Many people like spending their time debating which fictional character is superior to another fictional character. Quite often this is framed as a form of battle. People want to know who would win between Captain Kirk and Captain Picard or Spider-Man and Superman. The idea of putting two fictional characters from different series up against one another is nothing new. Although it lacks the ‘vs.’ word in the title, “Frankenstein Meets The Wolf Man” is probably the earliest example I can think of. However, why don’t we see more of these battles up on the big screen?

Versus films have not had the best track record. The two “Alien vs. Predator” films received a lot of criticism from fans while “Freddy vs. Jason” fared a little better. Later, we got “Batman v Superman” and it got horrendous reviews. This means that it’s not always a guarantee that doing a crossover with two franchises will guarantee a hit.

As important as it is to ensure that your film is a success, a lot versus films cannot happen due to legal reasons. If you want to see Green Lantern fight Ghost Rider then you have a problem because the two characters are owned by opposing companies (DC and Marvel). To get the companies to agree can be a nightmare, especially if one of the characters is from a significantly more profitable franchise.

Another reason is that it’s hard to have an elaborate versus film makes any sense. Lots of ideas of versus films exist purely in the minds of dedicated fans. Transferring these ideas to the actual screen could alienate more casual audiences with a nonsensical plot. Also, filmmakers have to be careful they don’t try to change the rules of the different franchises too much or they risk upsetting the fans. Many fans have already cited inconsistences with the size of the creatures in the original “King Kong vs. Godzilla” (King Kong’s size was increased substantially so that he could match Godzilla) and it looks likely that they will be mentioning it again with the remake due to come out.

For now, it seems like a lot of versus films simply won’t happen for a combination of the reasons above.