Movie Analyst: When It Comes To Marvel, Less Is More

After a year absence at Comic-Con, Marvel Studios came back to the convention's 50th anniversary with a bang, announcing several new movies and arguably saving the event.

Less Is More

Marvel is certainly the king of drumming up excitement and press, and Comic-Con’s 50th anniversary event was no exception.

“Less is more when it comes to Marvel,” Paul Dergarabedian, Comscore senior media analyst told Benzinga.

“The big question heading into the event was where does the Marvel Cinematic Universe go from here. And at Comic-Con, Marvel laid out their plan in enough detail to whet the appetite for all the fans, analysts and journalists but they don’t give you enough to give you everything.”

The Diversity Of The MCU

The analyst says Marvel’s plan has been very strategic, with the slate of characters going to be more diverse than ever moving forward with news of creating a new Chinese character, and “of course a lot of female-led films,” he says.

The biggest takeaway from the event is that Walt Disney Co's DIS box office reign is poised to continue for quite some time, thanks to its massive IP and ownership of Marvel, Pixar and Lucas Film.

Marvel was purchased for just $4 billion, making it arguably one of the best acquisitions in history. The company recently scored the highest unadjusted grossing film of all time with "Avengers:Endgame."

"The Rise Of Skywalker"

The company also debuted its latest Star Wars villain, Sith Troopers, ahead of "The Rise Of Skywalker" film at Comic-Con.

“For Disney, by owning Marvel, Pixar, Walt Disney and LucasFilm, they are perfectly positioned to maintain their success now and perhaps decades into the future, this is a long term strategy that is paying dividends now. You can really bank on Disney delivering, both on the big screen and small screen with Disney+ on the way,” Dergarabedian added.

The Future Of Streaming

The upcoming Disney+ streaming service certainly has Netflix, Inc. NFLX investors a bit worried, with shares dropping over 10% in the past month, amid a slowing of subscriber growth in its latest earnings report.

The analyst says Disney+ will be the perfect medium to promote new Marvel content without requiring an extensive budget.

“Disney+ is going to be the perfect platform to put its Marvel long-form content that won't require a worldwide marketing budget and to get people to come out the movie theater,” he said.

“There is no way that Disney is going to have this big screen silo and small screen silo separate working autonomously without a plan that bounces audiences back and forth between the two platforms. The Disney+ platform is just as important as any acquisitions they have made over the past few years.”

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