As was previously mentioned, one of the driving forces behind the Marvel/Marvel Studios split came down to Kevin Feige wanting more money to spend on these movies. That's an understandable and arguably necessary decision considering the fact that the Marvel Cinematic Universe is constantly growing and that there's an obvious need to keep audiences entertained by making everything bigger and better than what's come before. However, this is also a move which everyone involved could end up seriously regretting! After all, it's been reported that Disney viewed Avengers: Age Of Ultron as a financial disappointment, despite the fact that it only slightly fell short of the first movie's $1.4 billion haul. While they certainly didn't lose on the sequel, they threw a lot of money at it in the hope that it would outgross the first instalment, especially after the success of the other Phase 2 releases (many analysts initially predicted it might reach $2 billion). However, that clearly hasn't worried them too much, as their plan is to spend $1 billion on the two Avengers: Infinity War movies. That's an insane amount, but includes the budgets for both instalments of the franchise and a whopping $400 million for the actors who will star in them (half of which is going straight to Robert Downey Jr. allegedly). Disney and Marvel Studios clearly believe that Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 and 2 - which are no doubt going to be massive spectacles - will be box office hits, and think that throwing all this money at them will ensure that moviegoers can't help but be drawn in to checking them out at a time where we will quite possibly be entering an era of superhero movie fatigue. If that seems unlikely to you, bear in mind that these Infinity War is going to be released following three years of more comic book adaptations being released than ever before. Chances are that this is a gamble which is going to pay off for Disney, but if something goes wrong, then the studio may decide that like some of their other failed live-action franchises they've lost a lot of cash on (Tron and John Carter for example) Marvel may not be a huge priority for them any more... Do you think time's running out for Marvel? Or are these issues just part for the course? Weigh in with your opinion down in the comments.
