Big Bang of the Marvel Cinematic Universe

By Shalaj Gupta | 1.7k |

Marvel Studios recently grossed $13 Billion after the release of Thor: Ragnarok but can you imagine it was almost bankrupt just under 3 decades back?

Fight with Bankruptcy: I can do this all day

Marvel Studio is a subsidiary of Marvel Entertainment (formerly known as Marvel Enterprise) which in 1997 was on the brink of bankruptcy. Unable to produce its own films, Marvel Studios had to licence and distribute its movies through different studios. Naturally at a cost of losing the rights to make a film on its own characters. Well at the beginning of the 20th Century no one realised the potential of the superhero genre so given that Marvel was getting any kind of money for movies made on its character, it was a blessing. Then came Blade by New Line Cinemas grossing $131,183,530 in 1998. Following were X Men by Fox Studios grossing $296,250,053 worldwide in 2000 and Sam Raimi’s Spiderman by Sony $821,708,551 showing the potential of the genre. Sequels were made following their predecessor’s success with Spiderman 2 in 2004 still considered to be one of the best superhero movies made till date. But not every movie was successful though with Ang Lee’s Hulk in 2003 and X2 were critically panned. Also, X Men: The Last Stand in 2006 and Spiderman 3 were deemed to be complete mess.
The Right Distribution of Marvel Characters before 2005 was a bit complex. Sony had the rights to Spiderman, Black Panther, Thor, Ghost Rider and Luke Cage New Line Cinemas had the rights to Blade and Iron Man. Fox Studios had the rights to Fantastic Four, Daredevil, Electra, Wolverine, Deadpool and X-Men. LionsGate had the rights to Black Widow, Punisher and the Man Things. Universal had the rights to The Incredible Hulk and Universal still has the "Right to First Reject" regarding the distribution of The Incredible Hulk movies. But now, Marvel Enterprise now getting financial strong changed to Marvel Entertainment to release Marvel Films on their own. Rights of Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk returned to Marvel in 2005 and thus happened a shakeup of Marvel Studio leadership and vision and then the BIG BANG happened.

There was an idea...

With Kevin Feige now heading Marvel Studios and Paramount as a distributor, Marvel Studios breathed fresh air into its operations. Rights to Thor, Black Panther and Black Widow returned to Marvel and the First Movie of Marvel Entertainment released in Iron Man. Iron Man received critical and commercial success and a cameo by Samuel L Jackson as Director Nick Fury of S.H.E.I.L.D teased the fans of new things to come. Then in the same year came The Incredible Hulk with an uncredited cameo of Robert Downey Jr as Tony Stark hinting of a future team up and hence the Superhero Genre was revamped. Marvel Entertainment was acquired by the Walt Disney Company in 2009 for $4 Billion. And after Thor, Captain America and a sequel to Iron Man came the first of its kind live action team up changing the Superhero Genre forever and honestly for good. The Avengers was critically hailed and broke the $1 Billion mark worldwide.
The Studio kept on expanding the Universe with Ant Man and the Guardians of Galaxy getting their solo films in Phase 2.

Bringing Together The Lone Wolf

Despite the success of the Marvel Cinematic Universe so far, the rights of significant characters in Marvel was still not with Marvel and hence could not be used in the MCU. Sony tried to reboot its Spiderman series with the Amazing Spiderman Series which were panned critically and a box office disappointment.
The major addition was of Spiderman in 2015 with successful negotiations with Sony resulting in Spiderman being a part of MCU and a new solo Spiderman film worked on together by Sony and Marvel Studios.

United They Stood, Divided They Fell

The Sony Marvel Deal resulted in Spiderman appearing in Captain America: Civil War which was again subjected with critical acclaim and box office success grossing well over a billion mark. The movie ended with the Avengers being divided with a great threat looming around the Earth.
The Phase 3 saw the introduction of many heroes with Spiderman and Black Panther getting introductory screen time in Captain America Civil War and solo movie in June 2017 and Feb 2018 respectively, and Doctor Strange in Nov 2016.

Dread it! Run from it! Destiny always arrives!

In May 2018 comes the most ambitious project of the Marvel Cinematic Universe with 10 years of character building movies leading up to Avengers: Infinity Wars in which Earth’s Mightiest Superheroes go against the mighty Thanos. The film directed by Anthony and Joe Russo will see all the superheroes of MCU till now assemble in the biggest superhero movie till date. The movie also shows the rise of the Marvel Studios from licencing most of its characters to other production houses to regain them, establish them not only with money driven films but content driven films with the lowest rating a Marvel film has in Rotten Tomatoes is 66% and assemble such a vast universe of their own.

The Homecoming

The Fox was continuously coming up with X Men, Wolverine and Deadpool movies with the timeline in X-Men completely screwed up.
Disney announced acquiring 21st Century Fox for $51.2 Billion which sees all the Fox Owned Marvel characters return to Marvel Studios and a part of MCU in the future. Marvel now has everything it lost and with a great setup in place to launch many more.
Disclaimer: The opinion of the author are his own and does not represent the opinion of the organisation.
Shalaj is an avid reader, comic books and superhero movies buff and is currently pursuing Mechanical Engineering from NSIT Delhi.
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