In the 1950s, Walt Disney created a famous flywheel—where each business element drove value to another—that quickly became the decade-spanning strategic model for entertainment companies of all sizes. Today, in our fractured media ecosystem with rapidly changing audience behaviors and unprecedented competition for attention spans, we must delve one layer deeper. If content truly still is king, creators and studios must deliver it across all available distribution pathways—films/TV, video games, books/comics, etc. This requires brands to methodically develop interconnected strategies that keep them competitive on all fronts.
This challenge resembles teaching your golden retriever to drive. It’s proven nearly impossible for many who have attempted it over a sustained period of time. Yet this approach helped transform the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) into Hollywood’s most dominant franchise—and could potentially help it recover from its current rut.
Derick Tsai, CEO of the intellectual property development studio Magnus Rex, recently penned an essay about what he calls “medium mapping,” a story-telling approach that strategically pairs specific narratives with the mediums best suited to tell them creatively. Different formats offer distinct strengths and weaknesses, so identifying how specific content enhances the overall IP experience becomes crucial. “When you map the right story to the right medium, you don’t just expand the IP—you make it feel deeper, richer and more intentional,” Tsai told Observer.
Movies most effectively introduce an IP’s world, themes and characters to the widest possible audience. Television excels at developing long-form character arcs. Video games allow players to live and control decisions within a story. Comics and books enable fans to explore untapped histories, settings and characters within an IP’s universe that may not center stage on-screen.
When executed properly, medium mapping delivers both revenue and fandom. It provides multiple engagement points for fans, creating more access points and entryways into a franchise through new stories and wish fulfillment between major releases. Consider Insomniac’s beloved Spider-Man video game or watching Loki on Disney+. This is key to ongoing fandom development, not just maintaining an existing fanbase. It also extends the brand’s reach and earning potential by creating a varied ecosystem to capture consumer spending. Fans buy movie tickets, subscribe to streaming services, read comics, play video games and buy merchandise. This business model offers higher upside than just producing one-off movies.
“Effective medium mapping turns a franchise into a lifestyle—and that’s where both loyalty and long-term revenue live,” Tsai said.
Marvel’s success formula
Marvel’s Infinity Saga (2008-2019), culminating in the record-breaking success of Avengers: Endgame, succeeded largely because the studio synthesized decades of comic book material into emotionally resonant content that anyone could enjoy. Studio president Kevin Feige and his creative partners led with a character-first ethos that grounded stories with human stakes that all demographics connected with.
Other brands, such as the now-defunct DC Extended Universe, deconstructed the superhero mythos and positioned characters such as Superman and Wonder Woman as gods. Marvel, meanwhile, emphasizes its characters’ humanity. Audiences fell in love with Robert Downey Jr.’s Tony Stark, not just Iron Man (as evidenced by the largely out-of-suit Iron Man 3). This character wasn’t just a billionaire with great tech, he was a rich prick who grew a conscience, a classic archetype. Captain America was a man out of time desperately searching for a foothold in a world that had passed him by. Thor was a god learning humility. Marvel scaled these relatable character tenets across multiple mediums, explaining the success of Disney+ shows like WandaVision and Loki, the millions of cosplayers creating elaborate (and expensive) homages, and the popularity of games like Marvel Rivals. Both main and ancillary content prioritized human journeys while satisfying essential storytelling needs.
It’s no secret that the MCU has hit some creative and commercial turbulence since Thanos turned to dust in 2019. Though the franchise still reaches atmospheric highs (Spider-Man: No Way Home earned $1.9 billion while Deadpool & Wolverine grossed $1.3 billion), its historically elite consistency has faltered. A few tweaks could help restore balance.
Marvel needs to reclaim its character-first approach. Recent Multiverse saga installments have either shouldered too much world-building burden (like The Marvels trying to connect WandaVision, Ms. Marvel, Captain Marvel and the X-Men) or been mapped onto the wrong medium for the story (Secret Invasion needed to be a movie with better writing). Interestingly, Tsai saw Wicked as last year’s best example of a Marvel-type movie—a rousing story about a character with abilities overcoming societal prejudice and inner doubt. Recent Marvel projects have struggled to recreate these emotional beats that were common across the MCU’s franchise pillars in phases one to three.
Medium mapping plays a key role in building hype, as not all platforms carry equal weight. Introducing Jonathan Majors’ Kang (intended as the Multiverse Saga’s Big Bad successor to Thanos) on Disney+ and expecting audiences to follow him to theaters proved too ambitious. His big screen debut in Ant-Man: Quantumania resulted in the second-largest second-week box office drop (down 70 percent) and ninth-smallest global gross ($476 million) in MCU history. Success depends on matching each story to the right format and following through with the right expansion.
Immersive experiences now provide a premium (and rapidly growing) frontier for IP expansion. Super Nintendo World and the Wizarding World of Harry Potter theme parks recreate beloved environments, bridging fans from source material to tangible fantasy. This explains Disney’s expansion of Avengers Campus to include Avengers Infinity Defence and Stark Flight Lab as part of the company’s 10-year, $60 billion investment into parks and experiences.
“When it works, you get asymmetrical returns—one hit can lift an entire ecosystem,” Tsai explained. The Super Mario Bros. Movie is a great example of a successful film revitalizing interest in other facets of a franchise—game sales, merchandise, and park attendance.
Like all things, of course, there exists a downside. In failure, a single project can be an anchor on commercial prospects. Tsai points out that last year, Hasbro reported a 17 percent year-over-year decline in revenue driven in part by audience fatigue with partner brands Marvel and Star Wars. Quality control across such prodigious franchise content space is massively challenging, as seen with the poor reception and sales of DC’s 2024 video game Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League and the shoddy VFX across Marvel properties recently. As fans grow stale on an avalanche of uneven content, the entire ecosystem falters.
Marvel’s winning streak couldn’t continue forever—every Hollywood fad is finite. However, this franchise and other ambitious IPs must focus on multi-platform medium mapping to reach new heights. They must be omnipresent without becoming oversaturated, prioritizing strategic content expansion over sheer volume. (The driving Golden Retriever is sounding more believable at this point, right?). As the next layer of Disney’s famous flywheel, this approach remains the most effective way to create a universe that drives fan development, engagement and revenue. Most importantly, it’s a pathway back to great storytelling that satisfies fans.
