Page 43 - June 2018 Journal of Antiques and Collectibles
P. 43
Looking Back at the Road to Avengers: Endgame
W here would Hollywood be financially without the superhero films, ($760.5m),” BoxOfficeMojo.com reported.
and specifically the Marvel Cinematic Universe? Five of the top 10
Dazzling, dizzying numbers by any stretch of the imagination, right?
all-time domestic and five of the top 10 all-time worldwide releases
As mentioned above, there were those who criticized the acquisition,
are superhero movies (though to be fair, when one adjusts for inflation none are
in the top 10 yet – it’s still Gone With The Wind, Star Wars, The Sound of including some in The Wall Street Journal who suggested that Disney had
substantially overpaid Marvel shareholders, who received $30 and approxi-
Music, ET: The Extraterrestrial, and Titanic for the top five). mately 0.745 Disney shares for each share of Marvel they owned.
One can see Avengers: Endgame, released April 26, ending up very high on “The deal was valued at about $50 a share, a 29 percent premium,”
all of these lists. The latest installment in a saga spanning 22 movies seems to The New York Times reported at the time.
have delivered what fans were expecting and more. In a time when longtime “Marvel’s brand and its treasure trove of content will now benefit from our
comic book fans still look around in amazement, it’s fun to remember how
extraordinary reach,” Robert A. Iger, Disney’s chief executive, told the Times.
things got this way. “We paid a price that reflects the value they’ve created and the value we can
Before Marvel had their own films, they sold the X-Men rights to 20th
create as one company. It’s a full price, but a fair price.”
Century Fox. For the first time, the previous management took the upfront It seems safe to say that Bob Iger was right, and the nay-sayers were wrong.
cash and little else, though the sequels did give them more participation. They Marvel leveraged the success of their slate and Sony’s post-Sam Raimi stumbles
then parlayed the success of those films into a much more lucrative deal with with Spider-Man (Amazing Spider-Man, Amazing Spider-Man 2) into a more
Sony for the Spider-Man branch of the Marvel universe. advantageous relationship. Sony still has use of a plethora
The success of director Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy, of Spidey-related characters such as Venom, but now
particularly the first film, really put Marvel on the map. Spider-Man appears in Disney’s MCU movies as well.
Unlike the X-Men, which eschewed the comic book Coupled with the company’s recent acquisition of 20th
costumes, movie Spider-Man looked very much like comic Century Fox, which brings the X-Men and Fantastic Four
book Spider-Man. Suddenly all things were possible. back into the MCU, it could be for some interesting
Marvel Studios arranged a significant line of credit and movie-going times ahead.
began self-financing their own films. Even after the X-Men
and Spider-Man series performed well, it was a huge roll of A Bat-Related 80th Anniversary
the dice (when you’re dealing with budgets in excess of Since 2019 marks Batman’s 80th anniversary, there are
$100 million, everything is). lots of other characters who are getting a moment in the
The studio’s “Phase One” slate included Iron Man spotlight due to their association with the Dark Knight.
(2008), The Incredible Hulk (2008), Iron Man 2 (2010), One of them, with good justification, is Gotham City’s
Thor (2011), Captain America: The First Avenger (2011) Police Commissioner, James Gordon.
and Marvel’s The Avengers (2012). Did you know Commissioner Gordon appeared in the
After just the first two films (but with the others in the very first panel on the very first page in 1939’s Detective
pipeline), The Walt Disney Company announced on Comics #27, the first appearance of Batman?
August 31, 2009 that it had acquired Marvel for $4.24 Created by Bob Kane and Bill Finger, Gordon was
billion. Some billed it as a risky move, while others clearly introduced as a police detective in Gotham City who was
saw the writing on the wall. initially against the vigilante’s interference. In his first
“Phase Two” was comprised of Iron Man 3 (2013), appearance, both Batman and Gordon were investigating
Thor: The Dark World (2013), Captain America: The the murder of a chemical industrialist. While Gordon
Winter Soldier (2014), Guardians of the Galaxy (2014), The Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide disapproved of Batman’s methods, many of which often
Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), and Ant-Man (2015). #48 lists a 9.2-graded copy of September left the police department embarrassed, by the end of the
Their “Phase Three” launched with Captain America: 1963’s Avengers #1 from Marvel Comics, story, they agreed to work together. After deputizing him,
Civil War (2016) and followed with Doctor Strange (2016), which brought together many of the Batman worked alongside Gordon as an agent of the law.
company’s popular characters,
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017), Spider-Man: at $42,000. Selling points higher The various ebbs and flows of different editors and
Homecoming (2017), Thor: Ragnarok (2017), Black Panther than that are easily believable. creative teams over the decades did little to fundamentally
(2018), Avengers: Infinity War (2018), Ant-Man and the Image courtesy of Heritage Auctions. change the relationship, though in 1987’s Batman: Year
Wasp (2018), Captain Marvel (2019), and concluded with One writer Frank Miller introduced a slightly different
Avengers: Endgame (2019). take on the character.
We can stipulate that the films have been of varying quality, that some
In that story, Gordon never deputized Batman, and he kept their
have been better than others, and even that some were critically at least a bit relationship out of the public eye whenever possible. While a lieutenant
disappointing. We cannot say, however, that there’s a single financial dud
(and in a department rife with corruption), Gordon persuades the department
among them. to implement the Bat-Signal as a means to contact Batman as well as
As this is written, the incredible $357,115,007 domestic opening weekend frighten criminals.
for Avengers: Endgame is still fresh in our minds. With a domestic take of $652 While the nuances are different, the fundamental components of this crime-
million and an international tally of $1.65 billion in just under three weeks, it’s fighting team have largely been unchanged over the years.
safe to say the film has been a juggernaut.
“Entering its third weekend in domestic release, Disney’s Avengers: Endgame
is looking to top $700 million this weekend and, in fact, should push over $730
million which will make it the third highest grossing domestic release of
J.C. Vaughn is Vice-President of Gemstone Publishing.
all-time behind Star Wars: The Force Awakens ($936.6m) and Avatar Gemstone’s Braelynn Bowersox contributed to this column.
June 2019 41
W here would Hollywood be financially without the superhero films, ($760.5m),” BoxOfficeMojo.com reported.
and specifically the Marvel Cinematic Universe? Five of the top 10
Dazzling, dizzying numbers by any stretch of the imagination, right?
all-time domestic and five of the top 10 all-time worldwide releases
As mentioned above, there were those who criticized the acquisition,
are superhero movies (though to be fair, when one adjusts for inflation none are
in the top 10 yet – it’s still Gone With The Wind, Star Wars, The Sound of including some in The Wall Street Journal who suggested that Disney had
substantially overpaid Marvel shareholders, who received $30 and approxi-
Music, ET: The Extraterrestrial, and Titanic for the top five). mately 0.745 Disney shares for each share of Marvel they owned.
One can see Avengers: Endgame, released April 26, ending up very high on “The deal was valued at about $50 a share, a 29 percent premium,”
all of these lists. The latest installment in a saga spanning 22 movies seems to The New York Times reported at the time.
have delivered what fans were expecting and more. In a time when longtime “Marvel’s brand and its treasure trove of content will now benefit from our
comic book fans still look around in amazement, it’s fun to remember how
extraordinary reach,” Robert A. Iger, Disney’s chief executive, told the Times.
things got this way. “We paid a price that reflects the value they’ve created and the value we can
Before Marvel had their own films, they sold the X-Men rights to 20th
create as one company. It’s a full price, but a fair price.”
Century Fox. For the first time, the previous management took the upfront It seems safe to say that Bob Iger was right, and the nay-sayers were wrong.
cash and little else, though the sequels did give them more participation. They Marvel leveraged the success of their slate and Sony’s post-Sam Raimi stumbles
then parlayed the success of those films into a much more lucrative deal with with Spider-Man (Amazing Spider-Man, Amazing Spider-Man 2) into a more
Sony for the Spider-Man branch of the Marvel universe. advantageous relationship. Sony still has use of a plethora
The success of director Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy, of Spidey-related characters such as Venom, but now
particularly the first film, really put Marvel on the map. Spider-Man appears in Disney’s MCU movies as well.
Unlike the X-Men, which eschewed the comic book Coupled with the company’s recent acquisition of 20th
costumes, movie Spider-Man looked very much like comic Century Fox, which brings the X-Men and Fantastic Four
book Spider-Man. Suddenly all things were possible. back into the MCU, it could be for some interesting
Marvel Studios arranged a significant line of credit and movie-going times ahead.
began self-financing their own films. Even after the X-Men
and Spider-Man series performed well, it was a huge roll of A Bat-Related 80th Anniversary
the dice (when you’re dealing with budgets in excess of Since 2019 marks Batman’s 80th anniversary, there are
$100 million, everything is). lots of other characters who are getting a moment in the
The studio’s “Phase One” slate included Iron Man spotlight due to their association with the Dark Knight.
(2008), The Incredible Hulk (2008), Iron Man 2 (2010), One of them, with good justification, is Gotham City’s
Thor (2011), Captain America: The First Avenger (2011) Police Commissioner, James Gordon.
and Marvel’s The Avengers (2012). Did you know Commissioner Gordon appeared in the
After just the first two films (but with the others in the very first panel on the very first page in 1939’s Detective
pipeline), The Walt Disney Company announced on Comics #27, the first appearance of Batman?
August 31, 2009 that it had acquired Marvel for $4.24 Created by Bob Kane and Bill Finger, Gordon was
billion. Some billed it as a risky move, while others clearly introduced as a police detective in Gotham City who was
saw the writing on the wall. initially against the vigilante’s interference. In his first
“Phase Two” was comprised of Iron Man 3 (2013), appearance, both Batman and Gordon were investigating
Thor: The Dark World (2013), Captain America: The the murder of a chemical industrialist. While Gordon
Winter Soldier (2014), Guardians of the Galaxy (2014), The Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide disapproved of Batman’s methods, many of which often
Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), and Ant-Man (2015). #48 lists a 9.2-graded copy of September left the police department embarrassed, by the end of the
Their “Phase Three” launched with Captain America: 1963’s Avengers #1 from Marvel Comics, story, they agreed to work together. After deputizing him,
Civil War (2016) and followed with Doctor Strange (2016), which brought together many of the Batman worked alongside Gordon as an agent of the law.
company’s popular characters,
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017), Spider-Man: at $42,000. Selling points higher The various ebbs and flows of different editors and
Homecoming (2017), Thor: Ragnarok (2017), Black Panther than that are easily believable. creative teams over the decades did little to fundamentally
(2018), Avengers: Infinity War (2018), Ant-Man and the Image courtesy of Heritage Auctions. change the relationship, though in 1987’s Batman: Year
Wasp (2018), Captain Marvel (2019), and concluded with One writer Frank Miller introduced a slightly different
Avengers: Endgame (2019). take on the character.
We can stipulate that the films have been of varying quality, that some
In that story, Gordon never deputized Batman, and he kept their
have been better than others, and even that some were critically at least a bit relationship out of the public eye whenever possible. While a lieutenant
disappointing. We cannot say, however, that there’s a single financial dud
(and in a department rife with corruption), Gordon persuades the department
among them. to implement the Bat-Signal as a means to contact Batman as well as
As this is written, the incredible $357,115,007 domestic opening weekend frighten criminals.
for Avengers: Endgame is still fresh in our minds. With a domestic take of $652 While the nuances are different, the fundamental components of this crime-
million and an international tally of $1.65 billion in just under three weeks, it’s fighting team have largely been unchanged over the years.
safe to say the film has been a juggernaut.
“Entering its third weekend in domestic release, Disney’s Avengers: Endgame
is looking to top $700 million this weekend and, in fact, should push over $730
million which will make it the third highest grossing domestic release of
J.C. Vaughn is Vice-President of Gemstone Publishing.
all-time behind Star Wars: The Force Awakens ($936.6m) and Avatar Gemstone’s Braelynn Bowersox contributed to this column.
June 2019 41
