Marvel in a Dilemma

For the teenagers of America, Spider-Man is naturally a household name and an incredibly famous comic book hero; but for the major companies in Hollywood, it is merely a decent film copyright.

That's right, just "decent," nothing more.

As early as the 1960s, Marvel licensed a Hollywood company to produce a Spider-Man film. The overall quality of the footage could only be described as disastrous.

Well, you ask about the box office?

Let's just say that after the film was released, the production company went straight out of business.

So, how much could the box office have been?

In the 1970s, a Turkish film company also produced a Spider-Man film.

And what about that one?

You won't find it anywhere on the internet, because that film never even made it to theaters!

It is no exaggeration to say that, as of today, the film copyright for Spider-Man is, to many Hollywood companies, just another piece of property.

Well, you want to compare it to Batman and Superman?

American moviegoers would tell you: "Buddy, wake up."

Netizens in 21st-century China would tell you: "Brother, how much have you had to drink to be this delusional?"

"Good heavens!"

"I never imagined that the world-famous Spider-Man of the 21st century was so miserable and pathetic back in the 90s."

If Zucker hadn't read the information provided by the system, he truly wouldn't have believed it.

"Huh?!"

In an instant, a flash of inspiration struck Zucker's mind!

If the copyright for Spider-Man is for sale, then what about Marvel's other film copyrights?

X-Men, Deadpool, Iron Man, Hulk, Blade, Black Widow, and other comic book heroes—are their copyrights still with Marvel?

Thinking of this, Zucker immediately became incredibly excited.

If he could get his hands on them, wouldn't he be invincible in Hollywood from here on out?!

You say it would be better to just acquire Marvel directly? Sorry, Zucker doesn't have that kind of money!

Without delay, Zucker immediately made a phone call.

"Victor, it's Zucker. Yes, I'm sorry for calling you so late. It's not about the release of Run Lola Run; it's about the Spider-Man film copyright. Yes, that's right. Please help me check what other copyrights Marvel has for sale. Yes, it's quite urgent. Alright, two days, is it? That works. I'll head to the company then."

Two days later.

Wald Pictures.

"Boss, due to the time constraints, I have only collected this much information on Marvel for now. It's a bit sparse, but if you need more, I will have people keep looking," Victor said.

Time constraints, and he only collected this much?

Victor, are you getting cocky?

With several thick stacks of documents, you actually call this sparse?!

For a moment, Zucker couldn't help but frown. He never expected there to be so much information; how was he supposed to finish reading all of this in such a short time?

"Victor, you brought me so much material—are you trying to work me to death?" Zucker said.

"Don't worry, Boss. Open it up and you'll see; I would never work you to death," Victor laughed.

Fine, Zucker had no choice but to trust him.

After Victor left, Zucker opened one of the files and began to read.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk!"

"Victor is truly impressive. No wonder he said he wouldn't work me to death; the information is analyzed and summarized so clearly and concisely."

For the next two hours, Zucker fought through the documents, finishing the thick stacks before noon.

"I never imagined the ownership of the Spider-Man copyright could be so complicated."

Zucker couldn't help but sigh; the fate of Spider-Man was truly bumpy.

Well, of course, the same could be said for Marvel itself.

The 1980s were Marvel's most glorious period.

Comic sales hit record highs again and again, and they even nearly acquired the then-bankrupt DC Comics, though the deal was vetoed by Marvel's editor-in-chief at the time.

During this period, Marvel was a household name in America, standing unrivaled.

However, all of this changed in 1989.

That year, Perelman spent over 82 million dollars to acquire Marvel.

He was not a comic book enthusiast himself, but rather a master of capital operations.

After taking over Marvel, he soon began a cunning marketing strategy: every comic book came in a plastic sleeve with a trading card inside. If collectors wanted to complete the set of five different designs, they had to purchase the same issue multiple times.

A strange phenomenon emerged at the time:

"Fans would buy five copies of a comic at once, keeping them sealed; then they would buy a sixth copy just to tear open the plastic sleeve and read it."

Perelman's plan was to use higher prices and increased print runs to keep hardcore fans paying up. As long as he could find enough numbers to prove his hypothesis, he could take Marvel public and sell off 40% of his shares to cash out—which was far more than what he had paid for the initial acquisition!

The only problem here was that starting in 1993, more and more fans began exiting the collector's market because the costs were too high.

Furthermore, they felt the quality of the comics was declining;

And most retailers also felt they had been swindled.

Between 1993 and 1996, comic book sales dropped by 70%, hundreds of comic retailers went bankrupt, the prices of comics and trading cards began to plummet, and the entire market collapsed. Regardless of whether Perelman was the "culprit," the blow this crash dealt to the industry was devastating.

Marvel, across the board, fell into a slump and was on the verge of bankruptcy!

"Holy crap!"

"Perelman really is a talent; he drove Marvel to the brink of collapse while making a fortune for himself."

That's right, Zucker learned from the documents that in the few short years since he acquired Marvel, he had actually made nearly 300 million dollars, and he still held a massive amount of Marvel equity! You have to realize, he only spent a little over 82 million dollars when he bought Marvel.

"Huh? Spider-Man?!"

Sure enough, Zucker saw in the documents that at Marvel's latest board meeting, it had been decided that Spider-Man would be sold off in the near future.

What about the copyrights for heroes like X-Men, Iron Man, Hulk, and so on?

"Damn you, Perelman, you've already sold off so many heroes!"

In 1993 alone, the copyrights for heroes like X-Men and Iron Man were sold off.

The Fantastic Four were sold off too, damn it!

Hulk and Black Widow were sold as well!

And so on; there were many, many more such ridiculous maneuvers. In short, if Marvel had no money, fine, just sell the hero copyrights.

Well, although Marvel still had quite a few superhero copyrights left, they were all obscure heroes, with only Spider-Man left to hold down the fort.

Now, even this figurehead was about to be sold off!

"Tsk tsk tsk, the data the system gave me shows that Sony Columbia will beat out MGM in the competition, paying 7 million dollars to acquire Spider-Man," Zucker thought to himself.

7 million dollars!

That is not a small number!

This move by Sony Columbia could be called the deal of the century; by paying far more than Spider-Man's worth at the time, they secured a massive return on investment a few years later.

"To hell with the 7 million dollars! This time, even if I have to sell everything I own, I'm going to snatch it up!"

In an instant, Zucker began to take stock of his net worth.

To avoid taxes, he had just bought a villa in Burbank for 4.6 million dollars—well, although part of it was a bank loan; he bought a building in Silicon Valley for 6 million dollars; spent 2.8 million dollars acquiring a film company, plus other expenses, leaving him with just over 12 million dollars in liquid assets.

A little over 12 million dollars?

It sounds like a lot, but after buying Spider-Man, Zucker would only have 5 million dollars in liquid assets left. What could he even do with that?

You have to realize that the production cost for the Spider-Man movie would be 139 million dollars, and the marketing and distribution costs would be over 30 million dollars!

At first, Zucker didn't think much of it, but now he felt like he didn't have enough money!

"Whatever, I'll secure the Spider-Man copyright first. I'll cross that bridge when I come to it; there will definitely be a way when the time comes."

Zucker gritted his teeth and immediately decided to find a lawyer to purchase the Spider-Man copyright from Marvel as soon as possible. Otherwise, if he waited for Sony Columbia to show up, the price Zucker would have to pay would definitely be more than just 7 million dollars.