Marvel Studios has signed a long-term lease to film its next four movies at Raleigh Studios in Manhattan Beach, Calif.
Marvel also will move its Beverly Hills-based executive and production offices to the Raleigh complex.
The deal covers Iron Man 2, Thor, The First Avenger: Captain America, and The Avengers, which will be produced over the next three years.
Back in July Hollywood gossip columnist Nikki Finke reported that Iron Man director Jon Favreau the effort to keep production in the Los Angeles area, setting up a meeting a meeting between Marvel, the California Film Commission and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to push for tax credits for filmmakers.
In today’s report, Finke congratulated Favreau “for leveraging his new-found clout for the greater good of the Hollywood community.”
You can read Marvel Studios’ press release after the break.
Los Angeles, CA (October 6, 2008) – As Marvel Studios, a subsidiary of Marvel Entertainment, Inc., powers up to begin production on its next highly anticipated slate of films, the studio has made an agreement with Raleigh Studios to film each of Marvel’s next four films at Raleigh’s facility in Manhattan Beach, CA. The four projects to be produced at the studio facility over the next three years include IRON MAN 2, THOR, THE FIRST AVENGER: CAPTAIN AMERICA and THE AVENGERS. Keeping these four major tent pole film productions in Southern California allows the studio access to outstanding crews and resources and makes Marvel the largest tenant on the Raleigh lot. Additionally, Marvel Studios will move its Beverly Hills-based executive and production offices to Raleigh’s facility in Manhattan Beach.
“In making this deal with Raleigh to produce our upcoming films at the Manhattan Beach Studios, we are most excited about keeping our film production here in California and taking advantage of the best crews in the Los Angeles area,” stated Louis D’Esposito, Marvel’s President of Physical Production. “All of our production partners on these upcoming films have been incredibly accommodating in terms of their creativity and financial structures, allowing us to remain in California. Raleigh Studios has long been known for the superior quality of its film production facilities and we know that Manhattan Beach will be the ideal location to produce our movies to the highest standards that our fans expect.”
“We are thrilled that we were able to find a way to make this deal work for Marvel,” said Michael Moore, Raleigh Studios President. “We could not have asked for a greater compliment than having a quality company like Marvel put their faith in us to provide a home for its film productions.”
The Marvel live action releases to be filmed at Raleigh Manhattan Beach Studios are scheduled to arrive in theaters beginning in 2010 and going through 2011. Specifically the release dates are IRON MAN 2 on May 7, 2010; THOR on July 16, 2010; THE FIRST AVENGER: CAPTAIN AMERICA on May 6, 2011; and THE AVENGERS on July 15, 2011.
Raleigh Manhattan Beach Studios first opened for operations during 1998. This studio consists of 14 sound stages on 22 acres with an additional 300,000 square feet of office and support space. As a result of this venture, Raleigh Studios along with its sister company Hollywood Rentals, are now the largest operator of independent film studio facilities and production services in North America.
October 6th, 2008 at 6:36 pm
So… A few months ago Finke calls Favreau an “asshole” for no particularly good reason, and now she’s congratulating him? She sucks.
October 6th, 2008 at 9:33 pm
She… she’s like that.
October 7th, 2008 at 8:07 am
That’s too bad–I was looking forward to the publicity surrounding the filming of “Capt. America” in Vancouver.
October 7th, 2008 at 8:31 am
God why are they doing this don’t they know this will only hurt them in the end
October 7th, 2008 at 8:33 am
I guess marvel care more about the $$$$ then doing the right thing and stop making movie and I don’t know MAKE COMICS BOOKS its 1993 all over again
RIP marvel
October 7th, 2008 at 10:29 am
People are ragging on Marvel for making movies after Iron Man’s success? Sure, the future slate of movies looks hit and miss at best. I think they’re rushing things way too much, but I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt after Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk (I enjoyed the hell out of the Hulk reboot too). At least they look more promising than the current state of the Spidey and X-Men franchises.
October 7th, 2008 at 11:35 am
Are you seriously going to say Marvel should stop making movies altogether and just focus on comic books??!! You do know that the current condition of comic books isn’t going to survive without movie and video game tie-ins, don’t you? If you want to bring in new readers, you absolutely MUST go outside the medium to interest them. You don’t get new readers by advertising in Wizard, or other comic books. You have to make movies. You have to make video games. Even if you don’t get a lot of new readers from those, the profit from them alone will help keep the publishing angle afloat.
Also, I say Kudos to Marvel for filming their next slate of films in L.A. It can’t be that much cheaper these days to film in Vancouver, since the Canadian dollar is worth just as much, if not more than the American dollar.
October 7th, 2008 at 11:39 am
Well, I hope this just means that the BULK of the filming is going to happen in LA. I’d be pretty disappointed if they didn’t go get some external shots in Brooklyn for the Captain America movie.
October 7th, 2008 at 12:15 pm
Jeff you don’t know how the business world works I do trust me if you want people to stay to your product you don’t go and waste money on things that only a handfully of people can get
October 7th, 2008 at 12:17 pm
Let look at the Hulk reboot it did WORSE then the 2003 Hulk movie let look at Iron man it didn’t even pass the 200 mark and not to mention how the movie are making comic book fans and non-comic book fans STOP buying comics
October 7th, 2008 at 12:22 pm
Well f*ck me.
Manhattan Beach is a GREAT place for Marvel to make home. How do I know? Well, I used to live one zip code away from there, and frequented the city to visit my favorite comic shop. Mike Mignola lives in the area as well, so the hometown of Hellboy is good digs for the Marvel Studios.
Good on ya lads, here’s to the bright future of Marvel films, which have been better than the comics.
October 7th, 2008 at 12:26 pm
Iron Man made $318,298,180 in the U.S. alone.
Marvel Comics once again accounted for over half of the units sold for the top 300 comics in August, 2008.
So they are dominating comics and making a ton of money at the box office.
October 7th, 2008 at 12:28 pm
I can’t wait for Iron Man 2, Thor, Cap, and the Avengers!!
Kick Ass should be good too.
October 7th, 2008 at 12:36 pm
Michael, where are you getting your numbers?? Here is a link to the IMDB website that lists all the grosses that Iron Man pulled off. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0371746/business It grossed over $300,000,000.00 in total, and I can guarantee you that the DVD and Blu Ray sales are going to do very well also. It cost $140,000,000. By my calculations, that’s at least $160,000,000.00 profit. You’re right. I don’t know a lot about business, but even the idiot that I am can see that that’s a nice chunk of change.
Also, I’ve talked to retailers, and they’ve told me that people who go watch the movies will often come into their stores to at the very least check out the comics, if not buy an issue or two of the superhero they just got done watching the movie of. Now these might not be long term buyers, and maybe a couple of them will be, who knows? But if Marvel wants to succeed as a business, it has to start paying attention to where the trends are going, and that would be movies and video games.
October 7th, 2008 at 12:45 pm
Umm…I’m not how you came to that conclusion. Last I heard Iron Man made it past the 200 mark a llloonnngggg time ago. Im pretty sure its past the 300 mark as well. The Incredible Hulk movie did beat the 2003 movie although by a couple million. While I’ll agree with you that it may have performed below Marvel’s expectation, it was a much more critical hit than the 2003 movie. and how can you say movies stop BOTH comic book fans and non-comic book fans from reading comics. I’ve never seen a comic book due badly when a movie comes out. Usually theirs a slight bump in sales for comics while a movie is out. Now granted it usually evens out back to pre-movie numbers after a couple of months so that has more to do about retaining customers after they see the movie rather than it being the movie itself (which is another discussion entirely) The way I see it, Marvel and DC (hell any comic book company) better milk this Hollywood thing for all its worth while they still can. Because eventually the whole superhero/comic book movie will become a passing fad and they’ll miss the opportunity to really pull in some new readers!
October 7th, 2008 at 12:55 pm
Michael use periods it help other understand word and make smarter look
October 7th, 2008 at 1:01 pm
And further more, if a company doesn’t waste its time producing products that only a handful of people can get, then comic books should essentially be out of business, because they’re getting harder and harder to find anymore. This isn’t the 90s when you had a comic store around every corner. A lot of those stores got shut down when the comics boom went bust because of overprinting and collector trends and chromium cover and variant cover gimmicks. Now there are states, whole states, that don’t have any kind of access to comics outside of buying them on the internet. Name one state that doesn’t have a movie theater, a video store, or a Wal-Mart where you can buy video games and video game consoles. I’d have to say, Michael, that you’re the one who doesn’t know a whole lot about business at this point.
October 7th, 2008 at 2:33 pm
My only fear is that the general movie audience is going to grow tried of superhero movies. Marvel can argue all the want to about how the X-Men are mutants and the Hulk is a monster. (Ive argued the same thing) But at the end of the day, the “general non comic book fans” are going to say “Oh boy, another superhero”. Marvel must attempt a Vertigo style of comic creations.
October 7th, 2008 at 4:52 pm
Let look at the Hulk reboot it did WORSE then the 2003 Hulk movie let look at Iron man it didn’t even pass the 200 mark and not to mention how the movie are making comic book fans and non-comic book fans STOP buying comics
Reply: I’m not sure I like this new trend you have going on. Do you not like the letter “s.” For g’s sake F*^%$ing edit, at least a little bit. Your posts make me angry!
October 7th, 2008 at 5:42 pm
Actually, Ryan, The Incredible Hulk has now grossed more than $260 million worldwide. The Hulk movie from 2003 grossed $245 million. Ang Lee’s movie cost an estimated $13 million less to make, which would still give the new one a very slight edge.
Iron Man, meanwhile, has grossed $318 million domestically and more than $500 million worldwide.
October 7th, 2008 at 5:55 pm
The other thing about the Hulk movie is that it generally got favorable reviews, whereas the Ang Lee movie did not. I’m also guessing the Lee film wasn’t a terribly big success on DVD based on the poor reaction many had to it. I’m not suggesting that The Incredible Hulk will be the hit Iron Man or The Dark Knight will be on DVD, but I’d be willing to bet that it’ll do better on DVD than the Lee movie did. Just based on the better reviews, audience reaction, and the fact that it still did reasonably decent box office during a pretty crowded summer. If that extended cut that Ed Norton wanted is released (and I believe it is), that could draw more interest to the DVD as well.
October 7th, 2008 at 6:05 pm
JK, your response should be to Michael and not Ryan. Ryan was responding to Michael’s, um, *interesting* post.
Anyhow, also in esponse to Michael, I’m wondering where you get the notion that the movies are causing people to STOP buying comics? Case in point, I stopped buying comics in about 1994 or ‘95 and then came back about three years ago. What happened three years ago? Batman Begins.
I loved that movie so much that I got the urge to start buying comics again, both monthly floppies and trades of the stuff I’d missed while I was away. I don’t doubt that my enjoyment of the first two Spider-Man and first two X-Men movies before that also helped build up my desire to start reading the funny books again.
I’m still buying comics now, and I guarantee you that my immense enjoyment of V For Vendetta (a book I didn’t read until AFTER I saw the movie), Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk and The Dark Knight haven’t caused me stop reading. Hell, I *hated” Superman Returns, but even that movie stoked me for more comics. After seeing that movie, I was really dying to experience a GOOD Superman story again, so I went out and found some. Look at how Watchmen is selling again, all thanks to the hype surrounding the upcoming film.
The only that stops me from buying comics I’m inclined to buy is when those comics are written badly… That’s been happening far too much lately, but the movies have had nothing to do with that.
October 7th, 2008 at 6:11 pm
Yep, you’re right, Shaun; sorry about that, Ryan.
October 7th, 2008 at 6:13 pm
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA.
Incredible Hulk made more money domestically and internationally than Hulk did, and Iron Man has made more than $300M domestically and $500M in total. Before DVD sales.
And who’s stopped buying comics because of the movies? Who? Anyone? Bueller?
Although, Shaun, to your point, according to metacritic and rottentomatoes, Incredible Hulk only did slightly better, review-wise, than Hulk did. I don’t think either movie was/is gangbusters, but to use this year’s movies as proof than Marvel making movies is a BAD thing…that’s just retarded.