The Marvel Studios release schedule is intense. Three Blockbuster films a year? That’s a lot. But there’s a reason.
Peter Parker, a very good child. Image: Marvel Studios
According to Kevin Feige, in an interview with CinemaBlend, it’s due to a desire to keep up the pace on both big, broad-storyline-driven films with smaller character introductions and sequels.
He said:
It’s one of the reasons we’ve expanded to three films a year, is so that we could do the sequels to films that people have responded to — because we love to make continuing stories with characters people have responded to — but also keep doing the stuff that nobody’s ever heard of, and people go, ‘Why are you doing that?’ That’s fun.
And that’s what Phase One was built on, Phase Two was built on, Phase Three was built on, is having that… Whenever we announce the next year, two years, three years, five years, whatever we’re going to announce, there will be plenty of those that, maybe people in the know like yourself will know what they are, but the world at large will go, ‘What is it? Why are they doing that?’ That’s exciting, for sure.
It makes sense: a higher volume of films allows Marvel to introduce more variation in its regular releases, dishing out movies like Black Panther and movies like Infinity War without major downtime between either type.
It’s smart; it’s also a breakneck pace. We’ll see how long Marvel Studios manages it.
Comments
22 responses to “Kevin Feige Explains Why Marvel Went To Three Movies A Year”
I don’t mind the 3 movies a year thing, but they need to space them out better.
Infinity War (April) came out only 2 months after Black Panther (February) did, and Black Panther itself was only 3 months after Thor Ragnorok (November). Ant-Man and the Wasp (July) will barely be 2 and a half months after Infinity War.
But then we have a pretty large gap until Captain Marvel which isn’t out until March next year with the next Avengers due less than 2 months later in May.
They really needed to schedule these movies better. I personally did not get a chance to see Black Panther before Infinity War came out and I know I’m not the only one. They could have easily spaced these movies out by another month or two between each one and it would have worked just as well. Instead of cramming 4 movies into 8 months but then have a 7 months gap until the next one, they could have spaced them out evenly over the course of 12 months and still had a nice gap of a few months before Captain Marvel.
With so many movies releasing so close together, especially when so many of them are important to events in others, it’s a real headache to keep track of them all.
I thought a February/May/November release schedule was pretty spot on myself, it split them up well.
Last year was the first year they released 3 though, and looking forward it seems to be either 3 movies by July, or the third being November. This year and next are done by July, while 2020 and 2021 have the third in November. 2022 has the schedule back to July for the third flick.
Its not that big a deal to me though, I’ll either watch them or not. This year, and last, felt heavier though because of other movies also out there. Like Ragnarok being up against Justice League, Deadpool 2 being in the middle of BP and IW, Wonder Woman being in between GotG 2 and Homecoming…
It got busy because of more than just Marvel.
I’m talking specifically about the last 4 releases that have been part of the MCU (so not including Deadpool 2, or the upcoming new X-Men movie), it was November/February/April/July (Thor Ragnorok, Black Panther, Infinity War, Ant-Man and the Wasp). That’s 4 movies in 8 months and then we don’t get any MCU movies until the following March, but then the next one is only 2 months after that. Really silly decision considering that Captain Marvel looks like it’ll be very pivotal to the events in Infinity War 2 or whatever they are calling it. Only 2 months between those movies doesn’t give a lot of people a chance to watch the first before the second.
Just space them out better. Instead of November/February/April/July it should have been something like November/March/July/November and that still leaves 4 months before the next movie the following March, then the next one after that should be in June or July.
Yeah I know what you meant. But its not an every year thing, and wont happen again until 2022. The spacing this year and next cramps them into a ~5 month period (which I didn’t like either), then back to a better Feb/May/Nov spacing for 2 years. 2021-22 has (at least at this stage) the Nov/Feb/May/July clustering.
Its only got that cluster because of the uncommon event of changing from a November release. I think they could have stuck with a Nov release this year, but that just means we get the clustering next year, with Spiderman being at the end of the chain.
I don’t think its going to be avoided is all, and not something we need to get used to.
While 2017 was the first calendar year where they had 3 movies, they’ve actually had 3 movies within 12 months a few times. First time was back 2011-12, though to be fair they were almost 6 months apart so they only just squeezed in at less than a year. They’re actually trying to get 4 movies in 12 months now.
I’m with you on that. I missed both Thor Ragnarok and Black Panther so a couple little bits in Infinity War didn’t make sense. I don’t think Black Panther was even out on DVD before Infinity War came out.
I do wonder though whether Marvel/Disney is starting to over-saturate the market. And if they take over Fox and try to maintain the X-Men/Deadpool/XForce releases alongside the other Marvel stuff it’s just going to get more congested.
In some ways though they probably should try to churn out the movies while they can. Too long a delay means the older actors are getting tired (or incapable) of playing their characters. Not saying they hate their roles, but it’s bloody hard getting ripped as a 50 year old.
Black Panther was still showing simultaneously during the release of Infinity War in my region.
Here’s a shorter article for you.
Razor Explains Why Marvel Went To Three Movies A Year
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Money.
Lol
Well that’s two to three Marvel movies I can skip each year until the release of Captain Marvel: Civil War 2
My only problem with this is that with the movies having so many tie-ins with each other, if you miss one movie at the cinema you could potentially be setting yourself up for disappointment in the next. While no major plot points were missed, Black Panther hadn’t made it to disc/streaming before Infinity War came out. Would be better if they planned the home release before the next movie hit the cinema.
It would be nice to see them all at the cinema for sure, but life gets in the way.
It’s a smart decision from a business point of view. I really wasn’t excited for Black Panther, but decided to see it because I thought it would be necessary for Infinity War.
If Infinity War released later, I probably would’ve rented it.
I still haven’t seen Black Panther. Don’t feel like I missed anything going into Infinity Wars. Maybe I’d have the back story on the guard and someone leading a charge?
Well that’s just silly. It was a really good film and it ended up being incredibly successful. Why wouldn’t you watch it?
I didn’t enjoy it. Didn’t like the villain, pacing was off, and I don’t care for being lectured about the US race problems.
I have nothing against it, and will watch it at some point, I just have not yet. And I had no issues watching IW first. That is all.
Cashing in hard I guess, before the bubble bursts.
I’m okay with this. Marvel seems to be the only franchise that seems to understand how to pull off a shared universe, they have got to the stage now that I see them less as a movie series and more as part of an old serial, something we haven’t really seen since the forties. The way they usually go for directors that have a unique screen presence and ask them to fit in to a very specific mold is comparable to asking a bunch of different high end chefs all to make a cheese toastie; while the product is pretty stock standard, each one have something a little special in it that make it worth experiencing. The fact that it’s introducing more people to directors like James Gunn and Taika Waititi is icing on the cake.
But there’s five this year? Black Panther, Avengers Infinity War, Deadpool 2, Ant-man and the Wasp, Venom and that animated Spider-man thing?
Deadpool, Spiderman animate thing and Venom are not part of the MCU.
They’re Marvel films though, I doubt that most people care enough to make that distinction. And Venom is part of the MCU (same setting as Spider-man Homecoming) just not part of the main film continuity, because it’s Sony.
None of those 3 are part of the MCU. Where did you hear about Venom? That’s not true as far as I know.
I’m not disputing their status as part of the MCU, but are you seriously arguing they’re not Marvel films? Because they 100% are Marvel films, as in they are films made from Marvel properties under license from Marvel Studios.
A rudimentary google search will find you a lot of confirmation that Venom is in the same setting as Spider-man Homecoming. it is simply not related to the core MCU films.
You should also remember that the whole MCU is incredibly fluid, and the only reason that the X-Men and Spider-man continuities were separate is because they sold the rights back before Disney’s acquisition. Spidey was “not part of the MCU” right up until the point that the ink on their agreements died, and then it was “we always wanted it this way”. Don’t be surprised if the same happens to Deadpool et al. once Disney’s acquisition of Fox goes through.
Keep drawing from that well till its bone dry!