Marvel Planning Smaller Budget Movies For Third Tier Superhero Characters

Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man 2, Thor, The First Avenger: Captain America are all leading up to Marvel's big superhero team-up cross-over film The Avengers. The question is: where do you go from there? The obvious answer is The Avengers 2. The less obvious answer is Ant-Man.

But then what? How do you top that? Well, you don't. You aim smaller.

CHUD has learned that Marvel Studios has been meeting with writers and directors for some of their smaller, third and fourth tier characters, for example Dr. Strange, Ka-Zar, Luke Cage, Dazzler, Iron Fist and Power Pack. The plan is to make movies from these properties for relatively cheap: $20-$40 million.

You might think that's a lot of money, but it is nothing for a studio movie, and even less for a superhero film. For example, Iron Man cost Marvel $140 million, and the sequel is probably $180 to $200 million. For the cost of an Iron Man, Marvel and Disney could release five or six of these smaller comic book adaptations.Making the movies on the cheap will allow Marvel to take bigger risks, while getting more of their brands out to the masses. It's definitely a smart move, especially if they want to move beyond the big tentpole superhero films into other genres and more demographic specific adaptations.