Marvel comics is one of the biggest, most recognized brands in the world as of 2014. Their reach has gone from just comics and animated movies, to video games and now to movies. They have a stranglehold on the comic book movie market and this is only the start. Their plan has been rumored to continue to make movies up until 2028, with 3 movies coming out each year after 2016. If this is true then by the year 2028 Marvel Studios will have made an incredible 46 movies, all connected and all telling one complete story. The breakdown goes like this:
-Captain America 1-3
-Iron man 1-3
-Avengers 1 &2
-Thor 1&2
-Antman
-Hulk
-Guardians
-The rest are all upcoming movies from 2017 till 2028
Add this to the impressive amount of television shows that are coming out or have already started (Netflix and Network shows), and you have a fully immersive comic book universe. This is the golden age of comic books on film. The problem lies in the fact that back in the 1990's, Marvel Comics wasn't doing very well, so bad that they almost filed for bankruptcy. So, like anyone in debt, they sold off some of their most valuable possessions. Including but not limited to Spiderman, Xmen, and the Fantastic Four. But, since i know most of you already know all this I'm going to skip ahead to the good stuff.
Recently, Marvel Comics has issued statements claiming that in the near future comics titles like the Xmen and Fantastic Four would be canceled or changed. Outraged fans from across the internet see this as an insult to their loyalty and find this move to be petty or childish of Marvel. The truth is, this is just business and in business you have to make sacrifices in order to get what you want in the long run.
But, is this really a big deal? Does cancelling these titles really help Marvel Studios in the long run? Money wise, no i don't think it does. As of July 2006, Marvel's annual sales for all comic book properties was roughly 7.4 million (for more information on where i found this go here:
http://zak-site.com/Great-American-Novel/comic_sales.html) Now, based off those numbers does it really look like Marvel is losing that much money from cancelling these books? The answer is no.
Marvel has figured out that comic books don't sell very well, at least profitability wise. It makes sense that they have shifted focus on something that can make them a much higher profit, aka Marvel Studios. One Marvel movie from the Marvel Cinematic Universe can make around 13 times what they can sell in comics, and thats just compared to the opening weekend sales of their latest hit (Guardians of the Galaxy which made 94 million opening weekend).
Things have changed a lot for Marvel in 20 years time and now that they have figured out they can make so much more by focusing on movies and not comics, they are ready to have the full family of heroes back together. That brings me to my point. By cutting out the Xmen and Fantastic Four comics, Marvel is essentially cutting any free publicity to the other companies they sold their properties to 20 years ago. They know that by somehow throwing a few comics under the bus, it may have a trickle up affect on movie sales or how people feel about the other companies movies. Marvel sees the amazing amount of profit they could add to the machine by getting these properties back, the stories that can be told using these characters and the depth they could add to the story just by getting those few remaining properties back.
Many of you may feel insulted by the blatant lack of respect Marvel shows towards you or your favorite comic books, but they know you will still go watch their MCU movies. Evermore, if they pulled off the miracle of getting Spiderman, Xmen, and Fantastic Four back under the MCU roof, I guarantee you will all be freaking out in a good way. There is no guarantee that this will have any impact on that though, in all honesty it probably wont, but what Marvel has done is the first step towards getting the ball rolling on getting these characters back.
What I want to know is as a fan are you upset about these changes? Do you think that by cancelling these stories they will impact the time in which they are able to get these characters back? Do you even want all of Marvel's characters under the MCU? Will Marvel's move of cancelling these books impact if you stay a Marvel fan? Please sound off in the comment section and let us all know how you feel.