Marvel Studios
| Marvel Studios, LLC | |
|---|---|
 Logo used since 2016 | |
 The studio's headquarters at the Frank G. Wells Building in Burbank, California | |
| Formerly | Marvel Films (1993–1996) |
| Type | Subsidiary |
| Industry |
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| Genre | Superhero fiction |
| Founded |
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| Founder | Avi Arad |
| Headquarters | Frank G. Wells Building, 2nd Floor, 500 South Buena Vista Street, Burbank, California , US |
Area served | Worldwide |
| Key people |
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| Products |
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| Brands | Marvel Cinematic Universe |
| Parent |
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| Divisions |
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| Subsidiaries | |
| Website | Official website  |
| Footnotes [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8] | |
Marvel Studios, LLC is an American superhero film and television production company that is the creator of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), a media franchise and shared universe based on characters from Marvel Comics publications. Producer Avi Arad founded Marvel Films in December 1993 under the Marvel Entertainment Group before forming Marvel Studios in August 1996 to gain greater oversight of its adaptations. The studio originally licensed the film rights for several Marvel characters before beginning to independently produce its own films in 2004, under the direction of producer David Maisel, and it has since regained many of those rights. After Arad left in 2006 over disagreements, Kevin Feige became the primary producer and president of the studio in 2008 alongside co-president Louis D'Esposito. The Walt Disney Company acquired Marvel Entertainment, including Marvel Studios, in December 2009, and Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures started distributing most of the studio's films with The Avengers (2012). Further disagreements between studio executives and Marvel Entertainment led to the studio's separation in August 2015 and transfer under the Walt Disney Studios. In 2018, Marvel Studios began developing its own live-action and animated television series for the streaming service Disney+, most of which share continuity with its MCU films.
Marvel Studios has released 38 MCU films from Iron Man (2008) to Spider-Man: Brand New Day (2026), as well as 17 television series from WandaVision (2021) to Wonder Man (2026). Animated television series are released under the "Marvel Animation" label and produced through its smaller Marvel Studios Animation division, starting with What If...? (2021–2024), while live-action series are released under its "Marvel Television" banner. Marvel Studios also produced eight direct-to-video short films, Marvel Animated Features (2006–2011), with the separate Marvel Animation production company as a proof of concept for the MCU devised by Maisel, in addition to five MCU One-Shot short films released from 2011 to 2014 and three Special Presentation television specials released from 2022 to 2026.
The studio's MCU films have grossed over $30 billion at the global box office, making it responsible for one of the highest-grossing media franchises and the highest-grossing film franchise of all time.[9][10] Twelve of these films have grossed more than $1 billion and are among the highest-grossing films of all time, with Avengers: Endgame (2019) being the studio's highest-grossing release; it was the highest-grossing film of all time from July 2019 until March 2021. Marvel Studios was involved in licensing and developing other Marvel-based multi-film franchises, including New Line Cinema's Blade trilogy (1998–2004), 20th Century Fox's X-Men franchise (2000–2020), and Sony Pictures's Spider-Man films from 2002 to 2014. Marvel Studios began co-producing its MCU Spider-Man films with Sony in 2015. Many of its post-Endgame releases underperformed critically and financially, which the studio attributed to its increased content output and began decreasing this by 2024.
From 2013 until 2020, the Marvel Entertainment division Marvel Television, led by television producer Jeph Loeb, released 12 television series that also acknowledged the MCU continuity. These were produced before that company was folded into Marvel Studios in December 2019. Marvel Studios has used different business practices by signing actors to multi-film contracts, having several studio executives oversee the production and development of select films and series as lead producers, and operating an in-house visual development department, which included full-time visual effects (VFX) workers before transitioning to using contractors following layoffs throughout Disney. Frequent producer Brad Winderbaum is the head of television and animation, while Victoria Alonso, who joined the studio in 2006, previously oversaw its physical production, post-production, VFX, and animation until 2023. Marvel Studios has consistently featured different animations of its production logo at the opening of most of its productions.
Background
[edit]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.[11] 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.[12] Marvel's first big-screen adaptation of one of its properties was the 1986 film Howard the Duck,[13] which was a box-office bomb.[14] MEG was purchased by New World Entertainment in November 1986[15] 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.[16]
History
[edit]Marvel Films (1993–1996)
[edit]
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.[17][18] Marvel Productions became New World Animation by 1993 while Marvel formed Marvel Films as its dedicated production division, which included Marvel Films Animation.[17][19][20] Marvel Films Animation shared Tom Tataranowicz with New World Animation as head of development and production.[21] 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.[22][20][23] By the end of 1993, Arad and 20th Century Fox signed a deal to develop a film based on the X-Men.[24] 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.[22][25]
Formation of Marvel Studios and licensing films (1996–2004)
[edit]
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.[12][26] 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.[27] 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."[12] Marvel Studios arranged a seven-year development deal with 20th Century Fox to cover markets in the United States and internationally.[28]
In December 1996, MEG underwent a Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization plan, including Marvel Studios as part of its strategic investment,[29] 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.[30] 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.[31][32][33]
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,[34] and was followed by X-Men, directed by Bryan Singer. That film was released on July 14, 2000, and grossed $296.3 million worldwide.[35] 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.[36] 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,[37] and the Punisher.[38] 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.[37] 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.[39] 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.[40]
