Captain America: The Winter Soldier director Joe Russo has said that he finds it "strange" that comic book movies are continually snubbed at the Oscars.

Russo and his brother Anthony Russo oversaw this year's Marvel sequel, which was met with critical praise and earned more than $700 million at the worldwide box office.



The blockbuster is the second-highest grossing film of 2014 behind Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy.

"It's strange that the comic book film genre is so often thought of only in terms of its economic merits," Joe Russo told Deadline.

"Yes, it's shockingly popular and continues to grow, and yes, the box office success of these films can often embarrassingly outweigh their merits, but as Christopher Nolan perhaps first proved, real and valuable filmmaking can be achieved with the genre.

"It's sad that some people, seemingly soured by having to endure the massive cultural presence and expectations that even mediocre or poor examples of the genre can generate, react by trying to reject the genre as a whole."

He added: "Snubbing comic book movies because of their ubiquity is akin to dismissing the Western as matinee fodder."

Nolan's Batman sequel The Dark Knight was widely tipped for Academy Awards in 2008 but was snubbed in both the Best Picture and Best Director categories.

The Russos will return to direct Captain America 3 for Marvel, with Robert Downey Jr expected to feature as Tony Stark. The film will reportedly be based on Mark Millar's comic book Civil War.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier in pictures:

Captain America: The Winter Soldier latest pictures

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