Marvel Studios, LLC, formerly known as Marvel Films, is an American film and television production company. Marvel Studios is the creator of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), a media franchise and shared universe of films and television series produced by the studio, based on characters that appear in Marvel Comics publications. The studio was founded in 1993 by Avi Arad as part of Marvel Entertainment Group and has been led by producer Kevin Feige, who serves as its president since 2007. The studio originally licensed the film rights to several Marvel characters before beginning to produce its own films in 2004, and has since regained many of those rights. The Walt Disney Company acquired Marvel Studios' parent company, Marvel Entertainment, in 2009. Marvel Studios was transferred in 2015 to the Walt Disney Studios, which has been a part of the Disney Entertainment division since 2023. Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures has distributed most of the studio's films since The Avengers (2012). Since 2008, Marvel Studios has released 35 films within the MCU, from Iron Man (2008) to Captain America: Brave New World (2025); 13 television series since 2021, from WandaVision (2021) to Daredevil: Born Again (2025–present); and two television specials: Werewolf by Night (2022) and The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special (2022). The television series What If...? (2021–2024) is the first animated property produced solely by the studio. It was created by the smaller Marvel Studios Animation team. These films, television series, and television specials all share continuity with each other, along with five short films called Marvel One-Shots produced by the studio that were released from 2011 to 2014. From 2013 until 2020, Marvel Television released 12 television series, which also acknowledge the MCU continuity. These were produced before that company was folded into Marvel Studios in December 2019 and became a production label. Eleven of Marvel Studios' films are among the 50 highest-grossing films of all time. These include: The Avengers, Iron Man 3 (2013), Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), Captain America: Civil War (2016), Black Panther (2018), Avengers: Infinity War (2018), Captain Marvel (2019), Avengers: Endgame (2019), Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019), Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021), and Deadpool & Wolverine (2024); Avengers: Endgame was the highest-grossing film of all time from July 2019 until March 2021. In addition to the MCU, Marvel Studios has also been involved with the production of other Marvel-based film franchises that have grossed over $1 billion at the box office, including the X-Men and Spider-Man multi-film franchises, as well as eight direct-to-video short films with Marvel Animation called Marvel Animated Features that were released from 2006 until 2011. Since 2024, Marvel Studios has used "Marvel Television" and "Marvel Animation" banners to release its television and animated projects, respectively.