The MCU would never have existed and the cinema landscape would probably look very different today. Because in the nineties Marvel wanted to give away the film rights to all its characters.
The Wall Street Journal recently took an in-depth look back at the rise of Marvel in its podcast “The Journal.” How did the comic book publisher, once on the verge of bankruptcy, become a movie powerhouse that produced rows and rows of hit movies? In the process, the people behind the podcast also elaborated on how lucky Marvel was. Because the studio itself actually wanted to sell off all the rights that later ensured its current success. The company would never have been able to make the big hit films about the Avengers.
In the nineties, Marvel was facing the end. Ike Perlmutter and Avi Arad, who came from the toy business and had just been put in charge of the company, urgently needed money. One idea for that: movie rights. While Fox already had the rights to the X-Men and Fantastic Four, Sony showed interest in Spider-Man.
EX-SONY NEGOTIATORS STILL APPALLED TODAY: “I THOUGHT THEY WERE IDIOTS “
In the podcast, Yair Landau, who was working for Sony at the time, recalls the negotiations. He says Marvel approached him and offered that Sony could secure the rights to any Marvel characters not already owned by Fox. A soon-to-be-negotiated deal called for Sony to immediately transfer $25 million to Marvel and then be allowed to make a total of 25 films – with a completely free hand in choosing the hero*es: “Every single character they controlled was part of that deal,” Landau said.
Thrilled with his negotiating success, Landau went to his bosses … and was rebuffed. “I was told, ‘Nobody cares about anybody but Spider-Man,'” he says, summing up the fact that Sony didn’t think they could make successful theatrical films with characters like Iron Man, Captain America, Thor and company.
Landau was horrified: “I thought they were idiots,” he has unflattering words for his bosses at the time. But their mandate was clear: “My instructions were to go back and just get Spider-Man. “
According to Landau, Marvel was actually really upset at the time that Sony only wanted Spider-Man. The talks were broken off for the time being. There were no more negotiations for several months. But Marvel needed money, Sony wanted to make “Spider-Man” movies. So at some point it went back to the negotiating table.
The rest is history. In the end, Sony bought the rights to develop movies featuring Spider-Man for $10 million and a 5% share of the profits – which they continue to do to this day. But Landau is still stunned today, as he makes clear in the podcast: for just $15 million more, Sony would have eventually gained control of all the Avengers.
So Marvel would never have been able to raise its MCU, all the movies like “Iron Man,” “Black Panther” and “The Avengers” titles would never have existed. Because whether Sony would have been able to pull off a similar franchise is written in the stars.
