley Snipes’s three films generated more than $400 million combined, but that was an average of two decades ago. The Tomb of Dracula #10 (Marvel, 1973) is the first appearance of Blade and his comic book prices have been skyrocketing even before the filming has started and even before the full cast was announced. Heritage Auctions sold an example of the Tomb of Dracula #10 graded CGC NM/MT 9.8 (White pages) on September 9, 2021 for a whopping $48,000.00 (Image by Heritage Auctions)

Recent auctions on eBay also have shown strong sales of The Tomb of Dracula #10 of late: $820 and $1,000 for an ungraded example; $2,900 CGC 8.0 and another of the same CGC 8.0 grade just sold for $3,805.67. A CBCS grade 7.0 just recently fetched $2,053.05.

Just remember, stocks and bonds comes with no guaranteed returns. That means that stapled sheets of paper stored in plastic cases cannot have any guaranteed returns either. Here are the highest comic book auctions and sales of 2021.

This is the preliminary Collectors Dashboard guide to upcoming movies tied to comic book releases.

1. The Batman has a release date on March 4, 2022. Batman’s first appearance in Detective Comics no. 27. He is battling The Riddler who first appears in Detective Comics #140 (October, 1948). Heritage has a CGC VG_ 4.5 graded example of this leading off the 2022 strong comic book sales chart with a bid that was already over $600,000 and it has not even ended as of this time.

2. Thor: Love and Thunder has a release date on July 8, 2022. Thor is a Marvel Comics character and his first appearance is Journey into Mystery no. 83 (August, 1962).

3. Morbius is a Spider-Man spinoff that was initially planned for release on January 28, 2022 but has been delayed to April 1, 2022 because of the pandemic. Morbius, known as the Living Vampire, is a Marvel Comics character whose first appearance was in The Amazing Spider-Man #101 (October, 1971). Heritage Auctions sold an example of The Amazing Spider-Man #101 graded CGC NM/MT 9.8 (Off-white to white pages) on September 9, 2021 for a $22,200.00 after the buyer’s premium.

4. Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness has a release date on May 6, 2022. Doctor Strange is a Marvel Comics character whose first appearance was in Strange Tales #110 (July, 1963).

5. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever has a release on November 11, 2022. Black Panther is a Marvel Comics character and his first appearance is Fantastic Four no. 52 (July, 1966).

6. Black Adam has a release date on July 29, 2022. Black Adam is a DC Comics character whose first appearance was in The Marvel Family #1 (December, 1945).

7. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse – Part One has a release on October 7, 2022. Spider-Man is a Marvel Comics character whose first appearance was in Amazing Fantasy no. 15 (August, 1962).

8. The Flash has a release date on November 4, 2022. The Flash is a DC Comics character and his first appearance was in Flash Comics #1 (January, 1940).

9. Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom has a release on December 16, 2022. Aquaman is a DC Comics character whose first appearance was in More Fun Comics #73 (November, 1941). Silver Age Aquaman first appeared in Adventure Comics #260 (May, 1959).

10. The Marvels has a release date on February 17, 2023. The film was originally scheduled to be released November 11, 2022 but spoiler alert was pushed back to February 17, 2023 because of the ongoing pandemic. The film is a sequel to the 2019 film Captain Marvel whose first appearance was Marvel Super-Heroes #12 (December, 1967). However, Captain Marvel actually first appeared in Whiz Comics no. 2 (February, 1940). The character from the film seems to be more in line with the 1967 rendition.

One last film that also needs to be addressed is The Walking Dead. This was first a graphic comic book, and then it became such a strong hit on cable tv that they even followed up each episode with The Talking Dead to host some of the actors and to go in-depth on what themes and key scenes may have implied. The Walking Dead series has ended but there are still offshoots and the film or films with the Rick Grimes character does not currently have an official release date. Heritage sold a copy of The Walking Dead #1 (Image, 2003) graded a near-perfect 9.9 for $18,000.00 back in November 2020. (Image below by Heritage Auctions)

Knowledge is power in the collectibles markets. These origin issues are no guarantees to any leg up in comic book collecting but instead stand as issues every collector needs to know. The origin of any superhero or franchise of that hero transcends any collection one individual might hope to make, because without the origin they never existed.