Transcript
Introduction
Matt
Welcome back to Making Media. Today, we are talking Marvel. It's the cinematic universe that's made over $30 billion at the box office, and that's just the Hollywood piece. The merchandise for Marvel is said to have generated over $40 billion for Disney. And remember, Disney acquired Marvel for $4 billion in 2009.
So even though that's comparing a top line number to an acquisition number, something tells me the profit margins on that more than paid back for that original acquisition. Our guests today is Joanna Robinson, who has written what I'd consider to be the definitive book on Marvel's history.
We cover the history of Marvel from the pre-Disney days and even the pre-Robert Downey Jr. Iron Man days and what led to the explosion in what happened over the past 15 years. We also cover what seems like a fall from grace in recent years, and Joanna gets into details on all of this. She has had so many conversations, and we can't recommend the book highly enough. So please enjoy this conversation on Marvel and stick around for our debrief at the end of the episode.