Before its $30 billion universe, Marvel sold off its heroes to other studios
Marvel Studios built the highest-grossing film franchise ever, yet for decades the company licensed its characters away, starting with a 1944 Captain America serial that handed him a gun. Only in 2004 did it begin making its own films, and it spent years buying back heroes it had sold.
The earliest deal came from Timely Comics, Marvel's forerunner, which let Republic Pictures use Captain America in 1944 purely for publicity. Timely never even sent a drawing of his shield, so the studio invented a new backstory. From the late 1970s into the 1990s Marvel sold options on its characters; Spider-Man's lapsed without a film, and the first real adaptation, Howard the Duck in 1986, flopped. Between 1986 and 1996 almost every major character, from the X-Men to Iron Man, was optioned elsewhere.
Producer Avi Arad set up Marvel Films in December 1993 and turned it into Marvel Studios in August 1996 to keep closer control of adaptations. Licensed hits followed at other studios, including Fox's X-Men series and Sony's Spider-Man films. In 2004, under David Maisel, the studio began producing independently. Arad left in 2006, and in 2008 Kevin Feige became president alongside Louis D'Esposito, the year Iron Man launched the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Disney bought Marvel Entertainment in December 2009 and began distributing the films with The Avengers in 2012. After internal clashes, the studio was moved directly under Walt Disney Studios in August 2015. Television followed on Disney+, starting with WandaVision in 2021. By 2026 the tally stood at 38 films and 17 series.
The films have grossed more than $30 billion, and twelve have passed $1 billion each. Avengers: Endgame held the all-time box-office record from July 2019 until March 2021. Many later releases disappointed with critics and audiences, which the studio blamed on producing too much, and it began cutting output by 2024. Plans call for a partial reset of the universe after Avengers: Secret Wars in 2027, with new attention on the X-Men and Fantastic Four characters recovered from Fox.
Source: Marvel Studios
