{"id":44257,"date":"2014-08-08T09:53:25","date_gmt":"2014-08-08T15:53:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/08\/08\/the-success-of-and-risks-for-marvel-studios.html"},"modified":"2014-08-12T13:49:40","modified_gmt":"2014-08-12T19:49:40","slug":"the-success-of-and-risks-for-marvel-studios","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/08\/08\/the-success-of-and-risks-for-marvel-studios.html","title":{"rendered":"The success of (and risks for) Marvel Studios"},"content":{"rendered":"
Actually, the question of why Marvel Studios has been so successful (or, rather, the answer given in this article) is an interesting one: that they can't afford to fail, because their super-hero franchises are all they've got.<\/i> \u00a0If Sony, or Twentieth Century Fox never made another Spidey or X-Men movie, they would still contniue making — well, lots of other movies. If Marvel Studios loses the audience for super-heroics, they have to update their resumes …<\/p>\n

The question of of where they might fail — besides audiences changing their tastes — is also interesting, and the article-writer comes down hard (but fairly) on diversity (hence the pic below). \u00a0<\/p>\n

Not that Blacks or Hispanics or Women (etc.) will only go see a super-hero flick that headlines someone who they identify with in that way, but good marketing would indicate that Marvel needs to do something there other than supporting characters (even good supporting characters). That's not pandering (quite), and it's not a call to have quotas — it's just a recognition of how to build and maintain a maximum audience.<\/p>\n

Ironically, this points out how institutional bias can have an knock-on effect long after it's over. \u00a0One reason Marvel is busy headlining movies about white guys is because in the early eras of comics (and later than that), that's what was the natural thing to do in any sort of comic book character. Captain America is a white guy because you didn't have successful Black or Hispanic (or Women) super-heroes in the 1930s-40s. \u00a0Thor is white because we pay more cultural attention to the Norse mythos more than, say, the Zulu mythos because of where more of our population came from — and, again, that's what the white guys in the Bullpen were creating and writing and drawing back i the early 60s. Iron Man is white because that's what industrialists and inventors looked like in the early 60s. (And, presumably on all of these, because most comic books were bought by white kids.)<\/p>\n

Those factors are different today, but diversity is still slow in coming to comics (and comics creators), let alone to the silver screen that is adopting their stories. \u00a0That means that Marvel Studios (et al.) need to take some special steps if they want to break that mold and appeal to — and so maintain as customers — a broader audience.\ufeff<\/p><\/div>\n

\n

\n \n <\/div>\n

Why Marvel Studios Succeeds (And How It Might Fail)<\/a>
\n In six years and ten movies, Marvel Studios has avoided both critical and commercial disasters. How does Marvel do it, and can they keep doing it?\n <\/p>\n

View this post on Google+<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Actually, the question of why Marvel Studios has been so successful (or, rather, the answer given in this article) is an interesting one: that they can't afford to fail, because their super-hero franchises are all they've got. \u00a0If Sony, or Twentieth Century Fox never made another Spidey or X-Men movie, they would still contniue making … Continue reading “The success of (and risks for) Marvel Studios”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[106,525,28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-44257","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-plusposts","category-marvel-cinematic-universe","category-media-moguls"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":26767,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/02\/29\/avengers-assemble-audience.html","url_meta":{"origin":44257,"position":0},"title":"Avengers! Assemble! Audience!","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 29-Feb-12 8:04pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Yeah, I'm seriously there for this. #ddtb Embedded Link Marvel's The Avengers - Movie Trailers - iTunes Marvel Studios presents in association with Paramount Pictures \"Marvel's The Avengers\"--the Super Hero team up of a lifetime, featuring iconic Marvel Super Heroes Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Thor, ...","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":28584,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/07\/15\/guardians-of-the-galaxy-coming-soonish-to-a-theater-near-you.html","url_meta":{"origin":44257,"position":1},"title":"Guardians of the Galaxy, coming soon(ish) to a theater near you","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 15-Jul-12 9:18am","format":false,"excerpt":"Probably one of the quirkiest cast of characters for a super-hero ensemble one could imagine, but I very much look forward to it.Also, this comes out before Avengers 2, almost certainly, which means, given a couple of its characters, it's a fine opportunity to give the audience more info on\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":27697,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/05\/01\/loki-loves-the-stock-market.html","url_meta":{"origin":44257,"position":2},"title":"Loki Loves the Stock Market","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 1-May-12 11:00pm","format":false,"excerpt":"While the Dems are crowing about the DJIA closing the highest in four years with Obama in the White House, and the GOP are claiming it's because of their business-truckling legislative proposals, clearly the real reason the Dow closed up so much higher is because Loki rang the Opening Bell.(Well,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":15666,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2009\/08\/31\/disney-buys-marvel-what-the.html","url_meta":{"origin":44257,"position":3},"title":"Disney buys … Marvel?! What the –?","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 31-Aug-09 8:39am","format":false,"excerpt":"Blinks ... stares ...\u00a0 I had to check my calendar to make sure it wasn\u2019t April Fools when the news of The Walt Disney Company\u2019s latest acquisition rolled across my screen. Disney is now the proud owner of Marvel Entertainment at a cost of a cool $4 billion. That quickly\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Animation \/ Cartoons"","block_context":{"text":"Animation \/ Cartoons","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/media-cartoons"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":136462,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2018\/05\/16\/i-am-very-much-looking-forward-to-a-ms-marvel-movie.html","url_meta":{"origin":44257,"position":4},"title":"I am very much looking forward to a “Ms. Marvel” movie","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 16-May-18 10:15pm","format":false,"excerpt":"The Kamala Khan comic book series has been tremendous fun, picking up the issues of a youthful hero, while taking on family issues in the context of an immigrant, unconventional family, all of it with good humor and hopefulness. I look forward to Kamala's inclusion in the MCU, and in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/Ms-Marvel.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":130484,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/04\/24\/farewell-it-seems-to-a-big-screen-inhumans-movie.html","url_meta":{"origin":44257,"position":5},"title":"Farewell, it seems, to a big-screen "Inhumans" movie","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 24-Apr-16 6:44pm","format":false,"excerpt":"One thing about laying out such a long-range schedule of movies is tjat the chances are always there that things will change. And so, in this case, it has: the Inhumans movie has been completely removed from the release schedule, indicating the project is, if not dead, then not something\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44257","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44257"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44257\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44323,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44257\/revisions\/44323"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44257"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}