By making his own movies, David Maisel, the newly minted chairman of Marvel Studios, hopes to transform his division of Marvel Entertainment into a true filmmaking brand. He wants to maintain control
from script to release, keeping all the profits for the company and building a film library, while using someone else's capital.
Until now, Hollywood's major studios have paid to
license Marvel characters to create blockbuster franchises--including Sony Pictures three "Spider-Man" hits and 20th Century Fox's "X-Men" and "Fantastic Four" movies. Marvel makes relatively little
money from these bonanzas because of unfavorable deals struck in the 1990s.
Maisel is able to green-light movies of his choosing at budgets up to $165 million, backed by $525 million
of financing. "I don't think there's been a new studio making $100 million movies since DreamWorks," he says.
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