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1 episodes · 18 quoted claims
Maisel says Iron Man was licensed to Warner Brothers for roughly eight or nine years for about $50,000 and never made into a movie.
“Iron man was actually at Warner Brothers for about eight, nine years as a license deal for like $50,000 they paid, and they never thought it was worthy to make it into a movie.”
Maisel says he did not shop Marvel to other studios and reached a deal with Disney CEO Bob Iger within an hour of a private meeting.
“I didn't shop it to any other studio, I just went right to Bob, had a secret meeting with him, and within an hour, we came up with a deal.”
Maisel says Disney stock around $25 at the time of the sale was undervalued, and it later reached about $200 before falling to around $110.
“I knew the stock at $25 was severely undervalued and that it was at least a double.”
Maisel says Marvel Studios was announced on CNBC in 2004 and Marvel's stock then fell for four years.
“In fact, I announced Marvel Studios on C N B C in 2004, and our stock went down for four years.”
A 2007 New York Times article laid out reasons Marvel Studios would fail, a year before Iron Man was released.
“an article right outside my office, um, from the New York Times in 2007, a year before Iron Man came out, talking about all the reasons Marvel Studios would fail.”
Maisel says Ike Perlmutter bought back about a third of Marvel's stock at low prices, which became valuable when Marvel was sold to Disney.
“He ended up buying back a third of the company at that cheap price, which was very valuable when we sold it to Disney.”
Maisel says Angry Birds had declined in popularity by 2016 because it failed to move from paid to free games as competitors did, yet he made a film of it anyway.
“Angry Birds had collapsed in popularity. Um, they didn't navigate, going from paid games to free games, uh, in the way other competitors did”
Maisel says he left an hour of each shooting day for Robert Downey Jr. to improvise, producing at least half of Iron Man's comedy.
“I left an hour a day in the schedule for Robert to improvise, and I'd say at least half of the comedy in Iron Man came out of him riffing”
Maisel produced a Broadway show before founding Marvel Studios.
“I was able to do a Broadway show before I did Marvel, and I had a lot of success.”
Iron Man ends with Tony Stark announcing 'I am Iron Man', departing from the comics, followed by the Ozzy Osbourne song.
“Where Tony Stark never says he's Iron man, he keeps that Iron man's, his like bodyguard, he says, I am Iron man.”
Maisel says Kevin Feige came up with the post-credits Samuel L. Jackson 'Avengers initiative' scene after shooting finished, requiring actors to be recalled.
“That was just inspiration that Kevin Feige, my president of production, had actually, um, after we finished shooting and we had planned it and we had to call all the actors back”
Maisel says Iron Man grossed roughly $600 million worldwide while The Dark Knight grossed over a billion dollars.
“Iron man did like 600 million and change, and dark knight, which was a great movie. Chris Nolan, Christian Bale did over a billion.”
Maisel says The Dark Knight gave 30% of gross revenue to its director and lead actor, 15% each to Christopher Nolan and Christian Bale.
“they gave 30% gross, meaning off the top of the revenues, 30%, independent of profitability. Went to the director and actor, 15% to Christian, Chris, uh, Christian Bale, and 15% to Chris Nolan.”
Maisel says Marvel gave no gross participation to Iron Man's director or actors and kept 100% of the film's equity.
“I gave 0% to my actors or my director for Iron Man. And then to make it worse, I kept 100% of the equity, so we had 100% of the upside.”
Maisel says DC sold half of its Batman film rights to financier Legendary for cost.
“DC, which I still don't understand why, sold off half of Batman to a essentially financing entity called Legendary Studios for cost”
Maisel says he promoted Kevin Feige to president of production and put him in charge of Marvel Studios when he sold the company.
“I did a battlefield promotion of Kevin, um, and when I sold the company and put him in charge to run it, so I could do other things”
Maisel acquired rights tied to Michael Turner's Aspen Comics after James Cameron's option expired, and is developing the Ecos universe from it.
“with this acquisition of Michael Turner's comic book company, Aspen Comics, after James Cameron let the rights expire, um, that's what I've been working on”
Maisel is developing Mythos Studios, which includes a Greek and Roman mythology universe called the Mythovers alongside Ecos.
“we have something called the mythovers, which is going to be in my studios called Mythos Studios, um, to work on those two universes.”