Marvel Cancelling Fantastic Four Comics to Spite Fox?

[the authority]

Somewhere there is a comic creator, smiling, now Marvel knows how they felt when they signed over their rights just so they could pay their bills.

 

Haha. I hadn't thought about that. Karma is a mother.

[Ares]

Somewhere there is a comic creator, smiling, now Marvel knows how they felt when they signed over their rights just so they could pay their bills.

 

Haha. I hadn't thought about that. Karma is a mother.

 

Yeah.. Now Disney execs are only lighting cigars with $50 bills instead of $100's

 

[Bosco685]

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 yea

 

Another theory on this stuff is that it's being looked at from the IP angle. Apparently, the licensing deal is that anything being currently created in the comics under the FF & specific characters' title/brand can be used by Fox on an ongoing basis.

 

So, one way of thinking from their perspective would be that it's better to have creators and staff focused on stuff that THEY can use for film/etc, rather than feeding that to Fox at zero additional cost.

 

Again, just a theory. But who knows. The next few months will tell the tale on this issue.

 

 

Someone should write an educational article about this topic.

 

[vane]

Here's a nice little discussion regarding movie rights.

 

 

http://www.comicvine.com/marvel/4010-31/forums/the-marvel-movie-character-rights-and-where-they-a-666672/

 

 

 

[Bosco685]

Here's a nice little discussion regarding movie rights.

 

 

http://www.comicvine.com/marvel/4010-31/forums/the-marvel-movie-character-rights-and-where-they-a-666672/

 

 

I heard there was one on here too. AND, with loads of reference article details.

 

 

Marvel film & TV rights shell game - who owns what?

 

[Bosco685]

The site that did a neat visual breakout of what studios maintain movie rights to characters has Cable and Elektra under the Marvel umbrella as definites. Even Marvel's Kevin F. said he is unsure who has Elektra right now, and at one point was considering a standalone Cable movie as a first generation release back in 2009 until they realized Fox may have this locked up under the X-franchise.

 

What a little mess.

[Conan_Aficionado]

Apparently nobody cares about the fanboys.

[Bosco685]

[jaybuck43]

So does anyone know the actual details of the license deal between Fox and Darvel? Does Disney retain merchandising rights? What percentage of receipts do they get? Interwebs seem hazy on the subject.

 

Both publicly traded companies. Do enough research of their financial filings and it may come up in those.

 

Twenty-First Century Fox, Inc. SEC Filings

 

Walt Disney Company (The) SEC Filings

 

Ah lawsuits are our friend Apparently in 2001 Fox sued Marvel over the TV show "Mutant X", and the court was kind enough to spell out the agreement. Here are the highlights:

Deal was signed in 1993.

Marvel got 1.6 million dollars plus a % of gross revenues We can estimate this % because the lawsuit gives us good info. Apparently after all was said and done with the first X-Men movie, Marvel got a check for $6,000,000. Fox estimated $290,000,000 worldwide in box office plus "tens of millions" in merch and DVD rights lets set the total made at $350,000,000 which would make sense because Fox estimated it's profit at $160,000,000 so 50% of the gross would make sense. Thus Marvel is probably getting about ~ 1.5/2% of gross.

 

Fox got the exclusive right to create, produce, distribute and market theatrical motion pictures based on the "X-Men Property"

 

They share the merchandising rights and revenue

 

commercial tie-in rights, largely belong to Fox

 

Marvel has Publication rights,radio rights, and stage rights

 

animated television series rights, which were held by a Fox (Such a good show!)

 

Marvel apparently owns the live action TV rights BUT! are only able to use them having gained the prior written consent of Fox. This was the cause of the 2001 lawsuit. So basically Fox doesn't have the rights but can make sure no one else has them either, I guess to prevent "brand dilution" from the movies (which makes sense)

 

All rights revert back to Marvel if sequels are not made within a certain amount of time (I think 5 years)

 

The scope of the license to Fox is broad, encompassing any property contained in the "X-Men Universe" of comic books that Fox "may require" in order to create and produce its films, including the right to use Marvel's copyrights and trademarks in such property as Marvel would as owner of such rights.

 

Hope this helps

[chrisco37]

God knows what you can do to make Johnny Storm interesting.

 

 

He's never been (at least to me).

 

I've got a question for some of the guys that would've been around back in the SA. In the early SA, Marvel really seemed to push the Torch. He had (sort of) a solo book (Strange Tales) and he made guest appearances in the early Spidey books (ASM 8, 17). Was the Torch anybody's favorite character? What did you like about him?

 

They always made him a cocky, "hothead". Kind of a jerk. But they also made him the "cool" guy, getting the chicks, etc...

 

[kagenish]

Marvel/Disney could have payed for the FF and get it back from FOX but they didn't which in a way makes me think Marvel didn't know how they would add them to their universe or how to make it a great film.

[ComicConnoisseur]

God knows what you can do to make Johnny Storm interesting.

 

 

He's never been (at least to me).

 

I've got a question for some of the guys that would've been around back in the SA. In the early SA, Marvel really seemed to push the Torch. He had (sort of) a solo book (Strange Tales) and he made guest appearances in the early Spidey books (ASM 8, 17). Was the Torch anybody's favorite character? What did you like about him?

 

They always made him a cocky, "hothead". Kind of a jerk. But they also made him the "cool" guy, getting the chicks, etc...

I would love the original android Human Torch to come back.

 

[ComicConnoisseur]

They should do something dramatic with the book - kill off those annoying kids, separate Reed and Sue, change the Thing back into Ben for a while. God knows what you can do to make Johnny Storm interesting.

I guess Fox now,and not Marvel will be carry the FF legacy forward.

Who knows the new FF movie reboot might be good, as the X-Men: Days of Future Past movie rocked , as well as the latest Planet of the Apes reboot.

 

[Mark 1]

This news and the casting for the upcoming FF movie have me rethinking owning FF 1. This just might kill the franchise for good.

 

 

[kagenish]

This news and the casting for the upcoming FF movie have me rethinking owning FF 1. This just might kill the franchise for good.

 

hell it looks like they are planing to reboot the marvel universe with time run out and maybe it would be a universe with out the FF in it.

[Bropper]

Marvel/Disney could have payed for the FF and get it back from FOX but they didn't which in a way makes me think Marvel didn't know how they would add them to their universe or how to make it a great film.

 

This is what I don't understand. With the deep pockets that Disney has why didn't they make a ridiculous offer for the rights to X-Men, FF and Spider-Man based on the box office of the first several movies? Overpaying to get the rights to key parts of the Marvel Universe would hurt short-term, but in the long-term the Marvel Universe would be unified and the movies that could be made with cross-overs would be unlimited. After Spider-Man 3 and X-Men 3 would have been a great time to make an offer. Maybe they did and offers were refused.

[Bookery]

If it goes it will be back! It's all about the $$$

 

There is no money in comic books.

 

What were the sales on FF again... 28,000/mo.? Times $3.99, minus 55% to the shops, minus Diamond's cut, minus all of their production and personnel costs, it's unlikely Marvel clears $50k per month on the title... probably much less. That's under $600k per year... and maybe much much less. The entire Marvel universe... altogether... over the course of an entire year... won't rake in what a single blockbuster movie does.

 

Audience identification with the FF has nothing to do with the current title(s). What there is is based on nostalgia from my era... when maybe 500,000 copies per month were being sold. If they cancel FF tomorrow, few on the planet would know... or are even aware it's still being published. (I have people wander into my shop all of the time amazed to find out comics themselves are still being published... they honestly believed it was something that passed away a long time ago!).

 

Comics exist today purely to provide a huge working base of characters, plots, concepts, etc., that can be pulled from to produce movies and games. If it weren't for movies/games... comics, other than maybe esoteric independents, would cease to be published altogether.

 

 

[VintageComics]

Ridiculous offers only come with emotional attachment.

 

To buy the franchise back it would take more money than Fox would earn in many years. That's just bad business.

 

And killing the franchise is not going to happen IMO.

 

This is just another publicity stunt by Marvel. Rather than kill a character, they kill a flagship title now. Even if it's an under performing title, it's

[Buzzetta]

Out of curiosity what was the reason behind separating the characters from th regular marvel universe and lending the characters to image artists to produce for a few months in the 1990's?

[ComicConnoisseur]

Ridiculous offers only come with emotional attachment.

 

To buy the franchise back it would take more money than Fox would earn in many years. That's just bad business.

And killing the franchise is not going to happen IMO.

 

This is just another publicity stunt by Marvel. Rather than kill a character, they kill a flagship title now. Even if it's an under performing title, it's

Agreed, plus Fox already has greenlighted a sequel to the FF reboot, so this isn`t going to be a one and done deal with a Fox FF movie. I would expect a trilogy of FF movies by Fox if we go by this article.

 

FOX announces FF sequel 2017!