Every July the nerds, geeks, freaks, fans and self-proclaimed movie buffs flock to San Diego to get the latest scoops and exclusives for their favorite comics, movies, television shows and video games at Comic-Con International.

Originally celebrating all things comic book related-hence the ‘Comic’ in ‘Comic-Con’-the convention has slowly evolved into a bacchanalia of all things popular culture, embracing all fans from all fandoms.

Tickets to attend the convention are put on sale several months in advance, but always sell out in mere minutes. Even if one is able to snag a ticket, then comes the challenge of booking a hotel in San Diego which is no small feat.

Film studios are the most notorious for breaking their big announcements at Comic-Con, making their panels must-see events. Whether it’s debuting new footage, sharing exciting news from the set, or simply the arrival of a celebrity onstage, the fans will wait in line all night just to be the first ones to see it.

This year was no different, for several movie announcements were made that had fans on their feet, exploding with excitement and applause.

Marvel Studios had updates for two of their hotly anticipated movies debuting next year, “Guardians of the Galaxy,” which takes place in space and follows a ragtag team of alien heroes, followed by “Captain America: The Winter Soldier,” the sequel to the 2011 blockbuster.

The big announcement from Marvel however was the name of the “Avengers” sequel set for the summer of 2015; “Avengers: Age of Ultron.” A comic book of the same name debuted earlier this year and sure enough sales for the trade paperback preorders on Amazon shot-up by 380,000 orders the morning after the announcement was made.

Marvel Studios have been successful in tying each of their movie franchises together, always leading up to a big event movie like “Avengers” every few years. The box office ticket sales show that the fans are loyal to Marvel’s grand plan and have no problem seeing every movie that’s released.

Warner Bros. have been flailing with their superhero movies for the past few years, with the only real success being Christopher Nolan’s Batman / “The Dark Knight” trilogy. Now that both Nolan and Christian Bale (Batman) are finished, it’s up to Warner Bros. to re-launch the Batman franchise if they want to have their own “Justice League” movie (the DC Comics equivalent to Marvel’s “Avengers”) someday.

Sure enough at the Warner Bros. panel, it was announced that the sequel to the Superman “Man of Steel” movie would be the long-awaited Batman-Superman movie set for summer of 2015.

Director Zack Snyder had “Man of Steel” actor Harry Lennix come out and read a passage from Frank Miller’s “The Dark Knight Returns” graphic novel giving fans an idea of what the sequel might look like.

“I want you to remember, Clark…in all the years to come, in your most private moments, I want you to remember my hand at your throat. I want you to remember the one man who beat you…”

That quote was famously said by Batman in “The Dark Knight Returns,” where Batman and Superman battle it out. Like most superhero team-ups in comics, the two heroes usually battle each other after a misunderstanding, then eventually see the error of their ways and work together to save the day.

Zack Snyder will direct and is currently co-writing the screenplay with “Man of Steel” and “The Dark Knight” writer David S. Goyer. Warner Bros. plans to proceed with  ”The Flash” and “Justice League” movies shortly after.

Other movie announcements included new trailers for the upcoming “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire,” “Spider-Man 2” and “Godzilla” films at each of their respected panels, followed by cast and crew Q&A sessions with the fans.

One movie that took people by surprise was the upcoming “World of WarCraft” movie based on the computer game of the same name. Early footage was shown and director Duncan Jones said that production would start sometime next year.

Video game movies have always been announced over the years at Comic-Con, but due to enormous budgets the productions are slowly setback year after year. There is an “Assassins Creed” video game movie set for 2015, as well a “Halo” movie that has been stuck in development for numerous years now.

In other movie / video game news that was announced at the convention, “Firefly” creator Joss Whedon surprised fans with the news that the beloved sci-fi western television series would live on as an online video game next year, where fans could manage their own crews and play in the “Firefly” universe.

Finally in television news, panels for “Game of Thrones,” “Breaking Bad,” “Sherlock,” “The Walking Dead” and “Doctor Who” all had fans excited for the upcoming seasons.

The cast of “Game of Thrones” reminisced about the recently concluded third season and what’s possibly in store for season four. Creator George R.R. Martin hinted during the Q&A that a prequel book of sorts might happen, but a lot of it will already be explained in the final two books due out in the next couple of years.

“Breaking Bad” star Bryan Cranston thrilled the audience with a Walter White mask he wore around Comic-Con earlier that day, fooling people into thinking he was just another cosplayer. The cast and crew talked about what it was like preparing for the final few episodes of “Breaking Bad” and teased that the fans were in for some surprises.

At the “Sherlock” panel some exclusive footage was shown from one of the upcoming episodes and the creators and executive producers Steven Moffat, Mark Gatiss and Sue Vertue shared what it was like working with Martin Freeman and Benedict Cumberbatch in the third season. Not one of them gave an answer about the mysterious finale of last season, but promised that all would be explained.

The ever popular “The Walking Dead” showed a trailer for the upcoming fourth season, with more zombie killing than ever before. The cast and crew were present and promised things will be getting even more bloody and insane when the season debuts in October.

The “Doctor Who” panel was one of the final big television panels of Comic-Con to conclude on Sunday, with the 50^th Anniversary Episode being the main focus. Current showrunner Steven Moffat admitted to lying through his teeth for the past few months when asked who would be and wouldn’t be joining the cast for the special episode, causing speculation once again of which fan-favorites could be getting some screen time.

Overall, the “Batman-Superman” and “Avengers: Age of Ultron” movie news dominated the convention, having people talk about almost nothing else. Surely footage from both projects will be the highlights of Comic-Con next year, as the epic Marvel vs DC Comics battle continues in a new medium.