Researching the Business Model's Influence in Marvel Movies

 

Liam Gilbride, Verrazzano Class of 2020, completed major in Cinema Studies with a minor in ASL

 

The best part about completing this research was the ability to take a subject that I was passionate about and combine that with topics that I have learned about in my academic studies. In this case, my love of Marvel movies prompted me to want to analyze them further. These films have been a large influence on my passion for the art of film making, and getting to incorporate my love of these films into my research was incredibly rewarding. I decided on this topic as I began to see a change in how the business model is affecting the ways in which films are produced, and how this could affect the artistic aspects that cinema in general provides. 

Easily the most difficult part of this research for me early on was finding sources on this topic. Marvel films are only at most 10 years old, and there were not many substantive sources and papers written about this subject. I had to be very resourceful and attentive to different websites and publications in order to find the ideas that I was looking for. Another thing that I learned throughout this process was proper time management. Because this research took over a year to fully complete, it was easy for me early on to push off the work that I needed to get done, thinking I would always have more time to do it later. However, I realized that procrastinating in this way would leave me with a lot to do in the future, so keeping to a set schedule made the entire researching and writing processes much easier.

If I were to continue to develop this project in the future, I would like to expand the scope of the project and talk deeper about how online communities that discuss these films shape their public perception. As the internet and social media continue to ingrain themselves into our daily lives, I would like to see how online discussions shape the way that audiences feel about superhero films (even before they see them) and how this can either destroy a film, or help it to become woven into the common cultural mythos.