DC: 1966 Batman Movie (West & Ward) but that was on TV
Marvel: 1977 Dr. Strange movie [Clyde Kusatsu as Wong] but that was on TV, too and I was never sure if it was in the theaters.
DC: 1979’s Superman The Movie (Reeves) in the actual theater.
Marvel:
I was working the theaters when Conan the Barbarian (1984?) and its sequel* were running, and I do consider that an official Marvel character.
–G!
I saw Conan the Destroyer several times – Olivia d’Abo was hot!
Couldn’t tell you the first ones I saw outright. I’m pretty certain the first DC movie I saw in the cinema was Batman Forever, and I didn’t see a theatrical Marvel movie until Spider-man in 2002. But with Marvel at least I know I saw a few movies prior to that one, such as X-men and the 70s Spider-man movie (EDIT: I see you’ve said you don’t want to include TV movies, but as I understand it this one was released theatrically here in Australia).
DC–The 1966 Batman
Marvel–The 2005 Fantastic Four (God, I wish somebody would do them right, they were my favorite characters as a kid).
Ditto.
Howard the Duck (on Betamax) and Superman (on TV).
Well, I thought it was the X-Men (1 & 2) then Iron Man, but then I read this.
So…yeah. What Chuck said.
DC: Superman (1978)
Marvel: The Punisher (1989)
Aside: I was once grading a physics lab on electromagnetic induction. One of the questions the students had to answer was “Why are there no DC transformers?”. One student wrote “Because Marvel got the comic book rights”.
For DC I am sure it was Superman on TV, but which one, I don’t know. In the theater it was Batman Returns.
For Marvel it was definitely Blade and that was in the theater. I really liked/like the opening scene of that movie so there is no chance I will forget that.
//i\
As with most of everyone else, Howard the Duck and one of the Richard Donner Superman movies, no idea which one. I was too young to see the first one when it came out, so I’m not sure if I saw them out of order (since I definitely have seen the first one) or if my parents rented the earlier ones so that I could watch them before going to see the new ones in the theater, or if the studio re-released the films before the new ones came out so that people could catch up. (They used to play re-runs at movie theaters, kids!)
Superman was better. 
But probably the first good superhero movie was Tim Burton’s Batman, followed pretty quickly by Sam Raimi’s Darkman (though, not based on any particular comic).
I haven’t seen it in a few decades, but I’d probably still like Darkman better than any of Raimi’s Spider-Man films. :rolleyes:
Grew up watching reruns of Adam West Batman and George Reeves Superman. Saw some of the Christopher Reeve Superman movies in theater (1 and/or 2, not sure but I think I saw one of them, didn’t see 3 in theater, know I saw 4 in theater). Saw all of the Burton/Shumaker Batman movies in theaters. Also saw the Lynda Carter Wonder Woman series.
Saw a lot of the 70’s Marvel stuff on TV, either when it came out or in reruns. Spider-Man, Incredible Hulk, Captain America, but never saw the old Dr Strange TV movie (or the recent theatrical one for that matter). Full blown movie, probably Howard the Duck, on VHS. Never managed to see the “not officially released” first version of Fantastic Four or the not sure if they got a theatrical release but they did eventual get VHS release Captain America and The Punisher (the Dolph Lundgren one).
Superman and, Surprisingly, Thor. Thor was on Netflix.