Marvel Entertainment is doing it very right thus far. “It” is building up to next summer’s tentpole “The Avengers.” Never before in the history of cinema has there been such a massive crossover of characters rolled into one movie.
“The Avengers” will do that. Successfully? It’s set up to be that way.
First, a primer for the uninitiated. “The Avengers” assembles Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, and Hulk to save the world from a threat that none of them individually can defeat. Marvel has been building anticipation for this movie since 2008 with “kickers” that take have taken place after the credits of each of its releases under the Marvel Studios banner. Each standalone movie establishes each Avenger. The kickers plant the seeds of cross-over storytelling that will culminate next summer.
To refresh your memory:
“Iron Man” (2008): After revealing to the world that he is Iron Man, Tony Stark returns home to find a mysterious man with an eyepatch in his living room. He identifies himself as Nick Fury, director of S.H.I.E.L.D. and wants to talk to Stark about something called “The Avenger Initiative.”
“The Incredible Hulk” (2008): In the movie’s final scene rather than an actual kicker, Tony Stark meets General Ross about putting a “team” together.
“Iron Man 2″ (2010): S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent Coulson stops at a New Mexico crater, then calls someone up to simply say “Sir, we found it.” ‘It’ is Thor’s hammer.
“Thor” (2011): In an underground laboratory, Dr. Selvig is greeted by Nick Fury, who shows him an energy cube. Loki appears in a mirror, hypnotizing the doctor to believe that it’s “worth a look”
“Captain America: The First Avenger” (2011): After Steve Rogers takes his frustrations out on a boxing bag, Nick Fury tells him about a mission to save the world. We are then treated to a very fast teaser trailer of “The Avengers” featuring all the main characters without revealing much of the story. Further, the energy cube that Fury shows Selvig in the “Thor” kicker is central to the plot of this movie.
Are kickers effective? Yes, for two reasons. They pre-establish audiences and become built-in marketing campaigns for each subsequent Marvel Studios release.
(source: Box Office Mojo)
Assuming that production costs of each movie is evenly divided among each minute of its length?the same goes for box office gross and gross profit?the chart above shows that Marvel Studios releases leading up to “The Avengers” cost a total of $8.2 million and have thus far yielded a average gross profit of $2.56 million. If Marvel were to spend $100 million in Print and Advertising costs, this analysis presents $8.2 million worth in savings, or money that can be used for other purposes.
Turning to Average Gross Profit via Kickers, that number represents the box office receipts this movie has already been spotted. This assumes that the same audiences stick around for all the kickers and already have buy-in for “The Avengers.” Also, expect the “Captain America” number to become positive as its life at the box office continues.
What Marvel has done is as meticulous as it is ambitious. The most important thing to underscore is that none of this would have been possible without the type of creative control that it currently enjoys. In the hands of a studio executive that may have little to no emotional connection to the source material, roles may have been mis-cast, selling toys may have become more important than telling compelling cinematic stories, and severe backlash from loyal fans may have deprecated word-of-mouth (which gets magnified thanks to Twitter).
The end result is a movie that is sub-par at best and completely impure at worst. Give control to people who really care about the source material. In turn, they will treat it with the respect that it deserves and tell a good cinematic story that rewards loyal fans, wins mainstream audiences, and reaches the top of the box office.
Marvel has developed a magical formula to make its “Avengers” initiative really successful. Next May may be a long ways off, but it can’t come soon enough!
