Showing posts with label Universal Studios. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Universal Studios. Show all posts

Amy Pascal - New First look Deal with Universal

Posted by Jeff Labels: , , ,

Steve Grantz - Getty Images
When Amy Pascal stepped down as Chairperson of Sony Pictures Entertainment she set up a film Studio, Pascal Pictures, and signed a four year agreement that gave SPE first look rights to her films.   As that contract expired Pascal Pictures signed a new contract with rival Universal Studios.    

Amy Pascal and Pascal Pictures are not completely leaving the SPE fold as they will continue to produce and make Marvel Films and TV shows.   

As stated by Tom Rothman, Chairperson SPE, “Everyone at Sony Pictures, myself first among us, loves Amy. We are profoundly grateful for all her immeasurable contributions, both current and past, to our success. And the great news for us is that our partnership will continue for many years to come with her ongoing work on Spider-Man and other key titles. We are very happy for her.”  

For the moment I do not believe this will have any affect on the situation involving the Spider-Man IP rights that are currently controlled by Sony Pictures Entertainment.  However it MAY BE a precursor to the power struggle between an Activist Investor and Sony Corporation on the fate of Sony Entertainment, which includes SPE. 

Does the success of Avengers: Endgame change the dynamic with Sony and Universal

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The short answer is no, or rather not at the moment.

The long answer is complicated.

Sony Corporation looked at selling all or parts of Sony Entertainment for the better part of 18 months, when it became apparent that there were no viable buyers willing to spend what Sony considered an appropriate amount of money for any segment of the business it decided to move on.  
As an aside a little birdie tells me there is still an interested party, but not for the entirety of Sony Picture Entertainment, but with no one willing to step up for the other segments of the business its looking like a non-starter.
Recently activist investor Dan Loeb, with the backing of his hedge fund, has been purchasing stock in Sony Corporation; the parent company to Sony Entertainment.    Dan Loeb is vocal in his plan to divest (sell/spin off) aspects of Sony Corporation to increase shareholder value.   As of April 20th his hedge fund was the largest single shareholder of Sony Corporation at 6%.   Dan Loeb's plan calls for selling Sony Entertainment or spin it off as a new corporation separate from Sony, using the sale of the company (and or stock) to further fund the electronics segment of Sony Corporation.  

Sony Entertainment is made of four distinct subsidiaries, Sony Pictures, Sony Television, Sony Music, and Sony Music Publishing.  There is clearly not a buyer for the Sony Entertainment as a whole, but could Two or three of the subsidiaries be sold and the fourth spun off?

The other aspect of activist investors it puts increased pressure on the individual parts to be profitable, an asset rather than a liability as a whole.   In calendar year 2019 Sony Pictures and Sony Television were profitable, I am not sure about the music side of the house.   There is now pressure on those units to continue to be profitable, they cannot revert back into being a liability.    

Here is a date to remember, Jun 18th 2019, Sony's next general stockholders meeting and vote to confirm the new board of directors, Dan Loeb is not currently a member.    During general stockholder's meetings is when activist investors push their strategy.   If Dan Loeb has enough support that when it will take place.


As indicated in Calendar year 2017 and 2018 Sony Pictures was profitable, even with a number of sub par box office performances, leading the way was Jumanji, Peter Rabbit, Hotel Transylvania 3, The Equalizer 2, as well as the Marvel Titles of Spider-Man Homecoming, Venom, and Into the Spider-verse.   For Sony the problem with the Marvel titles is their profitability in comparison to their cost.   Does Sony invest $200 Million (spread out over 24 months) to make $50 million in net profit in return?   

As I have indicated previously Sony has put all their chips on the table and is waiting for anyone, well at least Marvel Studios (Disney) to do something.   

Avengers: Endgame was the conclusion of Phase 3 (The Infinity Stones) storyline of Marvel Studios, while we have some idea of what comes next (cough Secret Invasion cough probably maybe).   We also know that Avengers: Endgame will be extremely profitable, as it generated 550 million in revenue for Marvel Studios on $500 million dollar total budget in its first seven days of release.   It's likely the film will generate another $500 million dollars profit for Marvel Studios.   

In the end I believe the success of Avengers: Endgame puts more pressure on Sony to act.  Financially I know the bean counters at Sony would tell you it's better to pull out of the deal (not renegotiate) the deal with Marvel Studios but it would be a PR nightmare, potentially sinking one or two movie before recovering.   Is Sony ready for that PR nightmare?

I would not be shocked to hear more rumors that Sony and Marvel are discussing a sale of the Marvel Properties (including Men in Black) during mid to late summer as Dan Loeb's supporters become more agitated.   However until Dan Loeb or another activist investor gets enough shareholder support a sale is not going to happen.

My view is Sony will begrudgingly agree to a new crossover deal with Marvel and Marvel will get more creative control of the live action Spider-Man universe allowing all of the Sony Spider-Man universe characters to be in the shared MCU universe.


Universal Pictures
Universal still has the rights to release movies with the Incredible Hulk and Namor.   Hasn't changed as their agreement doesn't have similar clauses requiring Movies be in active production.   
Universal Pictures is owned by NBCUniversal which is owned by Comcast.   To put it bluntly the CEO of Comcast, Brian Roberts and the CEO of Disney, Dave Iger, don't like each other and have actively competed against one another on numerous fronts over the past decade.

In 2019 Disney sold Comcast their share of Sky Network and NBCUniversal is working with Disney to sell NBCUniversal share of HULU streaming service to Disney.   That is something that a year ago I would not believe to have been possible.    It's like a earthquake along the coast of Africa that everyone has been waiting for.

I am guessing their is an expanded agreement in place allowing the use of not only Hulk and the associated characters in his IP to be used by Disney, but a further agreement for Namor to be used as well.    The real question is Disney writing NBCUniversal a check to take the rights back or is it just an expanded use agreement?

An American Werewolf in London - Remake

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Deadline is reporting that Universal has inked a deal to make a remake of the 1981 classic horror film, An American Werewolf in London.

[DEADLINE] EXCLUSIVE: An American Werewolf in London is officially getting a remake with The Walking Dead‘s David Albert and Robert Kirkman producing through their Skybound Entertainment for Universal Pictures. The remake of filmmaker John Landis’ classic 1981 comedic horror film will be written by his son Max Landis, who also is attached to direct. The news comes after the elder Landis and filmmaker Anthony Waller (An American Werewolf in Paris) sealed a deal with the studio on the rights. The younger Landis’ deal is being negotiated. Skybound has a first-look production deal with Universal.

What's happening at Universal (Marvel) edition

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Many people have forgotten that Universal Studios still controls the Hulk IP when it comes to Marvel Universe on film.   That was confirmed in 2009 by Kevin Feige who at the time dropped a shocking revelation during the same conversation when he continued to say Universal Studios also controls the IP rights to Namor.  Its been lead on that Universal may actually control the rights to a third IP but that has not been either officially confirmed or denied.

Even though a few ideas have been bandied about there is no official movement on any stand-alone films for these characters.
 
Since there are no movies in active development why are these IP not being returned to marvel Entertainment? 
The agreement between Marvel Studios (Disney) and Universal Pictures that allows Hulk (and Thaddeus Ross) to appear in Marvel Studio Films stops the clock from winding for the return of these IP to Disney.   In simple terms as long as these characters appear in a marvel film the time to release (or put into development) is either reset or stopped.    The drop dead date is approximately 2023, but that could be pushed back by Hulk's incusion in Thor: Ragnarok and even further by Infinity War.

What about Planet Hulk?
Just to cover a few bases here, Planet Hulk is a story arc from the comics in which Tony Stark decided The Hulk is too dangerous to everyone on Earth so he banishes him to deep space.   Bruce Banner/The Hulk ends up as a gladiator fighting for his survival on a gladiatorial planet.
 
I have heard rumors that the Planet Hulk story line was seriously considered by Universal both independently and in conjunction with the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but the worry of rate of return and interference with Universal other IPs.

What's "rate of return" and how does that effect whether or not I get my Hulk movie?
When you invest money into a project you have an expectation to see some, all, or more of that money come back.   So if Disney invests $250M into Captain America: Civil War they expect the movie to return about $750M back or an ROR of 3 to 1.   According to the rumors Universal ran the number and the best solution was 1.25 to 1.   And that was limiting the movie to $150 M budget.   Marvel Studios is in a similar boat, their ROR was a little higher but not much, not enough to green light a movie.

But the Hulk is mean green and fighting machine that many people want to see!

In 2003 Universal released Ang Lee's Hulk and in 2008 the soft reboot/sequel Incredible Hulk directed by Louis Leterrier both of which technically are a part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.   Both movies lost money in the theaters, not a lot of money, but they still lost money.   With DVD/BluRay sales and TV rights they probably made a few dollars. 
For a moment I would like to overlook the obvious plot holes and deviations from the comics and focus on a major problem both films had.   The inability to block/frame/execute a Hulk fight scene properly.   Its a common problem is Super Hero films, just look at Batman, Thor, X-Men Last Stand and the list goes on and on.  People are willing to overlook many failures if you have a kick-ass fight sequence, but so few people in Hollywood seem to have that ability.   Tim Miller with a background in visual effects may have paved the way for the next generation of Comic Book Action Film Makers, but they are not here yet.   Marvel is currently taking chances on many new and upcoming directors in the next round of films, Taika Waititi will be directing Thor: Ragnarok, Emily Carmichael for Captain Marvel, Jon Watts for Spider-Man: Homecoming, and the most experienced director Ryan Coogler for Black Panther.  

Agents of Smash?
Universal purchased the IP for Hulk after it changed hands a couple of times in the late 1990's.   The IP is fairly limiting in the number of characters available to Unviersal without an agreement from Marvel on additional characters.   A-Bomb, Red-Hulk, She-Hulk, and Skaar all are controlled by  Marvel Studios, at least that is my understanding.   The same problem also extends to villains and supporting characters, Universal controls Abomination and the Leader but beyond those two characters it becomes a very murky gray area.

What about Namor McKenzie?
Little is known on exactly how the IP divides up the Marvel Universe when it comes to Namor other than Universal controls the IP when it comes to film rights.   Namor is an alpha-mutant but is separate from the X-Men, created in 1939 he is one of the oldest Comic Book Characters.   He has had dealings with Hellfire Club, the X-Men, Norman Osborne, Alpha Fight, Avengers, the Cabal.
 
I have a feeling it may take a legion of lawyers to determine exactly what Universal can and cannot do with this IP.   And I doubt at the moment Universal even wants to try.
 
 
Status Quo
In the end Universal Studios appears to be very happy with the status quo.   As long as things continue as they are there is no reason to make changes.   Universal has 50 movies already announced through 2019, many of which we could call franchise films (in comparison Disney has 42, Warner Bros. 53 and 20th Century 47) I doubt there schedule would work unless they thought they could make a large fortune.




Why no stand alone Hulk Movie?

Posted by Jeff Labels: , ,

Image Courtesy of Marvel Studios
According to Badass Digest the problem is that well Disney has the rights to use Bruce Banner and his Alter Ego, the Hulk, the actual rights to a stand alone film still are controlled by Universal Studios.

Their Source - Mark Ruffalo
As far as a Hulk movie, a standalone Hulk movie, Marvel doesn’t really have the rights to that yet. That’s still Universal’s property, so there’s that issue. That’s a big impediment to moving forward with that. Now I don’t think that’s insurmountable, by the way, but I don’t know where it’s going from here for me.

Well simply put that sucks...