Introduction
In 1996, the American screenwriter Joss Whedon founded Mutant Enemy Productions with the main purpose to produce his own TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer (buffy.wikia.com.2017). The series in its first three seasons became such a worldwide phenomenon to generate tie-in products, novels and videogames till the point that Joss Whedon decided to use once again his company in order to produce a spin-off called Angel. These two successful series launched the company in the production business, making it well known for its sci-fi products (Whedon Info, 2004).
The logo embodies the theme of the company: showing a paper cut-out with an animated vampire cartoon that moves across the screen and whose voice is given by Joss Whedon himself (buffy.wikia.com, 2017). According to Whedon, this production screen was created by desperation since, just twenty minutes before the Big Meeting to introduce his company, the founder realized that he needed a logo and he had to draw it in a few moments (TVTropes.org, 2017). The interview released during the first season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer revealed that the name of the company, “Mutant Enemy”, is given after Joss Whedon’s first typewriter that he got at 15 years old (freakylogo.wikia.com, 2017).
In August 1998 Mutant Enemy became an official company changing its name into Mutant Enemy Inc. (Whedon Info, 2004) and in the 2002 it started working with 20th Century Fox Television with which it produced the space western Firefly and the science-fiction thriller Dollhouse in 2009. Located since its foundation in Los Angeles, California, the company moved its own offices from the lot of 20th Century Fox to 21609 Pacific Coast Highway, right after the Angel TV series’ finale (wikipedia, 2017).
The true potential of this production company resides in Whedon’s drive to subvert the rules of the nature. In a world where anyone can be a hero who protects the world from monsters and demons, even women can be heroes (Whedon Info, 2004). Whedon’s passion for the hero-theme pushed him to work on the production of the superhero TV series Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. along with Marvel Television and ABC Studios (buffy.wikia.com, 2017).
The Company Assets
Mutant Enemy Inc. owns the copyright of his very own Internet series Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, starring Neil Patrick Harris as the main character. This series is written by Joss Whedon with the help of his brothers Zack, television writer, and Jed Whedon, music composer (variety.com, 2015).
Mutant Enemy Inc. shares its rights on Buffy The Vampire Slayer with Sandollar Television and Kuzui Enterprises and these two majority partners in 2010 cut off Joss Whedon from a still hypothetical movie reboot of the series. The founder of Mutant Enemy Inc. released a statement to the channel E! Entertainment saying he had always hoped the Buffy series would have lived after his own death but not before that (The Guardian, 2010).
Mutant Enemy Inc. shares many talents with Bays & Thomas Production, the company creator of How I Met Your Mother. Emblems of this cooperation between the two companies are Alyson Hannigan, Cobie Smoulders, Neil Patrick Harris and Alexis Denisof (how-i-met-your-mother.wikia.com, 2017).
Business Model
Mutant Enemy Inc. is a production company specialized in the production of TV series, movies and web series (bloomberg.com, 2017). After producing its main TV series, like Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D, the company sells them to cable networks, such as Pivot and ABC (wikipedia. 2017) In 2013 Buffy the Vampire Slayer reached the cable TV after being acquired by Pivot, the digital cable and satellite TV network, altogether with Warner Bros’ Veronica Mars in order to guarantee the channel a great appeal for the millenial (age 18-34) generation (deadline.com, 2013).
Mutant Enemy Inc, born as a sci-fi production company, has among its competitors Amblin Entertainment, Chernin Entertainment, NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment and the private indipendent Media Rights Capital (prezi.com, 2015).
Revenue Model
Mutant Enemy Inc. has several different ways of income. As a production TV company it can earn money by selling its very own TV shows to cable networks like Pivot or ABC (deadline.com, 2013). These networks are influenced in their decision to acquire these TV shows by the consumer’s positive feedbacks, such as Buffy’s first season approval ratings of 90% on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes and Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D’s first reason approval ratings of 83% (rottentomatoes.com, 2017), as well as by the technological limitations of the system, by the license fees guaranteed by the company, and by whatever the exhibitor owns a role in the network (Wetter. 2017).
Mutant Enemy Inc. earns great part of its profits from the immense marketing around its very TV shows and movies.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer and its spin-off Angel had large following and they were among the firsts TV series to launch the vampire phenomenon and to make it the merchandise gold mine that it is now, worth $10 billion to our economy with books, videogames, Halloween costumes and movies (aol.com, 2011).
An Heroic Future
On the 11th of May 2017 Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D was renewed for a fifth season and Channing Dungey, President of ABC Entertainment Group, stated that “the show has continued to grow creatively every season” and that, with the cooperation of Mutant Enemy Inc, season 5 is going to be even more astonishing (comicbook.com, 2017).
The founder of Mutant Enemy Inc, Joss Whedon, is also currently working on the nineteenth film instalment in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, called Avengers: Infinity War, which is going to be released in the United States on May 4, 2018, and Joss Whedon is going to bring his Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. inside the movie as well (comicbook.com, 2017). Even though Whedon still feels doubtful about the connection between the superhero TV series produced by his Mutant Enemy Inc. and the upcoming Marvel’s Inhumans produced by Marvel Television, ABC Studios and Devilina Productions, when we speak about superheroes nothing is truly impossible. (wikipedia.com, 2017)
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