During the last couple of years there is one movie studio which has had quite an impact on the industry, showing that you can create a super universe, which links movies together with characters are willing to see, which is Marvel Studios (owned by Disney). Recently I was thinking that they have been extremely successful with movies like Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, The Avengers and their new franchise Guardians of the Galaxy. They have built up their name and people will go to see their movies simply because they are behind it. It is something we have seen in the past as well with Pixar. It might have changed a bit for that studio with some lesser loved movies like Cars, but I am wondering if Marvel can be compared to that studio whose movies would also be watched blindly:
Do you think Marvel is becoming the new Pixar?
I don’t think so. There’s still stuff like the recent Spider-Man film that didn’t do as well as people expected it to be while the controversy over Ant-Man hasn’t really done them any favors as I wish Edgar Wright was still on board.
Well, spiderman isn’t a Marvel movie, but a Sony one. And I think a lot of people don’t follow the news when it comes to movies. Once a Marvel movie comes out I think they’ll go watch it.
I think Marvel (Studios, the interconnected MCU) have a reputation that exceeds that of Pixar. The sheer frequency and quality of their films, not to mention the risks they’ve taken with certain properties, is astounding. They’ve hit a few bum notes (Iron Man 2), but over the last few years they’ve gone from strength to strength. The confidence they have in the consumer is a big part of this – people know Marvel make great movies, and in return they keep it fresh and exciting. Their fantastic choice of directors is a great example of this – Russo brothers, James Gunn, Joss Whedon, Shane Black.
The next test is Ant-Man (troubled production), launching female franchises and keeping it fresh with some new twists (character deaths?).
Yeah they definitely are willing to take big chances. They also have big plans with them looking forward for many years. It seems when it comes to these franchises not many other studios are doing that. Interested what Anthony Man will be like.
Write now Marvel is doing an excellent job. The question is really were they are going to be in 5-10 years. Iron-Man and Captain America are mantle superheroes–in other words someone other than Tony Stark and Steve Rogers can be them–and it looks like Marvel is already angling to switch out the leads. Thor and the Hulk are not. What is Marvel going to do when the actors age out?
I’m really hoping the stay away from the temptation of rebooting their franchise every so often, and try and start new franchises–like the did with the relatively unknown “Guardians of the Galaxy”.
I’m sure they will find capable actors to replace them, something which the Batman movies have been able to do successfully as well. I guess sometimes they will have to reboot things, but don’t think that will happen in the coming five to ten years.
I’d say Marvel has moved ahead of Pixar now in terms of reputation. Pretty much everything they put out, especially from the proper Marvel studio, is pretty decent, if not always spectacular. Pixar could do with another big hit I reckon or they could begin to slip off the radar a little.
Yeah, Pixar has lost it a bit the last few years, but Marvel is still going strong. I do hope Pixar will return with a strong film though!
I think they’ve surpassed Pixar for reasons already given. However, I think Steven raises an interesting point. I know that the Spider-Man and X-Men are not from Marvel Studios, but how many of the parents buying tickets or the kids dragging them to the theater understand this. After all, these are Marvel characters. And how does that color people’s opinions? Even so I don’t think the Sony stuff is hurting anything because even the worst of the movies still rakes in plenty of dough, qualifying them as hits.
Yeah, know what you mean. But you see that happen with animated movies as well with people not knowing the difference between Pixar, Disney and Dreamworks.
I don’t think so. Marvel has proved very successful but the quality of its products in general is not at the same level as Pixar.
I think for a lot of comic book fans they are…
Good question. I think Marvel has proven an ability to confidently bring these characters to the screen with enough success to merit seeing their films “blindly”. There have been hits and misses but in general, they know what they are doing.
Yeah, I think you have a good point with people seeing them blindly. I know that when I go to see them chances are pretty big it isn’t going to be a bad movie.
Ooo, that’s a tough question. I find it to be a weird comparison. Pixar does its own thing, Marvel does its own thing. Both have seen success, although it seems Pixar has met with some relatively light failures. No doubt Marvel has the opportunity to do the same, but thus far they’ve proven pretty successful in how they’re released films, not to mention the high quality of films they make. For me, I have a hard time comparing the two just because I see Pixar as the very successful animated film company, and Marvel I relate with superheroes and comics. Both can be mainstream, but they each still have their own target audience, and I’d imagine those audiences, while they overlap, are not one and the same.
Great question, Nostra!
Of course they are very different from each other, but have been reading a lot about people comparing the two in terms of them being successful and having that magic touch.
Thanks Kristin!
I think Guardians of the Galaxy has proved that Marvel can take a risk and release a movie with little prior knowledge and people will see it. They have had their fair share of duff movies too (Iron Man 2) so it’s not like they have a perfect track record. It’ll just depend on superhero fatigue, if it ever happens!
Yeah, it surprised a lot of people and actually was good too, which brought more people in. Agree that they don’t have a perfect track record, but still even the lesser ones still are worth checking out.