Marvel Studios, LLC was originally created in 1993 and was called Marvel Films until 1996. It is a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Studios and has producer Kevin Feige serving as President. The studio owns Marvel Music and MVL Productions LLC. It has been involved in three Marvel Character multi-film franchises that exceeded over 1billion dollars in revenues, and has licensed out X-Men and Spider-man to 20th Century Fox and Sony Pictures respectively. Sony Pictures will be distributing the 2017 Spider-man film when it is created.
Marvel Films
Marvel Entertainment Group was originally a subsidiary of New World and the President was Avi Arad. Marvel Productions became New World Animation by 1993 as Marvel would start up Marvel Films including Marvel Films Animation. New World Animation (The Incredible Hulk), Saban Entertainment (X-Men), and Marvel Films Animation (Spider-Man) each produced a Marvel series for television. It was Marvel Films Animation's only production. By the end of 1993, Arad and 20th Century Fox struck a deal to make a film based on the X-Men.
New World Animation and Marvel Films Animation were sold along with the rest of New World by Andrews Group to News Corporation/Fox as announced in August 1996. As part of the deal, Marvel licensed the rights to Captain America, Daredevil and Silver Surfer to be on Fox Kids Network and produced by Saban. New World Animation continued producing a second season of The Incredible Hulk for UPN.
Marvel Studios
In August 1996, Marvel created Marvel Studios, an incorporation of Marvel Films, due to the sale of New World Communications Group, Inc. Jerry Calabrese, the president of Marvel Entertainment Group, and Avi Arad, head of Marvel Films, 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. Marvel Studios arranged a seven-year development deal with 20th Century Fox to cover markets in the United States and internationally. In the following December, Marvel Entertainment Group went through a reorganization plan, including Marvel Studios as part of its strategic investment. By 1997, Marvel Studios was actively pursuing various film productions based on Marvel characters, including the eventual films X-Men (2000), Daredevil (2003) and Fantastic Four (2005). Unproduced projects included Prince Namor, based on the character Namorand 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 was developing a Captain America animated series with Saban Entertainment for Fox Kids Network to premiere in fall 1998. However, due to the bankruptcy the series was canceled after only character designs and a one-minute promotional reel were made.
Licensing movies
The first film licensed by Marvel Studios was Blade, based on the vampire hunter Blade. The film was directed by Stephen Norrington and starred Wesley Snipes as Blade. It was released on August 21, 1998, grossing $70,087,718 in the United States and Canada and $131,183,530 worldwide. In 1999, Marvel licensed Spider-Man to Sony.
Blade was followed by X-Men, which was directed by Bryan Singer and was released on July 14, 2000. X-Men grossed $157,299,717 in the United States and Canada and $296,250,053 worldwide. The Marvel films Blade and X-Men demonstrated that blockbuster films could be made out of comic book characters not familiar to the general public.
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, to give the studio rights to 15 Marvel characters including Captain America, Thor, Black Panther, Iron Fist, and Deadpool. With the deal at the time, 24 Marvel properties were then in various stages of development. Brian Cunningham, editor of Wizard comic book magazine, believed that Avi Arad was successful in organizing strategic alliances and exercising fiscal responsibility in multimedia expansion. Cunningham said of Arad’s leadership of the studio following its parent company’s near-bankruptcy, "The fact the X-Men is primed to be the biggest movie of the summer speaks volumes about the turnaround for Marvel. From my observation, he's focused on a lot more in diversifying Marvel, doing things that proliferate Marvel characters in the mainstream." Arad sought to protect Marvel’s image by serving as executive producer in all Marvel film productions and being responsible for crossover marketing between Marvel properties. Arad had properties set up at different studios to create momentum so one studio would not cannibalize efforts with one property for the sake of another. By 2001, the success of Marvel Entertainment’s Ultimate Marvel comics created leverage in Hollywood for Marvel Studios, pushing more properties into development.
The next blockbuster film licensed from Marvel Studios was Spider-Man by Columbia Pictures, directed by Sam Raimi and starring Tobey Maguire as Spider-Man. The film was released on May 3, 2002, grossing $403,706,375 in the United States and Canada and $821,708,551 worldwide. The early success of Spider-Man led the film's studio to issue a seven-figure advance for a sequel. According to a Lehman Brothers analysis, the Studios made only $62 million for the first 2 Spider-man movies.
In producing Marvel films in the 2000s, Avi Arad sought to capture the superheroes’ internal conflicts. According to The New York Times, "Mr. Arad's great accomplishment – and it is one, given the difficulties in transferring any kind of printed material to the big screen – is conveying what makes those heroes tick as characters... He works with the filmmakers to ensure that the heroes are conflicted, the villains motivated, the outcome shaded." In contrast to the original storylines of DC Comics’ Superman and Batman films, Marvel films were more directly inspired by their comics, copying from them set pieces, scenes, plots, and dialogue.
Partnering with Lions Gate Entertainment in 2004, Marvel Studios plan to enter the direct-to-DVD market with eight animated films with Lionsgate handling distribution. Eric Rollman was hired by Marvel as Executive Vice President, Home Entertainment & TV Production for Marvel Studios to oversee the deal with Lionsgate.
Production
In 2004, David Maisel was hired as chief operating officer of Marvel Studios as he had a plan for the studio to self-finance movies. Marvel entered into a non-recourse financing structure with Merrill Lynch that was collateralized by certain movie rights to a total of 10 characters from Marvel's vast vault. Marvel gets $525 million to make a maximum of 10 movies based on the company's properties over eight years, according to the parameters of the original deal with Paramount Pictures in September 2004. 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 movies would succeed or they would pay the interest payment on the debt and get the movie rights collateral. In October 2005, Michael Helfant joined the studio as president and chief operating officer. In November 2005, Marvel gained the film rights to Iron Manfrom New Line Cinema. Marvel revealed that it had regained the film rights to The Incredible Hulk in February 2006. In April 2006 Paramount Pictures acquired the rights to Thor from Sony. That year the film was announced to be a Marvel Studios production. Lions Gate Entertainment subsequently dropped the Black Widow motion picture project it had since 2004 giving the rights back to Marvel. Masiel and Arad fought over the rate of movie releases and strength of characters in the movie line up. Perlmutter supported Masiel and thus, in May 2006, Arad quit as studio chair and CEO. In March 2007, David Maisel was named Chairman and Kevin Feige was named President of Production as Iron Man began filming.
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. The company in March agreed to a five picture basic cable distribution with FX for Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk movies with the additional movies to be named later. In November, Marvel Studios signed a lease with Raleigh Studios to host its headquarters and production offices and film the next four movies on the studios’ slate, including Iron Man 2 and Thor, at their Manhattan Beach facilities. By September 2008, Paramount added to its domestic film distribution contract 5 additional Marvel movies' foreign distribution.
In 2009, Marvel attempted to hire a team of writers to help come up with creative ways to launch its lesser-known properties, such as Black Panther, Cable, Iron Fist, Nighthawk, and Vision. In early 2009, Sony returned all Spider-Man television rights (including live action) in exchange for an adjustment to the movie rights.
Disney conglomerate subsidiary
On December 31, 2009, The Walt Disney Company purchased Marvel Entertainment for $4 billion. Both Marvel and Disney stated that the merger would not affect any preexisting deals with other film studios for the time being, although Disney said they would distribute future Marvel projects with their own studios once the deals expired.
In April 2010, rumors circulated that Marvel was looking to create $20–40 million movies based on properties such as Doctor Strange, Ka-Zar, Luke Cage, Dazzler, and Power Pack. Kevin 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 set up a television division within Marvel Studios, headed up by Jeph Loeb as Executive Vice President, under which Marvel Animation would be operated. On October 18, Disney bought the distribution rights for Marvel's The Avengers and Iron Man 3 from Paramount Pictures with Paramount's logo remaining on the films.
On August 22, 2011, at Disney's behest, the Studio dismissed most of its marketing department. Disney markets 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 partly financed, produced in China with Marvel, and handled co-production matters. DMG also distributed the film in China in tandem with Disney.
Upon the release of The Amazing Spider-Man in 2012, Disney and Sony negotiated a two-way agreement. Disney would receive full merchandising ancillary rights to future Spider-Man films in exchange for Sony purchasing out Marvel's film participation rights.
In April 2013, Marvel Studios moved its production facilities from Manhattan Beach to the Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, California.
On July 2, 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, Captain America: Civil War, and three other films, to air on the network two years after their theatrical releases. The films had previously aired on FX since 2008.
In February 2015, it was announced that Disney and Sony Pictures will collaborate on the next Spider-Man films, the first of which is set to be released on July 28, 2017. Former Sony executive Amy Pascal will co-produce the films with Kevin Feige. The film rights to Spider-Man will still remain with Sony.
In August 2015, Marvel Studios was integrated into the Walt Disney Studios, with Feige reporting directly to Walt Disney Studios chairman Alan Horn instead of Marvel Entertainment CEO Isaac Perlmutter. Marvel Television and Animation were left under Marvel Entertainment and Perlmutter's control.
Character Rights
2005- Black Panther's rights were returned to Marvel after having previously been at Columbia and Artisan Entertainment
November 2005- Iron Man's rights were regained from New Line Cinema
April 2006- Thor's rights reverted to Marvel from Sony
June 2006- Black Widow rights reverted to Marvel from Lions Gate Entertainment
2006- Hulk reverted to Marvel Studios from universal studios. Universal retained the right of first refusal for other Hulk films
2009- After being acquired by Disney, Marvel began to reclaim more of their character rights, starting with Blade from New Line Cinema
10th October 2012- Rights to Daredevil (including Elektra) were reverted to Marvel from 20th Century Fox
2nd May 2013- Feige confirmed that Ghost Rider and Punisher rights had reverted from Sony and Lions Gate as well as Luke Cage from Sony
February 2015- Sony Pictures can continue to finance, distribute, own and have final creative control of the Spider-Man film. However, Spider-Man cannot appear in any MCU television series
10th October 2012- Rights to Daredevil (including Elektra) were reverted to Marvel from 20th Century Fox
2nd May 2013- Feige confirmed that Ghost Rider and Punisher rights had reverted from Sony and Lions Gate as well as Luke Cage from Sony
February 2015- Sony Pictures can continue to finance, distribute, own and have final creative control of the Spider-Man film. However, Spider-Man cannot appear in any MCU television series
After the licensing agreement with Sony that allowed Marvel use of Spider-Man in their films, the only rights that Marvel Studios does not have access to are the X-Men and Fantastic Four franchise of characters at 20th Century Fox. Additionally, Marvel CCO Joe Quesada in 2012 believed Namor's rights had reverted to Marvel, but Feige said in August 2013 this was not so. However, Feige expanded in July 2014 saying that Marvel Studios, not Universal Pictures or Legendary Pictures, could make a Namor film, "but it’s slightly more complicated than that. Let’s put it this way – there are entanglements that make it less easy. There are older contracts that still involve other parties that mean we need to work things out before we move forward on it. As opposed to an Iron Man or any of the Avengers or any of the other Marvel characters where we could just put them in."
Marvel Knights
Named after corporate sibling Marvel Comics' imprint of the same name, Marvel Knights is also the name given to a production arm of Marvel Studios intended to be used to produce some of Marvel's darker and lesser known titles. The first film produced under the Marvel Knights banner was Punisher: War Zone, the 2008 release that rebooted the Punisher franchise. In 2012, Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance was the second title to be released under that banner.
Production Library
Phase One: Avengers Assembled
| Film | U.S. release date | Director(s) | Screenwriter(s) | Producer(s) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Iron Man | May 2, 2008 | Jon Favreau | Mark Fergus & Hawk Ostby and Art Marcum & Matt Holloway | Avi Arad and Kevin Feige |
| The Incredible Hulk | June 13, 2008 | Louis Leterrier | Zak Penn | Avi Arad, Gale Anne Hurd and Kevin Feige |
| Iron Man 2 | May 7, 2010 | Jon Favreau | Justin Theroux | Kevin Feige |
| Thor | May 6, 2011 | Kenneth Branagh | Ashley Edward Miller & Zack Stentz and Don Payne | |
| Captain America: The First Avenger | July 22, 2011 | Joe Johnston | Christopher Markus & Stephen McFeely | |
| Marvel's The Avengers | May 4, 2012 | Joss Whedon | ||
| Film | U.S. release date | Director(s) | Screenwriter(s) | Producer |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Iron Man 3 | May 3, 2013 | Shane Black | Drew Pearce and Shane Black | Kevin Feige |
| Thor: The Dark World | November 8, 2013 | Alan Taylor | Christopher Yost and Christopher Markus & Stephen McFeely | |
| Captain America: The Winter Soldier | April 4, 2014 | Anthony and Joe Russo | Christopher Markus & Stephen McFeely | |
| Guardians of the Galaxy | August 1, 2014 | James Gunn | James Gunn and Nicole Perlman | |
| Avengers: Age of Ultron | May 1, 2015 | Joss Whedon | ||
| Ant-Man | July 17, 2015 | Peyton Reed | Edgar Wright & Joe Cornish and Adam McKay & Paul Rudd | |
Upcoming Marvel Films
Phase Three
| Film | U.S. release date | Director(s) | Screenwriter(s) | Producer(s) | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Phase Three | |||||
| Captain America: Civil War | May 6, 2016 | Anthony and Joe Russo | Christopher Markus & Stephen McFeely | Kevin Feige | Post-production |
| Doctor Strange | November 4, 2016 | Scott Derrickson | Jon Spaihts | Pre-production | |
| Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 | May 5, 2017 | James Gunn | |||
| Untitled Spider-Man film | July 28, 2017 | Jon Watts | John Francis Daley & Jonathan M. Goldstein | Kevin Feige and Amy Pascal | In development |
| Thor: Ragnarok | November 3, 2017 | TBA | Craig Kyle and Christopher Yost | Kevin Feige | |
| Avengers: Infinity War – Part 1 | May 4, 2018 | Anthony and Joe Russo | Christopher Markus & Stephen McFeely | ||
| Black Panther | July 6, 2018 | TBA | Mark Bailey | ||
| Captain Marvel | November 2, 2018 | TBA | Nicole Perlman & Meg LeFauve | ||
| Avengers: Infinity War – Part 2 | May 3, 2019 | Anthony and Joe Russo | Christopher Markus & Stephen McFeely | ||
| Inhumans | July 12, 2019 | TBA | Joe Robert Cole | ||
Sources:
http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=49176
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marvel_Studios#Character_rights
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Marvel_Cinematic_Universe_films
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