Culture & Society

How Has the Marvel Cinematic Universe Shaped the Film Industry?

How did Marvel transform the film industry? From the shared universe to transmedia fandom, the MCU turned individual superhero films into an interconnected franchise. But can its greatest strength, interconnectedness, also become its greatest weakness?

Photo by Erik Mclean on Unsplash

Yesterday, I watched Sony and Marvel’s new film, Spider-Man: Brand New Day. After the film, it occurred to me how the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) has managed to build an entire franchise over almost two decades. I will try to answer a related question: What actually makes these films so popular, and why has the franchise remained successful after so many years?

The first thing that came to mind while watching Spider-Man and growing up with the Avengers was the observation that these films have excellent action sequences. This is hardly surprising, since they are, after all, primarily action films. However, this is not the only answer to why Marvel films are so popular. In fact, the reasons are much more complex. To find out what lies behind the MCU’s success, stay until the end.

What Is a Media Franchise?

In the case of Marvel films, it is a collection of films that share a common world or universe in which all Marvel superheroes exist under shared intellectual property. For example, when one film becomes successful, an entire network of new products is usually built around it in order to maximise its profitability. As a result, franchise content most commonly includes film sequels, prequels, television series, comic books, video games, animated adaptations, clothing and toys.

The MCU is based on the idea that each new film does not start from scratch. Instead, there is already a body of knowledge established in previous films. In this way, an emotional connection is built between viewers and the films, or more precisely, their characters. This can consequently increase the value of older films while creating the foundation for the next one.

What Happens When the Franchise Becomes Too Big?

Although this system can create a strong sense of community among film fans, potential problems can arise when new viewers are just entering Marvel’s cinematic world. Precisely because all the films are connected through shared knowledge, this can present a challenge to new viewers. If they have not watched the previous films, they can often become confused because they do not know the background to relationships between characters or the overarching storyline connecting several films.

There are also other problems with the MCU that Qiu points out, including the problem of repetition and the fragmentation of Phase Four. According to Qiu, later Marvel films began to suffer from a sense of “assembly-line” production, characterised by repetition and predictability, which resulted in a lack of surprise and similar narrative patterns and structures.

Furthermore, after Avengers: Endgame, the franchise faced the problem of fragmentation, as the stories created after Endgame did not have a clear connection to previous works. New characters appeared, while new storylines took place in different periods of time. It is also important to point out the lack of an emotional connection between fans and the new characters. The level of emotional attachment that Tony Stark and Steve Rogers developed with viewers has not yet been achieved by the new characters.

Qiu therefore proposes solutions to these problems, beginning with better development of new characters, giving more time to develop stories, and adopting a slower pace of production that could also improve quality instead of focusing on quantity. Despite the visible limitations that the Marvel shared universe brings, its popularity remains high. The success of the latest Spider-Man is evidence of this, as the film has surpassed $2 billion at the box office worldwide. The shared universe discussed by Murawski further reinforces the success of the MCU’s approach, in which multiple characters and different stories can exist within one common universe.

What Makes Marvel Fan?

Thanks to the creation of a franchise and a shared universe, the MCU has managed to attract a large fan base whose members were not necessarily fans of the original comic books. Marvel therefore does not simply create stories; through its developed transmedia system, it also shapes the idea of what makes a “real” fan.

This is precisely what Scott writes about when developing the concept of the “everyfan”, using the example of Agent Phil Coulson to examine Marvel’s fan culture. Coulson is interesting because he is a character who exists across multiple forms of media: films, television series and comic books. He was originally created for the MCU, is himself a fan of Marvel’s superheroes, and represents a connection between the audience and Marvel’s fictional world.

Such system creates the everyfan, who actively follows the entire franchise, consumes and follows Marvel products, possesses knowledge of the canon, is a collector, and has extensive knowledge of everything related to the Marvel Universe.

Conclusion

The success of the Marvel Cinematic Universe can therefore be understood as the result of several interconnected elements. Its films are not successful simply because of their action sequences, but because they are part of a much larger franchise and shared universe. Each new film builds upon knowledge established by previous films, creating an emotional connection between audiences and characters while simultaneously providing a foundation for future stories.

At the same time, the very interconnectedness that made the MCU successful can create difficulties. New viewers may find it difficult to enter a universe that requires extensive prior knowledge, while long-term audiences may experience repetition and fatigue. The fragmentation of the franchise and the difficulty of creating new characters capable of developing the same emotional connection as earlier characters also present challenges.

Nevertheless, the MCU has demonstrated the strength of the shared-universe model. By connecting different characters, stories and forms of media, Marvel has created not only a successful film franchise but also a large and highly engaged fan culture. As Scott’s concept of the “everyfan” demonstrates, Marvel’s success extends beyond individual films: it has created a system in which audiences are encouraged to follow, collect and understand an entire fictional universe. The MCU has therefore shaped the film industry by demonstrating how individual films can become part of a much larger interconnected franchise, where each new story can contribute to the value and longevity of the universe as a whole.

If you enjoyed this essay, subscribe to Verbum Libere for more essays exploring the connections between history, literature, film and culture.

Sources:

Trabucchi, Daniel, and Stefano Magistretti. “The Battle of Superheroes: The Rise of the Knowledge Platform Strategy in the Movie Industry.” Journal of Knowledge Management, vol. 24, no. 8, 2020, https://doi.org/10.1108/JKM-04-2020-0296

Qiu, Haoran. “Using Content Analysis to Analyze Issues in the Development of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and Their Impacts.” SHS Web of Conferences, vol. 181, 2024. https://doi.org/10.1051/shsconf/202418104003

Scott, Suzanne. “Modeling the Marvel Everyfan: Agent Coulson and/as Transmedia Fan Culture.” Palabra Clave, vol. 20, no. 4, 2017, https://doi.org/10.5294/pacla.2017.20.4.8

Murawski, Bartosz. “Marvel Makes Films: The Shared Universe as a New Trend in Hollywood Cinema.” Ars Educandi, vol. 12, 2015, https://doi.org/10.26881/ae.2015.12.03

Spider-Man: Brand New Day (2026), Box Office Mojo. https://www.boxofficemojo.com/release/rl2299756545/