The Rebooted "Keep Hope Alive" (that the rights can revert back to Marvel) Thread - - - - - - - - - - Part 19

[Detective Conan]

Comcast getting Sony would be a nightmare scenario imo. They would likely take Spider-Man away from the MCU and reboot him a third time.

 

[Big Bang]

If Comcast loses, maybe they should just go after smaller studios. Go after Sony, Paramount, MGM etc.

I don't doubt that they will. They'll almost have to do something, and at the moment the likely candidate would be Viacom given how CBS wants nothing to do with them, and several parties would prefer to see them gone.

 

[Willie Lumpkin]

Doesn’t Comcast own CNBC? lol.

Yep. And I do have that in the back of my mind when I watch. They're probably the most reliable source out there, but there could be small, subtle ways their bias comes through - even if they're not overtly aware of it themselves.

 

[Chip Chipperson]

Comcast getting Sony would be a nightmare scenario imo. They would likely take Spider-Man away from the MCU and reboot him a third time.

oh god I never even thought of that possibility

pls no

 

[Chip Chipperson]

What's the point if it's not good though?

I'm just saying that under the assumption that it is good

 

[MasterCat]

It'll be interesting to see how fast an X-Men reboot happens. There were exactly 24 months between Amazing Spider-Man 2 and a completely different Peter Parker showing up in an MCU film. That suggests a willingness to reboot characters in Dark Phoenix as soon as May 2021.
In that context, it's interesting to note that Wolverine will be the major character with the longest "rest."

 

[Iceman]

I'm just saying that under the assumption that it is good

Oh right, of course then

 

[Spiderine]

It'll be interesting to see how fast an X-Men reboot happens. There were exactly 24 months between Amazing Spider-Man 2 and a completely different Peter Parker showing up in an MCU film. That suggests a willingness to reboot characters in Dark Phoenix as soon as May 2021.
In that context, it's interesting to note that Wolverine will be the major character with the longest "rest."

The difference is they don't have to rush anything regarding the Xmen. They would flat out own it unlike Spidey.

 

[Iceman]

It'll be interesting to see how fast an X-Men reboot happens. There were exactly 24 months between Amazing Spider-Man 2 and a completely different Peter Parker showing up in an MCU film. That suggests a willingness to reboot characters in Dark Phoenix as soon as May 2021.
In that context, it's interesting to note that Wolverine will be the major character with the longest "rest."

I think an X-Men film is a considerably bigger undertaking than a Spidey or F4, especially when trying to place it in a mature MCU universe with a lot of existing history. For that reason I think the gap would be longer, although that wouldn't have to stop them dropping cameos in as soon as they wanted.

 

[Comicbookguy339]

The difference is they don't have to rush anything regarding the Xmen. They would flat out own it unlike Spidey.

Yeah. I also think it's not wise to rush it. Feige can easily get another 6 years out of the characters he already has. The FF and X-Men could be used to reinvigorate the MCU down the line when business starts to slow down.

 

[Dark Raven]

If Comcast loses, maybe they should just go after smaller studios. Go after Sony, Paramount, MGM etc.

If Comcast loses, they should go after Brian Roberts.

 

[MasterCat]

I think an X-Men film is a considerably bigger undertaking than a Spidey or F4, especially when trying to place it in a mature MCU universe with a lot of existing history. For that reason I think the gap would be longer, although that wouldn't have to stop them dropping cameos in as soon as they wanted.

I think there's a time crunch when it comes to introducing Magneto, but that obviously doesn't require a full X-Men film. It would be nice to see a take on Eric where he's not a Mutant supremacist yet because all the active Mutants on Earth could still fit at his dinner table.

 

[ADollarADay]

I don't doubt that they will. They'll almost have to do something, and at the moment the likely candidate would be Viacom given how CBS wants nothing to do with them, and several parties would prefer to see them gone.

My guess, if they were to stay on content, would be Lionsgate and/or a major game company like Activision. I would guess they would go for international growth, something like Vodafone.

I think we'll probably hear about CMCSA's counterbid in the next few days so. My guess is they'll go to $45/share (~84B).

 

[Willie Lumpkin]

All I want is the rights locked down. Beyond that, I can be patient as things play out.

 

[Kahran Ramsus]

Comcast getting Sony would be a nightmare scenario imo. They would likely take Spider-Man away from the MCU and reboot him a third time.

That would suck.

 

[ironwez20]

All I want is the rights locked down. Beyond that, I can be patient as things play out.

This. Don’t care how long it takes I just want the rights locked down. The movies can come whenever

 

[Willie Lumpkin]

There seems to be a general feeling that, if Comcast got Fox or Sony, their relationship is so bad they’d make films out of spite, but I kind of wonder if it would go the other way.

Making X-Men or Spider-man films would require a long-term partnership. They’d have to work with Marvel at least a little bit, write them checks for their shares of box-office, and they’d be promoting characters that Marvel could then profit from with toys, T-shirts, comic books etc.

If Comcast really hates Disney as badly as some say they do, I can imagine them not wanting to have anything to do with them and selling the rights so they don’t have to work with Marvel for the next 20 years.

 

[Marvel united]

If Comcast got Sony, they would not reboot because 1) Marvel Studios would be putting money into their pocket 2) it would fail because Spider-Man is now part of the MCU in the public consciousness. Pulling him out would do major damage to the franchise

 

[Flint Marko]

Comcast getting Sony would be a nightmare scenario imo. They would likely take Spider-Man away from the MCU and reboot him a third time.

That would suck but at this point I’m convinced that if Spider-man were to be rebooted again any time soon, by either Comcast or Sony, it would A) be terrible (because everyone in Hollywood making superhero movies without Fiege is making way more crap than anything worthwhile) and B) be outright rejected by audiences and wouldn’t last longer than a movie or two.

You know, as a huge Marvel fan I couldn’t be happier about the unprecedented success of the MCU. But there’s a bittersweet nature to it all, because two of my favorite properties were Spider-man and the FF and those are by far the comic characters with the most tumultuous live-action history. I’m really hoping Sony and Marvel stay in good graces, and all the marvel properties eventually come back home where they belong.

 

[Detective Conan]

If Comcast got Sony, they would not reboot because 1) Marvel Studios would be putting money into their pocket 2) it would fail because Spider-Man is now part of the MCU in the public consciousness. Pulling him out would do major damage to the franchise

1. Comcast would not care at all. Even though their Monsters Universe crashed & burned they still have lucrative properties that they rake billions of dollars out of which they maintain full control to like the Fast & Furious and Jurassic Park franchises. Heck, both of the last installments in those respective franchises made more than any Spider-Man movie-- Sony doesn't have that safety net which is a large reason they even did the deal with Marvel in the first place.

2. Comcast still would not care to keep the deal with Marvel even if a possible Non-MCU Spider-Man film does under-preform because the blood is indeed quite bad between Disney and Universal. They still refuse to fork over the Hulk distribution rights to Disney which is one of the big reasons there hasn't been a solo Hulk film since 2008.

 

[2kt09]

1. Comcast would not care at all. Even though their Monsters Universe crashed & burned they still have lucrative properties that they rake billions of dollars out of which they maintain full control to like the Fast & Furious and Jurassic Park franchises. Heck, both of the last installments in those respective franchises made more than any Spider-Man movie-- Sony doesn't have that safety net which is a large reason they even did the deal with Marvel in the first place.

Sony deals with them and has these other Spidey-related movies because they forked over the merchandising rights. There's additional payments made to them if the co-produced movies make a certain amount.

 

[Detective Conan]

Sony deals with them and has these other Spidey-related movies because they forked over the merchandising rights. There's additional payments made to them if the co-produced movies make a certain amount.

I will definitively say that had Sony not given Disney the merchandising rights back(which is an extremely stupid move in hindsight — way, way, more stupid than refusing to pay 25 million for Marvel characters that were at the time considered ‘low tier’ characters) then Spidey would not be in the MCU right now. That I am certain of.

 

[wobbly]

Maybe when Disney renegotiated the deal with Sony for Spider-Man they put in a provision that would stop the licence transfering to a new (potentially hostile) corporate owner.

We know Marvel didn't consider studio ownership change when they made the original deals, but I like to think Disney would have sought a condition on that issue when they had a chance to alter the deal.

 

[Detective Conan]

Maybe when Disney renegotiated the deal with Sony for Spider-Man they put in a provision that would stop the licence transfering to a new (potentially hostile) corporate owner.

We know Marvel didn't consider studio ownership change when they made the original deals, but I like to think Disney would have sought a condition on that issue when they had a chance to alter the deal.

Or perhaps one of the stipulations that Disney agreed to in order for them to buy the merchandise from Sony(the dumbest thing Sony ever did which is way, way more dumber than refusing to pay 25 million dollars for characters considered at the time to be ‘low tier’ is sell off the toy rights) is that the film rights be transferable in case of a buyout. Disney might have agreed to that since the real money isn’t in the movies but the merchandise.

Case in point: In 2014, Spidey took in more money in merchandising than all the other superhero characters did(even the Avengers). Literally 1.3 billion dollars — so there is a strong possibility that Disney may have agreed to a deal that would allow for film rights to be transferable in exchange for an aspect of Spider-Man where the real money lies which is the toys. There’s no way The Mouse(the merchandising king BTW) would view the film rights as more valuable than the merchandising. No way.

So sorry to burst your hopes, there but I’d say it’s very likely the Spidey film rights are transferable.

 

[MbJ]

I will definitively say that had Sony not given Disney the merchandising rights back(which is an extremely stupid move in hindsight — way, way, more stupid than refusing to pay 25 million for Marvel characters that were at the time considered ‘low tier’ characters) than Spidey would not be in the MCU right now. That I am certain of.

The low tier thing I can understand and it seemed to affect most of Hollywood, not just Marvel. Aside from a scattered few attempts like Jonah Hex or Green Lantern, WB is only just now finally milking characters other than Batman and Superman for their movies, and while it seems insane to think about now, most of the Avengers were considered second bananas to the X-Men for much of the 90s.

Merchandising? Yeah. That was just dumb. Even when the movies themselves underperform, Spider-Man toys can always be counted on to bring in some cash.