10 Indisputable Facts That Prove Marvel Is The Biggest Brand In Movies
How an unproven studio reached the very top in less than a decade...
It's incredible to think that less that 20 years ago, Marvel were on the verge of bankruptcy.
A decade later, the company secured a risky $525m investment to independently produce their own movies, and in 2009 they were purchased by Disney for the princely sum of $4.3bn. Now, after going from strength to strength, Marvel Studios are sitting pretty as the biggest brand in the entire movie industry.
While many thought that the comic book movie bubble would burst years ago, the continuing popularity of the genre is largely down to Marvel and their ever-expanding roster of heroes. While Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight Trilogy gave the genre a shot in the arm, and the long-running X-Men franchise continues to do good business, the undisputed crown jewel in the spandex-clad sub-genre is the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Led by producer, figurehead and studio President Kevin Feige, the groundbreaking strategy of having all of their movies exist in the previously unheard of concept of a 'shared universe' has reaped massive rewards for a company that has only been in the movie business since 2008, and this article will take a look at ten facts that demonstrate just how the Marvel juggernaut has cemented its place at the top of the Hollywood hierarchy.
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10. Everything Is Planned A Decade In Advance
When Samuel L Jackson's Nick Fury showed up in the post-credits stinger of Iron Man to talk about 'The Avengers Initiative', what was initially dismissed as a fan-service cameo was actually the beginning of an unprecedented business strategy that quickly saw the unproven Marvel Studios become the biggest brand in Hollywood.
These days, it's a common practice for movie studios to announce their release schedule years in advance, but never before had an interconnected cinematic universe been attempted on such a scale. While the first Iron Man didn't hit theaters until May 2008, Kevin Feige had decided on utilizing the shared universe model as far back as 2005 after realizing that Marvel Studios controlled the rights to the core group of Avengers.
The build-up to the studio's epic superhero team-up had been planned years in advance and even before last year's announcement of Phase 3 titles through to 2019, Feige had been open about the fact that he knew Marvel's release schedule for the next decade. Marvel Studios are keenly aware of the bigger picture and how their movies are connected, and these decisions are made before the projects are officially announced, long before writers and directors are brought on board.