It’s The 10 Year Anniversary Of Disney Officially Acquiring Marvel

The Marvel Cinematic Universe is one of the biggest things in film at the moment, with Marvel Studios‘ Avengers: Endgame sitting atop the all-time highest-grossing movies list as we speak. So, it’s kind of crazy to think that it’s been 10 years since this whole experiment started, but that is the case, and it all started with Walt Disney Company announcing their deal to acquire Marvel Entertainment. On August 31st, 2009 Disney announced a deal that would bring Marvel Entertainment under their umbrella for a sum of $4.24 billion, and as you might guess it didn’t take long for Marvel shareholders to vote that deal through.

Marvel shareholders received $30 and 0.745 in Disney shares for each of their shares in Marvel, and the deal was approved in a vote on December 31st, 2009. This was huge for a number of reasons, but most importantly it meant that Marvel Studios would no longer have to self finance their films and would have Disney’s marketing machine behind them, though not all the pieces would fall into place right away.

Marvel already had a distribution deal through Paramount, who distributed the original Iron Man and would proceed to distribute The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man 2, Thor, and Captain America: The First Avenger. Disney wouldn’t start distributing Marvel’s films until Marvel’s The Avengers, but from that point on it was Disney all the way.

Since that point the Disney Marvel deal has reaped immense benefits for both companies, launching a multimedia empire through a connected film universe that culminated in two huge event films over the past two years in Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame. Phases 1 through 4 are now complete, and included hits like Captain America: Winter Soldier, Guardians of the Galaxy, Captain Marvel, Spider-Man: Far From Home, Ant-Man and The Wasp, and more.

Phase 5 kicks off this year with Black Widow and will be followed by films like Eternals, Thor: Love and Thunder, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Black Panther 2, Captain Marvel 2, and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 to name a few. The universe is only going to get bigger, and here’s hoping it continues to thrive through the next 10 years!

What’s your favorite Marvel moment over the past 10 years? Let us know in the comments or hit me up on Twitter @MattAguilarCB for all things Marvel!