The story
Founded by Avi Arad in 1993, in New York City.1
Background
Marvel Comics's predecessor Timely Comics, which operated from 1939 until 1950, licensed out the use of its character Captain America to Republic Pictures for a 1944 film serial only for free advertising, but Timely failed to provide any drawing of Captain America with his shield or any further background. Republic created an entirely new backstory for the character, who was portrayed as using a gun. From the late 1970s through the early 1990s, the Marvel Comics Group and the Marvel Entertainment Group (MEG) sold options to studios to produce films based on Marvel Comics characters. Marvel optioned its superhero Spider-Man in the late 1970s, but the rights reverted to Marvel after a film was not produced within the allocated time frame. From 1986 to 1996, most of Marvel's major characters were optioned, including the Fantastic Four, X-Men, Daredevil, the Hulk, Silver Surfer, and Iron Man. Marvel's first big-screen adaptation of one of its properties was the 1986 film Howard the Duck, which was a box-office bomb. MEG was purchased by New World Entertainment in November 1986 and opted to produce films based on the Marvel characters. It released The Punisher (1989) before MEG was sold to Ronald Perelman's Andrews Group. Two other films were produced: Captain America (1990), released in the United Kingdom on screens and direct-to-video in the United States, and The Fantastic Four (1994), not intended for release.
History
Marvel Films (1993–1996)
After MEG acquired ToyBiz in 1993, Avi Arad of ToyBiz was named president and chief executive officer (CEO) of both the Marvel Films division and New World Family Filmworks, a New World Entertainment subsidiary. New World was MEG's former parent corporation and later a fellow subsidiary of the Andrews Group. Marvel Productions became New World Animation by 1993 while Marvel formed Marvel Films as its dedicated production division, which included Marvel Films Animation. Marvel Films Animation shared Tom Tataranowicz with New World Animation as head of development and production. New World Animation, Saban, and Marvel Films Animation each produced a Marvel series for television for the 1996–1997 season: The Incredible Hulk, X-Men: The Animated Series, and Spider-Man: The Animated Series, respectively. By the end of 1993, Arad and 20th Century Fox signed a deal to develop a film based on the X-Men. In August 1996, New World Animation and Marvel Films Animation were sold along with the rest of New World by the Andrews Group to News Corporation and the Fox Entertainment Group. As part of the deal, Marvel licensed the rights for Captain America, Daredevil, and Silver Surfer to the Fox Kids Network for series that Saban would produce, while New World Animation continued producing a second season of The Incredible Hulk for UPN.
Formation of Marvel Studios and licensing films (1996–2004)
The Marvel Entertainment Group formed Marvel Studios on August 7, 1996. Filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to raise money to finance the new corporation, Marvel, Isaac Perlmutter's Zib, Inc., and Avi Arad sold ToyBiz stock. ToyBiz filed an offering of 7.5 million shares with a closing price of $20.125 at the time, making the offering worth approximately $150 million. ToyBiz sought to sell 1 million shares. Jerry Calabrese, the president of Marvel Entertainment Group, and Avi Arad, head of Marvel Films and a director of ToyBiz, were assigned tandem control of Marvel Studios. Under Calabrese and Arad, Marvel sought to control pre-production by commissioning scripts, hiring directors, and casting characters, providing the package to a major studio partner for filming and distribution. Arad said of the goal for control, "When you get into business with a big studio, they are developing a hundred or 500 projects; you get totally lost. That isn't working for us. We're just not going to do it anymore." Marvel Studios arranged a seven-year development deal with 20th Century Fox to cover markets in the United States and internationally.
In December 1996, MEG underwent a Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization plan, including Marvel Studios as part of its strategic investment, and MEG subsequently merged with ToyBiz to form Marvel Enterprises in June 1998. By 1997, Marvel Studios was actively pursuing various film productions based on Marvel characters, including the eventual films X-Men (2000), Daredevil (2003), Elektra (2005), and Fantastic Four (2005). Unproduced projects included Prince Namor, based on the character Namor and to be directed by Philip Kaufman, and Mort the Dead Teenager, based on the comic book of the same name and written by John Payson and Mort creator Larry Hama. Marvel's Captain America animated series with Saban Entertainment for Fox Kids Network was set to premiere in late 1998. However, due to the bankruptcy, the series was canceled after the character designs and a one-minute promotional reel were produced.
The first film Marvel Studios packaged and licensed was Blade (1998) for New Line Cinema, based on the vampire hunter Blade. Stephen Norrington directed the film, with Wesley Snipes starring as Blade. Blade was released on August 21, 1998, grossing $131.2 million worldwide, and was followed by X-Men, directed by Bryan Singer. That film was released on July 14, 2000, and grossed $296.3 million worldwide. Blade and X-Men demonstrated that widely popular films could be made out of comic book characters not familiar to the general public, with each spawning their own respective media franchises, New Line's Blade trilogy and Fox's wider X-Men franchise, with multiple sequels and some television spin-offs. Leading up to X-Men's release, Marvel Studios negotiated a deal with then-functional Artisan Entertainment, successful with the low-budget The Blair Witch Project, for a co-production joint venture that included rights to 15 Marvel characters including Captain America; Thor, as a television series; Black Panther, with Snipes attached to produce and star; Deadpool; Iron Fist; Morbius, the Living Vampire; Longshot; Power Pack; Mort the Dead Teenager; Ant-Man, and the Punisher. Artisan would finance and distribute while Marvel would develop licensing and merchandising tie-ins. The resulting production library would be co-owned and include television series, direct-to-video films, and internet projects. By March 2001, Marvel Studios planned to produce multiple animated spin-off series for its approximately 20 films in development at the time. The studio was also preparing live-action series for broadcast syndication to be released in 2002, particularly adaptations of the Daughters of the Dragon team and the Spider-Man adversary Black Cat, with the intention for Tribune Entertainment to distribute the series after previously doing so for the studio's first live-action syndicated series, Mutant X (2001–2004), which was not based on Marvel Comics. By the end of 2001, the success of Marvel Entertainment's Ultimate Marvel imprint comics created leverage in Hollywood for Marvel Studios, pushing more properties into development.
The next film licensed from Marvel Studios was Columbia Pictures' Spider-Man, released on May 3, 2002. Directed by Sam Raimi and starring Tobey Maguire as Spider-Man, it grossed $821.7 million worldwide. The early success of Spider-Man led the film's studio to issue a seven-figure advance for a sequel. Arad spoke of the deal, "Movies make sequels. Therefore, it's a big economic luxury to know that a movie's going to get a second and third. This is a business of precedence." According to a Lehman Brothers analysis, Marvel Studios made only $62 million for the first two Spider-Man films. Marvel earned more from half the consumer product licensing fees than from the films, but it was enough for Marvel to regain its financial footing. In October 2002, Marvel Studios announced deals for the Sub-Mariner and Prime with Universal Pictures.
In contrast to the original storylines of DC Comics' Superman and Batman films, Marvel films often emphasized more fidelity to its comics, applying set pieces, scenes, plots, and dialogue drawn from them. In 2003, David Maisel approached Arad about earning Marvel more for its films. Maisel, Arad, and Perlmutter met, leading to Maisel's hiring as president and chief operating officer (COO). At this point, the studio operated out of a small office on Santa Monica Boulevard, with around a dozen staff members. Kevin Feige, who later became the president of Marvel Studios, was then a junior executive generating script notes for the licensed studios. In January 2003, Marvel, the Sci-Fi Channel, and Reveille Productions agreed to develop two pilot films based on Brother Voodoo and Strikeforce: Morituri. In December 2003, Lionsgate purchased Artisan Entertainment and decided to let all of the character rights Artisan held, except the Punisher, revert to Marvel. Marvel Studios partnered with Lionsgate in 2004 to produce eight animated films, called Marvel Animated Features, for the direct-to-DVD market with Lionsgate Home Entertainment handling distribution. The line was a proof of concept for Maisel's later plan. Eric Rollman was hired by Marvel as Executive Vice President of home entertainment and TV production for Marvel Studios to oversee the deal with Lionsgate.
Transition to independent film production (2004–2009)
Maisel was hired in 2004 as president and chief operating officer of Marvel Studios, as he had a plan for the studio to self-finance its films. Marvel entered into a non-recourse debt structure with Merrill Lynch that was collateralized by certain film rights to a total of ten characters from Marvel's vast vault. Marvel received $525 million to produce a maximum of ten films based on the company's properties over eight years, according to the parameters of the original deal. Those characters were Ant-Man, the Avengers, Black Panther, Captain America, Cloak & Dagger, Doctor Strange, Hawkeye, Nick Fury, Power Pack, and Shang-Chi. Ambac insured the films would succeed, or it would pay the interest payment on the debt and get the film rights as collateral. Initially, Marvel Studios was in talks with Universal Pictures as a possible distributor, because Universal owned the film rights to both the Hulk and Namor during that time. Negotiations dragged on, so the studio began talks with Paramount Pictures. In the second quarter of 2005, Merrill attempted to back out of full financing of each film, demanding that Marvel finance one-third of the budget. Marvel took back rights in five foreign territories from Paramount for pre-sell to meet that demand. In September 2005, Marvel announced the Merrill Lynch financing deal with Paramount as marketer and distributor. Marvel Studios's parent company, Marvel Enterprises, Inc., then changed its name to Marvel Entertainment, Inc. to reflect the change to self-production. This made Marvel Studios Hollywood's first major independent film studio since DreamWorks Pictures was founded in 1994.
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The studio subsequently relocated to a new location above a Mercedes-Benz dealership in Beverly Hills, California. Maisel was also named vice-chairman of the studio, but reported to Perlmutter, who had become the CEO of Marvel Entertainment. In November 2005, Michael Helfant joined the studio as president and chief operating officer. Also that month, Marvel gained the film rights to Iron Man from New Line Cinema. Marvel then revealed that it had regained the film rights to the Hulk from Universal in February 2006, in exchange for letting Universal own the distribution rights to The Incredible Hulk (2008) and the right of first refusal to pick up the distribution rights to any future Marvel Studios-produced Hulk films. In April 2006, Thor was announced to be a Marvel Studios production, while Lions Gate Entertainment subsequently dropped the Black Widow film it had in development since 2004 and returned the rights to Marvel. Feige, a self-described "fanboy" who had become Arad's second-in-command, subsequently realized that Marvel owned the rights to the Avengers team. He envisioned introducing each of the Avengers in individual films and then merging them in a crossover film as part of a shared universe, similar to the one that was created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby for Marvel Comics in the 1960s.
Maisel and Arad fought over the rate of film releases and the strength of characters in the film lineup. Perlmutter supported Maisel, and thus, in May 2006, Arad resigned as studio chair and CEO. He doubted the shared universe strategy would work, but insisted that his reputation helped secure the initial financing. In March 2007, Helfant was "forced out" of the studio while Maisel was named chairman and Feige was named president of production to replace Helfant as Iron Man (2008) began filming. To preserve its artistic integrity, Marvel Studios formed a creative committee of six people familiar with its comic book lore: Feige, Marvel Studios co-president Louis D'Esposito, Marvel Comics' president of publishing Dan Buckley, Marvel Entertainment's chief creative officer (CCO) Joe Quesada, comic book writer Brian Michael Bendis, and Marvel Entertainment president Alan Fine, who oversaw the committee as its chairman. In January 2008, Marvel Animation was incorporated to direct Marvel's efforts in animation and home entertainment markets, including then-animation efforts with Lionsgate and Nickelodeon. In March, the company agreed to a five-picture basic cable distribution with FX for the films Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk, with additional films to be named later. Following the successful opening weekend of Iron Man in May 2008, Maisel had his contract extended through 2010 and Feige was promoted to president of Marvel Studios. In November, Marvel Studios signed a lease with Raleigh Studios to host its headquarters and production offices and film the next four films on the studios' slate, including Iron Man 2 (2010) and Thor (2011), at its Manhattan Beach Studios Media Campus facilities. By September 2008, Paramount added five additional Marvel films' foreign distribution to its domestic film distribution contract. Before D'Esposito's promotion in November 2009 to co-president with Feige, he was the studio's president of physical production and oversaw its budgets and production schedule. D'Esposito would report to Perlmutter as well as to Fine alongside Feige.
In 2009, producer Stephen Broussard was tasked with forming the studio's writers program. The writers were hired for a year to be on call to do emergency script polishes for films in production, as well as developing scripts based on some lesser-known properties, such as Black Panther, Cable, Iron Fist, Nighthawk, and Vision. Writers included: Edward Ricourt, who was encouraged to write a script for Luke Cage as it was of high interest to the studio; Nicole Perlman, who chose to write a script based on the 2008 Guardians of the Galaxy team; Christopher Yost, who was asked to pitch a Black Panther film for his interview, and took interest in writing scripts about the Thunderbolts, Power Pack, and Brian Braddock / Captain Britain; Joe Robert Cole, who initially pitched a War Machine film before joining the writers program where he created scripts for the Inhumans; and Eric Pearson, who was asked to pitch a Cloak and Dagger film and also worked to rewrite a Luke Cage script. After Broussard moved on to the production of Captain America: The First Avenger (2011), Marvel Studios hired Nate Moore to oversee the writers program, who at times was assisted by the also newly hired executive Jodi Hildebrand. Feige was particularly interested in screenplays for Black Panther, Iron Fist, and Blade. The program shut down in 2014 but was revived in 2016. In early 2009, Sony returned what at the time was thought to have been all Spider-Man television rights, including live-action, in exchange for an adjustment to the film rights; it was later clarified to have only applied to the animated television rights when episodes are shorter than 44 minutes.
Acquisition by Disney and immediate changes (2009–2015)
On August 31, 2009, the Walt Disney Company announced that it had reached a deal to acquire Marvel Entertainment for $4 billion. The deal was completed on December 31, with Marvel Entertainment becoming a subsidiary of Disney. Both Marvel and Disney stated that the merger would not affect any pre-existing deals with other film studios for the time being, although Disney said it would distribute future Marvel projects with its own studio once the deals expired. Maisel stepped down from the studio following the sale to Disney. In April 2010, rumors circulated that Marvel was looking to create $20–40 million films based on properties such as Doctor Strange, Ka-Zar, Luke Cage, Dazzler, and Power Pack. Feige responded by saying, while budgets are generally never discussed early in development, Marvel was considering films for all characters mentioned in the rumor, except Dazzler, whose rights were at Fox.
In June 2010, Marvel Entertainment established a television division within Marvel Studios called Marvel Television, led by producer Jeph Loeb, under which Marvel Animation would operate. In October, Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures acquired the distribution rights for The Avengers (2012) and Iron Man 3 (2013) from Paramount Pictures, with Paramount's logo and billing remaining on those films. In August 2011, at Disney's behest, the studio dismissed most of its marketing department, including EVP of Worldwide Marketing Dana Precious, VP of Worldwide Marketing Jeffrey Stewart, and Manager of Worldwide Marketing Jodi Miller. Disney subsequently began marketing Marvel's films. In April 2012, the Walt Disney Company China, Marvel Studios, and DMG Entertainment announced an agreement to co-produce Iron Man 3 in China. DMG co-financed and handled co-production matters in China, where it co-distributed the film.
Shortly after its May 2012 release, The Avengers became the studio's first film and the first Marvel production to gross over $1 billion worldwide. In April 2013, Marvel Studios moved its executive production offices from the Manhattan Beach Studios Media Campus to the Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, California. In July 2013, Disney purchased the distribution rights to Iron Man, Iron Man 2, Thor, and Captain America: The First Avenger from Paramount. In September 2014, TNT acquired the cable rights for Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), Captain America: Civil War (2016), and three other films, to air on the network two years after their theatrical releases. FX had previously aired the films since 2008. Marvel Studios announced its Phase Three (2016–2019) films at a special press event in October 2014, which drew comparisons to Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference. In February 2015, Marvel Studios and Sony Pictures announced they would co-produce a new Spider-Man reboot film, Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), and integrate the character into the MCU. Sony Pictures would continue to finance, distribute, own, and have final creative control of the Spider-Man films.
Restructuring under Walt Disney Studios and expansion to television and animation (2015–2023)
In August 2015, Marvel Studios was placed into Walt Disney Studios, with Feige reporting directly to Walt Disney Studios chairman Alan F. Horn instead of Perlmutter. Marvel Television and its subsidiary Marvel Animation were left under Marvel Entertainment and Perlmutter's control, and the creative committee began having only "nominal" input on the films while continuing to consult on Marvel Television productions. All key film decisions moving forward were to be made by Feige, D'Esposito, and executive vice president of film production Victoria Alonso. The studio went on to establish the Marvel Studios Parliament, a "brain trust" of long-time executives at the company who help to elevate each other's projects where possible. By April 2017, Marvel Studios was housed on the second floor of the Frank G. Wells Building at the Disney studio lot. Fast Company ranked Marvel Studios number eleven on its 2018 World's Most Innovative Companies list. In June 2018, the studio's film Avengers: Infinity War became the first superhero film to earn over $2 billion at the box office. Its sequel Avengers: Endgame subsequently surpassed it, grossing nearly $2.8 billion and becoming the highest-grossing film of all time from July 2019 until March 2021. Endgame culminated the MCU's 22-film story up to that point. In March 2019, the rights to the X-Men and Fantastic Four characters, and Deadpool were returned to Marvel Studios following Disney's acquisition of 20th Century Fox's owner, 21st Century Fox. Despite this, Feige said the studio could not yet immediately integrate these characters and concepts into the MCU because of corporate acquisition laws.
From Wikipedia’s article on Marvel Studios, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4