1.

Introduction of Marvel 

  Marvel has not only redefined superhero movies, but also raised around $17 billion in a
decade from 22 movies. Therefore it may be hard for you to imagine such a giant movie
studio having to go through difficult times once, with its share price remaining at $1.
However, Marvel, which was on the verge of bankruptcy, was able to rise again using
the following strategy: “customer and product diversification”.

  So why is this strategy that raised Marvel important? In fact, the strategy of diversifying
customers and products may be quite dangerous. This is because it is impossible to fully
figure out what products will work in the complex world of business. Nevertheless, this
strategy is attractive to companies in that there are many channels that will boost their sales
once they succeed in diversifying their customers and products, which can greatly contribute
to the development and survival of the company.

  How could Marvel succeed from this strategy? Marvel had initially attempted a theme
restaurant-like strategy to overcome falling demand for comic books, but the sequence
seemed out of order. Other than fanatic fans, who were obsessed with Marvel’s cartoons and
characters, people didn't use the restaurant well, and neither did the fans. Besides such initial
strategy, naturally, the company's situation seemed to revive through the film. Movies like
Spider-Man, Blade, and X-Men have been successful. However, most of the profits went to
the film companies such as Fox, Sony, and etc that made the film, leaving Marvel in a
situation that was no different from before.

  Marvel's resurrection happens after when Marvel recognized that their characters surely did
have tremendous value. So Marvel began planning from a more long-term perspective and
decided to make his own film company. That's how Marvel Studios was born.

2. Beginning of  Iron Man

  Iron Man definitely is one of the major globally loved superheroes. With Robert Downey Jr.
playing Tony Stark, Iron Man was first released in 2008, thus launching the Marvel
Cinematic Universe. This was a risky gamble to Marvel Studios, as Iron Man was a B-list
superhero at the time. Iron Man wasn’t popular and its awareness ranking wasn’t that high.
Then how did Marvel come up with this character to begin their bold new venture? One big
reason is that Iron Man had the coolest toys. 

  Marvel actually carried out a marketing research, asking which superhero figure kids were
playing with the most, under the hope of breaking even on the Marvel movies, but generate
on toys and merchandise. What was interesting was that it was a clear victory for Iron Man.
Kids thought that when considering Iron Man’s power, ability, and possessing weapons, Iron
Man seemed to be the utmost character to play with. It was from this simple research from
which Tony Stark started to take the leading position and become the first hero out of the gate
for Marvel's fledgling studio.

  Also, Iron Man’s suit of armor seems to be more aesthetic and even provides diverse
functions, such as flying and boosting. In fact, we cannot neglect the fact that Marvel could
have thought that it would be easier to make numerous kinds of action figures, since Tony
Stark has the capability to design different types of armors. Luckily, these different facets met
with a creatively successful movie and an innovative mover. 
 
https://www.cinemablend.com/news/2419732/how-marvel-decided-iron-man-would-be-
its-first-superhero-movie

3. Identify a Problem

Iron Man surely was the first and successful superhero Marvel had gambled upon.
Now, with only Iron Man movies, MCU was able to generate more than billions of dollars
worldwide. However Marvel killed off Iron Man in the latest film, Avengers: End Game.
Then we became curious about, “Who then, will be the next Iron Man, filling up his
position?” We thought that when considering that Iron Man playing has played a very crucial
role and most of the times has been the center among all the superheroes, the next Iron Man
should also be competitive enough to take such role. Therefore, to achieve the most realistic
and possible answer to our question. We decided to consider personal ties, exposure, --- into
account, utilizing network measures

4. Set Hypotheses

Before we delve into analyzing the network, we would like to generate possible
hypotheses to this question. In doing so, we should also consider several reasons as to why
Marvel had to kill off Iron Man, despite the fact that he is one of the most influential and
crucial heroes among all the characters of Marvel Studios and generates the most profit. We
do not think that the Endgame writers simply killed off Iron Man with no reason.

First, we think it was the right timing to have Iron Man dead, for a 멋진 storyline.
End always has a special meaning in that it cements everything, threading them all together
and brings it to a crescendo. As he was the one who started the chapter, he needed to end this
chapter. It was a satisfying conclusion. It was the right timing to legitimize the whole thing.
Otherwise, people lose interest. The intention is not to destroy people, it's to hopefully tell a
complex and dimensionalised story in a way that makes them feel a varied range of emotion.
In fact, if MCU had not killed off Iron Man, and Iron Man 4 was waiting there, there is the
possibility for several audiences to think it’s too much.

(Such ending made him more heroic as well. In the end, Tony does manage to save
the world, but it's at the cost of his own life. He dies on the battlefield with his wife, Pepper,
best friend, Rhodey, and protégé, Peter Parker, at his side.  It's also a fitting end for the
usually verbose hero. He doesn't have to say anything to his loved ones, his actions show
them just how much he cared about them. He exchanged his life for their peace and he would
do it again with no hesitation. 
His last words are also a reminder of a pivotal moment in the first Iron Man film, when
instead of denying who he is to the public, he simply states, “I am Iron Man.” Those are the
same words he utters after Thanos remarks, “I am inevitable.”) 이 부분은 뺄까요?

We also thought that Marvel has decided to kill Iron Man, because of the tremendous
amount at which Iron Man’s net worth has been valued at. Starting from Iron Man 1, Robert
Downey Jr.’ was paid $500,000 and it kept skyrocketing, until recently when he filmed
Avengers: Infinity War and was calculated as 75 million. At the same time, while Tony
started as the brash billionaire playboy, stakes and responsibilities were growing for him.

Yet, surprisingly, Iron Man wasn’t the highest salary given superhero. According to
the Forbes’ Celebrity 100 earnings list, Chris Hemsworth, who played Thor, topped the list
even receiving more than Robert Downey Jr. by more than $10m. Hemsworth started out with
$150,000 for 2011's "Thor," but has earned $15 million a movie since 2017's "Thor:
Ragnarok." The secret to his big payday is that he also gets profit from the superhero flick,
earning from the percentage of box office as well. Moreover, he starred in “Men in Black:
International” and will portray in an upcoming biopic about Hulk Hogan and a Netflix movie
called Dhaka. This somehow implies that Thor is not only one of the critical members in
MCU, but also being acknowledged within the industry, since he keeps shooting new films.
There surely is more demand for Thor. Thus we think Thor has a really high possibility of
becoming the next Iron Man.

Rank Actor Role Salary Forbes ranking

1 Chris Hemsworth Thor $76.4 million 24/100
2 Robert Downey Jr. Iron Man $66 million 31/100
3 Bradley Cooper Rocket $57 million 43/100
4 Scarlett Johansson Black Widow $56 million 47/100
5 Chris Evans Captain America $43.5 million 73/100
6 Paul Rudd Ant-Man $41 million 83/100

Moreover, we should consider how much each character generates profit globally for
Marvel. We thought that the higher worldwide revenue the character makes, the higher
possibility of that character being casted as the next Iron Man. Below graph shows each
MCU Film’s worldwide revenue, ranked from the highest to low.

Rank Film Worldwide Revenue Superhero

1~4 Avengers Series(Avengers: $2,797,800,564 Avengers

Endgame, Avengers: Infinity War,
The Avengers, Avenger: Age of $2,048,359,754
Ultron)
$1,518,812,988

$1,405,403,694

5 Black Panther $1,346,913,171 Black Panther

6 Iron Man 3 $1,214,811,252 Iron Man

 7 Captain America: Civil War $1,153,304,495 Captain America

8 Aquaman $1,148,161,807 Aquaman

9 Spider Man: Far From Home $1,131,927,996 SpiderMan

10 Captain Marvel $1,128,274,794 Captain Marvel

11~1 Spider Man 3, Spider Man: $890,871,626 Spider Man

2 Homecoming
$880,166,924

13 Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.2 $863,756,051 Guardians of the

Galaxy

14 Venom $856,085,151 Venom

15 Thor: Ragnarok $853,977,126 Thor

We would have to exclude the Avenger series, since it’s obvious they generate the
most money as they have all the characters appear in the film. Then the next up is Black
Panther. Iron Man. Right below Iron Man is Captain America. Yet we would also have to
exclude Captain America, since Chris Evans, the actor of Captain America, decided to retire
from his role after 8 years.

We were surprised with the result, since it wasn’t Spider Man nor Iron Man, but
Black Panther to kick off the most from the box office. As for the key factor in driving
success for Black Panther, Black Panther represented both a big budget, black led superhero
flick written and directed by black filmmakers and telling a culturally specific African
folktale. It has value in that it was the first movie offered to a fanbase with an explicit interest
in that specific property. It surely was supply meeting the demand. Thus,-----. We expect
another possible candidate as Black Panther. (근데 또 이게 black panther 가 1st black
panther movie 였기 때문에 성공했다고들 하는데 과연 다음에 나올정도로 얘가
파급력이 큰가는 모르겠어서 아이언맨, 캡틴아메리카 제거하고 아쿠아맨 남는데
아쿠아맨도 딱히.. 그래서 또 제거하면 스파이더맨이 남거든요? 어떻게 후보군을
정하는게 나을까요?)

Overall, Marvel acknowledged that they cannot go with Iron Man forever. Therefore,
in order to make long term Marvel series, Marvel has decided to kill off Iron Man and create
rooms for the next Iron Man. For the possible candidates, considering net worth and revenue,
we expect Thor and Black Panther as the possible candidates.
결론에 값 비교할 때 이거 조금 넣어도 될 듯싶습니다(아예 우리가 예상한거와
다르게 로버트가 또 나올 수 도 있는 가능성도 있기는 하다)
Leaving door open for him to reappear in many creative ways
While it seems clear that Tony really is dead, that doesn’t mean he won’t show up in
subsequent MCU films. Robert Downey Jr., hasn’t yet addressed whether or not he’ll
be back to play Tony Stark. Endgame does leave the door open for him to reappear in
many creative ways. First, there’s the fact that he seems to have recorded many
messages for Pepper and his daughter Morgan for them to play back at appropriate
times. Plus, considering how adept Tony is at creating artificial intelligence, there’s
room to speculate that he creates an AI of himself to be Peter’s guide in the Spider-
Man suit. Plus, the MCU has now introduced time-travel as just a thing anyone can
do, so a visit to the past to check in on a younger Tony Stark isn’t out of the question.