The Best Entertainment Era

? During the negotiations, Ronan could clearly feel that Marvel Comics really wanted to continue selling his son. The negotiations with Robert Lee dragged on for so long. I want to sell it for a good price.

In recent years, Marvel can only rely on selling his son to tide over the difficulties, and this time is no exception.

It’s not that there are no other sources of funds, but those who are willing to borrow or invest, the requirements are too harsh, especially for Avi Arad, which may affect his authority and control in Marvel .

But Marvel doesn't have only one path to choose from.

Merrill Lynch is willing to relax the loan repayment time.

In the conference room, Isaac Palmer, Avi Arad’s most important deputy and his most staunch supporter in Marvel, said: “But we need to use the copyright of more than 100 characters under our banner as collateral. During the mortgage period, they own and sell Take away the power of these characters.

It cost us too much, said one executive.

Think about it and know that it is impossible for Merrill Lynch to ask for the copyrights of ordinary characters, and the copyrights of more than 100 well-known comic characters fall into the hands of Merrill Lynch, and it is almost impossible for Marvel to take them back.

Avi Arad didn't speak, just frowning and thinking.

Another executive looked at Avi Allard and Isaac Palmer at this point and said, Can you consider Carl Icahn's capital injection?

Avi Arad's two sharp eyes, like knives, immediately fell on this man.

Isaac Palmer said slowly: Marvel has just stabilized internally. Are we going to let another ambitious person enter Marvel and continue to be in turmoil?

The man wanted to distinguish, but Avi Arad raised his hand to stop him and said, Don't consider Carl Icahn's funds.

Carl Icahn competed with Avi Arad for Marvel a few years ago, and he is Avi Arad's opponent. Isn't it a joke about his own power to introduce his funds?

Isaac Palmer said at this time: There is another way, everyone can discuss it. He said directly: Do you remember what happened last year? Michael Jackson wanted to acquire Marvel, and once came to the door personally .”

Someone reminded: It was Michael Jackson who wanted to play Spider-Man, but he didn't know that the copyright of Spider-Man was no longer in our hands.

Michael Jackson's financial resources were not an issue.

Many people are full of doubts: But he is full of troubles and too many scandals. We accept his capital injection. Will he bring these troubles into Marvel?

This said, many people are shaking their heads. Marvel's internal friction in the past few years has once led to filing for bankruptcy, and it is natural to reject troublesome characters.

Avi Arad said: Michael Jackson is too casual. He said he wanted to acquire Marvel because of Spider-Man. Now that the copyright of Spider-Man is not in Marvel, he has no interest at all. Even if we are interested, if we Introducing his funds, he made some unreasonable demands, what should I do?

Under the decades of hard work by the North American media, Michael Jackson has been demonized.

Thinking of the various rumors about Michael Jackson, everyone spoke out against him one after another.

Seeing this situation, Isaac Palmer said: Ronan Anderson's Relativity Entertainment is the best choice.

The conference room fell silent.

Someone asked: Isn't the price inappropriate?

The price can be negotiated slowly. Someone said.

Another reminded: Authorization is fine, but the situation of Fantastic Four must never happen again.

This series of Marvel sold too badly. Not only did they not have the right to directly participate in the later sharing, even if new related characters appeared in the Fantastic Four comics, the copyright was still owned by 20th Century Fox.

Avi Arad said: We have conducted several rounds of negotiations with Ronan Anderson himself, and Relativity Entertainment has no objection to Marvel enjoying the post-production share.

Everyone else breathed a sigh of relief.

Another person said: Relativity Entertainment's bid is too low, it is better to mortgage the copyright directly to Merrill Lynch.

Relativity Entertainment only needs 35 superheroes and related characters. Someone directly refuted: There are more than 100 superhero characters in the list drawn out by Merrill Lynch evidence!

Avi Arad raised his hand to stop the quarrel among his subordinates, and said: Cooperating with Relativity Entertainment will not only solve Marvel's immediate crisis, but also ensure that we will have income for a long time in the future.

Those who opposed it stopped talking. After all, if they can participate in the film's post-production share, the income is far from the current licensing fee.

Avi Arad added: It's already December, and our debt with Merrill Lynch is about to expire, and it's not an option to drag it on.

At this meeting, Avi Arad unified the opinions within Marvel.

In the next two days, attorney Dinah Upton also came to New York from Los Angeles to join Ronan's negotiating team and participated in the final negotiations between Relativity Entertainment and Marvel Comics, specializing in dealing with some legal issues.

When the base licensing fee came to $30 million, the two parties reached an agreement.

This basic licensing fee is enough to ensure that Marvel survives the immediate crisis, and Marvel also attaches great importance to the later revenue sharing in addition to licensing fees.

Five percent of the box office share is not much! Isaac Palmer said, Our authorized Ghost Rider also gets 5 percent of the movie's box office share.

Robert immediately retorted: Ghost Rider has always been a legendary and magical masterpiece. In Marvel, there is a series of stories dedicated to him in the main issue. Since its creation, it has become a best-selling popular comic in North America several times. Look at it again. In Relativity Entertainment's list, apart from Captain America, which character can compare to Ghost Rider?

If it's Spider-Man, Hulk and Fantastic Four, five percent of the box office share is not too much, but these... He shook his head straight: Hollywood adaptations of movies all set the corresponding share according to the influence of the original. Second- and third-tier works require 5% of the total box office share, which is unprecedented in Hollywood! 3% of the box office profit share is the most reasonable ratio!

Speaking of now, Ronan seldom speaks directly, just waiting to make the final decision.

After several days of splitting, Ronan was not in a hurry. In the absence of competitors, time was not good for Marvel.

Marvel basically sold off their own sons, and even if they wanted to find someone to sell the remaining godsons, they couldn't do it for a while.

This isn't years away after all.

The current Marvel and the Marvel after Iron Man are completely two concepts.

In mid-December, Relativity Entertainment and Marvel Comics finally reached a licensing agreement for 35 superheroes and related characters.

The basic licensing fee is US$30 million, and the purchaser is Sandsea Entertainment Pictures, a subsidiary of Relativity Entertainment. The fee needs to be paid in one lump sum before Christmas.

The most frustrating thing is the negotiation of the later stage of sharing. Nowadays, Hollywood film adaptations, except for new writers or companies with no strength, the later sharing is basically a necessary condition for the adaptation copyright.

Marvel was once cheated by 20th Century Fox, and of course it will not give up the later share.

In terms of box office, the two parties have reached a 5% share of the box office net profit; for offline home entertainment, TV stations and other venue copyright authorization, Marvel enjoys a 20% share; print authorization is 20%...

In terms of film copyright, dolls, toys, hand-made office toys, etc., Marvel enjoys a 30% profit share.

The latter is divided into one settlement per year.

This is also a relatively common ratio for comic-book adaptations in the industry. Marvel was tricked by people in the past two years, and there are various supervision and restrictive clauses in the later sharing agreement.

New Line Films' adaptation of Blade Warrior has received a fairly good response, and it is also one of the cut films with very good commercial revenue.

However, Marvel, as the copyright owner of the original work, only received a pitiful $25,000 post-production share from Blade Warrior.

The contract is very strict. After being cheated by Twentieth Century Fox and New Line Pictures, Marvel will naturally pay close attention to Theory of Relativity and Sand Sea Entertainment.

Ronan has made concessions in this regard. He has no intention of cheating Marvel. This is a win-win cooperation. The agreement signed by the two parties stipulates that for all new comic stories created by Marvel comics related authorized characters, Shahai Entertainment owns Priority adaptation rights, and like X-Men and Spider-Man licenses, Shahai Entertainment has the right to expand movies based on characters.

To put it bluntly, Relativity Entertainment bought not only the rights to these characters, but also the film rights to their comic book universe.

This is the same franchise as Spider-Man, X-Men, Hulk, etc.

Given Marvel's appropriate post-production share, Marvel will continue to create comics about these characters and develop new stories, and Shahai Entertainment can also adapt them based on these.

Like the Fantastic Four in the previous life, Twentieth Century Fox did not remove a penny. In order to keep the copyright, it even made a bad film at random, which caused Marvel to kill the Fantastic Four in the comics directly, and then announced the suspension of publication.

This is basically hurting each other.

In addition, Ronan also signed a supplementary agreement with Marvel on Iron Man.

At present, the copyright of Iron Man is in the hands of New Line Films. Like the previous two copyright film companies, New Line Films is not interested in the adaptation of Iron Man and wants to sell the copyright back to Marvel.

The supplementary clause requires Marvel to assist Shahai Entertainment in obtaining the copyright of Iron Man, and all expenses incurred in the process shall be borne by Shahai Entertainment.

With the signing of the agreement, Ronan got the copyright of the project that is crucial in the future. Even if there are situations beyond his understanding in Marvel Comics in the future, at least it will allow Shahai Entertainment to shoot from Iron Man to Avengers 4 .

The internal chaos of Marvel Comics in the past few years, the financial crisis, the overall depression of the comics industry, the recession of the general economic environment, and the fact that the big hit Marvel adaptation movie has not yet appeared, etc., all these factors combine together to achieve such a good performance. Chance.