MarvelBlog News for October 6th, 2024
Agatha All Along is a bona fide hit. We’re about to list several reasons why.
Disney’s already taking a victory lap on this one. So, you know things are going well.
Image: Marvel
We’ll discuss the details in MarvelBlog News.
Money for Nothing
Image: Marvel
Remember what a disaster Secret Invasion was?
Disney spent $211.6 million on six episodes of a series everyone hated but few watched.
Image: Marvel
That’s been a recurring story for Disney+ titles lately, with the Star Wars series, The Acolyte, equally disastrous.
That show cost $180 million for eight episodes, and everyone has described it as a debacle.
Image: Marvel
Well, The Acolyte cost $22.5 million an episode, while the Marvel series came in at $35.3 million per episode.
Also, Secret Invasion cost $31.6 million more than The Acolyte despite airing two fewer episodes.
Image: Marvel
What does all this have to do with Agatha All Along? Well, in the wake of Secret Invasion, Marvel changed its tactics.
Now, let’s be honest that Marvel did it because Disney demanded the change.
Image: Marvel
Still, Agatha All Along represents the first of a new wave of Marvel programming on Disney+.
Obviously, that wave is much cheaper, and we’re just now starting to figure out the degree of the discount.
Image: Marvel
According to a recent Variety interview with Marvel’s Brad Winderbaum, Agatha All Along cost less than $40 million to make.
No, I don’t mean per episode. That’s the total for Marvel to create nine episodes. Folks, that’s about $4.4 million per episode.
Image: Marvel
As you might imagine, this is the cheapest Marvel series yet on Disney+.
Here’s Winderbaum: “I can tell you it’s our least expensive show, and I think that was by design.”
Image: Marvel
You can guess that the “design” was Disney telling Marvel the comic company had burned through way too much cash and not gotten good enough results.
So, Marvel finds itself in a weird position here where it might have done too well with limited resources. Let’s discuss why.
Marvel Goes Old School
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Here’s the rest of Winderbaum’s quote. You’re about to understand a lot.
“We are looking to make these shows for a responsible cost.
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Frankly, it gives us a little bit more freedom creatively when we can bring them in at a reasonable budget.
Like [“Agatha All Along”], for example, the show has minimal CGI, way less than we’ve ever done before.
Image: Marvel
It’s mostly practical effects, and I think you can feel it in the show.”
You see, in the days before digital special effects, people would build sets and use props to create artificial backdrops.
Image: Marvel
That sort of production costs a fraction of a glamourous production brimming with digital inclusions.
Now, don’t get me wrong. Agatha All Along utilizes some of those, but it uses less than Secret Invasion or, obviously, Loki season two.
Image: Marvel
Also, this project doesn’t star big-name actors like Samuel L. Jackson and Don Cheadle…and I’m saying that as one of Kathryn Hahn’s biggest fans.
I’m not even joking. I own season one of Free Agents on digital. They don’t even sell that now, and you’ll have to google what it is.
Photo: Marvel
Even I cannot argue Hahn would be one of the biggest names in Secret Invasion.
I mean, Emilia Clarke and Olivia Colman just randomly appeared and disappeared in that show.
Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Olivia Coleman. Photo: BBC
They got paid for every episode, though, and that’s the problem Marvel faces.
When the MCU committed to Disney+ programming, Disney opened up the checkbook.
Source: Marvel Studios
Let’s be realistic that Marvel overspent on its content under the flawed presumption that expensive equals quality.
We know better than that now, but there’s even more to the story.
Learning from Past Mistakes
Credit: Marvel
In trying to create all this high-quality, expensive content, Marvel caused a backlog with their digital special effects team.
We’ve discussed that before, and Agatha All Along plays into that story. How?
Image: Marvel
By passing on lots of CGI, this show effectively gave the computer graphics department more time to work on other projects.
In other words, Agatha All Along saved everyone time and effort in addition to money.
Image: Marvel
You can imagine how that kind of production might sound appealing to Disney.
But you may believe the project suffered for the lack of resources. We’re learning that’s far from the truth.
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As I mentioned last week, Disney has confirmed that more than nine million people viewed the season premiere.
Variety’s Luminate service has tracked over 500 million viewer minutes of episodes watched thus far.
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Now, Billboard has tracked the song, The Ballad of the Witches’ Road (Sacred Chant), as a top 25 seller on the digital charts.
So, it’s charting in multiple mediums, and Marvel has cause to believe the show’s popularity will increase as Halloween approaches.
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After all Marvel’s recent struggles, the smartest play was a Hocus Pocus knockoff.
What will the studio learn from this? I think it’s fair to expect at least some future MCU titles on Disney+ to lay off the CGI.
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Practical special effects are cheaper, faster, and more reliable. They’re also less demanding of the production crew.
Of course, it’s also possible that Agatha All Along is a one-off triumph that cannot be duplicated.
Image: Marvel
If so, Disney will expect unreasonable future performances of Marvel based on a unicorn phenomenon.
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