Marvel Comics movies make big money for parent company Disney

Global Business

Marvel Comics movies make big money for parent company Disney

Walt Disney has unveiled its best financial results ever. Profits for the year increased 22 percent to $7.5 billion. Its acquisition of Marvel Studios has generated box office gold with movies like Captain America, Thor and The Avengers.

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CCTV America’s Owen Fairclough reported on how Marvel’s superheroes are dancing to a very lucrative tune.

“Avengers Age of Ultron” isn’t out until next May. The trailer was viewed on YouTube over 34 million times in just 24 hours, a YouTube record. It is now up over 56 million views.

Parent company Disney’s buyout of Marvel’s fledgling movie studio in 2009 gave it control over characters like Iron Man, Captain America, Thor and the Avengers, turning them into lucrative movie franchises.

But, what about the ones that got away? In theory Marvel’s universe is limitless. But in reality, Disney has found there are very strict boundaries. It doesn’t have the rights to make two of the most successful franchises ever made, Spider-man and X-Men.

20th Century Fox has X-Men while Sony has the web slinger. That’s more than $7 billion that could have been Disney’s had Marvel not licensed those heroes to the opposition before the takeover.

Disney’s return on the comic characters it can license, has, nevertheless, been stunning, more than $5 billion in box office takings.

Those in the comic book industry say broadening the reach of the source material is the key to future success.

“Comic books, for a long time, had been written for not everyone. And they haven’t been easily found by everyone because they’re in comic stores now, instead of in grocery stores and newsstands like they used to be,” said Esther Kim, manager of Fantom Comics in D.C.

Warner Bros Entertainment, who owns rival DC Comics, has made close to $4 billion from the latest Batman and Superman movies. It plans to release a host of comic book adaptations, from Aquaman to another superhero team, Justice League, during the next six years.

Marvel has mapped out plans for future movies through 2019 including “Doctor Strange,” “Black Panther,” “Captain Marvel” and the “Inhumans.”

The slate includes “Captain America: Civil War” and “Doctor Strange” in 2016; “Guardians of the Galaxy 2,” “Thor: Ragnarok” and “Black Panther” in 2017; “The Avengers: Infinity War — Part I,” “Captain Marvel” and “Inhumans” in 2018 and “The Avengers: Infinity War — Part II” in 2019. The movies join next year’s “The Avengers: Age of Ultron” and “Ant-Man.”

“Black Panther” and “Captain Marvel” will mark the studio’s first films centered on black and female characters from Marvel comics. Feige said the big-screen iteration of the Captain Marvel character will be Carol Danvers, a U.S. Air Force officer whose adventures take her to space in the comics.

No casting announcements were made for “Captain Marvel,” the sorcery-centric “Doctor Strange” or “Inhumans,” which is about a group of superpowered beings.

The Marvel films represent an important chunk of the Walt Disney Co.’s portfolio. Studio chief Kevin Feige said the first 10 Marvel films, which kicked off in 2008 with “Iron Man” and “The Incredible Hulk,” have made over $7 billion.

Report compiled with information from The Associated Press. 


IMAX theaters expand in China

IMAX is maximizing its presence in China. The big screen movie theater company installed 13 new theater systems in China this last quarter, and there’s a backlog for 239 theaters to be built in China, including 40 due out in the next quarter.

The first commercial IMAX theater opened in China in 2004, and now China is IMAX’s second largest market after the U.S.

CCTV America’s Michelle Makori interviewed IMAX’s CEO Richard Gelfond and asked what he attributes IMAX’s success in China to.