The Marvel Studios Story: How a Failing Comic Book Publisher Became a Hollywood Superhero

What can you learn from the world’s most successful companies? The Marvel Studios Story will help you understand and adopt the competitive strategies, workplace culture, and daily business practices that enabled a struggling comic book publisher to parlay the power of myth and storytelling to become one of history’s most successful movie studios.

Marvel characters have been shaping pop culture for decades and when comic books were no longer keeping the company afloat, Marvel Studios was born.

Marvel Studios is the multibillion-dollar home to iconic franchises. They are known for creating brilliant multilayered worlds and storylines that allow their audiences to escape into a fantasy and inspire the creative side of every viewer. But, behind those visionaries is a well-oiled storytelling machine dedicated to getting the Hulk’s smash fists in the hands of every child and a sea of Spiderman costumes deployed every Halloween.

This book educates readers on how one of the largest creative companies in the planetary universe runs their business and keeps their fans and their parent company, Disney, counting the profits. Through the story of Marvel Studios, you’ll learn:

• How to recognize and pursue additional revenue streams.
• How a company can successfully balance the creative with business to appease investors and fans alike.
• And how to keep a decades-old superhero franchise new and exciting without losing sight of its roots.

About the Authors

Charlie Wetzel graduated from the University of New Orleans with a BA and an MA in English, despite growing up as a nonreader. He worked as a chef, teacher, college dean, and car salesman before becoming a full-time writer in his mid-thirties. He has written more than ninety books, mostly with leadership expert John C. Maxwell, including six New York Times bestsellers. Charlie also writes fiction. He penned The Candy Shop, a Crystal Heart award-winning short film starring Doug Jones. Charlie has been married to Stephanie for more than twenty-five years. They keep busy parenting three young adults, running, and traveling together. Charlie also enjoys cooking, gardening, reading, and training in martial arts. He insists this is the year he will finish writing his first novel!

Stephanie Wetzel has been her husband Charlie’s primary editor for as long as they’ve been married, including for every book Charlie has written with author John C. Maxwell. A writer in her own right, she blogged for a decade—back when blogging was still cool. She now partners in writing with Charlie and works with other authors. Stephanie loves being wife to Charlie and mom to three young adults. She forces herself to run with Charlie, but she actually enjoys reading, learning, traveling, and eating former chef Charlie’s cooking. Stephanie grew up obsessed with horses and competed as a teenager at extremely low levels in local shows. No longer a regular rider, she still occasionally gets a tear in her eye at the sight of a horse.