Christopher Reeve later made even higher gains for "Superman III" (1983), though for "" (1987), he decided it would be healthier to focus more on cardiovascular workouts. One of the reasons Reeve could not work out as much for "" was an emergency appendectomy he had in June 1986. Reeve was never a Superman or comic book fan, though he had watched "Adventures of Superman" starring George Reeves. Reeve found the role offered a suitable challenge because it was a dual role. He said, "there must be some difference stylistically between Clark and Superman. Otherwise, you just have a pair of glasses
Superman the most profitable movie serial in movie history. A sequel serial, "Atom Man vs. Superman", was released in 1950. For flying scenes, Superman was hand-drawn in animated form, composited onto live-action footage. The first feature film was "Superman and the Mole Men", a 58-minute B-movie released in 1951, produced on an estimated budget of $30,000 (AFI $). It starred George Reeves as Superman, and was intended to promote the subsequent television series. The first big-budget movie was "Superman" in 1978, starring Christopher Reeve and produced by Alexander and Ilya Salkind. It was 143 minutes long and was made on a