In 2005, Marvel changed its mind in the economy: it decided to enter film production and make films on its own and based on Marvel characters. These include the Avengers team classic, which typically includes Captain America, Iron Man, Hulk, Thor, Black Widow, and Hawkeye. In the comics, the Avengers also occasionally unite with Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four, and the X-Men to bring the world back to order. But Marvel was not allowed to shoot the films around some of its characters, because such rights had already been granted to other film studios. For example, to make a movie about Spider-Man, Marvel would need permission from Sony. The rights around Spider-Man have long been disputed, at least since 1985. For many years, there was mostly between Marvel and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Inc., who claimed to have acquired the film rights to studios that have not operated since. Eventually, the courts in that round ruled that Marvel owned the film rights to Spider-Man. Subsequently, in 1999, Marvel decided to license Spider-Man to Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc.
(owned by Sony Picture Entertainment). Sony then released a series of films (2002, 2004 and 2007) around the character. The Marvel Universe is made up of a fantastic selection of iconic characters. While most marvel superheroes have their own comic book and plot, their lives often intertwine with the Marvel Universe, where they all coexist. Sometimes there is a big event in the Marvel Universe that pushes superheroes to take collective action to save the Earth, the Universe, or itself. In the comics, the team known as «The Avengers» – which regularly includes Captain America, Iron Man, Hulk, Thor, Black Widow and Hawkeye – often rubs shoulders with Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four, and the X-Men to fight a common enemy (and sometimes even each other) at large crossover events. Adapting these cross-comic book stories into an action movie would be a challenge for Marvel, not only because of the previous focus on licensing its characters in major film studios. For example, Marvel Spider-Man was licensed to Sony Picture Entertainment in 1999; the hulk character from Universal Pictures, which released Ang Lees Hulk in 2003, and the film rights to the characters that can be seen in the 2000 X-Men and 20th Century Fox films Fantastic Four (released in 2005). 20th Century Fox still has a license for the characters that can be seen in these movies. As the owner of the IP rights to its creative works, Marvel has been able to harness the commercial value of its superheroes through a series of cost-effective licensing agreements.