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.

During what is known as Marvel's "Timely era", Captain America was licensed out to Republic Pictures for a 1944 serial film only for the free advertising.

From 1986 to 1996, most of Marvel's major characters were optioned, including the Fantastic Four, X-Men, Daredevil, the Hulk, Silver Surfer, and Iron Man.

As part of the deal, Marvel licensed the rights to Captain America, Daredevil, and Silver Surfer to be on the Fox Kids Network and produced by Saban.

Filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to raise money to finance the new corporation, Marvel, Isaac Perlmutter's Zib, Inc. and Avi Arad sold ToyBiz stocks.

Under Calabrese and Arad, Marvel sought to control pre-production by commissioning scripts, hiring directors, and casting characters, providing the package to a major studio partner for filming and distribution.

"[12] Marvel Studios arranged a seven-year development deal with 20th Century Fox to cover markets in the United States and internationally.

[30] Marvel's Captain America animated series with Saban Entertainment for Fox Kids Network was set to premiere in late 1998.

[35] Blade and X-Men demonstrated that widely popular films could be made out of comic book characters not familiar to the general public.

[36] Leading up to X-Men's release, Marvel Studios negotiated a deal with then-functional Artisan Entertainment, successful with the low-budget The Blair Witch Project, for a co-production joint venture that included rights to 15 Marvel characters including Captain America, Thor (as a television series), Black Panther (with Snipes attached to produce and star), Deadpool, Iron Fist, Morbius, the Living Vampire, Longshot, Power Pack, Mort the Dead Teenager, Ant-Man,[37] and the Punisher.

[41] In January 2003, Marvel, the Sci-Fi Channel, and Reveille Productions agreed to develop two pilot films based on Brother Voodoo and Strikeforce: Morituri.

Marvel received $525 million to make a maximum of ten films based on the company's properties over eight years, according to the parameters of the original deal.

Those characters were Ant-Man, the Avengers, Black Panther, Captain America, Cloak & Dagger, Doctor Strange, Hawkeye, Nick Fury, Power Pack, and Shang-Chi.

[63] Following the successful opening weekend of Iron Man in May 2008, Maisel had his contract extended through 2010 and Feige was promoted to president of Marvel Studios.

[73] In April 2010, rumors circulated that Marvel was looking to create $20–40 million films based on properties such as Doctor Strange, Ka-Zar, Luke Cage, Dazzler, and Power Pack.

[74] Feige responded by saying, while budgets are generally never discussed early in development, Marvel was considering films for all characters mentioned in the rumor, except Dazzler, whose rights were at Fox.

[83][84] In September 2014, TNT acquired the cable rights for Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), Captain America: Civil War (2016), and three other films, to air on the network two years after their theatrical releases.

Despite this, Alonso continued to promote the film following its September 2022 premiere, and was consistently reminded of her agreement and breach of contract, ultimately leading to her firing.

[102] Alonso's lawyers refuted this claim, stating Disney was aware of, and agreed to, Alonso's work on Argentina, 1985, and that she was instead "silenced[... and] was terminated when she refused to do something she believed was reprehensible";[104] this incident was reported to be a disagreement with a Disney executive over the censoring of gay pride elements in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023) to release the film in Kuwait and comply with its restrictive anti-LGBTQ laws.

[105][106] A Disney spokesperson reiterated the notion that she was fired due to "an indisputable breach of contract and a direct violation of company policy" among other "key factors".

[107] Also at the time of Alonso's firing, criticism from VFX workers was noted,[103] who had raised complaints of Marvel's "demanding post-production schedules".

[112] Marvel had licensed out the film rights to many of its characters to other studios in the 1990s, starting with the X-Men,[24] the Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, and Daredevil, which were followed by Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, the Hulk, Ant-Man and the Wasp, Black Widow, Luke Cage, the Punisher, Blade, Ghost Rider, Man-Thing, Black Panther, Deadpool, and Prime, among others.

As part of the deal, Sony Pictures would continue to finance, distribute, own and have final creative control of the Spider-Man films.

[120] In March 2023, Citigroup financial analyst Jason Bazinet felt Disney may try to include the distribution rights to the Hulk and Namor in any potential sale of the streaming service Hulu to Comcast, the owner of Universal Pictures through NBCUniversal.

[179] Starting with the release of Spider-Man in 2002, Marvel Studios introduced its "flipbook" production logo, created by Imaginary Forces.

Feige added that they "didn't want to re-invent the wheel [with the new logo], but we wanted it to feel bigger, to feel more substantial, which is why it starts with the flip, but suddenly it's more dimensional as we go through the lettering and it reveals itself with the metallic sheen before settling into the white-on-red, well known Marvel logo, with the added flourish of the arrival and the announcement of the Studios at the bottom of the word Marvel.

"[191] The new logo appeared on all subsequent studio productions set within the Marvel Cinematic Universe through Captain America: Civil War.

In July 2016, another new logo and opening were introduced, featuring an updated fanfare, composed this time by Michael Giacchino, who first worked with Marvel Studios on the score to Doctor Strange (2016).

Feige specifically requested Perception "to combine the brand and the iconic characters into a single image, showcasing the heroes within the letterforms of the Marvel logo."

[198] Similarly, the logo was retroactively modified for the Disney+ version of Black Panther (2018) in honor of Chadwick Boseman, who died on August 28, 2020.