Disney & Marvel try to figure how much Hulk is too much Hulk

Jim Hill

13 years ago

What with the enormous success "Marvel's The
Avengers" has had so far (This Joss Whedon film is now officially the highest-grossing
film in Walt Disney Company history. As of Tuesday, this Marvel Studios / Paramount Pictures production
has racked up $1.19 billion in global ticket sales. Besting Disney's previous
record-holder — "Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest," which grossed
$1.07 billion worldwide back in 2006 — by more than a hundred million), I
think it's important to remember that — not all that long ago — there were
people who worked with / worked for The Walt Disney Company who didn't have a
clue when it came to who these comic book characters were.

By that I mean: I've seen video of a presentation that former
Chairman of Disney Consumer Products Andy Mooney made in the Fall of 2009, as
he tried to educate the Company's longtime European licensing partners about who
the Marvel characters were. And to put things in terms that Mooney hoped that these
people would understand, Andy described Spider-Man as being Marvel's equivalent
to Mickey Mouse. Iron Man was more like that comic book company's Donald Duck. And the Hulk … In terms of
popularity, he was kind of like Marvel's answer to Goofy.

Well, if Mooney were giving that same speech again today,
he'd probably have to change his batting order. Given the enormous surge in
Hulk-related merchandise sales that Disney Consumer Products has seen in the
wake of the release of "Marvel's The Avengers."

As Paul Gitter — Marvel Entertainment's President of
Consumer Products for North America — explained in an article that ran in
Forbes magazine on April 30th:

"It's just like you would think – Iron Man and Captain
America sell more than Thor," says Gitter. However, The Hulk may soon surpass
them all. Marvel executives have been "pleasantly surprised by the phenomenal
response" to this green superhero, and expect this fan affinity to further
strengthen once ('Marvel's The Avengers' opens in theaters). "His sales are up
in a major way."

And once they got wind of those sales, Disney executives
immediately began looking for new ways to expand the Hulk brand. Find new &
additional ways to get content related to this classic Marvel character out
there for consumers.

Mind you, the Company already had some Hulk-related projects
in the works. Take — for example — "Hulk
and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H." This new animated series — which is being
written & produced by Paul Dini, the talent behind "Batman: The Animated Series
" and "Ultimate Spider-Man" — is slated to debut
on Disney XD sometimes in 2013. Not to mention that "Hulk" live-action
television series which Guillermo Del Toro and Marvel EVP of Television Jeph
Loeb have had in development for ABC for the better part of two years now. That show wasn't ready for the coming
television season. But at the Alphabet network's upfronts last week, ABC
entertainment president Paul Lee said that he hoped this
"Hulk" TV series would be ready to air on ABC in time for the 2013 – 2014
season.

But given that — for a lot of folks, anyway — it was Mark
Ruffalo's performance as Dr. Bruce Banner in "Marvel's The Avengers" that
finally caused them to care about this character, there are those at Walt Disney
Studios who are suggesting that the best / smartest way to make more green off
the Big Green Guy is make a stand-alone Hulk movie with that actor. One that could perhaps be
released to theaters sometime in 2015.

Now where this gets interesting that Disney officials are
actually getting some resistance to this idea from the folks over at Marvel
Studios. Largely because they remember what happened the last two times Marvel tried
to build a feature film around this comic book character: 2003's
"Hulk" and 2008's "The Incredible Hulk." Both of these
Universal Pictures releases were ultimately considered to be disappointments,
given that neither did really big business at the box office and genuinely
struggling to cover their initial production costs.

Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige

This is why — when Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige was
being interviewed by Cinema Blend back on May 1st and was asked flat-out about
whether a stand-alone "Hulk" was in the works — he pooh-poohed the
idea, saying that …

… There are not a lot of plans going forward. The plan was
make an Avengers movie where people like yourself came out of it saying, "I
love the Hulk!" If we've done that, that is a huge achievement. We have, as you
can imagine, many, many options with Mark Ruffalo, so we'll start to figure out
when and what that will be. We've announced the 2013 movies, we've announced
one of the 2014 movies – the second 2014 movie is not going to be a Hulk movie.
So we'll see if and when we can put it together. Frankly, it took a lot of time
to get this version of the Hulk. So we're not going to turn around and rush
something and undo all that good will.

But that was back on May 1st. Now (slightly more than three
weeks later) things have changed. Based largely on the "good will"
that Mark Ruffalo's performance as the Hulk has created, that classic Marvel
character has seen a huge surge in popularity. Which has got Disney officials
wondering how much Hulk is too much Hulk. Would it be overkill to have "Hulk
and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H." debut on Disney XD in 2013, a
"Hulk" live-action television series premiere on ABC as part of their
2013 – 2014 line-up as well as have a "Hulk" stand-alone film
starring Mark Ruffalo bow in theaters sometime in 2015?

And just so you know, this would be in addition to
"Marvel's The Avengers 2." Which hasn't been officially announced
yet. But given that Disney CEO Bob Iger knew that he'd invariably get questions about this from
investment analysts, as part of his opening remarks for the Company's second quarter
earnings conference call back on May 8th, Iger flat-out stated that …

… Yes, we are in development on a sequel to Avengers.

The only problem right now is when can "Marvel's The
Avengers 2" be shot? Reassembling this cast for a second
go-round is really going to take some doing.

Why For? Well, take Robert Downey Jr. for example.
Production of "Iron Man 3" just began yesterday in Wilmington, NC.
And once that Shane Black film wraps sometime later this Summer / early this Fall, Downey
has no less than 5 other projects he's tentatively committed to be appearing in
between now and the end of 2015. Among them that "Perry Mason" reboot
that Robert and his wife & production partner Susan are prepping as a possible
starring vehicle for Downey. So carving out a big enough chunk of time for
Robert to come back and play Tony Stark in "Marvel's The Avengers 2" sometime
between now and early 2016 is going to be a real scheduling challenge.

And given that Disney already has " Iron Man 3" &
"Thor 2" scheduled for theatrical release next year, and "Captain America 2" & the
not-officially-announced-yet "Ant-Man" film following in 2014 …
Since "Avengers 2" is looking less & less likely to be a 2015
release now, it only makes sense that Walt Disney Studios might now be turning
towards the Hulk. Looking to take advantage of this classic comic book
character's sudden surge in popularity to help fill one of those Marvel-related
holes in Disney Studios' 2015 release schedule.

And strictly from a business point of view, this decision
does kind of sort of make sense. After all, as Bob Iger said in last week's quarterly
earnings conference call:

Bob Iger and Chris Hemsworth at the May 2011 premiere
of Paramount Pictures & Marvel's "Thor" at the El Capitan
Theatre. Photo by Kevin Winter/ Getty Images
North America

(Thanks to) the presence of (this) character in ("Marvel's
The Avengers") and the performance of the actor, the popularity (of the
Hulk) has actually grown significantly. So there's real demand for Hulk product
in the marketplace right now.

So why not take advantage of that demand? Make some big
green while Marvel's Big Green Guy is still wildly popular? More to the point, when
Marvel & Disney hired Mark Ruffalo to play The Hulk's alter-ego, Dr. Bruce
Banner, they signed this Academy Award-nominated actor to a multi-picture deal.
Which reportedly locked Ruffalo in to play the Hulk in at least six Marvel
films.

So with five pictures still left on his contract, it's just
good business sense for a publicly held company like Disney to get Mark back in front of the camera as
quickly as possible and then have him recreate his charming performances as Dr.
Bruce Banner & the Hulk … isn't it?

I mean, me personally, I genuinely enjoyed "Marvel's
The Avengers." Which is why I'd love to see a sequel to this Joss Whedon
film make it to the marketplace as quickly as possible. But that said, I also
recognize that part of what made this movie-going experience special was the
slow build-up. All of those after-the-credits scenes which were tacked onto
"Iron Man," "The Incredible Hulk," "Iron Man 2," "Captain America: The First Avenger" and
"Thor" that then helped build your anticipation for "Marvel's The
Avengers." I don't know if it will be possible for Walt Disney Pictures and/or
Marvel Studios to replicate that phenomenon as part of their lead-up to
"Avengers 2."

And then I have to
wonder if Kevin Feige was really onto something when — in his interview with
Cinema Blend — he talked about all of
the good will which the Hulk is currently enjoying thanks to Mark Ruffalo's performance in "Marvel's The
Avengers." I'd hate to see all of that good will squandered just because
Disney executives are eager to cash in on a sudden surge of popularity for this
classic comic book character.

So what do you folks think? Is there really such a thing as too much Hulk?