Marvel is more than just a juggernaut in the film industry – it is also the most successful film franchise in history (yes, even more than Pixar, Star Wars, and Harry Potter), with a dollar sign as massive as the Hulk.
From Iron Man in 2008 to the upcoming Thor: Love and Thunder in 2022, the powerhouse company has done what no other company has done before, which is completely redefine the superhero genre. Over the last 14 years it has dominated the box office, expanded to serialized TV, and maintained a steady flow of quality storytelling that is now regarded as some of the finest in the industry.
The company was acquired by Disney in 2009 for $4 million at a time when people “didn’t fully understand and appreciate the franchise potential,” said former Disney CFO, Tom Staggs via Forbes. Safe to say we all get it now. Given its return on investment, the acquisition can now go down in history as one of the most successful acquisitions of all time.
When you take into account its films, TV shows, merchandise, and theme parks, the amount of money Marvel is worth is quite staggering, but also unsurprising. How much exactly is that? Well, here’s everything we know.
How much money is Marvel worth?
The first Marvel movie to truly paint a picture of the company’s potential was The Avengers in 2012. The five movies that preceded it were successful in their own right, but barely scratched the surface compared to the $1.519 billion brought in by The Avengers. It was at that point that a relationship between audience and studio had been built. People now trusted the studio to make good on its promise to deliver an entertaining story. As each new superhero movie released, the numbers continued to grow, all the way to Avengers: Endgame in 2019, which earned a record-breaking $2.8 billion at the global box office.
In total, Marvel movies have grossed $26 billion dollars over its lifetime according to its public global box office numbers, but that’s not even half of what the company is worth.
The launch of Disney Plus in 2019 cost Disney a pretty penny, but Marvel’s streaming content alone has delivered over $40 billion to the company. When you factor those numbers into the $3 billion it’s seen from consumer products, the company is worth $53 billion as of 2021, according to Forbes.
It’s worth noting that Disney doesn’t disclose Marvel’s value, so Forbes estimate is currently the most accurate estimate of Marvel’s worth to date. That being said, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings was the last movie to be factored into the equation, so it’s fair to assume Marvel’s worth has increased in the last year, especially given the success of Spider-Man: No Way Home. Now that Thor: Love and Thunder is right around the corner, those numbers are expected to increase even further.
For a company that went bankrupt in 1996, Marvel is truly the definition of a Cinderella story.