In recent years, among the many movies that have been released, there have been quite a few that were based on comics. A majority of those movies were following a comic series prequel.

For example, the hit movie Push, which came out February 6, had a series of comics published before the release. The concept of this was to create excitement and chatter about the movie…which it did. Although it received a letter grade of a C from Entertainment Weekly, many people went to theaters to see it for themselves, partially due to the comics.According to Scott Bowles, of USA Today, “Comic book prequels can build a fan base, there’s no questioning the clout of comic book fans. Gauging their taste is another matter.” His theory became clear with Transformers (2007). The comic series was expected to have popularity, but ended up selling over one million copies, while the movie hit was a complete success making 65.7 million dollars in just two and a half of days of its release.

Although the comics are not necessary in order to understand the movie, they do help in the long run. Gitesh Pandya of BoxOfficeGuru.com says, “The upside (of comics’ prequels) is that you can develop back stories and characters that you couldn’t in a 30-second TV ad that comes and goes.”

Some upcoming movies with comic prequels coming out are Star Trek, Terminator Salvation and G.I. Joe: Rise of the Cobra. Each is expected to be a box office hit by IMDB.com.

Movies are not the only popular comic projects. Television shows such as “CSI” and “Heroes” have their own well-liked comic. As does the video game World of Warcraft, which has made the game more successful in the industry.

With movie studio comic campaigns at 40 million dollars and growing, the prequel trend is not ending soon.