Chapter 218： Lack of money to sell his son

The first thing Ronan did when he came to New York was to understand the specifics of Marvel comics. Although Robert Lee often called him to inform him, it was necessary to talk about it in person.

In the living room of the hotel suite, Robert summed up his experience during this period and said to Ronan: "The situation at Marvel is more severe and chaotic than we initially knew in Los Angeles."

Ronan sat on the sofa calmly: "Tell me carefully."

Relativity Entertainment has been in contact with Marvel comics for a long time, and Robert has always been a representative: "From the mid to late 1980s, Marvel began to encounter various difficulties due to the relatively sluggish market environment of the comic industry as a whole. At that time, Marvel’s leadership In order to raise money, Ron Perelman can only publish the copyright of his characters."

"Is our target copyright still Marvel?" Ronan asked concerned.

Robert replied: "Some are there, and some have been sold by Marvel."

Ronan frowned: "Besides Spider-Man and other characters, does Marvel sell anything else? Let's talk about it all."

Robert explained in detail: "As early as 1985, Marvel sold Spider-Man to Cannon Pictures. Later, Cannon Pictures’ chairman Menachem-Glan joined Twentieth Century Fox. The copyright was transferred to Twentieth Century Fox."

These circumstances are a bit beyond Ronan's expectations. Ronan thinks that the copyright of Spider-Man has always been in Sony Columbia's hands.

Sure enough, Marvel was in a bad situation before "Iron Man" was born, and his sons kept changing hands, but there was nothing to do.

Robert continued: "Later, Gran sold the rights to the adaptation of Spider-Man to Columbia Pictures, ready for James Cameron to shoot, and Arnold Schwarzenegger will play Doctor Octopus. But MGM Acquired part of the assets of 20th Century Fox, including the copyright of Spider-Man, but Columbia Pictures insisted that the copyright should belong to them. The final result was that Columbia Pictures obtained the copyright of Spider-Man."

"The way Marvel sells the copyright is to package and sell other characters that are intuitively related to the hero character. All Sony Entertainment has the copyright of other comic characters related to Spider-Man, such as Venom, Doctor Octopus, Vulture, Mystery and many more."

Ronan had previously learned about the sales model of comic copyrights, and said: "This is a conventional authorization method for comic film copyrights. A movie company can't just buy one character, otherwise the movie will not be shot."

He sighed: "The Spider-Man live-action movie. Sony Columbia Pictures has approved the project. We can't get the copyright of Little Spider."

This is no way. Before Ronan came to Los Angeles, the copyrights of many heroes were sold by Marvel, which was struggling to raise funds.

Before the "Spider-Man" movie came out, Marvel's routine operation was to sell his son if he lacked money, and he was the first to sell valuable sons.

It's not that you don't want to sell godsons, godsons are too small to sell, and they don't sell well.

"Marvel is very dissatisfied with the adaptation of Sony Columbia's Spider-Man movie, especially the changes to some of Peter Parker's settings." Robert shrugged: "But the son who sold it is no longer in their charge."

He continued the topic just now: "The Hulk was bought by Universal Pictures as early as 1990, but Universal Pictures has doubts about superhero movies and has not made a film adaptation."

Ronan knows that this is normal. It is not ten years from now. In most people's minds, superhero movies are just niche movies.

In Robert's introduction, Ronan learned that Universal Pictures not only bought the Hulk, but also held the copyright of Namor.

Namor is Marvel's version of Atlantis, somewhat similar to Aquaman.

"And the X-Men." Robert was full of regret, because it was difficult to get the relevant copyrights: "Marvel sold the X-Men's copyright to Twentieth Century Fox in 1994. Since the mid-1990s, Marvel’s situation is very bad, so the copyright began to sell more thoroughly. Twentieth Century Fox not only permanently owns the copyright of all the characters of the X-Men, but also fully owns the concept copyright of the word mutant, and can expand any X war. Police cartoon character."

I don't know why, Ronan suddenly flashed a sentence on the other side of the Pacific Ocean: It doesn't hurt to sell Ye Tian.

Ronan asked, "Where are the Fantastic Four?"

Robert's tone was filled with regret: "Marvel sold the copyright of the Fantastic Four to Constantine Pictures in 1986."

"Constantin in Germany?" Ronan's mind became alive in an instant. If the copyright is in Constantine's hands, he might get it.

But Robert's words let him down again: "In 1999, Constantine Pictures sold the Fantastic Four to 20th Century Fox."

Ronan shook his head. It was difficult to dig out what fell into the hands of the six major companies.

Many things are not because he doesn't want to take action, but because he can't take action.

When Ronan came to Los Angeles, Marvel sold his sons who could sell the price, including Iron Man!

This is the news Ronan is most reluctant to hear.

"In 1990, after Marvel sold it to Universal Pictures Hulk, they sold Iron Man-related characters to Universal Pictures."

Robert glanced at Ronan. This was on the list Ronan gave him. All Marvel's character copyrights ranked first, but things far exceeded their expectations: "In 1996, 20th Century Fox The company also bought the copyright of Iron Man from Universal. In 1999, the copyright of Iron Man was resold to New Line Pictures."

Ronan was almost speechless when he heard what happened to Iron Man. Tony Stark's fate turned out to be so rough.

Poor child, my father doesn't hurt, my uncle doesn't love.

But this situation can be understood by thinking about it. After all, strictly speaking, Iron Man can only be regarded as a second-line hero in Marvel comics. Before the movie appeared, its influence was not as powerful as Spider-Man, Fantastic Four, and Hulk. First-line heroes.

"None of these three companies pays much attention to Iron Man." Robert's words also proved this point: "There is also no idea of ​​filming. It is said that after Xin Xian Pictures purchased the copyright, it was determined that it was a burden. Once contacted Marvel Comics and asked Do they want to take back the copyright."

Reclaiming the copyright is certainly not free, Robert said: "Marvel's financial situation is very bad, it can't raise enough funds, and... they don't pay much attention to Iron Man."

The copyright ownership of the real well-known characters in Marvel comics is complicated. Marvel not only sold the sons, but also allowed the people who sold the sons to resell them back and forth.

Ronan asked strangely: "These companies resell copyrights back and forth. Marvel has no opinion?"

It was his work, and the copyright was allowed to resell in this way.

"Not only does Marvel have no opinion, but he is also happy to see it." Robert's words also refreshed Ronan's understanding of Marvel: "For every copyright transaction, Marvel can withdraw 10% of the copyright fee. ,and so……"

Ronan was speechless for a moment. After a while, he asked, "Has Marvel fallen to this point?"

Robert said, "Yes."

Afterwards, he gave Ronan a detailed explanation.

Since the mid to late 1980s, the North American comics market has been in a sharp decline, and in the 1990s it is facing a cold ice period. The entire comic publishing includes peripheral industries, and the annual output value has fallen to less than 400 million US dollars.

Marvel is one of the three largest cartoon companies in North America. Despite selling so many pro-sons, it still hasn't escaped its fate.

In 1996, Marvel struggled for internal power and finally filed for bankruptcy, and the huge comic empire faced collapse.

But in 1997, Avi-Allard counterattacked and became the new chairman and chief executive officer of Marvel, which temporarily stopped Marvel from falling into the abyss.

According to Robert, Avi Allard is very capable.

Avi-Arad was not a senior of Marvel before. He once invested in a peripheral toy manufacturer. Later, this peripheral manufacturer was acquired by Marvel. Avi-Arad became one of Marvel’s many minority shareholders. After filing for bankruptcy, Avi-Allard saw an opportunity to show his talents, borrowing from banks and cooperating with other institutions, and included Marvel as the new CEO.

Of course, Avi-Allard has not many shares, only 10%, but it is enough to become the largest individual shareholder.

It is a pity that this did not really change the situation of Marvel. The debt that Avi-Allard borrowed was naturally passed on to Marvel. Marvel has still struggled for the past two years.

"Let's put it this way, now that Marvel is so poor that almost the entire Avengers is ready to sell." Robert also felt a little shocking. The seemingly huge comic empire, in fact, strong outsiders, might collapse sometime: "This year, In order to raise funds, Marvel almost reached an agreement with Artisan Pictures. Fortunately, we stepped in."

Ronan had heard Robert talk about it when he called before.

Marvel has several huge debts that will be due at the end of this year It will be very troublesome if they are not returned. It is really impossible to raise funds, and Marvel can only hit the attention of its sons again.

At present, only copyright can be exchanged for funds to solve operational problems under Marvel.

When Robert came to New York, Marvel had just approached Artisan Pictures. Marvel planned to include Captain America, Black Panther, Black Widow, Deadpool, Iron Fist, Ant-Man, Punisher, Humanoid, and Vampire Mobius. The film and television rights including more than ten characters such as, Long Shot, etc., are packaged and sold to Artisan Pictures.

But Artisan Pictures finally did not reach any cooperation with Marvel, in which Robert played a key role.

Ronan didn't have a detailed understanding of how Robert squeezed out the artisan film industry, and there is no need to pay special attention to it, because the result is very good.

With the withdrawal of Artisan Pictures, Marvel has no other way in a short time but to discuss copyright transactions with Relativity Entertainment.

(The copyrights sold by Marvel are real. Marvel’s crisis is not only a problem caused by the comics industry, but also a power struggle between high-level leaders. Interested friends can check it online. The leading super tearing battle)