If you ran Marvel Studios...

[adamcz]

...In what order would you make the films, and how much would you spend on each one, while maintaining profitibility as a goal?

Here's what I would do:

2008 Fall: Shang Chi ($65 million budget) - I'd start out by testing the waters with a medium/low budget film that could easily recoup its expenses, and would be a low pressure movie to work the kinks out with.

2008 Summer: Captain America ($140 million budget) - I'd aim for this to be one of the very biggest movies of the summer. Get a name actor and director, and hope to set up a very succesful franchise.

2009 Fall: Cloak and Dagger ($75 million budget) - It'd be hard to spend more than this on characters that nobody's ever heard of, but this is at least enough money to give the movie a fighting chance.

2009 Summer: Avengers ($175 million budget) - I know that a lot of people would prefer to set up a whole slew of origin movies first, but that would require delaying this film five more years, and signing actors to very long term contracts, or recasting. With this plan, the most important character (Cap) has been taken care of, and the rest can be introduced to the world through this film. It would be important for Hawkeye, and Iron Man to be played by famous actors who will later be able to carry their own film.


I'm not even sure how convinced I am of my own list, but I'll push submit anyway to get some discussion rolling.

 

[Peyton Westlake]

Well I agree with you on the Capt. America choice. Is too hard to put a dollar figure on the budget, at least $125 million to start I'd guess. He seems to be the next potential blockbuster choice & if done right, maybe something to build on like Blade or Spider-Man.

 

[Mr. Magoo]

You can't release the Avengers movie exactly one year after the Cap movie. That means you'd already be making it before Captain America even came out. No way. You'd want to make sure that there was a reasonable amount of awareness and interest there before you even started.

 

[blah]

Imagine if Hawkeye was introduced in Iron Man's first movie as a villain, at the end he reforms, and in the Avengers movie he is Stark's friend!

 

[GNR]

I'd make a Captain America flick,an Iron Man flick,then an Ultimates flick which brings it all together.

 

[hippie_hunter]

Replace Power Pack, Cloak and Dagger, and Shang-Chi with Iron Man, Daredevil 2, and Thor (assuming that Marvel gets the rights back).

 

[Manic]

I'd make Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, Dr. Strange, and Heroes for Hire.

 

[GL1]

2006 -- Release X3, Ghost Rider and Spider-Man 3 on schedule

2007 -- Release FF 2, Luke Cage, and Wolverine on schedule

2008- Captain America in the summer as a big epic kicktail movie with an awesome hero, John Woo action sequeneces. 100M+ Great great things. Drop Hulk 2 in the Spring and Spider-Man 4 in the Fall...

2009 -- Iron Man as the big crazy epic high tech superdrama. Tragic drunkard hero. Family insecurities and a brilliant mind in a beautiful double edged sword. Cloak and Dagger in the Fall and X4 in the winter

2010 -- Ultimates/Avengers 300M+ blockbusting masterpeice... and after that, well, I'd be trying to keep X-Men and Spider-Man franchises all happy without crowding my summer spot...

 

[Manic]

2006
X3, Ghost Rider

2007
Spider-Man 3, Wolverine, Luke Cage, Fantastic Four^(2)

2008
Magneto, Captain America, Iron Man

2009
Thor, Cloak & Dagger, Dr. Strange

2010
Avengers, Daughters of the Dragon

 

[blind_fury]

Edit

 

[blind_fury]

2007:
Luke Cage: Hero for Hire -budget 75 million(borrow the money), Training Day with Superpowers.

2008:
Dr. Strange - budget 100 million(borrow the money), get Spike Jonze to direct. Mind-blowing special effects, trippy storytelling.

Iron Man- budget 175 million (borrow the money), get Paul Verhoeven. Explosive Mecha War/Espionage thriller. Starring Tom Cruise as Tony Starks.

Daredevil restart - budget 100 million (borrow the money), get David Fincher to direct, Ethan Hawke plays Daredevil, Monica Bellucci plays Elektra, Big Show(WWE) plays Kingpin and Jason Statham plays Bullseye. Meditative noir/suspense. Sin City meets Zatochi.

2009:
Captain America- budget 150 million(borrow the money), get Spielberg to direct. Set in the 1940s. Villian is the Red Skull. Ultra-patriotic action extravaganza.

Thor- budget 150 million (borrow the money), get Peter Jackson to direct. Superpowered warfare between gods.

Luke Cage and Iron Fist- sequel to Luke Cage. Bigger and badder enemies. budget 110 million (use Marvel Studios money!!!)

2010:
Silver Surfer- 175 million(use Marvel Studios money) get Michel Gondry to direct. The most epic and most beautiful movie ever made.

Black Panther- 140 million(use Marvel Studios money) get Kurt Wimmer to direct. Djimon Hounsou as the Black Panther. Batman Beyond in Africa.

Restart X-men- 250 million (borrowed) Directed by James Cameron. With a focus on accurate casting. nuff said.

Dr.Strange 2 - 140 million(borrowed)

Daredevil 2- 140 million(borrowed)

2011:
Restart Spider-man- 250 million budget(Marvel Studios money) Directed by David Fincher. MECHANICAL WEBSHOOTERS!!!!

Restart Fantastic Four - 250 million budget(Marvel Studios money) Jack Kirby's vision!!!

Restart Hulk- 250 million budget(borrowed) 100% Savage Hulk!

Captain America sequel- 175 million(borrowed) set in the present day, villian Hydra

Thor sequel- 200 million (borrowed)

2012:
Silver Surfer 2- 200 million(Marvel Studios money)

Black Panther 2- 175 million(Marvel Studios money)

X-men 2- 300 million(Marvel Studios money)

Dr. Strange 3- 150 million(Marvel Studios money)

Daredevil 3- 150 million(Marvel Studios money)

2013:
Avengers movie- 400 million(Marvel Studios money) using the casts for all previous Marvel movies.

Spider-man 2- 300 million(Marvel Studios money)

Fantastic Four 2- 300 million (Marvel Studios money)

Hulk 2- 300 million (Marvel Studios money)

2014:
estimated profit from worldwide box office, dvds, merchandise, and network sales: 10 BILLION DOLLARS

 

[Hypestyle]

hmm...

Personally, I wouldn't spend more than 20 million on Shang Chi, and no more than 25 million on Cloak & Dagger.. I'd aim for an August release for each..

Panther, I could consider a tentpole movie, and I could see spending in the $75 range..


Cap. America's also a tentpole, I could see 100+ being spent, but the first film would have to be all World War II action...

 

[Hypestyle]

I'd also develop more animated shows for straight to syndication-- or genre-friendly cable like Sci-Fi, HBO, Cartoon Network, Showtime.. based on as many marvel heroes as possible:
"Marvel Universe"- 1-hour anthology series-
Sub-Mariner
Moon Knight
Heroes for Hire
The Falcon

separate series:
Power Pack-
Mighty Thor- (Don Blake era)
Captain America
Black Panther

 

[blah]

moviegoers will think Thor is a male Nanny Mcphee

 

[Silver Sable]

I would totally make a SS movie and cast either Monica Bellucci,Sophie Marceau, or Kate Beckinsale to play her

 

[Philly Phanboy]

Existing schedule:

X-Men 3 (Fox-May 2006)

Ghost Rider (Sony-Feb 2007)
Spider-Man 3 (Sony-May 2007)
Fantastic Four 2 (Fox-July 2007)
The Punisher 2 (LGF-2007)
Wolverine (Fox-2007)

-------------------------------------------------
I'd plan on doing the following:

• Budgets for projects would range from $30M (Shang-Chi) - $200M+ (Avengers).
• Ant Man, Hawkeye and Magneto origin films scrapped.
• LGF sends Iron Fist rights to Sony to allow "Heroes for Hire" movie in exchange for share of profits.

Future movie schedule:

Heroes for Hire (Sony-2008) - release in January; Scrap idea of doing two lesser movies and make a Heroes for Hire instead.
Cloak & Dagger (Marvel-2008) - Spring release; Why C&D so soon? If/when Blade TV series fails, C&D would be easy to translate to small screen to fill Marvel's need for TV property.
Iron Man (Marvel-2008) - release in May; Use best of Marvel's remaining characters to compete with summer's second Batman film; Hayter still rumoured to both write and direct?
Captain America (Marvel-2008) - release on July 4 = no brainer. Iron Man will be the special effects movie of the summer with Captain America being more character driven.
Deathlok (Paramount-2008) - Fall release; Good followup movie to schedule after Captain America.

Shang-Chi (Marvel-2009) - January release. Needs better director than Woo-ping Yuen who is basically just a stunt choreographer.
Nick Fury (Marvel-2009) - Spring release. Agent of Shield storyline possibly having some Howling Commandos flashbacks...include Captain America cameo too?
Spider-Man 4 (Sony-2009) - release in July; Likely last of current series?
Black Widow (?-2009) - (Red) October release; I see film pushed back this late in order for Hayter to get Iron Man done (either as writer/director or both), plus a good followup movie after Nick Fury & Spider-Man 4.
Silver Surfer (Fox-2009) - Winter release; Surfer's origin film needs to come before Fantastic Four 3

Daredevil 2 (Fox?-2010) - Midwinter release; Maybe do a tie-in with Black Widow?
Black Panther (Marvel-2010) - Spring Release.
Hulk 2 (Universal?-2010) - Early summer release; reintroduce/retune character before Avengers movie.
Fantastic Four 3 (Fox-2010) - release in July; use Galactus storyline.
Avengers (Marvel-2010) - Winter release; Why winter and not summer? Likely no competition, think LOtR.

Power Pack (Marvel-2011) - Midwinter release; Done for younger viewer appeal.
Dr. Strange (Marvel-2011) - Spring release.
Sub-Mariner (Universal?-2011) - Early Summer.
Iron Man 2 (Marvel-2011) - Summer release. IM is a better candidate for sequel than Cap.
Thor (Marvel-2011) - Winter Release.

 

[enterthemadness]

Man-Thing 2: Sci-Fi Channel: 6-11 million (Marvel's Money) budget-R/NC-17
Spider-Man 4: Theaters: 160 million (Marvels'+borrowed) budget- PG-13
Spider-Man 5: Theaters: 160 million (Marvel's+borrowed) budget-PG-13
Spider-Man 6: Theaters: 170 million (Marvel's+borrowed) budget-PG-13
Werewolf By Night: Theaters: 25 million (Marvel's Money) budget-R cut in 2,000+ theaters. NC-17 cut in 100-150 theaters.
Fantastic Four 3: Theaters: 160 million(Marvels+borrowed) PG-13.

 

[hippie_hunter]

Man-Thing 2: Sci-Fi Channel: 6-11 million (Marvel's Money) budget-R/NC-17
Spider-Man 4: Theaters: 160 million (Marvels'+borrowed) budget- PG-13
Spider-Man 5: Theaters: 160 million (Marvel's+borrowed) budget-PG-13
Spider-Man 6: Theaters: 170 million (Marvel's+borrowed) budget-PG-13
Werewolf By Night: Theaters: 25 million (Marvel's Money) budget-R cut in 2,000+ theaters. NC-17 cut in 100-150 theaters.
Fantastic Four 3: Theaters: 160 million(Marvels+borrowed) PG-13.

I would never EVER EVER want you in charge of Marvel Studios.

 

[enterthemadness]

Gee, was it the low budgets for the spider-man movies or the Man-Thing 2 and Werewolf By Night movies? Because to be honest,...you don't need 200 million or more for the spider-man movies. You pay the stars and directors and writers less money. No actor/actress needs 20 million a movie. I don't understand why it's so much for CGI.

 

[hippie_hunter]

Gee, was it the low budgets for the spider-man movies or the Man-Thing 2 and Werewolf By Night movies? Because to be honest,...you don't need 200 million or more for the spider-man movies. You pay the stars and directors and writers less money. No actor/actress needs 20 million a movie. I don't understand why it's so much for CGI.

1. Werewolf by Night doesn't need a film and the one going to be made is going to suck. Also Crystal Sky owns the rights not Marvel.

2. Man-Thing sucked. It's the same reason why there should be no Elektra 2.

3. Columbia Pictures owns the film rights to Spider-Man. Also I like the $200 million dollar budget for the first 2.

4. 20th Century Fox owns the film rights to Fantastic Four. Marvel at the moment has no chance on getting the rights back to Spider-Man, X-Men, or the Fantastic Four unless Marvel negotiates with the studios to allow some small cameo spot for them in their movies.

 

[Darth Elektra]

Werewolf by night is gonna rock!

 

[Hellion]

I'm not going to give budgets or anyting...but I wouldn't mind...

X-Statix (2008-2009)...My favorite comic!!!...I think it would be good to see other X-Teams...with this team, you could focus why they are accepted by normal people...well, more than the X-Men, and the celebrity aspect. I would give it an R...with some of the violence of the comic. IMHO...there is so much potential for a comic like this. Also, Who else wants to see Doop on film?...sorry...haven't slept for the past couple days, I can't really focus or concentrate on typing or thinking right now...

Others:
Runaways (2009-2010)
Apache Skies/Rawhide Kid (2010-2011)
The Hood (2011-2012)
Alias (2012-2014)

 

[Mr. Magoo]

X-Statix is one of those great Marvel comics, like Thunderbolts and Runaways, that I don't think can work on-screen. They're so strongly rooted in Marvel history, but only tangentially. I just don't know if you can get the audience to follow through the set-up. X-Statix at least has the fact that there's an X-Men franchise out there going for it, but seriously what are you gonna do? Say "from the same universe as X-Men?" Magneto and Wolverine I can maybe see working only because they're actually IN the X-Men movies. I don't know about X-Statix though. Maybe someday.

 

[CapBeerCino]

...In what order would you make the films, and how much would you spend on each one, while maintaining profitibility as a goal?

Is Marvel investing the budget? I thought the studios do that...

 

[hippie_hunter]

Is Marvel investing the budget? I thought the studios do that...

Marvel is the studio now for films such as Captain America, Iron Man, Hulk 2, and the Avengers. So yes, Marvel themselves will be putting up the budget. Other studios such as Paramount and Universal will be distributing it.