A Marvel(ously) Successful Franchise
The Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) is one of the biggest franchises in terms of popularity and box office gross. To this day, four MCU movies rank in the top ten of the biggest box office hits with Avengers: Infinity War ranking fourth worldwide. On the other hand, the DC Extended Universe, another superhero franchise, fails to achieve the same level of success. What is Marvel’s secret? Why are their movies so popular and successful?
For starters, in 2009, the entertainment giant that is the Walt Disney Company bought Marvel Entertainment and created a plethora of movies and content producing. Furthermore, each Marvel movie is enjoyable and of good quality on its own, despite being part of an ever-expanding series. The high individual quality of the movies gives them the opportunity to become box office successes by themselves. Anyone can go to the cinema and watch a Marvel movie without needing to be a die-hard fan. For example, the MCU’s first installment, Iron Man (2008), was not conceived with the objective of starting a franchise spanning over a decade. However, upon witnessing the film’s massive success, the MCU creators saw the opportunity to create something much larger in scale. To ascertain moviegoers’ fidelity to their series, MCU movies exploit a special talent: building up curiosity. For example, Iron Man’s last scene with Nick Fury intrigues the audience and ensures their return for a hypothetic sequel.
Moreover, MCU movies are not word for word adaptations of Marvel comics: they are brand new stories. Even though the storylines are based on the comics, those new stories work for the MCU for two reasons. Firstly, Marvel welcomes people who have never read the comics into its fanbase because it isn’t necessary to have read all or any comics to understand the movies. Secondly, Gen-X and Millennial fans of the comics who grew up reading them as kids now have new stories to enjoy; they aren’t paying to see stories they already know off by heart. The movies also offer a variety of genres for everyone to enjoy: they go from amazing comedy with the likes of The Guardians of the Galaxy, Ant-Man and Thor: Ragnarok to dark political thrillers such Captain America: The Winter Soldier.
Furthermore, the Marvel Cinematic Universe offers the opportunity to escape to an ideal world where good triumphs over evil but that still resonates with the audience by bringing up issues our society deals with every day. For example, Black Panther manages to put forth strong Black leads, both men and women, while simultaneously addressing important subjects such as racism and colonialism.
Nevertheless, it is important to note that Marvel movies are far from perfect. They portray their female characters as strong and independent yet still find it necessary to hypersexualize them. Furthermore, all of the main characters – Captain America, the Hulk, Thor, Iron Man – starred in one or many feature films yet, to this day, the Black Widow still has not. Fortunately, Captain Marvel, Marvel’s first movie starring a female lead is coming out in 2019!
In closing, the Marvel Cinematic Universe is writing entertainment history with their smashing box office records. Their great storylines and dedicated fan base are surely responsible for their incredible success. If only they were a little more feminist!
- Anne-Sophie Paradis (Sciences Humaines - Individu et société)
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