Chapter 219: 23 Line Heroes

? On the second day after arriving in New York, Ronan went to Marvel Comics headquarters as agreed, preparing to meet with Marvel CEO Avi Arad.

The car I took entered the famous Fifth Avenue, and the dense traffic flow almost reduced the speed of the car to a minimum.

Ronan flipped through the information about Marvel in his hand, and combined with the situation in his previous life, he thought about negotiating with Marvel.

I vaguely remember that Walt Disney spent four billion U.S. dollars on the acquisition of Marvel, but that was not only after the success of "Iron Man", Marvel also took back the copyright or part of the copyright of many well-known heroes.

Now there is a huge gap between the Marvel that has almost sold all the well-known sons and the Marvel that was acquired by Disney.

Moreover, after Avi Arad came to power, he also advocated cooperating with Hollywood production companies through authorization in exchange for more funds.

Ronan considered acquiring Marvel, and after thinking twice, temporarily suppressed his thoughts in this regard.

In early 1989, Ron Perelman personally raised $82.5 million to buy the rights to Marvel Comics from New World Pictures.

At this time, Marvel had not yet been listed. Ron Perelman bought Marvel, and it was more of a capital game. Two years later, he promoted Marvel to go public, and sold 40% of it one after another. cash out of shares.

It's hard to say how much damage this man has played out of Marvel's crisis.

In the words of a minority shareholder of Marvel, Perelman is like a plumber who helps you fix your water pipes. He not only completely destroys your house, but also wants to take it away without paying a penny.

With the exposure of a series of suspicious transactions and the bursting of the stock market bubble, Marvel's stock price has already collapsed, from $35.75 per share in 1993 to $2.37 in 1997.

But now Marvel Comics is no longer a pure comic production company before. After Avi Arad took over, Marvel integrated ToyBiz toy company, comic sales channel company Hero World, etc., and the overall market value has risen to nearly $700 million.

This is also the reason why Ronan temporarily suppressed the idea of ​​acquiring Marvel. The road has to be taken step by step, and the meal has to be eaten in one bite.

The ending of Snake Tunxiang is very tragic, and Marvel is also burdened with huge debts.

Marvel integrated multiple companies, allowing Avi Arad to win the final victory of the high-level power struggle, but Marvel itself was burdened with huge debts.

Marvel in the early 2000s,

It is simply two worlds with Marvel ten years later.

Robert has been in New York for such a long time, has conducted long-term negotiations with Marvel, and has also collected a large amount of first-hand information about Marvel, and the results of his work are quite good.

After negotiating for so long, Marvel doesn't mind selling the copyrights of some characters to Relativity Entertainment, after all, they had planned to do a deal with Artisan Pictures.

The car was parked in front of 417 Fifth Avenue, an old office building where the headquarters of Marvel Comics was located.

Now sadly, Marvel is just one of the building's many tenants.

"Avi, this is Mr. Ronan Anderson, President of Relativity Entertainment."

In a reception room of Marvel Comics, Robert Lee introduced the two parties: "Ronan, this is Mr. Avi Allard, CEO of Marvel."

Ronan shook hands with Avi Arad. This is a bald bearded man. He should be quite old. His beard and hair are almost completely white.

"Welcome to Marvel," Avi Arad said with a smile.

Ronan was very polite: "It's an honor to come to the holy place where many heroes were born."

Avi Arad gave up his seat to Ronan and the two, and then ordered someone to bring coffee. After the simple politeness of the two parties, they gradually got to the point.

"Mr. Anderson is very interested in Marvel's superheroes?" Avi-Arad asked: "Do you want to get so many role authorizations at once?"

Ronan's reason came casually: "I am a fan of Marvel comics. I have read all Spiderman comics. When I was chatting with Chris from Sony Entertainment some time ago, I heard him mention that Marvel is in poor condition and urgently needs to Funds solve the problem, and as a Marvel fan, I am willing to help Marvel tide over the difficulties."

These words can be described as high-sounding.

Marvel’s debt dilemma is not a secret. When Avi Arad borrowed money to acquire Marvel, he anticipated the current situation. It’s not like he hasn’t made efforts in the past few years, such as selling the copyright of “Blade Warrior” to New Line Films. industry, sold the copyright of "Ghost Rider" to Crystal Sky Pictures and so on.

But this is only a temporary solution.

Avi-Allard said with a smile: "You can reach out to the original work in a critical moment, and everyone in Marvel is very grateful." As an old fox, he is not a vegetarian: "Mr. Anderson, how about this, your bank Provide a loan to Marvel with interest, as long as Marvel can tide over the difficulties, there will be returns in the future."

Robert looked at Avi Allard and then at Ronan. These two people are not simple.

There was no trace of embarrassment on Ronan's face, and he said naturally: "It's okay to provide loans. But Relativity Entertainment is a commercial company, and I have to be responsible for hundreds of employees. We are talking about business, and business problems are solved by business. Relativity Entertainment provides Marvel with a commercial loan of 40 million US dollars, and Marvel uses the copyright of its 2,000 characters as collateral, and Relativity Entertainment has 30 years of use rights, how about it?"

Avi Allard's face remained unchanged: "Mr. Anderson was joking, how can Marvel take advantage of friends for no reason?"

With the copyright of 2,000 characters, this person can speak?

Ronan gave Robert Lee a wink, and Robert Lee said in a timely manner: "Avi, we will follow the previous negotiation and only ask for the copyright of 35 superheroes and their associated characters."

Avi Allard said with a smile: "I have said it more than once, agree to this deal, 35 superheroes and their associated characters, a total of 50 million US dollars in licensing fees."

Ronan didn't answer. The price would be a cabbage price ten years later, but it's definitely a lion's mouth now.

Robert Lee said: "The licensing fee of $25 million is the highest price we can accept."

Avi Arad knew who was the one who could really make the decision. He glanced at Ronan and said, "In 1997, Sony Columbia Pictures got the copyright of Spider-Man, and the fee was 7 million U.S. dollars."

"As far as I know, Sony Columbia didn't buy the copyright from Marvel, and it's the copyright of the entire Spider-Man universe. When Cannon Pictures bought Spider-Man from Marvel, it only cost $350,000. Last year you sold Ghost Rider, the basic license fee is only 1.5 million US dollars!" Ronan said calmly: "Spider-Man is the most famous superhero in Marvel comics, and his influence far exceeds that of other characters."

He looked at Avi Allard: "Our ideal target is first-line superheroes such as Spiderman, Hulk, and Fantastic Four, but after Robert contacted you, he discovered that you all sold the copyrights of first-line superheroes." gone."

Avi Arad sighed in his heart, the first-line heroes were sold out, so it was the turn of the second-line...

This is not a long-term solution, he knows it very well, but he is powerless to change it in a short time.

Ronan continued: "You know better than us the value of the hero role in this negotiation. Captain America is outdated. How many young people know Captain America today? Black Panther is not an American superhero at all. Widow and Hawkeye are third-tier at best. Guardians of the Galaxy comics haven’t sold much. Doctor Strange is not well-known among comic fans. Fantastic heroes like Thor have always had a bad reputation. Falcon, War Machine, Ant-Man, Surprise Captain, wait, let alone compare with Spider-Man, they are not even as well-known as Iron Man."

Robert continued: "It is impossible for us to pay such a high fee for these second- and third-tier superhero characters. If you can recover the copyrights of characters such as Hulk, Fantastic Four and Iron Man, join this deal, 50 million USD we can consider."

Avi Arad said with a smile: "You two, with so many characters, how many movies can you make?"

Ronan has a thick skin, and said directly: "Many characters in it don't have enough popularity at all. In the comics, they are only green leaf characters. The adapted movies can only exist as supporting roles at best, such as Guardians of the Galaxy, Black Widow, Ant-Man, and Hunter. Is it possible to make an independent movie with roles such as Eagle and War Machine? I’m afraid we will lose as much as we invested.”

Avi Arad knew his characters and knew what Ronan said was true.

Even the most famous Captain America on the list is very risky to be made into a movie. In this era, would anyone like to watch Captain America movies? He was too embarrassed to mention the miserable Captain America film he filmed in 1994.

Robert said at this time: "Before you contacted Artisan Films, the other party only offered 15 million US dollars for a dozen superhero characters."

"So, we didn't have any deal with Artisan," Avi Arad said with a laugh.

Ronan added: "Five million dollars is fine. But you have to sell out all the copyrights, just like Marvel sold the Fantastic Four to Twentieth Century Fox."

Because based on the agreement between the two parties, any new characters created by Marvel Comics in the Fantastic Four comics will directly become the property of 20th Century Fox, and Marvel basically has no right to share in the benefits of the adaptation of Fantastic Four.

To be exact, Marvel was robbed by Twentieth Century Fox because of its bad situation.

In the previous life, Marvel later directly suspended the publication of the Fantastic Four.

Such an agreement is not wise, it is just a condition used by Ronan to lower the price. These characters leave the support of Marvel Comics, like a grass without roots.

"It's impossible." Avi Arad said directly: "Marvel must participate in the post-production share of the adapted film."

No one is a fool, and of course they won't give up easily the benefits they can get from the adaptation rights.

Ronan took advantage of the situation and said: "So, we should look farther away, instead of just staring at the front. Too high copyright fees will cause us to compress other aspects of the budget when making movies, which will affect the quality of the finished film, which may lead to It is not in the interest of Marvel to reduce the revenue in the later stage."

The first meeting between the two parties lasted a whole morning. Robert had done a lot of work before, and Avi Arad and Marvel executives tended to complete the deal, but the most critical licensing fee and post-production The share ratio has not been negotiated.

In the next few days, Ronan continued to negotiate with Marvel. best entertainment era