After the recent release of Marvel’s big hitter, Captain America: Civil War, the movie house announced that the film took upwards of $200 million in its first week at the Box Office.
Enlisting some of its biggest characters, Marvel used the pulling power of the Avengers, Iron Man and Spider-Man to make it their biggest grossing film this year, unseating The Jungle Book in terms of revenue in 2016 for Disney and Marvel.
Marvel owes some of its success to its imperious marketing department for one of the best strategies we’ve seen in recent years. Asking fans of the comics to choose their side was an ingenious move. Questioning fans loyalty to either Captain America or Iron Man was thought provoking and undoubtedly added a new dynamic to the film’s lead-up. Merchandise sales skyrocketed and it’s been reported that only Spider-Man (Marvel’s biggest earner in terms of merchandising) outperformed this release.
We’ve virtually seen everything from Marvel for this release. From t-shirts siding with one of the two main characters; to your staple action figures; to an array of board games. However, nothing will quite top The Avengers waffle iron that was featured in Best Marvel Comic Merchandise article published late in 2015.
What we’ve come accustomed to now is that, whenever a Marvel film gets released, it virtually takes over the Internet and cinemas for the best part of a month. The lead-ups are always extensive; the films take up the majority of cinema slots and the budgets are huge. We also, usually, see a couple of console games released as well. And while journalist David Thier argues “the film deserve an awesome video game,” its unlikely one will be released on Xbox or PS4 anytime soon. Which in a way is surprising as Marvel looks to cash-in on its success. We are also yet to see a slot game released by Marvel. Gala Casino hosts a multitude of Marvel slots including Iron Man 2, Captain America and the Incredible Hulk but as of yet no dedicated Civil War slot has been revealed.
If we’ve learned anything by now, it is that Marvel will stop at nothing when it comes to merchandise. If the aforementioned Screen Rant’s article is anything to go by Captain America wearable sleeping bags, a Civil War chess set, an Iron Man comb and a life-size Hulkbuster statue are all out there, somewhere in the world. Though their gaming efforts for this film seem somewhat lackluster compared to previous releases.
Regardless of that, however, the film is on course to be one of their biggest blockbuster to date. And with the inclusion of the new character Black Panther, to the acclaim of many Marvel fans and journalists alike, Marvel has added another sellable assist to its growing roster of superheroes. Additionally, the buzz surrounding the inclusion of Spider-Man has been met with a cacophony of praise as well as helping drive its Box Office takings.
It’s also a sign of things to come in the future. While we are accustomed to seeing a slew of Marvel characters featuring in films, the crossover appeal Civil War offered appealed to all kinds of Marvel and casual fans of comic book superheroes. It provided new and dynamic take on the staple Marvel storyline, with plenty of character development on show in Civil War which will continue to unfold in the coming films.
The future looks bright for Marvel, but we already knew that, right?