The MCU: A Marvel Deep-Dive with Joanna Robinson - [Making Media, EP.46]

The MCU: A Marvel Deep-Dive with Joanna Robinson - [Making Media, EP.46]

Author: Colossus | Investing & Business Podcasts November 20, 2023 Duration: 1:10:02
Today we are talking Marvel. It's the cinematic universe that's made over $30 billion at the box office (and that's just the Hollywood piece). Our guest today is Joanna Robinson, Podcaster and Culture Critic for The Ringer. Joanna wrote "MCU: The Reign of Marvel Studios," a revealing behind-the-scenes history of the cultural phenomenon. We cover the history of Marvel from the pre-Disney days through what led to the explosion of what happened over the past 15 years and what seems like a fall from grace in recent years. She has had so many conversations with insiders and we can't recommend the book highly enough. Please enjoy this conversation on Marvel with Joanna Robinson. For the full show notes, transcript, and links to the best content to learn more, check out the episode page here. ----- Making Media is a property of Colossus, LLC. For more episodes of Making Media, visit joincolossus.com/episodes. Stay up to date on all our podcasts by signing up to Colossus Weekly, our quick dive every Sunday highlighting the top business and investing concepts from our podcasts and the best of what we read that week. Sign up here. Follow us on Twitter: @ReustleMatt | @domcooke | @MakingMediaPod | @JoinColossus  Show Notes  (00:02:13) - (First question) - The evolution of Joanna's relationship with Marvel (00:05:22) - Ranking the importance to the success of The Marvel Cinematic Universe (00:07:00) - The importance of technology early on with the films (00:08:27) - How Marvel thinks about the distribution of its intellectual property (00:11:18) - The lessons from Marvel's strategy to focus movies on B their grade characters (00:14:26) - Joanna's opinion on whether the success of The Avengers also might have led to Marvel's downfall (00:17:41) - Whether MCU's success was an organic result of timing or if there's a replicable formula for success today (00:23:10) - How David Maisel pulled off the Merrill Lynch financing deal (00:27:06) - Kevin Feige's long-term plan and whether the interconnected universe was always a core idea (00:30:16) - The unique ownership situation of the Hulk between Marvel and Universal (00:34:16) - Marvel's retention of autonomy key to the Disney acquisition (00:37:52) - Post Avengers Endgame and possible reasons why MCU has struggled (00:41:12) - The effect Disney Plus has had on MCU (00:43:23) - The difficulties Marvel faces with creating TV content (00:47:17) - Moving forward and future potential with iconic properties like the X-Men and Fantastic Four (00:51:17) - Joanna's opinion on the statement that Marvel has ruined movies (00:55:29) - Debrief

Matt Reustle and Dom Cooke have spent years analyzing companies as investors, but found themselves drawn into a new, messy, and fascinating world: building a media company from the ground up. Their Making Media podcast, from Colossus | Investing & Business Podcasts, is the raw audio journal of that transition. Instead of theory, you get the real-time experiments, stumbles, and occasional breakthroughs of two practitioners who are actively trying to construct something lasting. Each conversation pulls back the curtain with seasoned media operators who have navigated these waters, offering hard-won tactical advice rarely shared publicly. Between these interviews, Matt and Dom hold themselves accountable, documenting the progress of their own ventures and breaking down the books, articles, and interviews that shape their thinking. The underlying mission gives this business and entrepreneurship podcast its pulse: a genuine fight to create substantive, long-form content in an economy increasingly optimized for fleeting clicks. For anyone curious about the operational realities of publishing, audience building, and sustainable creation, this series feels like getting a direct feed from the workshop floor, where ideas are forged into tangible assets.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 65

Making Media
Podcast Episodes
The Ringer’s Press Box with Bryan Curtis - [Making Media, EP.43] [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 58:22
We are joined today by Bryan Curtis, Editor-at-Large at The Ringer. Bryan writes excellent columns on theringer.com and hosts The Press Box, which happens to be the show with our favorite podcast episode of this past yea…
The Power of a Newsletter with Lenny Rachitsky - [Making Media, EP.42] [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:02:21
Today we welcome Lenny Rachitsky to Making Media. Lenny has built the biggest business publication on Substack, "Lenny’s Newsletter," with well over 500,000 readers. It started in 2019 as an advice column and since start…
7 Nuggets of Media Wisdom - [Making Media, EP.39] [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 26:32
Today on Making Media Matt shares his top 7 bits of media wisdom that he has thoughtfully curated during his efforts to build a media company. Each individual guest and episode offers a new takeaway, and Matt attempts to…
Life as a Writer with David Coggins - [Making Media, EP.38] [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 47:31
Today we have a special guest on Making Media. There are few people who write and live like David Coggins. David has a way of maintaining his creative identity while still adopting many of today's tools. He writes books,…
More with Less Media with Brian Morrissey - [Making Media, EP.36] [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:01:50
Today we're sitting down with Brian Morrissey and getting back to the guts and glory days of the media industry. In 2021, Brian founded The Rebooting - a newsletter publication focused on the mechanics of building sustai…
Matt Levine - Wall Street’s Art Critic - [Making Media, EP.35] [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 57:18
Today we speak with the Wall Street Wonder, Matt Levine. Matt's Bloomberg column, Money Stuff, has become a must read for most of the finance community. It's that rare place where you get laughter, learning, and complex…