Marvel Studios, LLC is an American film and television production company that is a subsidiary of Walt Disney Studios, a division of the Walt Disney Company. Marvel Studios produces the Marvel Cinematic Universe films and series, based on characters that appear in Marvel Comics publications. The Marvel Cinematic Universe is the highest-grossing franchise ever, and of its combined $27.6 billion in box office earnings, $15.7 billion of that total is from the franchise's top ten alone. David Hesmondhalgh's cultural industries theory says that media companies try to minimise risk and maximise audiences in their products and i think that Marvel is a great example of a company using repetition to keep their audience stable and growing.
Examples to support the theory:
The continuous use of the Marvel logo during the trailer and at the beginning of all the films outlines the products brand identity for an inherited audience who want to consume products which are linked to the MCU. It adds a sense of reliability and familiarity and maximises the audience as they know that they are going to be watching something they already love.
The same style of poster is used for each movie in the MCU, and this makes it easily recognisable for the audience. This means that they can quickly identify the traits of the films that they are familiar with and be provided with the satisfaction of watching a very similar type of thing for each.
One of the criticisms of the Marvel franchise is that it has been described by many as 'redundant'. This is because apart from some style differences, every Marvel movie since The Avengers assembled has told basically the same story. This isn’t just because all Marvel movies follow three-act structure, but because every Marvel movie’s purpose is simply to set up the next move. his makes it feel repetitive and overly familiar. However, the result of this is that it completely minimises risk as the producers know that they are creating something that already has a stable audience and is approved of.
The use of extremely famous stars/celebrities or either play a main role or smaller role in the franchise movies greatly minimises risk and maximises audience. Some examples are Samuel L. Jackson, Robert Downey Jr, Paul Bettany, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, Mark Ruffalo etc. The impact of this is that fans of these well-known stars could unlock a whole new audience as they may engage with the movies in order to see their favourite celebrity play a part.
Examples to go against the theory:
It could be argued that the Marvel movies are not an example of David Hesmondhalgh's theory as the producers are not actively trying to minimise risk, they are just simply following the comic stories and recreating what the audience already knows.
Furthermore, perhaps a more useful theory to apply would be Curran and Seaton's power and media industries theory which states that media owned by large conglomerates (such as Marvel), result in a lack of creativity and thought. They say they will produce repetitive media that they know will sell because it will make a profit and gain the owners of these companies power. All of the points made above definetly apply to the MCU.
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