The first thing Ronan did when he came to New York was to understand the specific situation of Marvel Comics. Although Robert Lee often called him to inform him, it was still very necessary to talk to him in person.

In the living room of the hotel suite, Robert summarized the experience during this period and said to Ronan: "The situation at Marvel is more serious and more chaotic than we originally knew in Los Angeles."

Ronan sat peacefully on the sofa: "Tell me carefully."

Relativity Entertainment has been in contact with Marvel Comics for a long time, and Robert has always been the representative: "From the mid-to-late 1980s, Marvel was affected by the overall sluggish market environment of the comics industry, he began to encounter various difficulties. At that time, Marvel's leader Ron Perelman could only publish the copyright of its characters in order to raise money."

"Is our target copyright still in Marvel?" Ronan asked with concern.

Robert replied: "Some are there, and some have been sold by Marvel."

Ronan frowned: "Apart from the characters such as Spider-Man, Marvel sells anything else? Tell me all."

Robert detailed: "As early as 1985, Marvel sold Spider-Man to Cannon Films. Later, Menachim Gran, the chairman of Cannon Films, joined Twentieth Century Fox, and transferred the copyright of Spider-Man to Twentieth Century Fox."

These situations were somewhat beyond Ronan's expectations, who thought Spider-Man's copyright had always been in the hands of Sony Columbia.

Sure enough, Marvel's situation was very bad before the birth of "Iron Man", and her own sons kept changing hands, but there was nothing we could do about it.

Robert continued: "Later, Gran sold the copyright of Spider-Man adaptation to Columbia Pictures, ready to let James Cameron film, and Arnold Schwarzenegger will also play Dr. Octopus. However, MGM acquired some of the assets of Twentieth Century Fox, including Spider-Man's copyright, but Columbia Pictures insisted that the copyright should belong to them, and the end result was that Columbia Pictures obtained the copyright of Spider-Man."

"The way Marvel sells copyright is to package and sell other characters that are intuitively related to hero characters. All Sony Entertainment also has copyrights for other comic characters related to Spider-Man, such as Venom, Doctor Octopus, Vulture, Mystery, etc."

Ronan had known about the sales model of comic-adapted copyrights before and said: "This is the regular authorization method for comic-reading movie copyrights. Film companies cannot buy just one character, otherwise the movie will not be able to be filmed."

He sighed: "Spider-Man live-action movie, Sony Columbia Pictures has already established a project, and we can't get the copyright of Spider-Little Spider."

There is nothing I can do about it. In the future, Ronan still went to Los Angeles, and the copyrights of many heroes were sold by Marvel, which had difficulty raising funds.

Before the "Spider-Man" movie was released, Marvel's routine operation was: selling his sons with little money, and giving priority to selling valuable sons.

It’s not that I don’t want to sell my godson, because my godsons are too famous, difficult to sell, and cannot be sold at a price.

"Marvel was not satisfied with the Sony Columbia Spider-Man movie adaptation, especially changing some of Peter Parker's settings." Robert shrugged: "But the son who sold it is no longer the final say."

He continued the topic just now: "The Hulk was bought by Universal Pictures as early as 1990, but Universal Pictures has doubts about superhero movies and has not adapted the movie."

Ronan knew that this was normal. Now it is not ten years later. In most people's concepts, superhero movies are just niche movies.

In Robert's introduction, Ronan learned that Universal Pictures not only bought the Hulk, but also held the copyright of Namo's movie.

Namo is a Marvel version of Atlantis, somewhat similar to Aquaman.

"There are also X-Men." Robert looked full of regret because it was difficult to get the relevant copyright again: "In 1994, Marvel sold the copyright of the X-Men to Twentieth Century Fox. Since the mid-1990s, Marvel's situation was very bad, so the copyright began to be sold more thoroughly. Twentieth Century Fox not only permanently owns the copyright of all X-Men characters, but also has the concept copyright of the word mutant, and can expand any X-Men comic character."

For some reason, a sentence from the other side of the Pacific Ocean suddenly flashed through Luo Nan's mind: "The baby sold his son to the gods and his heart doesn't hurt.

Ronan asked, "Where is the Fantastic Four?"

Robert's tone was filled with regret: "Marvel sold the copyright of the Fantastic Four to Constantine Pictures in 1986."

"Germany Constantine?" Ronan's thoughts suddenly became lively. If the copyright was in Constantine's hands, he might still get it.

But Robert's words disappointed him again: "In 1999, Constantine Pictures sold the Fantastic Four to Twentieth Century Fox."

Ronan shook his head, and it would be difficult to dig out what fell into the hands of the six major companies.

Many things are not that he doesn't want to take action, but that he has no way to take action.

When Ronan came to Los Angeles, Marvel sold his sons who could sell at a price, including Iron Man!

This is the news that Ronan is least willing to hear.

"In 1990, after Marvel sold it to Universal Pictures Hulk, they sold the characters associated with Iron Man to Universal Pictures."

Robert glanced at Ronan. This was the first place in the list Ronan gave him. All Marvel characters copyrights ranked first, but things far exceeded the two's expectations: "In 1996, Twentieth Century Fox bought the copyright of Iron Man from Universal. In 1999, Iron Man's copyright was resold to Xinyi Film."

When Ronan heard about Iron Man's experience, he could not speak. Tony Stark's fate turned out to be so bumpy.

Poor child, my father doesn’t love him, and my uncle doesn’t love him.

But this situation can be understood even if you think about it. After all, strictly speaking, Iron Man can only be considered a second-tier hero in Marvel comics. Before the movie appeared, its influence was not as good as that of Marvel's first-tier heroes such as Spider-Man, Fantastic Four, and Hulk.

"None of these three companies attaches importance to Iron Man." Robert's words also proved this: "There is no idea to shoot a movie. It is said that after Xinyi Film purchased the copyright, it was confirmed that it was a burden. He once contacted Marvel Comics and asked them if they wanted to take back the copyright."

Retrieval of copyright is certainly not free, Robert said: "Marvel's financial situation is very bad, and she can't raise enough funds at all, and... they don't pay much attention to Iron Man."

The copyright ownership of truly well-known characters in Marvel comics is complicated. Marvel not only sells his sons, but also allows the sellers to resell them back and forth.

Ronan asked strangely: "These companies resell copyrights back and forth, and Marvel has no objection?"

If it were his work, the copyright was reselled like this, and he would have been furious.

"Marvel not only has no objection, but also enjoys seeing it happen." Robert's words also refreshed Ronan's perception of Marvel: "Every time of copyright transaction, Marvel can withdraw 10% of the copyright fee, so..."

Ronan was speechless for a moment. After a while, he asked: "Marvel has fallen to this level?"

Robert said: "Yes."

He then gave a detailed explanation to Ronan.

Since the mid-to-late 1980s, the North American comics market has been in a sharp decline, and by the 1990s it was facing an ice age. The entire comics publishing included surrounding industries, with an annual output value of less than US$400 million.

Marvel is one of the three largest comic companies in North America. Despite selling so many of her own sons, she still has not escaped her fate.

In 1996, Marvel's internal power struggle finally filed for bankruptcy, and the huge comics empire was facing collapse.

But in 1997, Avi Arard made a comeback and became Marvel's new chairman and CEO, and temporarily grabbed Marvel's footsteps of sliding down the abyss.

According to Robert, Avi Arad is very capable.

Avi Arad was not a senior executive of Marvel before. He once invested in a peripheral toy manufacturer. Later, the peripheral manufacturer was acquired by Marvel. Avi Arad became one of Marvel's many minor shareholders. After Marvel filed for bankruptcy, Avi Arad saw an opportunity to show off his skills, borrowing from banks and joining forces with other institutions, and taking Marvel into the new CEO.

Of course, Avi Arad has few shares, only 10% of them, but it is enough to become the largest individual shareholder.

Unfortunately, this did not really change the situation of Marvel. The debts borrowed by Avi Arad were naturally transferred to Marvel, and Marvel is still struggling in the past two years.

"Let me say that, Marvel is so poor that she almost plans to sell the entire Avengers." Robert also felt a little shocking. The huge comic empire, which looks like it is strong on the outside but the middle, may collapse at any time: "This year, in order to raise funds, Marvel almost reached an agreement with Yijiang Film. Fortunately, we intervened."

When Ronan called before, he heard Robert talk about this.

Marvel has several huge debts that will expire at the end of this year. If it is not returned, it will be quite troublesome. If it is really impossible to raise funds, Marvel can only pay attention to its sons again.

Currently, only the copyright is the only one under Marvel that can really exchange funds for solving operational problems.

When Robert came to New York, Marvel had just contacted Artisan Film. Marvel planned to sell the copyrights of films and TV series including Captain America, Black Panther, Black Widow, Deadpool, Iron Fist, Ant-Man, Punisher, Humanoid, Vampire Mobius, and Long Shot to Artisan Film.

But Yijiang Film did not reach any cooperation with Marvel in the end, and Robert played a very critical role in this.

Ronan did not have a detailed understanding of how Robert was squeezed out from Yijiang Film Industry, and there was no need to pay special attention to it, because the results were very good.

The withdrawal of Yijiang Film Industry has resulted in Marvel having no other choice in a short period of time, so he can only talk about copyright transactions with Relativity Entertainment.
Chapter completed!