Marvel Movies

CNNMoney.com published a long, in-depth article yesterday on Marvel's plans to begin making its own movies instead of licensing its characters out to other studios (and then getting a small percentage of box office and DVD profits).

According to the article, Marvel borrowed $525 million from Merrill Lynch to finance 10 films with budgets ranging from $45-165 million each. (That really doesn't work out mathematically, but hey, I'm no financial analyst... I can only assume some of the money is coming from other assets).

The first 5 Marvel Studios movies will include Nick Fury, Hulk 2, Captain America, Iron Man, and The Essential Ant-Man. (Okay, I made up the "Essential" part, but in my mind it always makes the Ant-Man title that much funnier).

Apparently the big risk with this deal is that if the movies bomb and cost Marvel a lot of money, they could end up losing the movie rights to those characters to Merrill Lynch, who could then sell them to other studios.

This is yet another motion picture industry experiment that will be interesting to observe.

Previous Marvel Movie posts:

• Nick Fury: Back In Black?
• Nick Fury: A Portrait in Black & White
• Stan Lee Cameos We'd Like To See
• Will That Be Spandex or Leather?
• With Prep Time, Batman Defeats Fantastic Four