SUCCESS STORY MOVIES MOVIE

In the following pages we will explore these principles, showing not only how Marvel applied them but also how they explain the success of companies in very different domains. Our analysis of this data suggests that Marvel’s success is rooted in four key principles: (1) select for experienced inexperience, (2) leverage a stable core, (3) keep challenging the formula, and (4) cultivate customers’ curiosity.

SUCCESS STORY MOVIES MOVIE

We digitally analyzed the scripts and the visual style of each movie and examined the networks of 1,023 actors and 25,853 behind-the-camera workers from movie to movie. How and why does Marvel succeed in blending continuity and renewal? To answer that question, we gathered data on each of the 20 Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) movies released through the end of 2018, analyzing 243 interviews and 95 video interviews with producers, directors, and writers, and 140 reviews from leading critics. When Black Panther was released, in early 2018, setting box office records, critics described it as a “sea change” and a “royally imaginative standout” that provided “a vibrant but convincing reality, laced with socially conscious commentary.” As Ty Burr put it in the Boston Globe, “The movie doesn’t reinvent the superhero genre so much as reclaim and reenergize it-archetypes, clichés, and all-for viewers hungry to dream in their own skin….The film doesn’t feel like the usual corporate franchise contact high but, rather, the work of a singular sensibility.” Yet, as other critics commented, the film was still somehow unmistakably Marvel. Twenty-two movies in, the organization is still able to renew the notion of what a Marvel movie can be. The high point seems to be the second one, judging by history.” Reinforcing this point, Ed Catmull, Pixar’s CEO, describes movie sequels as a form of “creative bankruptcy.” That may explain why Pixar has produced sequels for only four films. The director of Iron Man, Jon Favreau, has observed, “It’s very difficult to keep these franchises from running out of gas after two. And even if the first movie does well, the sequels usually don’t: Most franchises see a steady decline in critics’ scores after the first movie, which is ordinarily reflected in their commercial performance. Just making a movie successful enough to support a franchise is hard: Six of the eight worst-performing big-budget films in 2017 were meant to start new franchises. We try to keep audiences coming back in greater numbers by doing the unexpected and not simply following a pattern or a mold or a formula.” The secret seems to be finding the right balance between creating innovative films and retaining enough continuity to make them all recognizably part of a coherent family.Īchieving that balance is far more difficult than it sounds. Kevin Feige, the head of Marvel Studios, offered a deceptively simple explanation in Variety: “I’ve always believed in expanding the definition of what a Marvel Studios movie could be. Avengers: Endgame,released in the spring, has won rave reviews and generated so much demand that online movie ticket retailers had to overhaul their systems to manage the number of requests. At the same time, they average an impressive 84% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes (the average for the 15 top-grossing franchises is 68%) and receive an average of 64 nominations and awards per movie.

Its 22 films have grossed some $17 billion-more than any other movie franchise in history. In just a decade Marvel Studios has redefined the franchise movie.

Success story movies