In the late 1970s up to the early 1990s, Marvel Entertainment Group (MEG) sold options to studios to produce films based on Marvel Comics characters. One of Marvel’s superheroes, Spider-Man, was optioned in the late 1970s, and rights reverted to Marvel without a film having been produced within the allotted timeframe. From 1986 to 1996, most of Marvel’s major characters had been optioned, including the Fantastic Four, X-Men, Daredevil, Hulk, Silver Surfer, and Iron Man. A Howard the Duck film made it to the screen in 1986, but was a box-office flop. MEG was purchased by New World Entertainment in November 1986 and moved 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. Marvel's rival DC Comics, on the other hand, had success licensing its properties Superman and Batman into successful film franchises.
Marvel Music is a subsidiary of Marvel Studios involved in the publishing of music related to its productions. Mighty Marvel Music Corporation and Marvel Music Group, Inc. (both incorporated on July 29, 1981) were music publishing subsidiaries of Marvel Entertainment Group that were retained by New World Entertainment when Marvel was sold to Andrews Group in 1989, and were with New World when they were sold to Fox.
Marvel had licensed out the film rights to many of their characters to other studios in the 1990s, starting with the X-Men to 20th Century Fox in 1993. One of the first characters to see the rights returned to Marvel was Black Panther, which were returned to Marvel in 2005, having previously been at Columbia Pictures and Artisan Entertainment. In November 2005, Marvel gained the film rights to Iron Man from New Line Cinema. In April 2006, Thor's rights reverted to Marvel from Sony, and in June, the Black Widow rights reverted to Marvel from Lions Gate Entertainment. That same year, the film rights to Hulk reverted to Marvel Studios from Universal Studios, after the latter failed to enter production on a sequel to Ang Lee's 2003 Hulk film. Universal, however, retains the right of first refusal to distribute Future Hulk films.
Following Marvel Entertainment Group's (MEG) ToyBiz deal in 1993, Avi Arad of ToyBiz was named President and CEO of Marvel Films division and of New World Family Filmworks, Inc., a New World Entertainment subsidiary. New World was MEG's former parent corporation and later a fellow subsidiary of the Andrews Group. Marvel Productions became New World Animation by 1993 as Marvel would start up Marvel Films including Marvel Films Animation. Marvel Films Animation shared Tom Tataranowicz with New World Animation as head of development and production. New World Animation (The Incredible Hulk), Saban and Genesis Entertainment (X-Men), and Marvel Films Animation (Spider-Man) each produced a Marvel series for television for the 1996–1997 season. It was Marvel Films Animation's only production. By the end of 1993, Arad and 20th Century Fox struck a deal to make a film based on the X-Men.
In August 1996, Marvel created Marvel Studios, an incorporation of Marvel Films, due to the sale of New World Communications Group, Inc., Marvel's fellow Andrews Group subsidiary in film and television stations, to News Corporation/Fox. 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 Toy Biz stocks, which Marvel had started and took public in February 1995. Toy Biz 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. Toy Biz sought to sell 1 million shares, and Marvel sought to sell 2.5 million shares.
Jerry Calabrese, the President of Marvel Entertainment Group, and Avi Arad, head of Marvel Films and a Director of Toy Biz, 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. Period." Marvel Studios arranged a seven-year development deal with 20th Century Fox to cover markets in the United States and internationally. In the following December, Marvel Entertainment Group went through a reorganization plan, including Marvel Studios as part of its strategic investment. 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. Marvel was developing a Captain America animated series with Saban Entertainment for Fox Kids Network to premiere in fall 1998. However, due to the bankruptcy the series was canceled after only character designs and a one-minute promotional reel were made.
The first film packaged and licensed by Marvel Studios was Blade, based on the vampire hunter Blade. The film was directed by Stephen Norrington and starred Wesley Snipes as Blade. It was released on August 21, 1998, grossing $70,087,718 in the United States and Canada and $131,183,530 worldwide. In 1999, Marvel licensed Spider-Man to Sony.
In producing Marvel films in the 2000s, Avi Arad sought to capture the superheroes’ internal conflicts. According to The New York Times, "Mr. Arad's great accomplishment – and it is one, given the difficulties in transferring any kind of printed material to the big screen – is conveying what makes those heroes tick as characters... He works with the filmmakers to ensure that the heroes are conflicted, the villains motivated, the outcome shaded." In contrast to the original storylines of DC Comics’ Superman and Batman films, Marvel films were more directly inspired by their comics, copying from them set pieces, scenes, plots, and dialogue.
Starting with the release of Spider-Man in 2002, Marvel Studios introduced its "flipbook" logo, created by Imaginary Forces. This logo was accompanied with music from the film's score, sound effects or a song, to lead into the beginning of the film. This was the logo seen in front of all films until 2013, when the logo was updated with the release of Thor: The Dark World, again created by Imaginary Forces. Kevin Feige stated that since Marvel was now their own entity within The Walt Disney Company, it "felt like the time to update it and have something that is more substantial as a standalone logo in front of our features" instead of having it be accompanied by Marvel's studio or distribution partners' logos. Feige added that “We didn’t want to re-invent the wheel [with the new logo], but we wanted it to feel bigger, to feel more substantial, which is why it starts with the flip, but suddenly it’s more dimensional as we go through the lettering and it reveals itself with the metallic sheen before settling into the white-on-red, well known Marvel logo, with the added flourish of the arrival and the announcement of the Studios at the bottom of the word Marvel.” Imaginary Forces used the same animation technique on the updated logo, as they did when they created the first version in 2002. They were given a few hundred comic books to select images from, ultimately choosing 120 that were "universal and not specific to one character" and created a narrative "where each image spoke to the one before it and after."
In 2003, David Maisel approached Arad about earning Marvel more for their films. Maisel, Arad and Perlmutter met leading to Maisel being hired in as President and COO. The studio's office, then on Santa Monica Boulevard, were small with a dozen or so staff members. Kevin Feige was a junior executive generating script notes to the licensed studios. In January 2003, Marvel, The SCI FI Channel and Reveille Productions agreed to develop two pilot films based on Brother Voodoo and Strikeforce: Morituri.
In 2004, David Maisel was hired as chief operating officer of Marvel Studios as he had a plan for the studio to self-finance movies. Marvel entered into a non-recourse debt structure with Merrill Lynch that was collateralized by certain movie rights to a total of 10 characters from Marvel's vast vault. Marvel got $525 million to make a maximum of 10 movies based on the company's properties over eight years, according to the parameters of the original deal. Those characters were: Ant-Man, The Avengers, Black Panther, Captain America, Cloak & Dagger, Doctor Strange, Hawkeye, Nick Fury, Power Pack and Shang-Chi. Ambac insured the movies would succeed or they would pay the interest payment on the debt and get the movie rights collateral.
Marvel Music was incorporated on September 9, 2005 to manage Marvel Studios' and Marvel Animation's filmed music. At New York Comic Con in 2009, Marvel officially announced the re-launch of Marvel Music, which would now serve as a label for releasing music related to Marvel's film and television productions. Beginning in 2012 with the release of Avengers Assemble (Music from and Inspired by the Motion Picture), Disney Music Group's Hollywood Records label began distributing Marvel Music's albums. In 2014, Guardians of the Galaxy: Awesome Mix Vol. 1 became the first Marvel Music album to be certified Gold—and subsequently certified Platinum—by the Recording Industry Association of America, as well as the first Soundtrack album in history to top the Billboard 200 chart, while consisting entirely of previously released songs.
Maisel and Arad fought over the rate of movie releases and strength of characters in the movie line up. Perlmutter supported Maisel and thus, in May 2006, Arad quit as studio chair and CEO. In March 2007, David Maisel was named Chairman and Kevin Feige was named President of Production as Iron Man began filming.
Named after corporate sibling Marvel Comics' imprint of the same name, Marvel Knights is also the name given to a production arm of Marvel Studios intended to be used to produce some of Marvel's darker and lesser known titles. The first film produced under the Marvel Knights banner was Punisher: War Zone, the 2008 release that rebooted the Punisher franchise. In 2012, Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance was the second and final title to be released under the Marvel Knights banner.
On December 31, 2009, The Walt Disney Company purchased Marvel Entertainment for $4 billion. Both Marvel and Disney stated that the merger would not affect any preexisting deals with other film studios for the time being, although Disney said they would distribute Future Marvel projects with their own studio once the deals expired.
In June 2010, Marvel Entertainment set up a television division within Marvel Studios, headed up by Jeph Loeb as Executive Vice President, under which Marvel Animation would be operated. On October 18, Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures acquired the distribution rights for The Avengers and Iron Man 3 from Paramount Pictures with Paramount's logo and credit remaining on the films.
On August 22, 2011, at Disney's behest, the Studio dismissed most of its marketing department: Dana Precious, EVP of Worldwide Marketing; Jeffrey Stewart, VP of Worldwide Marketing and Jodi Miller, Manager of Worldwide Marketing. Disney markets Marvel's films. In April 2012, The Walt Disney Company China, Marvel Studios and DMG Entertainment announced an agreement to co-produce Iron Man 3 in China. DMG partly financed, produced in China with Marvel, and handled co-production matters. DMG also distributed the film in China in tandem with Disney.
Marvel CCO Joe Quesada in 2012 believed Namor's rights had reverted to Marvel, but Feige said in August 2013 this was not so. However, Feige expanded in July 2014 saying that Marvel Studios, not Universal Pictures or Legendary Pictures, could make a Namor film, "but it’s slightly more complicated than that. Let’s put it this way – there are entanglements that make it less easy. There are older contracts that still involve other parties that mean we need to work things out before we move forward on it. As opposed to an Iron Man or any of the Avengers or any of the other Marvel characters where we could just put them in." In June 2016, Quesada again stated that, to his knowledge, the film rights to Namor had returned to Marvel.
On July 2, 2013, Disney purchased the distribution rights to Iron Man, Iron Man 2, Thor and Captain America: The First Avenger from Paramount. In September 2014, TNT acquired the cable rights for Avengers: Age of Ultron, Captain America: Civil War, and three other films, to air on the network two years after their theatrical releases. The films had previously aired on FX since 2008.
In August 2015, Marvel Studios was placed into Walt Disney Studios, with Feige reporting directly to Walt Disney Studios chairman Alan Horn instead of Marvel Entertainment CEO Isaac Perlmutter. Marvel Television and subsidiary company Marvel Animation were left under Marvel Entertainment and Perlmutter's control. Fast Company ranked Marvel Studios number eleven on its 2018 World's Most Innovative Companies list.
In July 2016, another new logo and opening were introduced, featuring an updated fanfare, composed this time by Doctor Strange and Spider-Man: Homecoming Composer Michael Giacchino. The new opening begins with comic book panels seen in the previous two openings, but transitions into footage and art of the characters from the Marvel Cinematic Universe films. It was first seen in front of Doctor Strange. The updated logo was created by Perception, who were first approached in January 2016 by Marvel to update their logo. Feige specifically requested Perception "to combine the brand and the iconic characters into a single image, showcasing the heroes within the letterforms of the Marvel logo." The Perception team settled on a concept they dubbed "How to Build a Universe", which "was designed to pay tribute to [the film making] process by touching on" how a film's origins is inspired by the comics, which then results in a script, followed by concept art, resulting in the final film. Perception looked to the initial "flipbook" logo for inspiration, and paid tribute to it in the new opening, as it opens identically to the flipbook logo. Next, the opening includes "various lines lifted directly from the script pages of various Marvel screenplays", with Perception picking "both iconic fan-favorites, as well as lines that helped establish the breadth of the Marvel Universe." To add in the concept art images, Perception looked "through a massive archive of concept art and “The Art Of…” books, to select the most iconic images for each beloved character. Utilizing the original digital paintings themselves, the Perception team animated each image being painted from scratch. The final touch was mapping this artwork onto 3D Models to giving these once 2D paintings a sense of depth as the camera moves around them." Finally, over 70 pieces of footage from the 13 films that had released at that time were included, with Perception arranging them in a way they called the "vault" "where luminescent footage plays on the interior walls of the “Marvel” logotype."
A new logo was introduced at the 2017 D23 Expo to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the MCU.
Brian Cunningham, Editor of Wizard comic book magazine, believed that Avi Arad was successful in organizing strategic alliances and exercising fiscal responsibility in multimedia expansion. Cunningham said of Arad’s leadership of the studio following its parent company’s near-bankruptcy, "The fact the X-Men is primed to be the biggest movie of the summer speaks volumes about the turnaround for Marvel. From my observation, he's focused on a lot more in diversifying Marvel, doing things that proliferate Marvel characters in the mainstream." Arad sought to protect Marvel’s image by serving as executive Producer in all Marvel film productions and being responsible for crossover marketing between Marvel properties. Arad had properties set up at different studios to create momentum so one studio would not cannibalize efforts with one property for the sake of another. By 2001, the success of Marvel Entertainment’s Ultimate Marvel comics created leverage in Hollywood for Marvel Studios, pushing more properties into development.
