Marvel Cancelling Fantastic Four Comics to Spite Fox?

[paul747]

Don't for get they are killing wolverine as well.. wonder what inhuman is going to have claws and some new metal from the moon. Wolferine he also has a sonic howl because he is Black bolts lost brother.

[revat]

Even if they cancelled the comics, how does that affect what Fox is doing?? They are going to go ahead and make these movies even if there is no comic, and Marvel will be the ones holding the bag with no books to promote when fans of the new movie come to their local comic book store...

 

It VERY much impacts what FOX is doing. Part of the value of the rights is that there is a popular, well known, ongoing iconic comic series being thrust onto the public month, after month, year after year. Before going forward with a movie, companies take a lot of things into consideration, like recognition of characters, marketing opportunities, cross promotion, etc. Without the comic, that is a large amount of free marketing that will be lost. This is a very 'NOW' world, things that are out of the public consciousness for any amount of time get forgotten very quickly, especially by young people, who are the likely target audience for a FF movie. FOX may decide that without the support of a paper comic and perhaps without additional help from Marvel other than the agreed upon liscencing use, that they can't project enough profits, and will terminate the movie entirely, and consequently their movie rights.

 

I would think that its evident that that is the goal of Marvel -

Make it harder for FOX to make profits from an FF movie, so FOX decides its not worth it to make it. And in not making the movie, the movie rights would revert to Marvel, which can then relaunch the comic series and make FF movies themselves..

[Dr. Balls]

This would be pathetic if true.

If true, it suggests the movies really are the main product now.

 

They have been. As an investor, which would you invest your money in, if you had to pick one? Movies or printed comics?

 

Now you know why studios don't care what nerdy fanboys think. They have those dollars already. ASM2 has passed $700 million as a movie catering to 12 and under kids.

 

Interestingly enough, I invested in Marvel the licensor way back when. I bought my initial Marvel shares at $3.14. Needless to say, many years later, buying those shares was one of the best investments I've made in the stock market. (Those shares were converted over to Disney shares when Marvel was bought.) I'll have to go find out exactly when I made that initial investment, but I suspect Marvel was heavily licensing their characters for movies, toys, etc. I was drawn by the amount of money they would make without any of the risk. I don't believe there was talk about them making their own movies at the time.

 

Was the internet, DVD, CGI special effects, digital age around way back then?

 

I imagine so. I'm guessing I bought the stock sometime between 2000 and 2003.

 

Infancy stage. Windows 98, no advanced CGI yet. No one had the vision to see what was about to happen with digital technology except for Al Gore, who created the internet.

 

If you go back to 2000, you'll see that there were a variety of people who had the vision to do what we are seeing now - technology was not able to provide the user experience everyone wanted. There were plenty of digital comics, and digital comic sites in the early 2000s. There was enough advanced CGI to give us the first X-Men and Spider-man movies along with the second Star Wars trilogy. If you think the year 2000 is the infancy stage of technology, you may need to go visit a few Geocities sites or watch the Generation X TV show pilot to see what technology looked like in the 90s during it's infancy.

[Buzzetta]

I noticed this a year and a half ago and told a few boardies about it. I started picking up a few copies of FF45 as I felt Marvel wanted to replace mutants with Inhumans. I never suspected it would go this far though.

[Broke as a Joke]

Godzilla just came out and did well at the box office without some ongoing comic book pulling people in every month. Seems every year Hollywood reboots some dormant franchise with the intention to make millions of dollars off of that movie.

 

Fox won't bat an eyelash if Marvel stops making Fantastic Four material. In fact they would essentially become the publics only way to get Fantastic Four content.

 

 

[Dr. Balls]

I would think that its evident that that is the goal of Marvel -

Make it harder for FOX to make profits from an FF movie, so FOX decides its not worth it to make it. And in not making the movie, the movie rights would revert to Marvel, which can then relaunch the comic series and make FF movies themselves..

 

I can see the logic in the plan, I just have a hard time thinking that a billion-dollar company is going to do that with so many points of "what ifs" hanging in the balance.

 

I mean: cancel the book so the characters aren't popular then they won't want the characters and then they will give them back to us, then we will make the money ourselves many years from now? I think the diagram of what needs to transpire would look like a Rube Goldberg machine.

 

I do, however, think that the Inhumans are getting pushed because Marvel retains the rights to them.

[rjrjr]

Don't for get they are killing wolverine as well.. wonder what inhuman is going to have claws and some new metal from the moon.

 

The Inhumans are not the X-Men. X-Men have the cool, persecuted for being different vibe that has made them popular over the years. A child who realizes at puberty that they are different, feared by family and friends. This storyline plays well with teenagers. The Inhumans are a sci-fi genetically altered super race that are not feared by family and friends since family and friends are also Inhuman.

 

So, it's likely that Sky from Marvel's Agents of Shield will end up being an Inhuman.

 

[ComicConnoisseur]

Do they really think movie goers are influenced by currently printed comics?

I guess Marvel doesn't feel like its piece of the pie from non-X-Men Fox movies is big enough to justify the cost of "advertising" (publishing Fantastic Four comics)

 

Is their situation with X-Men different?

If I were to guess, it's because the X-Men are much more popular -- both at the box office and LCS.

 

April 2014 Sales Numbers

 

Rank Title Issue Sales

 

14 All New X-Men 25 63,827

17 All New X-Men 26 58,918

22 Uncanny X-Men 20 55,359

37 Amazing X-Men 6 45,095

42 X-Men 13 42,065

60 Fantastic Four 3 34,930

100 Ultimate FF 1 23,316

 

Also, according to the 2013 Yearly Sales, the X-men had two books in the top ten. A Fantastic Four title doesn't appear until #361.

I digged some more.

Fantastic Four 14 $2.99 Marvel 28,800

28,800 monthly readers.

How could Marvel let FF sales get that low?

These are the characters who ushered in the Marvel Age.

 

[rjrjr]

I noticed this a year and a half ago and told a few boardies about it. I started picking up a few copies of FF45 as I felt Marvel wanted to replace mutants with Inhumans. I never suspected it would go this far though.

 

Didn't Marvel pretty much say they were attempting to bring the Inhumans front and center in their publishing plans because they didn't have the rights to use X-Men in their movies? I thought I read this somewhere not on these boards...

 

[Comicopolis]

Do they really think movie goers are influenced by currently printed comics?

I guess Marvel doesn't feel like its piece of the pie from non-X-Men Fox movies is big enough to justify the cost of "advertising" (publishing Fantastic Four comics)

 

Is their situation with X-Men different?

If I were to guess, it's because the X-Men are much more popular -- both at the box office and LCS.

 

April 2014 Sales Numbers

 

Rank Title Issue Sales

 

14 All New X-Men 25 63,827

17 All New X-Men 26 58,918

22 Uncanny X-Men 20 55,359

37 Amazing X-Men 6 45,095

42 X-Men 13 42,065

60 Fantastic Four 3 34,930

100 Ultimate FF 1 23,316

 

Also, according to the 2013 Yearly Sales, the X-men had two books in the top ten. A Fantastic Four title doesn't appear until #361.

I digged some more.

Fantastic Four 14 $2.99 Marvel 28,800

28,800 monthly readers.

How could Marvel let FF sales get that low?

These are the characters who ushered in the Marvel Age.

 

The book has been rubbish for a while - that's why sales are low.

[Chip Cataldo]

I wish Marvel could convince John Byrne to come back to the FF.

 

Then the sales would jump up to a top-seller again.

 

Peace,

 

Chip

[Buzzetta]

I noticed this a year and a half ago and told a few boardies about it. I started picking up a few copies of FF45 as I felt Marvel wanted to replace mutants with Inhumans. I never suspected it would go this far though.

 

Didn't Marvel pretty much say they were attempting to bring the Inhumans front and center in their publishing plans because they didn't have the rights to use X-Men in their movies? I thought I read this somewhere not on these boards...

 

There was speculation surrounding from various comments made on Newsarama and other comic site articles as we have seen the Inhumans get a push as they were involved in all of the Marvel cosmic titles.

[ChrisInBaltimore]

The Fantastic Four comics have not been good in some time. I even thought Hickman's run was pretty awful.

 

It isn't surprising news and it probably has nothing to do with Fox and everything to do with poor sales on the actual comic.

[Bosco685]

I've heard an unsubstantiated rumor that people were wondering around the Marvel offices tearing down X-Men related stuff hanging up because they are pissed at Fox. Would not be surprised if they cancel FF for no other reason than to spite fox (especially because sales haven't been stellar)

 

 

What I find weird about all this is the licensing deals with Fox and Sony is why Marvel is still around today. Those movie deals kept Marvel's doors open. Now Marvel is going to act like a spoiled kid because the studios who made those deals have plans to continue with the movie franchises they negotiated?

 

I'm guessing all this is just a bad rumor. Fox has had the X-Men and FF movies for 14 years now and never in those 14 years did Marvel attempt to kill either franchise.

 

Yes, but then there was the big fallout over the Daredevil movie rights. Fox had Joe Carnahan already lined up to direct the film, who had even created a video of how he wanted to make this film. He wanted the film to have a 70's feel to it.

 

 

But then there were negotiations over Daredevil film rights for Galactus/Silver Surfer film rights, which is when it all fell apart. That's when articles started coming out about the hard feelings between the two companies.

 

Marvel got Daredevil - Fox kept Silver Surfer and Galactus for spite. Elektra is in limbo for now. And they did not live happlier ever after.

 

 

[Dr. Balls]

The Fantastic Four comics have not been good in some time. I even thought Hickman's run was pretty awful.

 

It isn't surprising news and it probably has nothing to do with Fox and everything to do with poor sales on the actual comic.

 

+1

 

I have tried to read it several times on their restarts and I just can't get into it.

[Broke as a Joke]

I wish Marvel could convince John Byrne to come back to the FF.

 

Then the sales would jump up to a top-seller again.

 

Peace,

 

Chip

 

The Byrne run was the last time the FF was interesting to me. Almost 30 years ago now...

[Bosco685]

I've heard an unsubstantiated rumor that people were wondering around the Marvel offices tearing down X-Men related stuff hanging up because they are pissed at Fox. Would not be surprised if they cancel FF for no other reason than to spite fox (especially because sales haven't been stellar)

 

 

What I find weird about all this is the licensing deals with Fox and Sony is why Marvel is still around today. Those movie deals kept Marvel's doors open. Now Marvel is going to act like a spoiled kid because the studios who made those deals have plans to continue with the movie franchises they negotiated?

 

I'm guessing all this is just a bad rumor. Fox has had the X-Men and FF movies for 14 years now and never in those 14 years did Marvel attempt to kill either franchise.

 

Yes, but then there was the big fallout over the Daredevil movie rights. Fox had Joe Carnahan already lined up to direct the film, who had even created a video of how he wanted to make this film. He wanted the film to have a 70's feel to it.

 

 

But then there were negotiations over Daredevil film rights for Galactus/Silver Surfer film rights, which is when it all fell apart. That's when articles started coming out about the hard feelings between the two companies.

 

Marvel got Daredevil - Fox kept Silver Surfer and Galactus for spite. Elektra is in limbo for now. And they did not live happlier ever after.

 

 

Joe Carnahan on his ill-fated 'Daredevil' movie trilogy: I tried to save it

 

“What people don’t realize about the DD project is that the producers of the film got to me very late,” he said. “They had a -script that I read and I thought that while the action was wonderful, the story didn’t really have any additional bite. There was nothing I suggested a trilogy as follows. ‘Daredevil ‘73’ ‘Daredevil ‘79’ and ‘Daredevil ‘85’ where I was going to do a kind of ‘cultural libretto’ and make the music of those eras a kind of thematic arc . So the first one would be Classic Rock, the second one would be Punk Rock and the third film would be ‘New Wave.’ The problem was, the option was almost set to lapse so we made an eleventh hour bid to Marvel to retain the rights for a bit longer so I could rework the -script. Unfortunately, it just didn’t happen. Marvel wanted the rights back. I don’t blame them.”

[rjrjr]

The Fantastic Four comics have not been good in some time. I even thought Hickman's run was pretty awful.

 

It isn't surprising news and it probably has nothing to do with Fox and everything to do with poor sales on the actual comic.

 

Marvel has shelved characters in the past and had mixed results.

 

They've shelved Thor for a while and were successful in bringing him back into his own title.

 

They also shelved Doctor Strange but have not brought him back into his own title.

 

It will be interesting to see if after shelving the characters if they are able to revive any interest in them down the line. Seems to me like a good opportunity for the characters to be lost in the Negative Zone or some such and feel the ramifications of their loss in the other titles. Then, bring them back a year or so from now in some event.

[jaybuck43]

So yea. My understanding is that all images of anything in the marvel office pertaining to fox properties not limited to but including xmen and ff have been removed

[Bosco685]

So yea. My understanding is that all images of anything in the marvel office pertaining to fox properties not limited to but including xmen and ff have been removed

 

The hard feelings go deep between the two companies.