Kevin Feige Honored as Pioneer of the Year as Dinner Raises $1.9M

The Will Rogers Motion Picture Pioneers Foundation raised $1.9 million at its Pioneer of the Year dinner honoring Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige on Wednesday night — the event's biggest haul in more than 20 years. Foundation president Lisa Burnell, who is also President of Distribution at Focus Features, announced the figure at the close of the dinner at the Beverly Hilton hotel, with proceeds going to the Will Rogers Pioneers Assistance Fund, which supports individuals in motion picture distribution and exhibition facing illness, injury or life-changing events.

Much of the evening's tribute centered on Feige's box-office record. Todd Vradenburg, President and CEO of Cinema Association and Co-Chairman of the Pioneers Assistance Fund Committee, laid out the numbers: Feige's productions have grossed over $35 billion, making him the most successful producer of all time. Of the 38 films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe he oversees, 12 have crossed $1 billion and three have passed $2 billion, with an average gross of $900 million per film. "No one deserves this award more than you do," Vradenburg said.

Burnell opened the speeches by noting that "Avengers Endgame: Encore" went No. 1 at the box office the past weekend, taking in over $26 million.

Chris Pratt brought the personal history. The "Guardians of the Galaxy" star described his long road into the MCU. "Kevin and I, we go way back. I auditioned for this man, honestly, probably seven or 8,000 times before he said, 'You know what? This guy just might be able to act,'" he joked. "Either that or he just really needed the third Chris to complete the set."

Pratt revealed he had sworn off auditioning for Marvel after failed attempts at Captain America and a role among Thor's Asgardian companions. He finally landed Star-Lord after MCU casting director Sarah Finn tricked both him and director James Gunn into a meeting — with Feige present. "What I appreciate the most about Kevin isn't just that he gave me the opportunity, it's that he gave me the opportunity when it wasn't necessarily obvious to everyone else," Pratt said. "That's what great producers do. They don't just see what's in front of them. They see potential. They convince everyone else to believe in it too."

Jon Favreau, who directed "Iron Man" and became the first filmmaker to work in the MCU before Marvel even had a studio home, followed with stories from what Feige had given him as a "career-defining" opportunity. He recalled Oscar winner Jeff Bridges, who played the villain in "Iron Man," as a calming presence on the set of their very expensive independent production.

The tension came later, in the editing room. "Kevin would always be the guy who would come in, I'd be working on the scene, getting the jokes to work. He'd be like, 'You don't need that. Cut that. Cut that line. The scene's too long. We're lingering too much on that,'" Favreau said. He called his own cuts "luxurious" and joked: "And I would just turn to him and I would say to him, 'Why do you hate movies?'"

Favreau conceded the point in the end. "And eventually, of course, we end up trimming everything. But not because he forced me to, but because he was right," he said. "I learned later that you've got to keep things moving. You can't be too indulgent when you're making movies. You're not only just making it for yourself to enjoy, but it's for the audience. You want them to experience something good."

Referencing the continued success of films like "Spider-Man: Brand New Day," Favreau quipped that casting himself as Iron Man's bodyguard Happy Hogan was "the best thing I ever did" and "maybe Spider-Man will remember me."

The program also featured a Tiki band playing Marvel scores, introduced on behalf of "The Fantastic Four: First Steps" composer Michael Giacchino, who was absent due to illness, and a clip package of MCU stars — Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Hayley Atwell, Chris Hemsworth, Paul Bettany, Hailee Steinfeld, Pedro Pascal and Vanessa Kirby — plus words from Louis D'Esposito, Feige's co-president at Marvel Studios.

Accepting the award, Feige called Favreau the Godfather of the MCU, crediting him "not just making the great movies he made for us, but helping teach us how to make movies, and not kicking us out of the cutting room when we made suggestions, and that notion of collaboration."

He thanked Pratt, Giacchino, the foundation and the late Will Rogers himself, then addressed the room: "I'm honored to be in this room tonight with so many people who champion theatrical exhibition. That is very distinct. I've talked a lot over the years about how filmmaking is a collaborative medium. People say it takes a village. If you look at the end credits of the Marvel Studios movie, it takes a fairly large city. But the final crucial part of that collaboration is the audience." He continued: "Movies are an invitation to experience a story together. When a film connects, when a crowd is cheering and laughing and crying together, that shared emotion is the final step that completes the movie. That's the real movie magic."

Feige called theatrical exhibition "so vital to our culture and our humanity," with a shoutout to his hometown theater, the Rialto in New Jersey, before turning to what's next: "Avengers Doomsday" arrives in theaters December 18. "The Marvel mythology is ripe for storytelling. It's so rich. It is, and you can look this up, the longest running fictional narrative in history. And 'Doomsday' is only our 39th movie," Feige said. "We've still got a lot of stories to tell. A lot of movies to make."