All the Superman movies were on HBO all the fucking time in the 80s. Not sure if I saw 2 in theaters as I was 4, but I 100% saw 3 and 4 in theaters, and from the time I could read I would sit and read comics whenever my mom got groceries.
Ahh I think you've cracked it, this is the disconnect here.
I hadn't even thought about premium cable
channels.
Allow me to amend my previous statement.
If you were born after 1970...ie 70-80 time frame, and were too young to have seen superman in theater, the only way you cared about superman was:
A) you had parents or older siblings who did see superman in the theater, and they owned the vhs and you watched that, or
B) you had access to premium cable. HBO, show time, skinamax. And you, young teenage boy, who had access to endless softcore titties and the occasional bush shot, instead spent your time jerking off to wonderboy in his spandex and his "up up and away" or whatever his catchphrase was.
Ie, You are a faggot. Got it.
Me, I grew up poor. We didn't even have basic cable until I was like 12. I had to tune into the naughty channel and hope that I could make out a nipple between the distortion and scrambled lines. If I had fucking skinamax at 13 I sure as fuck would not have been watching superman reruns, that's for fucking sure.