Avi Arad Responds to Feige Article, Takes Credit for Marvel Studios' Success

[CBR News]

According to an open letter from "Amazing Spider-Man 2" producer Avi Arad, he "single handedly put together the Marvel slate" and is responsible for the Studios' success.


Full article here.

[Ceebiro]

I kind of wish Arad handed the reins of the Spider-man franchise to somebody else.

[alex]

Why can't he make the spider man movies more of a success then?
Oh right, because he didn't write, cast or direct any of the movies.

[Ceebiro]

For the record, the Spider-man film franchise has been very successful. Even the "mediocre/bad" ones have been financial hits. I could be wrong but when I look at the diminishing performance it feels like producer choices and interference is getting in the way of the overall quality of each individual film. In the long run, a consistent string of missteps will diminish the property value, until they can produce a quality product that will bolster consumer confidence.

[Rogue Star]

v__________v

[Ceebiro]

It really just feels that Arad and Sony are just too focused on building a franchise rather than making good films, even though for a blockbuster film the latter will do a lot more to build a strong-performing franchise than pumping out as many films as fast as possible.

[fanboy]

A good producer is important. They decide which scripts to produce, and they're the one's who hire the director. There's a reason the Best Movie Oscar goes to the producers.

That said, not all producers credited on a movie are equal. Also, movies are the most collaborative medium out there. If Arad really did help get early financing for Marvel Studios and if he rally did get the Iron Man film rights back from Newline, that's a big deal. Iron Man worked because he was a known property and was capable of making a fun light hearted film. He deserves a lot of credit for that.

But there's a lot of other things that go on. Did he hire Favreau? Downey? What about the screen play? What about the long term plans for the other Avenger movies? Part of the reason Feige gets as much credit as he does is because has done those things on multiple movies. Like a good group editor at a comic book company, he's helped shape the tone and direction of multiple movies over several years with several actors, directors, and screen writers. He has a really consistent record. If Arad helped with those things, then he probably does deserve more credit that he gets. But he's not claiming to do the heavy lifting, he's claiming to have helped in the early stages. Which, while important. I don't think that diminishes Feige's importance at all.

[Captain Planet]

For the record, the Spider-man film franchise has been very successful. Even the "mediocre/bad" ones have been financial hits. I could be wrong but when I look at the diminishing performance it feels like producer choices and interference is getting in the way of the overall quality of each individual film. In the long run, a consistent string of missteps will diminish the property value, until they can produce a quality product that will bolster consumer confidence.

It has been but when you take a list of barely known "B" characters and have them compete and even beat an "A" lister (Spider-man) that people have known and loved in the box office then I think that says something about the studio and producers. Who would have thought 10 years ago that Captain America would make more money then Superman or get anywhere near a Spider-man movie. Fiege and co seem the obvious reason for the successes to me.

[PretenderNX01]

Why can't he make the spider man movies more of a success then?
Oh right, because he didn't write, cast or direct any of the movies.

Yeah, I don't want to sound like a jerk but the properties he's in charge of are not as good as the one's Feige is in charge of. He may have put Iron Man on the slate but that success was guided creatively and built on by other people.

[Captain Planet]

Yeah, I don't want to sound like a jerk but the properties he's in charge of are not as good as the one's Feige is in charge of. He may have put Iron Man on the slate but that success was guided creatively and built on by other people.

Avi did a lot to get Marvel films where they are but it's obvious Fiege has been the real force behind their success. They wouldn't have happened without Avi's networking and persuading for the funding but the studio still could have failed after that if not for all the talent Fiege and other's brought to the table.

[PretenderNX01]

Avi did a lot to get Marvel films where they are but it's obvious Fiege has been the real force behind their success. They wouldn't have happened without Avi's networking and persuading for the funding but the studio still could have failed after that if not for all the talent Fiege and other's brought to the table.

I think like most creative talent, he probably deserves more credit than he gets but not as much as he thinks he does

He was one of the founders and that's pretty cool. But he had a choice and went with Fox/Sony and well...

[thejka]

Why can't he make the spider man movies more of a success then?
Oh right, because he didn't write, cast or direct any of the movies.

The Spider-Man films have been a huge success. Let's look at a tale of the tape:
Spider-Man 1: 821 million
Spider-Man 2: 783 million
Spider-Man 3: 890 million
The Amazing Spider-Man: 752 million
The Amazing Spider-Man 2 has made 368 million in less than a month internationally.

And the first trilogy are third, fourth, fifth highest ranking superhero films of all time domestically. So Spider-Man in film has still been very successful.

[Slade Wilson]

yeah you cant deny that Arad has done exceptional work for Marvel and I agree that Marvel certainly wouldnt be where they are now in the movie industry without him. One cannot deny Arads contributions and importance in Marvels movie and TV history.

That being said, he always came across as a very unsympathetic fella to me and this letter only reinforces that. He seems to be very butthurt and expressing that in an open letter instead of settle this privately isnt very classy at all and makes him come across as indeed arrogant and douchy to me. I definitely prefer Kevin Feige both as a person and Marvel producer.

But you cant put down the success of the Spider-Man films. While they dont reach the financial highs of Raimis films (if you consider that the ASM films have also a 3D ticket boost that Raimis films didnt have), they are still enormously successful and indeed more successful then most of the MCU films. So you cant really start blaming Arad for Spider-Man not being financially successful anymore because he still is. The quality of the Spidey films has undoubtedly declined since SM 2 but thats really the fault of writers and directors not Arad.

[saul_on_the_road_to_damascus]

Did some posts get deleted?

[Rogue Star]

yeah you cant deny that Arad has done exceptional work for Marvel and I agree that Marvel certainly wouldnt be where they are now in the movie industry without him. One cannot deny Arads contributions and importance in Marvels movie and TV history.

That being said, he always came across as a very unsympathetic fella to me and this letter only reinforces that. He seems to be very butthurt and expressing that in an open letter instead of settle this privately isnt very classy at all and makes him come across as indeed arrogant and douchy to me. I definitely prefer Kevin Feige both as a person and Marvel producer.

But you cant put down the success of the Spider-Man films. While they dont reach the financial highs of Raimis films (if you consider that the ASM films have also a 3D ticket boost that Raimis films didnt have), they are still enormously successful and indeed more successful then most of the MCU films. So you cant really start blaming Arad for Spider-Man not being financially successful anymore because he still is. The quality of the Spidey films has undoubtedly declined since SM 2 but thats really the fault of writers and directors not Arad.

I don't blame Raimi at all. He was being pressured by Sony to cram too much into Spider-Man 3 and rush Spider-Man 4. He was still in the process of writing the script for the latter and he knew that Sony was already planning to reboot the series. The blame for the poor quality of the movies since Spider-Man 2 is squarely on Sony's shoulders, in my humble opinion.