Marvel Cinematic Universe

1) How many films were there in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) at the time of this article? 22 films

2) How much money have the MCU films made in total according to this article? more than $18.2bn (£13.7bn)

3) Why did Marvel create the Avengers films?  to bring the characters together

4) Who owns the rights to Spiderman and why is the character now appearing in Marvel films? Sony bought them for $7 million. He has been Marvel's most successful character in the cinema industry ever since.

5) Which company owns the rights to the Fantastic Four and the X-Men? After Disney acquired 20th Century Fox, the Fantastic Four movie rights finally reverted back to Marvel Studios

6) Look at the very end of the article. What has Disney announced regarding TV shows on their new streaming service Disney+?  Disney has also announced plans for several new Marvel TV series, including one based on Thor's adopted brother Loki, on their new streaming service, Disney+, so there'll be plenty more Marvel content to watch in future.

Grade 8/9 extension tasks

Read this Guardian review of Black Widow to prepare for studying our first CSP. What did the Guardian think of the film?  For fans of Black Widow and everyone else, this episode is great fun and Harbour could well ascend to spinoff greatness of his own.

Read this BBC feature on Marvel at 80 years old. How has it survived so long and why is the Marvel Cinematic Universe so important to the recent success of the brand? The Marvel Cinematic Universe, spanning 33 movies and counting, is the biggest movie franchise in history, having earned more than $29 billion worldwide.