Cameron Dingee

ENC2135
10/29/15
An Examination of the Sustainability of Marvel Studios
As of recently, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has been expanding at a
rapid rate.

The studio has constantly been releasing blockbuster after

blockbuster introducing more of their universe to the silver screen. However,

this rapid expansion comes at a price, one that could potentially damage the
entire production company.
The Marvel Cinematic Universe and the films involved in it are all
based on the comic books created by the comic book publisher, Marvel.
According to Robert Genter, a historian of the Marvel company, in the 1930s
comic books emerged as a popular source of relatively cheap entertainment,
combining interesting and unique plots with detailed graphics to match the
story.

It is here that the Marvel company finds its beginnings in Timely

Publications, which began publishing comics involving now well-known

characters such as Captain America and Iron Man.

Captain America, a

patriotically themed superhero, launched the company into a period of great

success with the start of World War II, causing the company to grow
exponentially (Genter). However, this trend came to a stop at the end of the
war when the U.S. grew tired of acts of heroism and a man in a red, white,
and blue spandex was no longer needed.
With the Cold War and the threat of nuclear war, superheroes were
called back into public attention and once again became the main focus of
every major comic book company. It was at this point in time that the comic

book industry really took off and entered into what has come to be known as
the Golden Age of comic books. Around this time Marvel launched several of
its now famous characters such as Spider-Man and the X-Men. The Golden
Age lasted until the late 1980s where it once again tapered off (Genter). In
order to reboot the genre, Marvel got into the movie business.
Beginning primarily in the 1980s, films based on the Marvel comics
began being produced by several different companies including Sony and
20th Century Fox. Films were a good medium to portray comic books because
they attract a youthful moviegoing demographic, appeal to nostalgic older
audiences, and offer thrills and well-defined archetype characters which
were extremely successful, especially when based on heroes who also have
well-established track records for popularity, licensing, and sequel potential
(McAllister, Gordon & Jancovich 110). Though the comic book makes a point
of emphasizing how the characters of all of their comic books exist in one
universe, often referred to as the Marvel Universe, the films do not include
this key feature. With the rights of different characters owned by several
different production companies, collaboration on these films was nearly
impossible. This is a major problem that plagued the industry and without
any major economic backing it wouldve continued, however it was in 2009
when the Walt Disney Company decided to purchase Marvel Entertainment,
Inc. (Rasmussen 2).
Instead of just absorbing Marvel into its conglomeration, Disney chose
to set it up as a subsidiary company which allowed Marvel to maintain most

of its creative independence. This is pivotal because the merger put Disney
into the superhero business, an area that they had been lacking in
(Rasmussen 2). Likewise, the deal was beneficial to Marvel who had an
interest in being acquired by a company who would let them remain
autonomous and provide them with financing to complete their projects
which they received from the Disney company (Rasmussen 4). Due to the
fact that most production companies believed the superhero film genre to be
played out, Disney acquired most of the rights back relatively easily, with the
exception of those owned by Sony and 20 th Century Fox. With most of the
rights in its ownership, Disney was able to fund a new production company
that would be in charge of making all of the film adaptions: Marvel Studios.
When it first began, Marvel Studios produced films similar to the way
that other production companies already had.

Traditionally, comic book-

related films have done much to both establish the action-oriented megablockbuster and the thematically and/or visually innovative art film and
Marvel Studios was no exception (McAllister, Gordon & Jancovich 109). With
its new funding and a large collection of its rights Marvel Studios then began
one of the largest and most innovative endeavors of the film industry to
date.

They sought to change the way that the Marvel Universe was

portrayed through film, also known as the Marvel Cinematic Universe. In the
past, film production companies would isolate their films and the characters
in them, even if the company owned the rights to multiple characters. For
instance, 20th Century Fox owned the rights to two separate and distinct

Marvel franchises, the Fantastic Four and the X-Men. However, in the ten
films that the production company has produced using the two franchises,
none of them make reference to one another.

For example, the Fantastic

Four never appeared in the X-Men movies, neither do they share a common
major enemy or make mention of any of the same concepts. For all intents
and purposes the X-Men and the Fantastic Four, as portrayed in the films,
exist in separate yet similar universes and cannot interact in any way. This is
where Marvel Studios hoped to change things up.
Marvel hoped to create a singular cinematic universe for its film similar
to how Marvel was the first to introduce comics with continuity between
issues (William Davidson 2). Beginning with the first film distributed by
Marvel Studios, Iron Man, the foundations for an overlapping Cinematic
Universe were started. This occurs when, in the post-credits scene, Nick Fury
(Samuel L. Jackson) offers Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) the opportunity to
join the Avengers Initiative. This superhero team gave Marvel the perfect
opportunity to begin to overlap their films. The overlap occurred mostly
through the post-credit scenes, in which there would typically be mention of
the Avengers Initiative which became the overarching concept that
connected the first films. Not only were certain shared concepts in each film
but characters from each film played a role in each film. This is significant
because this was the first time that a major production studio truly
attempted to make a universe in which all of their characters lived and
interacted with one another.

Though Marvel Studios paved new grounds in the film industry and it is
profiting highly for the risks that they took, it does come at a price. Since
Marvel is essentially the first production company to create one cinematic
universe for their films there wasnt any type of prior example to base their
own model off of. As a result, Marvel has essentially become the guinea pig
in this singular cinematic universe experiment. In order to truly comprehend
the problem that Marvel Studios is faced with one must first understand the
model of expansion that the studio is currently using.
At this point, it is worth mentioning that throughout this paper that the
term growth model or expansion model refers to the pattern through
which Marvel Studios has released their films and the expansion of the
Marvel Cinematic Universe.

These patterns can be evaluated and to help

suggest possible future patterns in order to help predict the sustainability of

the Studio and should not be confused with the actual growth of the
company itself. There was initial worry that the studio would fail (Barnes).
However, then-president of Marvel, Peter Cuneo, stated:
I view Marvel as having the potential to be the
leading entertainment company in the world built
around

fantasy

characters.

view

all

of

our

characters as brands, and what were doing is brand

management. I view our characters as celebrities
only they dont get old or misbehave. Were going to
place them in as many mediums and entertainment

venues as possible, and were building the business

for the long term.
Currently Marvel Studios has been releasing films in what they have
deemed as phases. These phases are described directly by Marvel and are
separated into 3 distinct time periods so far.

Phase One included the

beginning films Iron Man, Captain America, etc. which essentially gave the
background for the Avengers.

Then at the end of Phase One the studio

released Marvels The Avengers to tie all of the characters together. This
film is significant in the franchise history because this was the first time
interaction between characters from different films was seen and was the
main focus of a film. It is also significant to mention that the film of entire
interaction was based on the overarching theme, the Avenger Initiative, that
was seen throughout all of the initial films and the Avengers also combated a
villain that was referenced throughout most of the other films. The pattern
that each movie in a phase builds up the plot for the finale film at the end of
that phase will be seen again in the following phases. This can even be seen
in the post credit scene of Marvels The Avengers in which a new character,
known as Thanos, is introduced and will go on to act as the overarching
villain with a weapon known as the infinity gauntlet acting as the overarching
concept.
After Phase One was concluded with Marvels The Avengers and the
overarching concepts for the next phase established, Phase Two did not
begin until almost exactly one year later with the release of Iron Man 3.

Marvel chose to wait this long in order to recreate public interest for the films
and revamp the franchise. It also helped to break up the phases into distinct
films and prevented the films from being viewed as just a series. Phase Two
primarily consisted of sequels to the films in Phase One, however it also
introduced two new titles, The Guardians of the Galaxy and Ant-Man, along
with two television series.

The expansion allowed the Marvel Cinematic

Universe to branch out to newer, lesser known titles. However, though these
titles may not have been well known, Marvel Studios still managed to
incorporate the overarching themes into them. For example, Guardians of
the Galaxy made mention of infinity stones, which are part of the Infinity
Gauntlet, while in Ant-Man Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) directly interacts with the
Avengers. This continues the pattern of interaction and proves that the films
all still take place within the same cinematic universe.
Phase Two ends with the finale of Avengers: Age of Ultron which does
not bring the overarching concepts to a close, but instead continues them.
However, the film did introduce several new characters to the Marvel
Cinematic Universe and alluded to possible new directions in which newer
films could eventually go in.

At this point in time, Marvel Studios has

announced its new film lineup for Phase Three and has even alluded to
possible films that could be included in Phase Four. It is also important to
note that, as it currently stands, Phase Three is planned to be substantially
larger than either of the other two phases. Along with the staggering eleven
films that will be released in this phase, Marvel also plans on launching five

new television series. Phase Three will dwarf the other phases which each
contained only six films and two television series and many believe it to be a
very ambitious lineup, as noted in the New York Times.

This massive

undertaking serves to exemplify Marvel Studios intention to expand rapidly,

along with the fact that Phase Three will continue to build upon the already
established titles and will continue to introduce less popular titles and
characters.
At this point, the expansion model of the Marvel Cinematic Universe
can be most easily compared to that of a tree, in the sense that the studio
began with relatively separate films in Phase One that would make up the
roots of the tree and the roots are brought together to form a trunk in
Marvels The Avengers.

With Phase Two the previous films are built upon

thus the trunk is expanded with tiny branches shooting off that are the newer
films. Then with phase Three, the trunk continues to grow, while even more
new films create even more branches. This type of growth will then continue
with future phases constantly branching the tree out further and further. It is
in this fact that lies the problem.
To discuss the problem of sustainability that Marvel Studios faces, it
will be easiest to present it using the metaphor of the tree. To begin with,
one must take into account the nature of filmmaking and the business
behind it.

It has often been demonstrated through cinematic history that

most actors do not enjoy filling the same role over and over again and will
often leave a character role after filling it a few times. Such is the case with

Robert Downey Jr. who is most well known for playing Tony Stark/Iron Man
within the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

With his contract now up it is

currently unclear what Downey will do but the situation has brought to light
the problem of what Marvel will do once an actor playing a character in the
cinematic universe leaves the franchise. Since Downey has played Stark for
so long and audiences enjoy him in the role it is unlikely that Marvel will fill
his role with another actor. However, without Downey there to play the role
Iron Man will be essentially unable to continue within the Marvel Cinematic
Universe (McAllister, Gordon & Jancovich 110).
However, the question: Why dont the Studios just replace any actors
who want to leave their roles? This is what Marvel has done in the past by
replacing Edward Norton with Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner/the Hulk. Yet, a
recent interview with Jeremy Latcham suggests that Avengers: Infinity Wars,
the third installment of the Avengers franchise, will mark the end to some
version of the team weve come to know as the Avengers. Here Latcham is
alluding to a possible end of the Avengers as they have been depicted in the
past.

Latcham also suggests that the Avengers will be phased out of the

Marvel Cinematic Universe. This is not to imply that the team itself will come
to an end, but that the individual characters themselves will be phased out
and new heroes and heroines will be introduced to the team and the
universe.

Latcham goes on to say that, It's not the end of the Marvel

Cinematic Universe, but I think it's the end of part of it for sure. We're still trying

to figure out which parts that means. This allusion to the death of part of the
cinematic universe will have to be explained in some way.
If the Marvel Cinematic Universe wants to continue as it currently is, then
an explanation of why the Avengers disappeared will be needed, once they
were phased out. For instance, the Studios will have to essentially kill off or put
characters into a position where they will be unable to return to the Universe
and will justify their absence.

This may be particularly difficult for Marvel

Studios due to the fact that the Avengers have been a pillar in the Marvel
Cinematic Universe and are responsible for its existence in the first place.
However, the cinematic universe will not be the only one affected by this. As
the films have been distributed, the comic books on which they were based
upon also began to evolve and were now inspired by the cinematic universe. In
some cases, complete plotlines and characters were changed in order to match
the cinematic universe.

For instance, Nick Fury, who was originally a white

character, was changed to a black character when Samuel L. Jackson assumed

the role. Likewise, the characters in comics who were then represented in the
films began to change to look more like the actors that were playing them in
the films. This would then suggest that as characters were killed or relocated
within the films in order to phase them out, they would also be rendered
useless to in the comics. This would lead to the failure of several comic series
or a schism between films and comics.

Though Marvel will most likely just

create a schism, it would shatter the shared universe that all of their products

are in. However, the only major change will be that the films and the comic
books will not align perfectly (Achwal).
Returning to the problem of Iron Man, the studio could not simply make
a reboot for the series, as seen with the Spider-Man movies which until
recently were distributed through Sony. This is once again due to the fact
that Marvel uses a shared universe and thus they will be unable to reboot the
films without greatly affecting the other films in the universe. This means
that, in order for a variant of Iron Man to continue to be present in the Marvel
Cinematic Universe, Stark will most likely have to step down from the Iron
Man suit and let another character fill it, which occurs in the comic books
when Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) gains a suit of armor for herself. This
would also align nicely with the movement currently occurring in which
Marvel is trying to increase the number of female and ethnic characters
within the Universe.
At this point, there are only two true scenarios for how Marvel Studios
can choose to play their hand. In one scenario Marvel can choose to create
one giant event that draws in every single Marvel character in the franchise
and can effectively bring closure to the characters and ties up all loose ends.
The other option is that Marvel Studios can continue to cycle through
characters, using less and less well known characters, until the point where
the cinematic universe is far different from the comic book universe.
However, this too will end when Marvel Studios runs out of characters to use
or the public becomes to disinterested with the lesser known characters.

Speculation points to this as the option that the studios will likely choose due
to the fact that it has the best opportunity for making the most profit. While
it is impossible to say for sure what will become of Marvel Studios in the
future, it seems likely that Marvel films will still be in theaters for the
foreseeable future which will keep many fans happy.

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Barnes, Brooks. "Marvel Unveils an Ambitious Roster of Films, With a Bit of

Diversity." The New York Times. The New York Times, 28 Oct. 2014. Web.

Beaty, Bart. "Comic Studies." Cinema Journal 50.3 (2011): 106-10. JSTOR. Web. 4
Oct. 2015.

Genter, Robert. "With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility: Cold War Culture
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