1. The Avengers
Walt Disney Studios Motion PicturesThis may seem like a retread of the fourth entry, Iron Man, and in some ways, it is. The Avengers was the culmination of Marvel's plans that they set forth with Iron Man, capping four years of careful planning and micromanaging over multiple films, characters, and plot lines. It was the completion of their so called "Phase 1", but in reality, it was the beginning of many, many more "Phase 1s". The massive success of The Avengers was the final piece of the test case to see if a corporation could more or less direct a whole series of films, taking the auteur touch out of it in exchange for highly managed plot threads and stories to create the illusion of drama and connection over multiple films. The fact it has succeeded so splendidly has made other companies green with envy and has spread the "world building" virus across studios like an epidemic. Warner Bros. is busy playing catch up with its DC Comics license, Sony is taking its bit of Marvel territory to make The Sinister Six, Fox is building the X-Men into a time-traveling, world-building franchise, and Disney is doubling down by throwing so much Star Wars at us, we won't know what to do with it. Practically, the effect of the studios investing so much money into multiple films at the same time is that an original film released by a major studio will simply become an endangered species. In fact, the announcement of a single film's upcoming release may become a thing of the past. There may simply be announcements of the next "Phase" in their plans. The whole thing is eerily reminiscent of the Nazi's detailing their plans for remaking the world, but while luckily its only movies, the ease with which Marvel has been able to commoditize cinema is rather alarming.