*I posted this on my Facebook a few months ago and I have
updated it to include new information that has recently come to light.
I feel like we are in the golden
age of superhero movies. We are at the point where we are getting a handful of
movies based on comic books every year and for the most part they are good
movies. We even have marvel creating a shared universe where characters
introduced in one movie can show up in another’s characters franchise or even
better have several characters show up in a single movie and kick Loki’s butt.
But as you may or may not know some characters, due to their movie rights being
tied up at a different studio are not a part of that shared universe.
Spider-man is at Sony and the rights to Fantastic Four and the Mutants of the
X-men are over at Fox. Disney/Marvel has
the rights to everybody else.
The reason why the movie rights to some of marvel’s most
well-known characters are held by different studios is because in the 90’s long
before Disney bought Marvel the comic speculator boom happened. The boom and
then bust decimated the market and Marvel needed money so they leased the movie
rights to most of their characters off to other studios. Since then a lot of
the movie rights to their characters have reverted back to Marvel. Most of The
Avenger’s line up was at some point at different studios. The rights reverted
back to Marvel because each contract has a set period of time in which a movie
based on the characters in the contract must be in production, or the rights go
back to Marvel. This is to prevent studios from sitting on the movie rights
forever. In other words if no movie is ever made or not far enough in
production the rights go back to marvel. This is what happened most recently
with the movie rights to daredevil last in 2012. The reboot was not far enough
along by October and the rights reverted. This prevented another bad Daredevil
movie from being made at Fox.
So for the movie rights for Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four,
and the X-Men to come back to Marvel one of a few things are going to have to
happen: option one pay the studio that has the rights a ton of money to require
the rights. Or option two wait for Sony or Fox to stop making movies on these
characters because it is no longer profitable to do so. Or option three the
studios drag their feet on making one for too long and the rights revert that
way. It is important to state that the movie rights are in perpetuity meaning
that as long as Fox keeps making X-Men movies and Sony keeps making Spider-Man
movies they can keep the rights.
Make no mistake Marvel will one day get their rights back
and here is how in my opinion I think they will sooner then later. Let me break
it down by group.
The Fantastic Four: Out of all the three sets of rights that
are not at Marvel this is the one that is most likely to go back next. First
the clock is starting to run out of time to reboot this franchise. The last
fantastic four movie was rise of the silver surfer released in 2007. I have
found stories online that peg the amount of time that fox has between movies at
around seven years. This means that Fox needs to get this one off the ground.
The production schedule has been pushed back several times and filming to begin
in the next few weeks but I have not seen more than a director attached, the
casting of the Fantastic Four Dr. Doom and the person that will become mole man
eventually, and a premise that I hope is a bad joke they weren’t even at
comic-con last year. Fantastic Four has a good chance of reverting back to
marvel because the reboot is not all that far enough along in production. Last
I checked you need more than six actors to make a most movies. Also interviews
with the actors indicate that they have no clue what is happening with this
movie. This movie has an announced release date of June 19, 2015. Also The second
way to look at this is that Fox is somehow able to get the movie far enough
along in production to keep Marvel happy I have serious doubts as to the
quality movie. If the movie sucks it will be a big flop at the box office. This
is certainly possible there have been a lot of big budget flops lately at the
box office such as the Lone Ranger, Oblivion, and Red 2 to name a few from Last
year alone. At that point Marvel can come in and negotiate a reasonable price
for the franchise and get the rights back. Or Fox will be reluctant to make
another movie based on the Fantastic Four and the rights will revert back to
Marvel several years later. I do think I should point out that is certainly
possible (Though unlikely)for the Fantastic Four reboot to do well and then
none of this will happen and the rights will remain at Fox for the foreseeable
future. I hope Marvel gets the rights to the Fantastic Four soon because it gives them access to
several great villains like Galactus, Annihilus, and Dr. Doom which could be
great in future Avengers movies.
Spider-Man: Last year Sony rebooted the Spiderman franchise
and has plans for a sequel for next year and another in 2016 and yet another in
2018 as well as spinoffs for the Sinister Six and Venom. Movies are in
production so Spiderman is not going to go anywhere for at least the next few
years. He is also such a popular character that it would take a few billion for
Sony to let go of him. The only way I see the character coming back to Marvel
is due to franchise fatigue. Spiderman 3 made $890,871,626 at the box office.
The reboot the Amazing Spiderman made $752,216,557 so it is possible that with
each sequel Sony will get diminishing returns and after 4 more movies it may no
longer be a safe bet to make yet another sequel. And really what else are they
going to do reboot the franchise AGAIN? At that point it might be a good idea
to sell the rights back to Marvel and let Spidy be an Avenger while giving Sony
part of the gross on future Spider-Man films.
The X-Men: X-Men was really the movie that set off the
modern comic book character adaptation trend in Hollywood. Some of the movies
in this franchise have been mixed it terms of fan reactions and critical praise
and I would love for the X-Men franchise to go back to Marvel after Days of
Future of Past comes out next year. However the X-Men are in the same situation
as Spider-Man the studio is making plenty of money off the movies for now and
are going to keep making sequels until it no longer makes financial sense. Last
year the Wolverine was released I saw it and I did like it. The Wolverine was
number one at the box office the weekend it was released but, it still performed below the studios
expectations. It is possible that we are at the point where the X-Men Franchise
has peaked and that it will start to see diminished returns per movie and begin
to make less money per film in the future. I also think that Days of Future
past may defy this trend due to all the hype around this movie. I am actually
looking forward to it because of the story and the cast. But this movie due to
the use of time travel and a lot of characters could easily turn into a mess
and may keep audiences away from future X-Men movies. And if that is not enough
Fox has said that they would like to do five to ten spinoffs and sequels. As
far I can see it is only a matter of time until fox milks every dime from this
franchise and runs it into the ground. When that happens Fox might be willing
to sell and we can hear the word mutant mentioned on screen in a Marvel movie.
Namor: The movie rights to Namor are a bit weird for years
most people thought that the rights to Namor were at Marvel along with almost everyone
else. However Kevin Fiege the man behind the Marvel Studios movies in an
interview that Namor was over at Universal and the rights to him were
complicated.
Man Thing: Man Thing is another one that is a bit weird. At
last look the movie rights are at Lionsgate entertainment. However it is
entirely possible that the rights to Man Thing have returned to Marvel. Over
seven years ago in 2006 a Syfy Channel movie was made about Man Thing. Other evidence in favor of the rights to Man
Thing reverting is the use of Ellen Brandt (Man Things Wife’s name in the
comics) in Iron Man 3 and Maria Hill talking on the phone about Man Thing in an
episode of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D
So there it is folks the way the rights are at the moment
and how I think they might revert back to Marvel in a hopefully timely manner. Below
is an infographic by the Geek Twins. If
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