Purchased for $4 billion, Disney’s superhero factory is now worth more than $50 billion.



For Disney CEO Bob Chapek, this weekend’s debut of&nbsp;Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings&nbsp;is a roll of the dice. It’s the first Marvel film to open on the normally anemic Labor Day weekend and its central character, a kung fu master in the mold of ‘70s martial arts icon Bruce Lee, is little-known. Its exclusive theatrical release, which Chapek himself called an “interesting experiment,” comes as Covid cases continue to spike.&nbsp;



The Chinese government has yet to approve the film for distribution in the world’s largest movie market, raising the stakes for Chapek.&nbsp;But Disney has built up quite a bit of wiggle room with its control of the 80-year-old comic-book publisher that writer Stan Lee and illustrator Jack Kirby put on the map: Purchased in 2009 for just $4 billion,&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;estimates the company is now worth almost $53 billion, or about 16% of Disney’s market value.



Not a bad return on an investment that few said would ever pay off.&nbsp;



“People didn’t fully understand and appreciate the franchise potential of the genre like we did,” says Tom Staggs, Disney&#8217;s former chief financial officer who helped lead the acquisition. “We were able to buy it because the industry didn’t totally get it either.”



Keeping that value may be one of the biggest challenges facing Chapek, the former theme park and consumer products executive who took over as CEO last year. He has already rankled Hollywood by taking on Scarlet Johansson,<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/dawnchmielewski/2021/07/30/how-much-scarlett-johansson-can-win-if-she-triumphs-in-disney-lawsuit/">&nbsp;one of Marvel’s biggest stars&nbsp;</a>, over compensation tied to the simultaneous theatrical and streaming release of&nbsp;Black Widow,&nbsp;including the contentious decision to disclose her&nbsp;$20 million salary for the role. That strategy also reportedly&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-disney-and-scarlett-johansson-reached-the-point-of-no-return-11630688765" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">rankled Marvel Chief Creative Officer Kevin Feige</a>, who didn’t want to see the film downgraded to home streaming.



Shang-Chi&nbsp;presented a different set of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/02/opinion/asian-americans-superheroes-shang-chi.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">challenges for the filmmakers</a>&nbsp;— knocking down problematic Asian stereotypes in the comic that may explain why&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/09/02/shang-chi-doesnt-have-a-release-date-in-china-why-thats-a-big-deal.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">China has yet to set a release date.&nbsp;</a>The performance of&nbsp;Shang-Chi&nbsp;will influence how Disney distributes the next Marvel installment,&nbsp;Eternals,&nbsp;due out Nov. 5.&nbsp; It may well determine whether the company can adhere to its carefully choreographed schedule of Marvel stories, intended first to debut in theaters, then expanded on TV.



It was that kind of calculated control that turne a lean, independent studio operating above a Mercedes Benz dealership in Beverly Hills into the beating heart of the world’s biggest entertainment company. Twenty-four Marvel titles collectively grossed $21.9 billion in Disney’s hands, making it bigger than Bond, more potent than Potter and massive compared to The Fast And The Furious. 



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-large is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Screenshot-2021-09-08-at-10.29.47-1024x540.png" alt="" class="wp-image-52446" width="668" height="351" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Screenshot-2021-09-08-at-10.29.47-1024x540.png 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Screenshot-2021-09-08-at-10.29.47-300x158.png 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Screenshot-2021-09-08-at-10.29.47-768x405.png 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Screenshot-2021-09-08-at-10.29.47.png 1366w" sizes="(max-width: 668px) 100vw, 668px" /></figure></div>



It’s also far better than&nbsp;Star Wars&nbsp;which Disney bought with its $4 billion purchase of Lucasfilm in 2012, delivering box office sales of just $6 billion on the five films it produced. Its $7.4 billion acquisition of Pixar in 2006 also pales, with the 21 Disney-owned films generating ticket sales of $14.4 billion. Marvel, says Comscore media analyst Paul Dergarabedian, is easily the most successful film franchise in history.&nbsp;



Here’s a look at Marvel by the numbers.



FILM — Nearly $6 billion



No. 1 Marvel Film: Avengers: Endgame, $2.8 billion



Marvel superheroes have been a key piece of Walt Disney box office dominance in recent&nbsp; years, giving the studio the two biggest movies of 2018 —&nbsp;Avengers: Infinity War&nbsp;and&nbsp;Black Panther&nbsp;— and one of the highest-grossing films of all time —&nbsp;Avengers: Endgame&nbsp;— a year later. Since 2018, Disney has released seven Marvel films that have collectively brought in more than $9.4 billion, according to data from Comscore. That kind of dominance boosts the value of all its other films by driving up the price the company can get from cable TV networks like Starz or streaming services like Netflix to show them. Media analyst Richard Greenfield estimated the value of Disney’s 2012 Netflix deal, which provided the streamer with access to newly released films starting in 2016, would generate $450 million in revenue in its first year.&nbsp;



STREAMING — $40 billion+



Most-Watched Marvel Show: Loki&nbsp;



WandaVision. The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.&nbsp;Loki.&nbsp;Marvel shows have helped attract 12.4 million new subscribers to the Disney+ streaming service from April through June, bringing the total to 116 million as of July. The&nbsp;WandaVision&nbsp;debut was a Top 10 hit and which only got bigger with each one of its nine episodes — Nielsen estimates it was viewed by 30.5 million people.&nbsp;The Falcon and the Winter Soldier&nbsp;captured an audience of 28.3 million, Nielsen reported, while&nbsp;Loki, which debuted three months later,&nbsp;drew an even larger 35 million viewers, according to the measurement service. No surprise, ten more Marvel series are coming, including&nbsp;Ms. Marvel,&nbsp;the first Muslim-American superhero;&nbsp;Hawkeye,&nbsp;with actor Jeremy Renner reprising his&nbsp;Avengers’ expert marksman character; and&nbsp;She-Hulk,&nbsp;played by Emmy Award-winning Tatiana Maslany.&nbsp; “The addition of the Marvel content &#8230; is a tremendous catalyst of growth for us,” Chapek told investors in May, noting it built on the success of the Star Wars-inspired original series,&nbsp;The Mandalorian.&nbsp;Marvel’s&nbsp;Black Widow&nbsp;exceeded $125 million in sales on Disney+, where it premiered on the same day as the film’s theatrical release, sparking a high-profile battle with star Scarlett Johansson over profits that could well set a precedent for how talent is compensated in the streaming era.



CONSUMER PRODUCTS — About $3 billion&nbsp;



No. 1 Selling Marvel Product: Super Heroes Avengers Iron Man Hall of Armor, $45 price



Under Disney, sales of all things Marvel&nbsp; — Spider-Man swim trunks, Hulk bedding, Winter Soldier and Captain America action figures — account for nearly $10 billion in licensing revenue from merchandise sales since 2010, according to&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;calculations. Marvel Chairman Ike Perlmutter initially viewed toy sales as the profit driver for the company, with the films playing the role of marketing. Today it is making heaps of cash on both. Disney does not disclose what percentage of revenue is attributable to Marvel, though two people with direct knowledge say it’s second only to Disney’s classic characters (Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Goofy) in revenue.&nbsp;&nbsp;



THEME PARKS — TBD



First Marvel Attraction: Iron Man Experience, Hong Kong Disneyland



Despite being in Disney hands for more than a decade, it’s still too early to estimate its value to the enterprise — but its six-acre Avengers Campus opened at Disneyland in June and is already drawing crowds who show up to interact with characters such as Iron Man, Thor, Captain Marvel or Black Panther. One attraction, the&nbsp; Spider-Man Web Slingers ride, sends guests on a 3D mission to combat an infestation of Spider-Bots at the Headquarters, not far from the 2017 remake of the&nbsp;Twilight Zone-inspired Tower of Terror plunge that is now branded the Guardians of the Galaxy &#8211; Mission: Breakout dark ride. “They’ve done it right,” said Dennis Speigel, chief executive of International Theme Park Services consultancy. “There have been huge crowds and waits to get in.” Marvel is making its way around the world. An Ant-Man and The Wasp attraction opened in 2019 in Hong Kong Disneyland. Coming soon: Epcot Center’s Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind indoor roller coaster and an Avengers Campus concept at Disneyland Paris.&nbsp;



METHODOLOGY Disney doesn’t disclose Marvel’s value and analysts who cover the company haven’t done so independently, so to estimate its current value Forbes consulted with former company insiders, industry observers and Wall Street analysts. We used operating income for the film and consumer products units and estimated Marvel’s contribution at 22% — its share of the company’s total box office for the past decade. A 15x multiple was applied. Disney+ was included at the $200 billion valuation assigned by MoffettNathanson’s Michael Nathanson.



By Dawn Chmielewski, Forbes Staff

Gold House Special Screening Of Marvel Studios’ “Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings”

From Avengers To Shang-Chi, What Marvel Studios Is Really Worth To Walt Disney

Black Panther star Chadwick Boseman died Friday after a four-year battle with colon cancer, his family <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://twitter.com/chadwickboseman/status/1299530165463199747?s=20" target="_blank">said</a>.



KEY FACTS



Boseman was diagnosed with Stage III colon cancer in 2016 and battled the disease for four years as it progressed to Stage IV.



He died in his home with his wife and children by his side, a statement from his family says.



Boseman had not spoken publicly about his diagnosis, according to the&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/5f4352111fdead278da3651b44d311b8" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Associated Press</a>.



Boseman starred as Marvel’s first Black superhero in the 2018 blockbuster&nbsp;Black Panther.



He died on Jackie Robinson Day, which is celebrated annually by the MLB, years after portraying the baseball legend opposite Harrison Ford in the 2013 film 42.



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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true"><a href="https://t.co/aZ2JzDf5ai">pic.twitter.com/aZ2JzDf5ai</a>&mdash; Chadwick Boseman (@chadwickboseman) <a href="https://twitter.com/chadwickboseman/status/1299530165463199747?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 29, 2020</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
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CRUCIAL QUOTE



“A true fighter, Chadwick persevered through it all, and brought you many of the films you have come to love so much. From Marshall to Da 5 Bloods, August Wilson’s Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom and several more, all were filmed during countless surgeries and chemotherapy,” the statement reads.



-Rachel Sandler, Forbes Staff

European Premiere Of Marvel Studios’ Black Panther

‘Black Panther’ Star Chadwick Boseman Dies At 43

The international worldwide box office has never been this
big or this competitive. 2018 proved to be a record year as Comscore reported
that the worldwide box office peaked at $41.7 billion. This is already a 2.7%
upward shift from last year’s $40.6 billion and marks only the second time ever
that it has cracked $40 billion.



At a time when blockbuster films are all but devouring the
lion’s share of traffic at the international turnstiles, we thought it
appropriate to pause and take a look at just what these figures mean for the
future of film and film releasing. Is Hollywood cannibalising itself by
creating these juggernauts?



Well, let’s take a look at the latest numbers sensation, Avengers: Endgame. The film broke a few records. It had the biggest international opening of all time raking in just over $1.2 billion in its first 11 days of release, an unheard-of figure. 



READ MORE | <a rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label="Will Cinema Just Disappear? (opens in a new tab)" href="https://www.forbesafrica.com/arts/2019/03/28/will-cinema-just-disappear/" target="_blank">Will Cinema Just Disappear?</a>



As of May 13, Avengers: Endgame is sitting on a worldwide total of $2.5 billion and is guaranteed to go even higher in the weeks ahead. But where does this leave variety, where does this leave the smaller film, the adult-orientated film, the arthouse film?



The reality is that the mere existence of films like Avengers: Endgame means that this leaves such kinds of pictures nowhere. It’s impossible for any other picture to compete with a $356 million budget superhero movie with at least another $200 million in worldwide marketing costs behind it. 



Hollywood’s technique is complete saturation and to kill the competition. So while the film may have performed exceptionally, let’s be honest, with the kind of market saturation, brand name power and the sheer size of the international release, it should have.



Another important point when reviewing this film’s incredible box office performance is again to take into account the all-important Chinese market. Avengers: Endgame has already grossed over $600 million in China accounting for over a third of its total gross already. 



READ MORE | <a rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label="How I marvelled at Black Panther’s reimagining of Africa (opens in a new tab)" href="https://www.forbesafrica.com/life/2018/02/21/marvelled-black-panthers-reimagining-africa/" target="_blank">How I marvelled at Black Panther’s reimagining of Africa</a>



But how has it performed from a historical perspective? When looking at ticket prices adjusted for inflation based on grosses in the United States only, the film slips all the way down to number 24 on the all-time grossers list. Top of the pops is still Gone With The Wind from 1939, followed by the original Star Wars from 1977. 



This brings me to my next point. Whatever happened to films that had legs, such as Steven Spielberg’s E.T. from 1982 or The Exorcist from 1973? The grosses of these films adjusted for inflation would be billions of dollars worldwide. The key to their ongoing longevity is that they had legs. 



These were films that discovered their audience week by week and although they were smash hits, they often grew in terms of their numbers from one weekend to the next as word-of-mouth spread, increasing their turnover. 



In this age of instant gratification and mass saturation, Avengers: Endgame is doing the opposite – it dived by 70% in its second week, numbers showing no signs of any real longevity.



So is Avengers: Endgame going to be the ultimate releasing strategy going forward? Does one push the film out into as many cinemas as possible, spend the equivalent of a small country’s GDP in terms of marketing power and try and pack in as many viewers into your first seven days with sell-out performances, then take the money and run?



Speculation is always circumspect so I’d like to pose
another question. If film is a business, should the business strategy be hit
and run? 



Will any of these films have the kind of longevity from a film fan perspective or will they disappear into the chasm of disposable entertainment. 



READ MORE | <a rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label="Marvel Money: How Six Avengers Made $340 Million Last Year (opens in a new tab)" href="https://www.forbesafrica.com/arts/2019/07/12/marvel-money-how-six-avengers-made-340-million-last-year/" target="_blank">Marvel Money: How Six Avengers Made $340 Million Last Year</a>



Again, only time will tell. Where to from here for Hollywood? 



This kind of maximum impact output surely isn’t sustainable
and is surely too risky. You can’t spend half a billion dollars on producing
and marketing a film and then have any kind of risk in terms of the film not
connecting with its broad-based audience. 



All you need is two or three box office bombs and you’ll
sink a studio.



The old cliché that you can’t put all your eggs in one
basket exists for a reason. If entertainment tastes continue to split into
niches, the theatrical movie-going experience will also continue to take a
backseat to Video On Demand, and Hollywood may just be shooting itself in the
foot with this glut of summer tent-pole pictures. 



I sincerely hope this doesn’t mean the death of
“word-of-mouth”. Bigger does not necessarily mean better. 



– Robert Haynes is Executive Producer of entertainment at CNBC Africa and owner of film and TV production company, 42nd Street Films, in Johannesburg.

gettyimages-839326810-170667a

Worldwide Box Office, The Best It’s Ever Been

Since its premiere in April,&nbsp;Avengers: Endgame&nbsp;has been sending shockwaves across the Marvel multiverse, with a worldwide gross of $2.77 billion and counting after the movie’s return to theaters last month. With its domestic gross sitting at $848 million,&nbsp;Endgame&nbsp;is the second-highest-grossing film ever both in the U.S. and overseas.&nbsp;



That means a payday not just for Marvel Studios but also for the Avengers themselves, who have negotiated their way to superpowered deals.&nbsp;Forbes’ Celebrity 100 list of the world’s highest-earning entertainers this year features six&nbsp;Endgame&nbsp;heroes, from Chris Hemsworth (a.k.a. Thor) at No. 24 overall with $76.4 million (not all of his earnings were from&nbsp;Avengers) to Paul Rudd (Ant-Man) at No. 83 with $41 million. Robert Downey Jr. (Iron Man), Bradley Cooper (Rocket Raccoon), Scarlett Johansson (Black Widow) and Chris Evans (Captain America) also assembled and made the cut. Together, the team earned $340 million.



“Celebrities such as Downey and Johansson currently have extreme leverage to demand enormous compensation packages from studios investing hundreds of millions of dollars in making tent-pole films, such as&nbsp;The Avengers&nbsp;series,&#8221; says entertainment lawyer David Chidekel of Early Sullivan Wright Gizer &amp; McRae.



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Kevin Feige, Marvel Studios’ president, seems to agree: “We started saying that the character is the marquee name, and I think that’s still true, but I think we&#8217;ve been very lucky and thankful that the actors that imbibe these characters have now become them,” he&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/natalierobehmed/2017/04/18/marvels-kevin-feige-talks-actor-compensation-and-the-studios-box-office-magic/#32a676ff1f27" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">told&nbsp;Forbes</a>&nbsp;of the highly compensated group in 2017.



Marvel signs actors to multi-movie deals that also include promotional commitments. These deals often start off in the seven figures, which helps explain why newer superheroes like Brie Larson (Captain Marvel) and Tom Holland (the latest Spider-Man) didn’t make the Celeb 100 cut. But as actors stay with the MCU, their salaries increase. Veteran Marvel stars can command an upfront salary as high as $20 million (Downey). Others top heroes can earn in the neighborhood of $15 million (Hemsworth, Johansson, Evans), while second-tier characters make about $8 million (Rudd).&nbsp;



But the real money comes in later. All of this year’s listees proved so valuable to Marvel that they were able to negotiate for a piece of the profit—also known as contingent compensation—on both the ensemble&nbsp;Avengers&nbsp;films and their individual superhero films.



“A studio’s incentive to grant contingent compensation to various actors, writers, directors and other key personnel is simple.&nbsp;Movie studios depend upon tent-pole films to support their financial performance,” says Chidekel.



These points pay off.&nbsp;Avengers: Endgame, for example, has made about $700 million in profit from its box office run so far. For Downey, who has around 8% in back-end points, that translates to about $55 million, for a grand total of $75 million for the one film.&nbsp;



Even smaller characters like Cooper can command about 1% of the back end, which would translate to $7 million for&nbsp;Endgame. For their star vehicles, these actors can negotiate an even bigger cut of the profit.&nbsp;



“The percent of budget cost have certainly skewed heavy, particularly on the Avengers movies, to cast now, whereas maybe in the early ones it was more visual effects or below the line,” Feige said in 2017. “But that’s okay because [the actors] are the best effects.”



These sky-high paychecks have proved to be a worthwhile investment for the studio. With a built-in audience of comic book fans, scripts that are both funny and socially aware, and a powerful marketing strategy, MCU films have grossed over $22 billion since 2008. These actors continually return many times their salaries in box-office dollars. For instance, while Downey earned that eye-popping $75 million from&nbsp;Endgame, the film grossed $36.90 at the box office for every dollar he was paid. Those on the lower end of the earnings spectrum, like Rudd, produced over $100 at the box office for every dollar they were paid.



“Certainly the strange alchemy of seeing characters you’ve never seen before teamed up together on screen, if they were different versions of those characters, it wouldn&#8217;t be as fun,” Feige said. “It&#8217;s expensive but well worth it.”



We think Nick Fury would agree. 



-Madeline Berg; Forbes Staff

Tag: avengers

FORBES AFRICA SOCIAL MEDIA

From Avengers To Shang-Chi, What Marvel Studios Is Really Worth To Walt Disney

‘Black Panther’ Star Chadwick Boseman Dies At 43

Worldwide Box Office, The Best It’s Ever Been

Marvel Money: How Six Avengers Made $340 Million Last Year