It will undoubtedly be one of the biggest, if not the biggest, film of the year. But as the release approaches of The Dark Knight Rises, the third Batman film from director Christopher Nolan, the Caped Crusader finds himself in the unusual position of catch-up.

The unexpected success of The Avengers, released in early May, has cast a shadow over The Dark Knight Rises' triumphal progress towards its 20 July release date. No one expects The Dark Knight Rises to be anything other than a massive commercial juggernaut, but there has been a subtle shift in the power game that superhero movies are playing, and the Batman movie is currently looking second best.

Steven Gaydos, executive editor of movie industry bible Variety, says that the gloomy introspection we associate with Christopher Nolan's superhero series may be in danger of passing its sell-by date. The two movies would also appear to be in opposite corners visually, with Avengers' candy colours enhanced in loving 3D, while Nolan favours the large-format detail of Imax for his intricate visions. "When the last Batman film, The Dark Knight, came out, people thought Nolan was doing something different. It got everyone excited: it seemed like he was saying something interesting about politics and society in a new way. But now, it feels like The Avengers have stolen his thunder, and his style looks a little outdated. If you take music as an analogy: he's a little bit in danger of being guitar rock to The Avengers' electronica."

Mike Goodridge, editor of UK-based trade magazine Screen International, is less sure. "Avengers did staggering business for sure: it was perfectly positioned at the start of the summer, so hats off to them. But no one is claiming the movie broke the mould. The Dark Knight Rises still has Chris Nolan." Whatever the jostling for kudos, the stats are plain: the Avengers is now the third highest grossing film of all time, behind James Cameron's mega-hits, Avatar and Titanic. The Avengers is comfortably ahead of The Dark Knight in global terms ($1.45bn to $1.01bn), but also – just as crucially, perhaps – edged ahead at the domestic US box office, with $607m to The Dark Knight's $533m.

One of the best hype measurements of all is the opening weekend, and here The Avengers is convincing again, making $207m to The Dark Knight's $158m. Gaydos says: "In business terms, The Dark Knight Rises will find it tough to match The Avengers. Having said that, the people who deeply study the tracking are happy with where it's at. It's peaking at the right time. You have to be in the right place on opening day, in terms of the buzz, and the word-of-mouth and I suspect the studio is delighted that they've handled it correctly."

Part of the story behind the Avengers/Dark Knight Rises showdown is the struggle for supremacy between the two giants of comic book publishing, Marvel and DC, who have played an increasingly influential role in the film industry in the past two decades. DC's legion of characters include Superman, Wonder Woman and Green Lantern, alongside Batman, and their inventions powered the key superhero movies, including 1978's Superman, 1989's Batman, and 2005's Batman Begins. The relatively disappointing Superman Returns in 2006, and Green Lantern movie in 2011, have seen DC drop off the pace and Marvel power ahead, with the Spider-Man trilogy released between 2002 and 2007, the two Iron Man films, and The Avengers, which capped a series of films featuring its individual characters, including Captain America, Thor and Hulk.

In addition, Marvel is releasing The Amazing Spider-Man this weekend, with another set of better than expected figures in the offing. Marvel is now the clear leader commercially, with its 28 films having grossed $4.79bn in the US, while DC's 22 films have taken a total of $2.52bn.

Another feather in Marvel's cap has been to crack open the potential for ever more sequels and spin-offs: not only are Avengers 2 and 3 on the way, but the film has given more mileage to plans for three standalone Hulk films, Thor 2 and Captain America 2.

For DC, however, Batman is reaching the end of its shelf life in its current iteration, with Nolan moving on to produce a Superman reboot, Man of Steel, which won't see cinemas until next year. DC's best option to match The Avengers would seem to be its Justice League movie, featuring Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman, which has had a stop-start production history.

All this activity raises the question: are there too many Hollywood superhero blockbusters? How can the market sustain them all? Gaydos says: "To be honest, the trend has been heading this way for decades. These are films that require little or no dialogue, tell instantly-graspable stories in a big and bombastic manner, and deliver an experience that no other national film industry can afford to create. A studio is looking at a half-billion dollar investment for something like The Amazing Spider-Man."

Goodridge sees no end in sight. "The appetite for them seems limitless. Now the studios are able to refresh them for new generations, like the way Disney does. None of the stories die out: the properties are so iconic. People seem to live through them, almost, and the internet anticipation is extraordinary. The fanboy mentality appears to have spilled out into the mainstream."