Let's start off this editorial by admitting one thing, on top of The Avengers being the biggest movie of the summer; it also showed movie studios that both fans and casual audiences were looking for something astounding, something beyond just a few cheap character cash-in's and cameos. People want to see massive team-ups and the box office showed that.
So now with The Avengers success, we have movie studios scrambling to make their team-up films. Fox is hard at work on Days of Future Past, Sony is rumored to be building their universe with Spider-Man, and even on a non-Marvel front, you have DC finally bringing Batman and Superman together onscreen beyond animation.
Sticking with Marvel though, it's beginning to become increasingly clear that like their characters, the Studios themselves are going to require partnership and cooperation to truly kick ass.
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SOME STORIES NEED TO BE TOLD
The simplest argument as to why these studios need to work together is because the stories they are adapting require it. How long can studios avoid stories where ___________ is a major player.
Take for instance Fox, who are forever milking Wolverine and Hugh Jackman. Eventually they will have to do Old Man Logan, considering that they've adapted almost all of Wolverine's best stories already, with many of them being utterly wasted on Origins: Wolverine. With the Japanese story done with, either they expand on the Japan stuff, or they move on to another story. If Fox was to ever do Old Man Logan, they'd need Hawkeye and Hulk definitely.
At the same time, Marvel is clearly working towards The Infinity Gauntlet, a story that in the comics brought together pretty much the entire Marvel universe. You'd need characters from Fox and Sony to give the sense of weight to the situation.
If these studios worked together, we could see Hawkeye and Hulk appearing in a Fox owned Old Man Logan adaption, and perhaps also see Wolverine fighting alongside Cap and Iron Man during the Infinity Gauntlet story.
I could be completely wrong, but something tells me that these studios would benefit from having to constantly avoid stories just because it has another studio's characters.
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SYNERGY
Beyond just being a dumb marketing term, it can seem confusing to casual movie audiences when you see a character played by two different actors. We're getting two different actors playing Quicksilver; with Aaron Johnson and Evan Peters both portraying the speedster it's as clear as day that these two studios are not budging with the character.
While I don't expect this realistically; I think it would benefit these studios to use the same actor/actress. If they both have rights to the characters, couldn't they both use the same actor or actress? It simply just doesn't make any sense.
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$$$
It just makes sense financially to work together, if The avengers did as well as it did putting Cap and Iron Man in the same frame; you can only imagine how well Avengers 3 would do if Spider-Man swung in to kick Thanos, or if Hulk threw Wolverine. Even if these companies were to take a small percent of the profits in return for lending their characters, it would be gangbusters.
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CONCLUSION
When it comes down to it, I think that both the studios and their fans will benefit from seeing these studios work together. We'd get great shots, great stories, and other fruits of an otherwise great partnership.