In truth, Zucker himself had been quite surprised to secure the full range of rights to 300 so quickly.
After all, the author of 300 was the renowned comic master Frank Miller!
He had created famous DC comics such as Batman: The Dark Knight and Superman and Batman;
During his time at Marvel, he had helped create numerous comics, including The Amazing Spider-Man, the Daredevil series, the Elektra series, and the Fantastic Four series;
His Sin City comic series for Dark Horse Comics had propelled him straight to legendary status.
In America's comic book world, he was an immensely famous figure.
"Frank Miller, as I remembered him, was indeed a comic master—but he was also notoriously difficult to deal with!"
"His reputation among Hollywood's major studios was terrible!"
Zucker could not help recalling this.
Setting aside everything else, just the Sin City film series starring Bruce Willis—the production company had repeatedly negotiated with Frank for the rights, with the talks lasting an entire year; moreover, the studio had paid 15% of the North American box office revenue.
Yes, you read that right!
It was 15% of the North American box office revenue, not a share of the net profits.
In other words, through the Sin City film series, Frank Miller had received a cut of more than $50 million from the production company.
That price far exceeded the film and television rights to many famous comics!
"For the film rights to Spider-Man, I only spent $10 million to get them."
"Frank really was ruthless!"
Not only that, after getting a taste of the benefits from the Sin City films, Frank became even more excessive in the years to come.
"I want to be the film's producer—the lead producer, no less!"
"I also want to be credited as the director!"
"Fifteen