Marvel Entertainment in the context of "Entertainment company"

The Walt Disney Company, commonly referred to as simply Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Founded on October 16, 1923, as an animation studio by brothers Walt Disney and Roy Oliver Disney as Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, Disney operated under the names Walt Disney Studio and Walt Disney Productions before adopting its current name in 1986. In 1928, Disney established itself as a leader in the animation industry with the short film Steamboat Willie. The film used synchronized sound to become the first post-produced sound cartoon, and popularized Mickey Mouse, who became Disney's mascot and corporate icon.

After becoming a success by the early 1940s, Disney diversified into live-action films, television, and theme parks in the 1950s. However, following Walt Disney's death in 1966, the company's profits, especially in the animation sector, began to decline. In 1984, Disney's shareholders voted Michael Eisner as CEO, who led a reversal of the company's decline through a combination of international theme park expansion and the highly successful Disney Renaissance period of animation from 1989 to 1999. In 2005, under the new CEO Bob Iger, the company continued to expand into a major entertainment conglomerate with the acquisitions of Pixar in 2006, Marvel Entertainment in 2009, Lucasfilm in 2012, and 21st Century Fox in 2019. In 2020, Bob Chapek became the head of Disney after Iger's retirement. However, Chapek was ousted in 2022 and Iger was reinstated as CEO.

Robert Alan Iger (/ˈaɪɡər/; born February 10, 1951) is an American media executive who is chief executive officer (CEO) of the Walt Disney Company. He previously was the president of the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) between 1994 and 1995 and president and chief operating officer (COO) of Capital Cities/ABC, from 1995 until its acquisition by Disney in 1996. Iger was named president of Disney in 2000 and succeeded Michael Eisner as CEO in 2005, until his contract expired in 2020. He then was executive chairman until his formal retirement from the company on December 31, 2021. At the request of Disney's board of directors, Iger returned to Disney as CEO on November 20, 2022, following the dismissal of his appointed successor, Bob Chapek. In July 2023, Disney renewed Iger's contract until 2026.

Considered a highly effective and visionary media executive, Iger was able to broaden Disney's roster of intellectual properties, expanded its presence in international markets, and oversaw an increase of the company's market capitalization from $56 billion to $231 billion during his initial 15-year stewardship of the company. He led the major acquisitions of Pixar in 2006 for $7.4 billion, Marvel Entertainment in 2009 for $4 billion, Lucasfilm in 2012 for $4.06 billion, and the entertainment assets of 21st Century Fox in 2019 for $71.3 billion. Iger also expanded the company's theme park resorts presence in East Asia, with the introduction of Hong Kong Disneyland Resort and Shanghai Disney Resort in 2005 and 2016, respectively. He was a driving force behind the reinvigoration of Walt Disney Animation Studios, the branded-release strategy of its film studio's output, and the company's increased investment in its direct-to-consumer businesses, including Disney+ and Hulu.

X-Men is an American superhero film series based on the Marvel Comics superhero team of the same name. It was produced by 20th Century Fox and Marvel Entertainment from 2000 to 2020.

Fox obtained the film rights to the team and other related characters in 1994 for $2.6 million. They first produced the X-Men film trilogy consisting of X-Men (2000), X2 (2003), and X-Men: The Last Stand (2006). After each film outgrossed its predecessor, further films were released, set in the same shared universe. These included three spin-off films centered around Wolverine (X-Men Origins: Wolverine in 2009, The Wolverine in 2013, and Logan in 2017), two films centered around Deadpool (Deadpool in 2016 and Deadpool 2 in 2018), and the spin-off The New Mutants (2020). A prequel series to the original trilogy began with X-Men: First Class (2011), and was followed by X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014), which also served as a sequel to X-Men: The Last Stand and a soft reboot for the series as a whole; the prequel series continued with X-Men: Apocalypse (2016) and Dark Phoenix (2019). In addition to the thirteen films, four of the films received a total of five additional cuts, and two television series – Legion (2017–2019) and The Gifted (2017–2019) – were released.

Marvel Studios, LLC, formerly known as Marvel Films, is an American film and television production company. Marvel Studios is the creator of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), a media franchise and shared universe of films and television series produced by the studio, based on characters that appear in Marvel Comics publications. The studio was founded on December 7, 1993, by Avi Arad as part of Marvel Entertainment Group and has been led by producer Kevin Feige, who has served as its president since 2007. The studio originally licensed the film rights for several Marvel characters before beginning to produce its own films in 2004, and has since regained many of those rights. The Walt Disney Company acquired Marvel Studios' parent company, Marvel Entertainment, in 2009. Marvel Studios was transferred in 2015 to the Walt Disney Studios, which has been a part of the Disney Entertainment division since 2023. Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures has distributed most of the studio's films since The Avengers (2012).

Since 2008, Marvel Studios has released 37 films within the MCU, from Iron Man (2008) to The Fantastic Four: First Steps (2025) and 16 television series since 2021, from WandaVision (2021) to Marvel Zombies (2025). The studio also operates the smaller Marvel Studios Animation division, which developed the television series What If...? (2021–2024) as the first animated property produced solely by the studio. These films and television series all share continuity with each other, along with five short films called Marvel One-Shots produced by the studio that were released from 2011 to 2014 and two television specials called Marvel Studios Special Presentations released in 2021 and 2022. From 2013 until 2020, Marvel Television released 12 television series, which also acknowledge the MCU continuity. These were produced before that company was folded into Marvel Studios in December 2019 and became a production label. Since 2024, Marvel Studios has used "Marvel Television" and "Marvel Animation" banners to release its television and animated projects, respectively.

Disney California Adventure is a theme park at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California. It is owned and operated by the Walt Disney Company through its Experiences division. The 72-acre (29 ha) park is themed after Disney's interpretation of California, by the use of Disney Animation, Pixar and Marvel properties. The park opened on February 8, 2001, and is the second of two theme parks built at the Disneyland Resort complex, after Disneyland.

The concept of a theme park dedicated to California arose from a meeting of Disney executives in 1995, following the cancellation of WestCOT, a planned West Coast version of Walt Disney World's EPCOT Center. Construction of the park began in June 1998 and was completed by early 2001. Disney initially projected high attendance rates at the new park; a series of preview openings held in January 2001 led to negative reviews, however, and after the park officially opened to the public, the company's attendance projections were never met. Disney spent the next several years incrementally adding new rides, shows, and attractions, and implementing other promotions aimed at boosting attendance. In 2007, Disney announced a major overhaul of the park consisting of new expansion as well as re-construction of existing areas of the park. Construction lasted for five years and was completed in stages, culminating with the opening of Buena Vista Street and Cars Land along with the re-dedication of the park in June 2012.

Disney+ is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming media service owned and operated by Disney Streaming, the streaming division of Disney Entertainment, a major business segment of the Walt Disney Company. The service primarily distributes films and television shows produced by Walt Disney Studios and Disney Television Studios, with dedicated content hubs for Disney's flagship brands; Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, National Geographic, ESPN (the US, Latin America, Caribbean, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa only) and Hulu as well as showcasing original and exclusive films and television shows. Disney+ is the third most-subscribed video on demand streaming media service after Amazon Prime Video and Netflix, with 131.6 million paid memberships.

Disney+ relies on technology developed by Disney Streaming, which was originally established as BAMTech in 2015 when it was spun off from MLB Advanced Media (MLBAM). Disney increased its ownership share of BAMTech to a controlling stake in 2017 and subsequently transferred ownership to Walt Disney Direct-to-Consumer & International, as part of a corporate restructuring in anticipation of Disney's acquisition of 21st Century Fox, through which the Star brand was inherited and got retooled as a content platform within the service in some regions, with Latin America having its own standalone service, Star+, until June 26 and July 24, 2024. The Star brand was phased out on October 8, 2025, being replaced with Hulu outside the US except Japan due to the existing Hulu Japan.

The Walt Disney Company, commonly referred to as simply Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California, with Disney’s New York operations, including ABC, are headquartered at 7 Hudson Square. Founded on October 16, 1923, as an animation studio by brothers Walt Disney and Roy Oliver Disney as Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, Disney operated under the names Walt Disney Studio and Walt Disney Productions before adopting its current name in 1986. In 1928, Disney established itself as a leader in the animation industry with the short film Steamboat Willie. The film used synchronized sound to become the first post-produced sound cartoon, and popularized Mickey Mouse, who became Disney's mascot and corporate icon.

After becoming a success by the early 1940s, Disney diversified into live-action films, television, and theme parks in the 1950s. However, following Walt Disney's death in 1966, the company's profits, especially in the animation sector, began to decline. In 1984, Disney's shareholders voted Michael Eisner as CEO, who led a reversal of the company's decline through a combination of international theme park expansion and the highly successful Disney Renaissance period of animation from 1989 to 1999. In 2005, under the new CEO Bob Iger, the company continued to expand into a major entertainment conglomerate with the acquisitions of Pixar in 2006, Marvel Entertainment in 2009, Lucasfilm in 2012, and 21st Century Fox in 2019. In 2020, Bob Chapek became the head of Disney after Iger's retirement. However, Chapek was ousted in 2022 and Iger was reinstated as CEO.