Why bittersweet you say? Well ever since Marvel got their
cinematic act together with & The
Incredible Hulk, Marvel comics fans have been daring to dream that film rights,
characters such as Spider-Man, Blade and The –Men, would be bought back by Marvel.
When Multi-gazillion dollar company Disney purchased Marvel in 2009 those dreams
(unrealistically) surged to fantasy levels. Whilst characters Blade, The
Punisher and just this past month, Daredevil have passed back into Marvel’s
hands, The ‘Big Boys’ Spider-Man (at Sony) and X-Men and The Fantastic Four (at
Fox) remain far too potent as potential money spinners to be allowed to fall
back into Marvel’s hands: they also would be prohibitively expensive for Marvel,
or their parent Disney, to buy back. So going to the trouble of hiring Mark
Millar (writer on The Fantastic Four, The Ultimates & creator of Kick Ass,
Wanted & many more) to oversee /
advise on the Fox Marvel properties, X-Men & Fantastic Four is yet further
proof that IF those characters are to go back to Marvel it will be a long way
in the future.
Of course the much rosier way to view this is that a modern
comic book giant is going to be advising Fox on how to not get things so
terribly wrong (Daredevil, Elektra, Fantastic Four (1 & 2); and how to
carry on doing the good things well. (X-Men: First Class, X-men, X2.) It will add
to speculation that Fox will be able to meld their properties into a single film
Universe (As Marvel have done with the MCU) with the X-Men and Fantastic Four
films crossing over. However this remains something that we don’t know is
possible; anyway Fox look to have their own version of movie melds with the
characters of the X –Men films apparently set to jump into X-Men: First Class
as they dabble with mind-bending time travel / alternate future tale The Days
of Future Past. Rumours persist that the story of that film will make use of
the “original” cast to play the future versions of the X-Men: First Class
people; as opposed to aging make up or FX. These are rumours that have been casually
swelled by the odd nod and wink from the likes of producer Bryan Singer (2,
Usual Suspects) and director Matthew Vaughan (Kick Ass, X-Men: First Class.) So
even if you would rather all of your Marvel heroes were only on the big screen
in actual Marvel movies, at least there’s a chance that Fox will improve their
percentage of decent super hero films now.
 |
| Fox won't have anymore Daredevil related films. |
20th Century Fox: licensed Marvel films...
Film
|
Year
|
North American Gross
|
International Gross
|
Worldwide
|
Budget*
|
1
|
X-Men: The Last Stand
|
2006
|
$234,362,462
|
$224,997,093
|
$459,359,555
|
$210m
|
2
|
X2
|
2003
|
$214,949,694
|
$192,761,855
|
$407,711,549
|
$110m
|
3
|
X-Men Origins: Wolverine
|
2009
|
$179,883,157
|
$193,179,707
|
$373,062,864
|
$150m
|
4
|
X-Men: First Class
|
2011
|
$146,408,305
|
$207,215,819
|
$353,624,124
|
$160m
|
5
|
Fantatsic Four
|
2005
|
$154,696,080
|
$175,883,639
|
$330,579,719
|
$100m
|
6
|
X-Men
|
2000
|
$157,299,717
|
$139,039,810
|
$296,339,527
|
$75m
|
7
|
Fantastic Four 2
|
2007
|
$131,921,738
|
$157,126,025
|
$289,047,763
|
$130m
|
8
|
Daredevil
|
2003
|
$102,543,518
|
$76,636,200
|
$179,179,718
|
$78m
|
9
|
Elektra
|
2005
|
$24,409,722
|
$32,271,844
|
$56,681,566
|
$43m
|
* Shooting Budget – Does not include P&A costs
There are those who think, with the glorious benefit of
hindsight, that Marvel were foolish to sell of the rights (well lease them) to
so many of their characters back in the 1990s, especially given the success of
the MCU, especially The Avengers, but that doesn’t take into account the historical
context. ( A view enhanced by details like Marvel only getting about $62m from the $2b takings of the Spider-Man film, or $26m from the three X-Men films.) The fact is that Sipper hero movies wee very hit and miss, DC comics
was owned by Warner Brothers and hence their major characters had a motion picture
outlet readymade. For all the risk and ridicule that went with Marvel Studios
taking out a loan of over $525m to make films of Iron Man, Thor & Co (characters
considered ‘unknown’ or unloved), nobody was going to be lending Marvel money
to make films in the 1990s. More than that the calibre of actor and director
you can attract to these films now is of the highest order, and not to ham it
up for a big payday either. (Just look at the number of Oscar & Bafta
nominations racked up by the lead cast of The Avengers.) It took the success of
Blade, X-Men & Spider-Man to manoeuvre the film business into a position
where Marvel could make their own films in the first place. IT took the success
of Blade to push Fox over the top into making X-Men. X-Men had a massive hand
in getting Spider-Man to the screen, in a massive production. To quote the New
York Times way back in 2004, when the referenced Blade and X-Men:-
“Together, the movies proved that even comic book
characters unknown to the general public could become the basis for
blockbusters.”
