How did Marvel Studios become the most profitable film studio in cinematic history? Without a doubt, it did not occur over night.

The Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) is the result of 80 years' worth of innovations, ideas, and accomplishments from people who were unable to let go of their Marvel dreams, for better or worse.

The MCU's evolution since the 2008 release of Iron Man, which made Marvel Studios a household name, is reasonably well known by most people, but what about Marvel Studios' longer history that spans several decades?

The origins of Marvel Studios go back much further than the MCU movies, to a time before televisions were even commonplace in homes.

The inaugural issue of Timely Comics, Marvel Comics #1, launched the Marvel Universe in October 1939 in Martin Goodman's McGraw Hill office. Characters like the Human Torch, the Angel, Namor the Sub-Mariner, the Masked Raider, and Ka-Zar the Great made their comic book debuts in the first issue. The publication's success was ensured for years to come because of the first issue's 80,000 copy sales, which allowed Timely Comics to publish Marvel Comics #2 the following month.

Early in the publication's history, many of the Marvel characters that we love the most were developed. For instance, Captain Marvel first appeared in a comic book in a 1940 issue, while Captain America Comics #1 was also published in that year. They both achieved success. The TV series The Adventures of Captain Marvel began in 1941, while Captain America was published three years later by Republic Pictures.

The timing is not a fluke. Readers loved seeing Hitler get knocked up by a superhero, even though the Captain America comic was published a year before the attack on Pearl Harbor.

What better way to win over Americans' hearts than to depict superheroes harming actual military adversaries?

It's interesting to note that following World War II, Americans lost interest in superheroes, which prompted Timely Comics to change its name to Atlas Comics in the 1950s. In order to concentrate on a wider range of genres, they did this by dropping many of its superhero tales.

It is impossible to overstate what Stan Lee has done for superheroes. He helped revive Marvel superheroes, which led to the beginning of the Marvel Era in 1961. Lee was without a doubt the most significant figure in the history of Marvel, and for good reason. By making superhero comics more accessible to adult readers—superhero comics had previously been mostly for children—he altered how we perceive and connect to superheroes.

Throughout the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, a lot of Marvel characters appeared in movies. For instance, Dr. Strange premiered on CBS in 1978, and the TV movie Spider-Man aired in 1977. But Marvel Studios wasn't yet a thing, and it wasn't until Marvel Productions opened an office in Los Angeles in 1981 that the name Marvel became well-known.

The Marvel Entertainment Group was established after New World Pictures purchased the Marvel Comics Group and Marvel Productions in December 1986, five years later. The Incredible Hulk Returns was then released in 1988 by New World Entertainment, Ltd.

The Marvel Entertainment Group was purchased by MacAndrews & Forbes Holdings for $82.5 million the following year, although Marvel Productions was retained by New World. The acquisition's driving force, Ronald Perelman, claims that Marvel is "a mini-Disney in terms of intellectual property." Disney has considerably more well-known characters that are also softer, whereas our characters are considered action heroes. However, Marvel is currently engaged in the business of creating and promoting characters.

It took some time for Perelman's plan to turn each Marvel character into a household name to materialize, and it sparked a lot of controversy.

The 1990s saw a major transformation for Marvel. First, they made 40% of its shares available to the general public. Perelman assured investors that the franchise would boost their branding and generate revenue from the sale of goods like action figures and stickers. Marvel purchased 46% of Toybiz in 1993 with the intention of making money off of Marvel action figures. Avi Arad, the CEO of Toybiz, was appointed CEO and President of Marvel Movies as a result of the acquisition.

The pricey Marvel toys, stickers, and other collectibles, however, lost their appeal. In order to build a bigger, stronger company, Perelman made the decision to purchase the remaining ToyBiz shares and merge them with Marvel. This notion was disliked by the shareholders. Perelman then made the decision to declare himself bankrupt in order to merge with ToyBiz without the consent of the stockholders.

Iron Man, Hulk, Black Panther, and the X-Men are just a few of the Marvel characters whose rights were sold for a significant portion of the 1990s. This explains why some Marvel characters, like the X Men and the Avengers, never interact on-screen.

To be honest, it seemed like a rational decision to make given that Marvel Studios was struggling financially and that Marvel movies were essentially nonexistent. After all, they had a sizable debt. Though none of his stockholders believed it would be a wise choice, Perelman was still eager to bring Marvel characters to the big screen. However, Marvel Studios was established.

Fox acquired New World Communication in 1996, combining Marvel Studios and Marvel Films into one company.

The production firm began long-term preparations for films to be released in the following 10 years, including X-Men, Daredevil, Elektra, and Fantastic Four, after Stan Lee was named chairman of Marvel Studios the following year.

Blade was released in 1998 by Marvel Studios. The first motion picture packaged and licensed by Marvel Studios brought in $70,087,718 in the United States and $131,183,530 in Canada. The Marvel Cinematic Universe still needs some explanation, though.

2004 was among the most important years in Marvel Studios' history. As Marvel Studios' new chief operating officer, David Maisel has a strategy for the franchise's future. Soon after, Marvel borrowed $525 million from Merrill Lynch with the caveat that they would forfeit the rights to 10 Marvel characters, including Ant-Man, The Avengers, Black Panther, and Nick Fury, if they couldn't pay the loan back within eight years.

What kind of pressure must David Maisel and his staff have experienced? In order to avoid losing some of its essential qualities, their debut motion picture had to be the greatest thing since sliced bread.

Without success, Marvel tried to negotiate with Universal Pictures. Merrill Lynch attempted to force Marvel to provide a third of the money in an effort to break out of the agreement. Fortunately, they managed to reach a distribution agreement with Paramount Pictures in 2005, allowing Iron Man, Thor, and Black Widow's character rights to return to Marvel.

A significant choice was made by Marvel in 2007 when they elevated junior executive Kevin Feige to the position of President of Marvel Studios. This was a crucial choice that established Marvel's success, beginning with the 2008 release of Iron Man.

The 2008 release of Iron Man was the catalyst for Marvel Studios' success after over 70 years in the making. From that point on, Marvel started churning out consistently excellent movies. Disney purchased Marvel Entertainment and the rights to distribute The Avengers and Iron Man 3 for $4 billion in June 2009.

Kevin Feige, the head of Marvel Studios, says that Blade is entirely responsible for the later success of the studio. Marvel Studios became one of the first film franchises ever—and undoubtedly the most successful—in film history thanks to Feige's astute and innovative choices, like the casting of Robert Downey Jr. and his idea of an inclusive Marvel Cinematic Universe. The franchise is now valued at more than $1 billion.

These days, there is no shortage of amazing Marvel films and TV shows to watch, or binge, and everyone adores them. Black Panther set numerous box office records in 2017 and rose to become the 12th highest-grossing film in history.

The fact that Marvel Studios gives us so much to look forward to—they've revealed plans for eight new films, the last of which will be released in 2022—is my favourite thing about them.

What happens next? The unknown. But Marvel appears to have a promising future.