I will start with a confession. I used to be quite critical of the Avengers. My loyalty used to be with the one Superhero movies – Superman, Spider-Man (never really took to Batman though the Nolan Trilogy is impressive). And then I saw The Amazing Spider-Man. At that time, I did not know the details of the battle between Sony and the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe), more on that later. The Amazing Spider-Man was bad on such colossal proportions that it put me off on the whole MCU franchise. Usually, I know the film is really bad when I can think of better dialogues instantaneously than the ones that you hear on the screen. The Amazing Spider-Man was full of such pithy lines as “time is luck” (What does that even mean?) And since they did not have much content, they spent the time showing Spider-Man jumping from one building to the next, and the next, and the next. I did not watch another Marvel movie till I stumbled upon The Iron Man. And then I was hooked.
Not that anyone needs convincing, but to get an idea of how awesome the Marvel movies are, here is a box office chart of their last five movies. Avengers : Endgame gave an ROI of nearly 635%.
The chart for all 21 Marvel movies is on their Wiki page. No Marvel movie has ever incurred a loss at the box office. But why are we talking money like a couple of cold-hearted businessmen? Because it shows the unprecedented love people all over the world have for the Avengers. At a time when producers and directors all over the world are searching high and low for an interesting story, MCU has discovered a gold mine.
There is one real life story that I am waiting for that is as interesting as any of the MCU plots. I am hoping that either Kevin Feige, president of Marvel Studios, writes an autobiography. Or, since he is too busy planning the arc of MCU, maybe someone else will write a behind-the-scenes book about how Marvel created a Universe out of characters that no one else would touch.
In 2007, the most popular characters of Marvel Comics had been licensed by studios. Sony had Spider-Man and Fox Studios had X-Men and Fantastic Four. Marvel Studios could not use these characters so Kevin and the creative team decided to go with Iron Man. Kevin said in his recent Reddit AMA (Ask Me Anything) that casting Robert Downy Jr. as Tony Stark was one of the decisions that he fought hardest for. And what a decision it turned out to be! RDJ completely owned the character.
MCU is a unique entity because it has many characters that exist independently and come together when they need to. This is different than say Star Wars, where you are continuing just one story line in successive movies. And with the exception of first Star Wars trilogy and The Phantom Menace, the rest of the Star Wars movies did not really live up to expectations. In Star Trek on the other hand, it was more or less the same set of characters that kept the story moving forward. The difference with Marvel is that they don’t just plan one movie, they plan a story arc that encompasses a series of movies with characters that come and go as needed.
How can one explain the extraordinary success of MCU? There are several things going well for it. First, the characters have been created for kids way back by the brilliant comics writers. It is sometimes easier to convince adults about a story. You may weave intellectual arguments and explain why your characters behave in a certain way. But kids? They are ruthless. If they don’t like a story, they will tell you straight to your face. Each Marvel Comics character is well etched with a solid back story. In the movies, this aspect is further enhanced by impeccable casting. Robert Downy Jr. as Tony Stark, Chris Evans as Captain America, Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow, Mark Ruffalo as Hulk and Jeremy Renner as Clint Barton, to name just a few. These artists combine star power, charisma and acting to portray unforgettable on-screen characters. This is the bedrock of the success of Avengers. You care about Iron Man so much that you want to know what he was doing before this movie and where he will be in the next one.
Here is an example. After the trailer of Avengers : Endgame that showed Tony Stark drifting into space was released, fans bombarded the official NASA Twitter account with requests to rescue him. NASA also played along and responded :
Kevin Feige revealed the lessons he learned while creating the MCU.
💡 Hire passionate filmmakers regardless of how much money their last movie made.
💡 Hire the best cast regardless of their current marquee value.
In the post on Breaking Bad, I wrote,
“What made these characters memorable? And I realized that I had never really paid attention to the backstory of the characters till now. One reason for this is that in movies there is not much time to go into the backstory of the character unless it’s essential to the plot. Then you go into a flashback. At other times, movies try to fit in the backstory as effectively as possible – through one scene, a remark, a conversation. It really tests the creativity of the filmmakers to try and fit as many backstory details as possible. Of course, this is only possible for the lead characters. In 2+ hours, you cannot afford to spend any time on the back stories of the supporting characters. And this is exactly where a television series like Breaking Bad becomes a game changer.”
MCU has found a way to keep the characters alive independent of the movies and keep the viewers interested in the story arc that goes beyond just one movie.
Avengers : Endgame is streaming on Disney+ Hotstar.
