For American teenagers, Spider-Man was a household name, an immensely popular comic-book hero. To Hollywood's major studios, he was a film property that was decent enough.
That's right, just "decent."
As early as the 1960s, Marvel had licensed Spider-Man to a Hollywood company for a movie. The film's overall visuals could only be described as absolutely atrocious.
Hmm, you're asking about the box office?
Well, after the movie came out, the production company went straight out of business.
How much do you think it made?
In the 1970s, a Turkish film company also made a Spider-Man movie.
So how did that one do?
You couldn't even find it online, because the movie never got released!
It wouldn't be much of an exaggeration to say that, to many Hollywood companies, the Spider-Man movie rights weren't all that special.
Hmm, you're comparing him to Batman and Superman?
American moviegoers would tell you, "Buddy, wake up."
Twenty-first-century Chinese netizens would tell you, "Bro, how many drinks have you had to end up this wasted?"
"Good heavens!"
"To think that Spider-Man, such a household name in the twenty-first century, was in such a miserable state in the nineties."
If Zucker hadn't read the information provided by the system, he wouldn't have believed it.
"Huh?!"
In an instant, a flash of inspiration suddenly crossed Zucker's mind!
If the Spider-Man rights were for sale, what about Marvel's other film rights?
X-Men, Deadpool, Iron Man, Hulk, Blade, Black Widow, and all those other comic-book heroes—did Marvel still own their rights?
At the thought of this, Zucker was instantly thrilled.
If he could get his hands on them, wouldn't he be invincible in Hollywood from then on?!
You might ask, wouldn't it be better to just buy Marvel outright? Sorry, Zucker didn't have that kind of money!
Zucker immediately picked up the phone.
"Victor, it's Zucker. Yeah, I'm sorry to call so late. It's not about the release of Run Lola Run. It's about the Spider-Man movie rights. Yeah, that's right. Could you also look into what other rights Marvel has for sale? Right, it's fairly urgent. Okay, two days? All right, I'll come by the office then."
Two days later.
Wald Pictures.
"Boss, given the time constraints, I've only managed to gather this much information on Marvel for now. It's a bit limited. If you need more, I'll have people keep looking," Victor said.
Time constraints, and this was all he'd managed to gather?
Victor, are you getting cocky?
Those thick stacks of documents, and he was calling that "limited"?!
Zucker frowned. He hadn't expected there to be so much information. How was he supposed to get through it all in the time he had?
"Victor, did you bring me all this stuff because you want to work me to death?" Zucker asked.
"Don't worry, boss. Just take a look and you'll see. I'd never work you to death," Victor said with a smile.
All right, Zucker had no choice but to trust him.
After Victor left, Zucker opened one of the folders and began reading.
"Tsk, tsk, tsk!"
"Victor really is good at this. No wonder he said he wouldn't work me to death. He really wasn't kidding—the information is organized and analyzed so clearly."
For the next two hours, Zucker threw himself into the work. By noon, he had finished reading the thick stacks of documents.
"I had no idea the question of who owned the Spider-Man rights was so complicated."
Zucker couldn't help but marvel at it. Spider-Man had had a truly bumpy road.
And, of course, so had Marvel itself.
The 1980s had been Marvel's most glorious era.
Comic sales had hit record highs time and again, and the company had even come close to buying DC Comics, which was on the verge of bankruptcy at the time. But Marvel's editor-in-chief had vetoed the deal.
During this period, Marvel was a household name across America, unmatched by any rival.
But everything changed in 1989.
That year, Perelman bought Marvel for more than eighty-two million dollars.
He wasn't a comic-book fan himself, but a master of financial maneuvering.
Not long after taking over Marvel, he began using a sly marketing strategy: each comic came with a card inside its plastic sleeve, and collectors who wanted all five different card designs had to buy the same comic multiple times.
It even led to a peculiar phenomenon:
"Fans would buy five copies of a comic and keep them sealed, then buy a sixth copy, tear open the plastic sleeve, and read it."
Perelman's plan was to charge higher prices and publish more comics, keeping hardcore fans spending. As long as he could find enough numbers to prove his assumptions, he could take Marvel public and sell off forty percent of its stock, cashing out far more than he'd paid to buy the company!
There was just one problem: starting in 1993, more and more fans dropped out of the collectibles market because it had become too expensive.
They also felt the quality of the comics was declining;
and most retailers felt they'd been duped.
From 1993 to 1996, comic sales fell by seventy percent. Hundreds of comic retailers went bankrupt, collectible comic and card prices began to plummet, and the entire market collapsed. Whether or not Perelman was the "culprit," the crash dealt a devastating blow to the industry.
Marvel was in a slump across the board and on the verge of bankruptcy!
"Holy shit!"
"Perelman really is something. He nearly drove Marvel out of business, and somehow made a fortune himself."
That's right. According to the documents, in the few short years since he'd bought Marvel, Perelman had made nearly three hundred million dollars—and he still held a huge amount of Marvel stock! Keep in mind, he'd paid just over eighty-two million dollars to buy the company.
"Huh? Spider-Man?!"
Sure enough, Zucker saw in the documents that Marvel's latest board meeting had already decided to sell the Spider-Man rights in the near future.
You're asking about the rights to X-Men, Iron Man, Hulk, and the other heroes?
"Damn you, Perelman! You've already sold off so many of the heroes!"
In 1993 alone, the rights to X-Men, Iron Man, and other heroes had been sold.
They'd even sold the Fantastic Four!
Hulk and Black Widow, too!
And there were plenty more stunts like that. In short, Marvel was broke, so it sold off the rights to its heroes.
All right, Marvel still had plenty of superhero rights, but they were all for obscure heroes. The only one left to prop up the company was Spider-Man.
And now even that last big name was about to be sold!
"Tsk, tsk, tsk. The information the system gave me says Sony Columbia will beat MGM in the bidding, paying seven million dollars to acquire Spider-Man."
Seven million dollars!
That was no small sum!
Sony Columbia's bid was a once-in-a-century move. They paid far more than Spider-Man was worth at the time, but it brought them a handsome return a few years later.
"To hell with seven million dollars! This time, I'm going to take it, even if I have to sell everything I own!"
Zucker began taking stock of his assets.
To avoid taxes, he'd recently bought a mansion in Burbank for 4.6 million dollars, though some of it was financed through a bank loan. He'd bought a building in Silicon Valley for six million dollars, spent 2.8 million acquiring the film company, and had other expenses. At present, he had just over twelve million dollars in liquid funds left.
More than twelve million dollars?
It sounded like a lot, but after buying Spider-Man, Zucker would have only a little over five million dollars in liquid funds left. What could he even do with that?
The production cost of Spider-Man 1 alone would be 139 million dollars, and promotion and distribution would cost more than thirty million!
At first, Zucker hadn't thought much of it, but now he felt like he was running out of money!
"Forget it. I'll secure the Spider-Man rights first. Things will work out somehow once I cross that bridge."
Zucker gritted his teeth and immediately decided to find a lawyer and buy the Spider-Man rights from Marvel as soon as possible. Otherwise, once Sony Columbia came around, Zucker would have to pay far more than seven million dollars.
Before you continue