16 Problems Nobody Wants To Admit About Captain America: Civil War
5. It Splits The Fan-Base
Perhaps this should be more of a concern for Marvel's marketing and merchandising departments the for their fans, but there is a very real possibility that facing Iron Man and Captain America off and encouraging the fanbase to pick sides (which will be more obvious thanks to the reluctance to paint Stark as the outright villain) will shape how fans react to future films.
As it stands Tony Stark won't return for any more solo outings, but he has a Spider-Man film appearance to come and ruling out others would be foolish. Cap, meanwhile will continue in some guise even after Chris Evans hangs up his shield, thanks to the long-term contracts of both Anthony Mackie and Sebastian Stan.
What happens if Marvel's fanbase take the opportunity to choose sides a little too literally? Not to cast too many aspersions on the way movie fanboys work, but it is well within the realms of possibility that anyone who prefers Cap will take their animosity beyond the end of Civil War. Or vice versa.
The age old binary conflict that makes co-existence difficult: Batman v Superman, Wolverine v Cyclops, Pepsi v Coke... The goody-two-shoes against the gruff anti-hero type; and all Marvel will find is that they split their audience and cut their dividends both at box office and in merchandise.