Superhero Movie

Superhero Movie
Theatrical release poster
Directed byCraig Mazin
Written byCraig Mazin
Produced by
Starring
CinematographyThomas E. Ackerman
Edited by
  • Andrew S. Eisen
  • Craig Herring
  • Daniel Schalk
Music byJames L. Venable
Production
companies
Distributed byMGM Distribution Co.
Release date
  • March 28, 2008 (2008-03-28)
Running time
86 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$35 million
Box office$73 million

Superhero Movie is a 2008 American parody film written and directed by Craig Mazin, produced by Robert K. Weiss and David Zucker, and starring Drake Bell, Sara Paxton, Christopher McDonald and Leslie Nielsen.

A spoof of the superhero film genre, primarily Sam Raimi's Spider-Man (2002) and Christopher Nolan's Batman Begins (2005), it also parodies other 2000s superhero films such as X-Men (2000) and Fantastic Four (2005). The film draws inspiration from the Scary Movie series, with which the film's poster shares a resemblance. It was also inspired by, and contains homages to some of Zucker, Abrahams and Zucker's earlier spoof films such as Airplane! (1980) and the Naked Gun trilogy (1988, 1991 and 1994 respectively). In the case of the former, the film was originally titled Superhero! as a nod to Airplane!, in which Nielsen also starred.

Production began on September 17, 2007, in Los Angeles. It was released by MGM Distribution Co. on March 28, 2008, in the United States to generally negative reviews from critics while grossing $73 million against a $35 million budget.