Yeah, a lot of the studios that have attempted to emulate the MCU seem to overlook and emulate the part where they took 6 movies to build up to a major crossover, all while making sure each and every movie actually had a story of it's own to tell with the connective stuff either being very peripheral (like Coulson recurring in a few of them) or relegated it to post credit scenes.
They all seem way too excited to get to the part where all the money magically appears that they don't take the time to lay any kind of solid foundation.
In this day and age, the best approach for anyone even hoping to attempt something like this is to do everything they can to 1) hide the fact that the movies are connected as much as possible, 2) certainly don't announce that they're making such an attempt, 3) make sure every single movie in the lead up is as good as it can be.
You'll get way more buzz if you develop a fanbase and let them feel like figuring stuff out with any stray clues of connectivity than you would blearing it from the rooftops.
I don't think Feige was saying they shouldn't follow the MCU model -- on the contrary, by saying they shouldn't get ahead of themselves, he was saying they should follow the MCU model. The MCU started out very slowly, doing standalone movies with only loose connections between them, and only gradually established stronger ties. Their priority was making each individual movie as good as it could be, and that made them worth tying into a larger whole later on. But other studios overlook the importance of laying strong foundations and rush into shared universes prematurely, focusing so much on the whole that they neglect the quality of the individual parts. That's what happened with Amazing Spider-Man 2, with the Tom Cruise The Mummy and the abortive shared universe it was supposed to spawn, and to some extent with the DCEU, which rushed into doing flawed crossovers and flailed until it finally just gave up and focused on strong standalones. Their problem was that they followed what they thought the MCU model was, but they forgot how slowly the MCU actually started out. They tried to rush to the payoff without doing the work to earn it. That's what Feige means when he says not to get ahead of themselves.
The only other franchise that's come close to getting it right is is the Legendary MonsterVerse, which laid its foundations with effective standalone Godzilla and Kong films before doing a team-up movie (although that team-up movie was awful).
Perhaps but we still haven't seen any actually work. The subtle, slow burn approach as described by Reverend and Christopher remains the gold standard until we someone else come along with another successful model. But I'm not holding my breath. Studios are too damn impatient for that instant golden ticket.
You're making the same mistake the studios make -- assuming that's all the MCU is, forgetting that it started out more modestly and worked its way up to that. The problem is that the studios keep trying to jump ahead to that stage, and that is not how the MCU did it, it's just how they think it did it because they're not paying attention.
I think the DC Film Universe COULD have actually started WITH Justice League.... yeah, skip the MCU slow build up. Why? Because after MCU showed the interets in comic movies, DC could have run with it. Even though i heard that Spiderman was the most popular comic character to the general public (i.e. merchandising), I really feel Superman and Batman (and even Wonder WOman, for girls), are just as popular, if not more so. Certianly Superman & Batman's orgin stories have been done so many times, you wouldn't even need an intro scene (like the Waynes' death in B v S) or origin (Man of Steel).
Just those 3 would be a draw. Cyborg & FLash would have been good characters to have as the characters to center this movie on... you could build on them to tell the story.
And THEN you do the solo movies... Superman and possibly Batman would have been the automatic next movies thatyou could wisely prepare for during Justice League. ANd once the movie came out, a breakout character (most likely WOnder Woman) could be annoucned soon after Justice league gets released. So as those 3 come out, you have Justice League 2...and in that movie you tweak those seocndary characters to see which of them you could announce the next movie for .
the Raimi SPider Man had enough connections for long time fans to get excited, but new stuff for newer people to get into....showing a clear love for the character.
TV Flash became CW's biggest show , a lot with the anticipation . We had a lot of obvious respect with what came before (casting of JOhn Wesley Schipp), along with wise modenrizations (Cisco Ramon was totally different from my comics intro of him in the comics... but not just me, but my daughters love and connect with the TV Cicso)
What made me hate the Garfield SPiderman was that to me it was an obvious attempt to keep the cash cow going (i.e. the movie mandate for licensing)....and it the previous love of the character was not there.
That kind of blatant greed i think is felt by at least enough loud enough audience to sink these potential franchises... you don't feel the love as you do in many other properties.
Also, they needed a visionary like Kevin Feige who can help conenct the pieces. You do NOT need to have a "thing" like the Infinity Gauntlet / Infinity Stones to tie it together... just make it feel like the same universe like pre Crisis/Secret Wars comics.
Going back to the Spiderverse... is there anyone anymore that has that kinda love? Especially for these Spiderman-related characters? Without that, the Spiderverse will generally fail (excluding the Marvel Studios drived Holland SPider as well as the miles Morales animated movies)
