Marvel Studios: The Coolest Kid In School

Marvel Studios: The Coolest Kid in School

The statistics surrounding the Marvel Cinematic Universe are nothing short of dizzying. 23 films over the span of 11 years, a combined gross of over $22.5 billion, and an average Rotten Tomato score of 83.8%. The franchise’s biggest “flop”, 2008’s The Incredible Hulk, still made over $260 million and was considered financially profitable. This is an unprecedented rate of success for a studio, and others in the industry have only been able to watch with slacked jaws as the MCU virtually defined pop culture, smashing countless records in its wake. Their competitors’ frustrations are then compounded by the fact that Marvel seems to pull random successes out of thin air. Imagine pitching this as a concept for a hit movie: a thief teams up with two aliens, a raccoon, and a talking tree to try and save the world from an intergalactic conqueror. But against all odds, Guardians of the Galaxy became a fan favorite with a tidy $773 million haul. And this is just one of a number of cases where Marvel dumbfounded their competition with an unlikely hit. They manage to do well in everything they try, making Marvel like that one popular kid that everyone knew in high school. 

Every school seems to have their own version. A student with a near perfect GPA who is well-liked by everyone, excels in extracurriculars like speech and debate or math competitions, and is usually the captain of one or more sports teams. This student effortlessly succeeds in classes where everyone else struggles, and like Marvel, remains perpetually glib and charming enough to avoid any sort of stain on their reputation. Like Marvel, they somehow manage to get along with all the disparate groups and cliques, and can even spark a laugh from the dour parents and teachers who think all students are immature. 

Sometimes, however, people get annoyed with how perfect this student seems to be. They start whispering to each other, and start to realize that maybe the student just gives fans exactly what they want to see or hear, satisfying their expectations enough to maintain a consistent level of popularity. And of course, they’re absolutely right. The student is smart enough to see that those who stand out among the crowd are the ones who can make everyone laugh and leave them waiting to see what else they’re capable of. But like Marvel, they know it doesn’t matter if they have transparent methods, because their stellar work output is still heads and shoulders above that of everyone else in the class.

While this popular kid is the undisputed leader, there are always other smart and capable students in class who want to be doing just as well. There’ll usually be a main rival, not dissimilar to DC, who has the same level of potential as the top student but simply tries too hard to copy everything they do. This rival will spend enormous amounts of time and energy in an attempt to quickly match the cool kid’s success rate, but these efforts will soon burn out, as the rival didn’t realize that the cool kid spent years carefully building their reputation and fanbase. Like DC, they often need to take a step back and reassess their main strengths before pushing forward to try and compete again. But there are also students in class who will try so hard to be as cool as the popular kid that they never seem to truly recover. These are like Universal’s Dark Universe, an ambitious plan for a shared world of the studio’s iconic monsters that fizzled out after 2017’s The Mummy bombed with critics and audiences. The students in this category boldly strive to reach the same level of success and popularity as the cool kid, even though they lack any of the talent or substance needed to back up their ambitions. They always come out strong but are soon cast aside, leaving them desperately trying to prove that they can still compete. 

But eventually, the student body becomes better off once they realize that they won’t be able to copy the success of the cool kid, and should instead try to find the thing that makes them unique. Similarly, other studios have to realize that Marvel is a once in a lifetime franchise built from quality storytelling and endless fan service, and that the only way they’ll be able to compete is to offer something different than the MCU. Because even though that successful kid in high school will likely make good money doing something incredible, there’s still plenty of lucrative career paths available for everyone else. It’s now up to them to find what they’re good at and challenge Marvel their own way.