The untold story of how Marvel Studios was created straight from the founder who made it happen. David Maisel went from Harvard MBA to CAA assistant to pitching Michael Eisner to buy Marvel for $75 million (and getting kicked out in 5 minutes) to building a $50 billion empire that changed Hollywood forever.

In this rare conversation, Maisel reveals how he convinced a bankruptcy-era Marvel board to let him build a studio with no experience, how he raised $525 million in non-recourse financing, why Warner Brothers let the Iron Man rights expire, and the Mar-a-Lago lunch with Ike Perlmutter and Donald Trump that started it all. Plus: why Kevin Feige was a “battlefield promotion,” what really happened opening weekend of Iron Man, and his new Greek mythology universe with Justin Bieber as Cupid.

SPEAKERS:

  • David Maisel — Founder & Chairman, Marvel Studios; Founder, Mythos Studios
  • Ron Biscardi — CEO & Co-Founder, iConnections (Moderator)

TIMESTAMPS:
1:36 From Harvard MBA to Michael Ovitz’s assistant
2:20 “Employee number 400 out of 400 at CAA”
2:36 Ovitz gets recruited to Disney
3:45 “I love the Disney company — that’s why Marvel’s now at Disney”
4:25 “When you’re working for the king, you can do whatever you want”
4:39 Pitched Eisner to buy Marvel for $75M
5:37 Universal theme park rights blocked the deal
5:56 “If he had said yes, there would be no MCU”
6:05 Marvel’s business: comics and licensing
7:05 “If you finance your own movies, you own 100% of the profits”
7:30 Ovitz gets fired, Maisel leaves Disney
7:49 Broadway success — won a Tony for “Fosse” in 1999
8:00 Working with Ari Emanuel starting Endeavor
8:49 “I’ll create my own studio and make myself chairman”
9:30 The sequel business is statistically predictable
9:44 “If your first movie works, you have 100 movies that follow it”
10:10 Owned Marvel stock, watched it go bankrupt
10:49 “It took me about 5 minutes to approach Marvel”
10:55 “I had never made a movie and my last name wasn’t Spielberg”
11:09 Lawyer introduced him to Ike Perlmutter
11:31 Ike Perlmutter and Trump’s friendship
11:37 “Invited to Mar-a-Lago in 2003”
11:43 Two-hour lunch with Ike and Trump
12:35 “Without that offer, we wouldn’t have Marvel Studios”
12:53 Convincing the board for 10 years
13:06 Started as president, ended as founder/chairman and co-CEO
13:35 “Nobody really believed in it”
14:31 “I had delusional optimism — it’s part of my nature”
14:34 How long to make Iron Man?
14:45 The 2004 bond bubble enabled $525M non-recourse financing
15:57 “Even if the movie failed, we were making $30-40M per movie”
16:02 Warner Brothers had Iron Man rights for 8-9 years
16:18 “They let the rights expire”
16:49 “Tony Stark — there’s not a movie without the man in the armor”
17:25 “A guy at Paramount said yes”
17:57 Kevin Feige: “Battlefield promotion to be my right-hand person”
18:08 “Creating a studio with me and some kids”
18:10 Stock went down for 5 years — biggest short position on Wall Street
18:58 “Iron Man was predicted to do $35 million”
19:05 “Eventually did $105 million”
19:11 “10 PM Friday, I knew all the dominoes should fall”
19:22 $600 million worldwide gross in 2008
19:27 “Superman this past year did $600 million in 2025”
19:35 Warner Brothers / Paramount / Netflix battle
20:56 “Warner Brothers is resistant to Paramount”
21:00 “Marvel is worth about $50 billion within Disney now”
21:27 Steve Jobs/Pixar, Reed Hastings/Netflix, Maisel/Marvel
21:55 “They could have bought Marvel — I would have sold for $500M”
22:31 Warner Brothers stock went from 30-40 down to 7
22:55 David Ellison’s bid, Netflix’s bid
23:43 “I made a secret deal with Bob Iger one-on-one”
26:52 “Whoever wins will eventually get it approved”
27:00 DC Comics is part of the deal
27:19 “They haven’t figured out their own MCU in 20 years”
28:47 “Batman, Superman, Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings — 50% of their hits”
28:57 “Hollywood lacks business rational thinking”
29:03 What’s David working on now?
29:10 “I sold to Disney to force myself to go do other things”
29:30 Angry Birds movie — self-financed, got Rovio a billion dollar IPO
29:48 Mythos Studios — Greek and Roman mythology as MCU universe
30:24 “Marvel would become a mythology for the world”
31:38 Raising $250M for three films