Marvel is making billions and tricking fans into thinking it's all thanks to them

«Endgame» is the most successful movie of all time. Thanks to artificially generated hype.

At the San Diego Comic-Con, the world's biggest comic and pop culture fair, Marvel-Studios president Kevin Feige enters the stage overlooking the 6500-seat Hall H. He proudly announces that «Avengers: Endgame» did it: «Avatar» is beaten. By 500,000 dollars.

Cue the applause. As if a lost caused had been saved at the last second. And the fans cheer as if it were their victory.

Three weeks earlier. «Avengers: Endgame» fans admit «a bitter defeat». «Endgame» had not managed to displace James Cameron's «Avatar» as the most successful movies of all time, despite a re-release. The comic flick is still 18 million dollars short of catching up to «Avatar's» worldwide income of 2.78 billions of dollars.

Beat «Avatar» and watch «Endgame»

Fans are currently celebrating a success that they're not benefitting from whatsoever. Not a cent of the 2.79 billion dollars made at the box office. The opposite, in fact. It's the fans who fill up the studio bosses' coffers and then celebrate that they've done so in the first place. It's as if a bank announced record profits and thousands of customers cheered it on, even though they'll never get anything out of it.

A year ago, while «Avengers: Infinity War», «Endgame's» predecessor, was running in cinemas, a fan was reported to have seen the film over 50 times. A commitment rewarded by the directors, the Russo brothers, with an invitation to the «Endgame» premiere. Such efforts should not go unrewarded. It sends a strong message. «Thank you, you're one of us now.»

The same charade is repeated around the «Endgame» run. However, this time «Avatar» would be defeated. «Whatever it takes» - no matter how, as many fans in a Marvel-themed subreddit chant. It's their battle cry. A quote from the first «Endgame» trailer.

Dozens of times fans flock to the cinema, asking their friends and acquaintances to do the same. Hashtags such as #BeatAvatar or #WatchEndgame trend on Twitter. There's even daily reports on current developments. They hype up the movie. YouTube bloggers with millions of fans spur their followers on. Some even write speeches.

For all of them, «Avengers: Endgame» is the final goal, the crown jewel they must deposit atop the eternal cinema rankings. Their own «endgame», so to speak, which began years ago – back when James Cameron's science fiction fantasy drama climbed to the top position. Numerous challengers, such as «Star Wars: The Force Awakens», «Avengers: Infinity War» or «Jurassic World» didn't even make it near «Avatar» in terms of sales. And if «Endgame» – the culmination of everything Marvel has been building up to the last ten years – can't do it, which movie can?

Suddenly, fans were taking the success of the film personally. A competition that should only really interest studio accountants erupts.

All in this together

This didn't just pop up out of nowhere. Fans become tools. Be this when viewers get invited to premieres. Or when studios make viewers responsible for unsatisfying box office results, as if they were their accountants.

In «Endgame's» case, the corporation behind this brainwashing is Marvel Studios. And Disney, indirectly: the Big Mouse owns Marvel since 2009. When Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige announced the good news at Comic-Con , not a single word was chosen at random:

The way Feige lays it out to fans almost makes them want to immediately go out and buy another ticket to congratulate themselves with. Just what Marvel wants. The studio is breeding a new generation of fans who are so passionately involved that they burst into cheers when the studio is allowed to pocket billions of dollars. As if it wasn't the studio's success but their own: «Have you heard? We beat Avatar.»

Therefore, Marvel's iron will to beat «Avatar» at the box office at any price has nothing to do with the concerns of shareholders. It was never about breaking the record. The point was to get fans to see it as their success. Because as long as they see themselves as part of a team that's largely made up of millionaires, they'll continue to buy cinema tickets.

This in turn pleases the accountants, bosses and shareholders. What a neat little cycle.