5. There's Been A Plan All Along
At the turn of the century, the superhero genre really caught fire with Marvel's characters right at the forefront. The moderate success of the R-rated Blade in 1998 saw there was an audience for superhero movies, while the success of X-Men in 2000 really started the ball rolling. Then of course came Spider-Man in 2002, which grossed over $800m worldwide and smashed numerous box office records along the way. Following this, Marvel characters began making the jump to the big screen with increasing regularity; along with second and third entries in the X-Men and Spider-Man series, Daredevil, Hulk, The Punisher, Elektra, two Fantastic Four movies and Ghost Rider were all released between 2003 and 2007 to varying degrees of success. Seeing the potential for success in the superhero genre, it was announced in 2005 that Marvel would begin self-financing and producing movies under the Marvel Studios banner with the characters they had available. Previously the studio had licensed their biggest names out to the likes of 20th Century Fox and Columbia Pictures, but now believed the time was right to take control of their own projects. And of course, make a lot more money in the process. It is Hollywood after all. Plans were made as far back as 2006 to create several individual movies to establish the characters and familiarize them with audiences, before building to what was billed as a 'crossover' movie. Names floated by the studio included Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, Doctor Strange and Ant-Man. To longtime fans, it became clear that an Avengers movie was on the way. Marvel announced in April 2006 that Iron Man would be the studio's first independent movie, budgeted at $140m and set for release on May 2, 2008. The Marvel Cinematic Universe had finally set the wheels in motion.