Welcome to a four-part series detailing the history of Marvel Studios and the legendary Marvel Cinematic Universe. From its extremely humble beginnings to the earth shatteringly huge “Avengers: Infinity War” to be released at the end of April, it’s time to take a look at a studio that can only be called Marvelous.
Marvel Studios, and even Marvel Comics, were not always the media juggernauts they currently are today. In fact, in the 90’s, Marvel was facing bankruptcy. After a series of poor business decisions involving expensive collector’s editions and limited print runs, the company was facing major financial troubles.
To offset these costs and to keep the business afloat, Marvel began selling off film licenses to some of its highest profile series: Men in Black, Blade, Fantastic Four and X-Men to name a few. They saw no point in making films of these series anyway, and saw the opportunity as pure cash to continue keeping the business above water.
Despite these sales, in 1996 Marvel declared bankruptcy and was restructured the next year under the leadership of Avi Arad, a former executive for Toy Biz, and the company began focusing on developing screenplays for the properties that had been sold off.
However, despite public reception of the films ranging from exceptional (“Blade,” “X2”) to downright awful (“Fantastic Four Rise of the Silver Surfer”), Marvel barely made any money from the films box offices. Famously the studio walked away from the “Blade” film series having only pocketed $25,000 due to contracting a flat rate deal as opposed to one that would fluctuate based on box office receipts.
In the early 2000’s, Marvel served as a pre-production company; they would write scripts, find directors and cast roles, essentially delivering full packages to studios, who would then put up the money to actually film the movies. However, Marvel began wanting to expand into its own full studio. Avi Arad left Marvel to form his own production house, as he believed that Marvel would never be able to make it as its own studio.
It would undoubtedly be risky if just one film failed, then that could potentially undercut everything else. Not only that, but Sony and Fox had refused to give up their Spider-Man and X-Men rights, so two of Marvel’s biggest franchises would be absent. But Kevin Feige and his team went to work despite the pressure, and put plans into motion to break ground on this new universe with the first film: “Iron Man.”
Marvel attempted to get over thirty different writers to work on the script for the film, whom all passed due to the character’s obscurity and the fact that it was just a Marvel project. Eventually Jon Favreau was hired, who aimed for a more realistic, independent feel. He also was responsible for one decision that would come to define the Marvel Cinematic Universe: casting Robert Downey Jr.
Favreau fought hard for RDJ. Marvel refused to cast him, but Favreau would not take no for an answer. He said, “The best and worst moments of Robert's life have been in the public eye. He had to find an inner balance to overcome obstacles that went far beyond his career. That's Tony Stark.”
Marvel eventually approved, despite Robert being an extremely unsafe bet, and they only really approved after Mel Gibson paid for Robert’s set insurance out of his own pocket. They had a star, they had a director and they had a solid foundation to make a great film from. Now all they had to do was hope people showed up.
Production began in March of 2007 in locations around California. It was notable as many of the cast were encouraged to improvise their dialogue, as the script was incomplete at the time. Much of the pre-production time was spent on planning the overarching story of the film and its action sequences, to avoid fatigue. On shooting the film, Favreau stated, in an interview with Starlog in 2008, that “I'm shocked that I (was) on schedule. I thought that there were going to be many curveballs.”
Jeff Bridges, who played Obadiah Stane, the film’s villain, said in an interview with Variety that it felt like a “$200 million student film.” He said that he and RDJ would also switch their lines to see how they felt. It was also RDJ’s idea to have Tony’s welcome home press conference sitting on the floor and he improvised the film’s opening speech, arguably the film’s most memorable moments.
“Iron Man” was released on May 2, 2008 to universal critical acclaim. Robert Downey Jr. received near unanimous praise for his performance, as did the film’s story, writing, action and more human elements. It opened to $98.6 million dollars at the U.S. Box Office, giving it the eleventh highest opening weekend of all time. It went on to gross $318.4 million in the U.S. and $585.2 million total worldwide.
It also received award nominations, including two Academy Awards for its effects, countless Saturn awards, a Hugo award nomination for “Best Dramatic Presentation” and was listed as one of the best films of the year by Roger Ebert and the American Film Institute. Later, Empire magazine would rank it number 406 on its list of the top 500 movies of all time, as of 2018.
Shortly after “Iron Man’s” shooting wrapped production, filming began on “The Incredible Hulk,” a new interpretation of the character starring Edward Norton. In an interview with IGN on “Winter Soldier,” Fiege stated “we didn't want to tell the origin story again, because we thought people were so familiar with it, which is why we didn't tell that... One reason we made Incredible Hulk was to get Hulk into the [Marvel Cinematic Universe] canon.”
2008’s “The Incredible Hulk” was directed by Louis Leterrier, who would later go on to direct the 2010 “Clash of the Titans” remake and “Now You See Me.” It was written by Zak Penn, who’d later go on to be vital in the writing process of “The Avengers." Contrary to the production of “Iron Man,” “The Incredible Hulk” would have many behind the scenes clashes due to its script. Edward Norton completed rewrites to many scenes, something he was known for in Hollywood.
Zak Penn took ire with this in an interview with Entertainment Weekly; “I wasn't happy with (Norton) coming to Comic-Con saying that he wrote the script.” However, the Writer’s Guild of America credited Penn as the script's sole writer, as he argued that while Norton had made changes, they had not been significant enough to deviate away from his original vision.
Production issues continued behind the scenes during the editing process. Editor Kyle Cooper, who created the original Marvel logo, found issues with flashback scenes during test screenings. Studio executives also demanded that the film be under two hours, while the creators wanted a 135-minute cut.
Rumors began to circulate that Norton “made it clear he won't cooperate with publicity plans if he's not happy with the final product,” per a New York Times article. Norton remained out of the spotlight for most of the film’s pre-release, choosing instead to do a few interviews, a skit on Jimmy Kimmel Live and the premiere in Japan.
“The Incredible Hulk” was released on June 13, 2008. It received generally positive reviews from critics, with praise given to the action, portrayal of the character and visual effects. Some found issues in a weaker story and plot, especially compared to “Iron Man,” which had released only a few months prior.
Debuting at number one, “Incredible Hulk” made $55.4 million in the U.S. during its opening weekend, eventually making $263.4 million worldwide. Now Marvel Studios had two blockbuster films under its belt.
It also had the beginning of a media universe thanks to cameos from Tony Stark in “The Incredible Hulk” and Samuel L. Jackson’s appearance as Nick Fury in “Iron Man.” The next logical step would, of course, be a sequel!
Photo Courtesy of Marvel Studios, Fairview Entertainment, Walt Disney Motion Picture Studios, and Paramount Pictures.
