Stan Lee: Top Ten All-Time Movie Box Office Star

According to the web site "The Numbers," movies in which Stan Lee have appeared have grossed 3.44 billion (with a 'b')dollars, averaging a gross box office revenue of $191,565,937 million. That puts Stan ahead of Daniel Radcliffe in total and average box office gross for his films, which are, of course, all the Marvel blockbusters. Of course, Stan is not a professional actor. He's the legendary former head of Marvel Comics and creator of such great Marvel characters as Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four, Thor, Daredevil, and of course, the Avengers. Stan no longer heads Marvel, but to honor his contribution (and probably a contractual obligation) the producers cast Stan in cameo roles in all of the Marvel super hero blockbusters. You can see him as a librarian in the current reboot of Spider Man with Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone. The Numbers' list is not adjusted for inflation. Still, Stan Lee's inclusion demonstrates the power of creating compelling content. Stan Lee created Spider Man in the early 1960s, over 50 years ago, yet Spider Man still makes hundreds of millions of dollars for Marvel and for Stan. But when Stan created Spider Man, he was just creating another character for a disposable pop culture magazine aimed at kids. How did he do it? He adhered to two main points: 1. No matter how fantastic the stories got Stan made sure the characters' reactions remained as real as possible. Yes they featured super powers, super villans, amazing inventions, and space travel. At the same time, Spider Man had real problems -- making a living, taking care of his elderly aunt, finding a girlfriend, etc. 2. Stan never patronized his audience. He was writing comic books for kids, but he led his team to make each story as rich as possible -- filled with character details, nuanced reactions, and believable situations. No matter what type of content we're working on or what audience we try to reach, we should apply the same two principles to our work.