system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: Why has Marvel made so many movies in their universe while DC has made so few?
gpt
During the 1990's Marvel Entertainment (who owns Marvel Comics) spent the best part of the decade selling off the film rights to their major characters.

Spider-Man and Ghost Rider ended up Sony, Daredevil, X-Men and the Fantastic Four ended up at Fox and the Hulk ended up at Universal. Other characters ended up at other studios, but nothing came of them and the rights reverted back to Marvel Comics without much happening.

After the Blade, Spider-Man and X-Men trilogies, as well as Daredevil, Elektra, Hulk and Fantastic Four 1 & 2 came out, Marvel Entertainment had earned quite a bit of money from selling their control over the film rights to characters, particularly Spider-Man, who earned them more money for even "creative" control, even though not one of them was made by Marvel Entertainment themselves.

To add to this, films that had been unsuccessful, (mainly Hulk at this point) meant they could be bought back. So Marvel Comics came up with a plan to start producing films. They went to Paramount pictures and basically asked for a huge loan in order to release Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk while Marvel *Studios*, a new company, produced them. This big gamble paid off, and Paramount distributed the rest of Phase One of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

However, after the release of Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk, Disney were moving in to buy Marvel Entertainment and all it's subsidiaries (including Marvel Studios). They did, for $4 billion and since then, have allowed Marvel Studios the ability to keep making films.

Marvel Studios is a film company devoted only to making superhero films. They are the only kind of film they can make and as such, they have been lucky enough to be able to make 2 a year, every year.


EDIT- It should be noted that films that were made by other studios are NOT a part of the Marvel Cinematic universe. No Spider-Man film is, none of the X-Men are, Fantastic Four isn't. The other films specified have had their characters relapsed back to Marvel Studios, but they still aren't a part of the MCU until Marvel Studios does something with them.


By contrast, DC Comics is owned by Warner Brothers, and do not have their own separate film studio. Warner Brothers is a HUGE film company that makes a huge variety of films, they made Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, The Hobbit, The Hangover and haven't really needed to rely on superhero films in the same way Marvel Studios is. However, Warner Brothers has seen the success of Marvel Studios, and the CEO has given the greenlight to essentially keep up the pace with the competition and from 2016 will also be releasing two films per year, at least.