The day after arriving in New York, Ronan went to Marvel Comics headquarters as agreed to meet with Marvel's CEO, Avi Arad.

The car rides into the famous Fifth Avenue, and the dense traffic slows down to almost a minimum.

Ronan looked at the information about Marvel in his hand, combined with the situation in his previous life, and thought about the negotiation with Marvel.

I vaguely remember that Walt Disney spent four billion dollars on the acquisition of Marvel, but it was not only after the success of "Iron Man", but Marvel also recovered the copyrights or part of the copyrights of many well-known heroes.

Now there is a huge gap between Marvel, which has almost sold all its well-known sons, and Marvel, which was acquired by Disney.

And after Avi Arad came to power, he also advocated cooperating with Hollywood production companies through licensing in exchange for more funding.

Ronan considered acquiring Marvel, and after thinking twice, he temporarily suppressed the idea of this aspect.

In early 1989, Ron Perelman personally raised $82.5 million to buy ownership of Marvel Comics from New World Pictures.

At this time, Marvel had not yet gone public, and Ron Perelman bought Marvel, more of a capital game, and two years later he pushed Marvel to go public, and successively sold 40% of the shares to cash out.

It's hard to say how much of Marvel's crisis, how much destruction this man played in it.

In the words of a minority Marvel shareholder, Perelman is like a plumber who helps you fix your water pipes, not only completely ruining your house, but also trying to snatch your house without paying a penny.

With a series of suspicious transactions exposed and the stock market bubble bursting, Marvel's stock price has long since collapsed, from $35.75 per share in 1993 to $2.37 in 1997.

But now Marvel Comics is no longer the pure comic book production company before, after Avi Arad took over, Marvel integrated ToyBiz toy company, comic book sales channel company Hero World, etc., and the overall market value has risen, as high as nearly 700 million US dollars.

This is also the reason why Ronan temporarily suppressed the idea of acquiring Marvel, the road has to be taken step by step, the meal has to be eaten in one bite, if you go fast, you will pull the egg, and if you eat too much, you will break your stomach.

The end of the snake swallowing the elephant is tragic, and Marvel is also burdened with huge debts.

Marvel's integration of several companies allowed Avi Arad to win the final battle for power at the top, while Marvel itself was saddled with huge debts.

Marvel at the beginning of 2000 and Marvel ten years later are simply two worlds.

Robert came to New York for such a long time, had a long negotiation with Marvel, and also collected a lot of first-hand information about Marvel, and the results were quite good.

After such a long negotiation, Marvel doesn't mind selling the rights to some characters to Relativity Entertainment, after all, they had planned to make a deal with Artisan Pictures.

The car was parked in front of 417 Fifth Avenue, an old office building where Marvel Comics' headquarters are located.

Today's tragic Marvel is just one of the building's many tenants.

"Avi, this is Mr. Ronan Anderson, President of Relativity Entertainment. ”

In a reception room in Marvel Comics, Robert Lee introduced the two parties: "Ronan, this is Mr. Avi Arad, the CEO of Marvel. ”

Ronan shook hands with Avi Arad, a balding bearded man who should not be young, and his beard and hair were almost completely white.

"Welcome to Marvel. Avi Allad said with a smile.

Ronan was polite: "It's an honor to be here to the holy place where so many heroes are born. ”

Avi Arad gave up his seat to Ronan and the two, and then called for someone to bring coffee, and after a brief politeness between the two sides, they gradually got to the point.

"Mr. Anderson is interested in Marvel's superheroes?" Avi-Arad asked, "how do you want to get so many character licenses at once?"

Ronan's reason came casually: "I'm a Marvel comic book fan, I've read all the Spider-Man comics, when I chatted with Chris of Sony Entertainment some time ago, I heard him mention that Marvel is not in good condition and urgently needs funds to solve the problem, as a Marvel fan, I am willing to help Marvel tide over the difficulties." ”

This is a high-sounding statement.

Marvel's debt dilemma is not a secret, when Avi Arad borrowed to buy Marvel, he expected the current situation, and it is not without efforts in recent years, such as selling the rights of "Blade" to New Line Pictures, selling the rights of "Ghost Rider" to Crystal Sky Pictures, and so on.

But this can only solve the immediate problem.

Avi Arad said with a smile: "You can reach out to the original at a critical moment, and Marvel is very grateful." As an old fox, he is not a vegetarian either: "Mr. Anderson, it is better to provide a loan to Marvel with bank interest, and as long as Marvel can tide over the difficulties, it will be rewarded in the future." ”

Robert looked at Avi Arad and then at Ronan, neither of them was easy.

Ronan didn't have a trace of embarrassment on his face, and said naturally: "It's no problem to provide a loan." But Relativity Entertainment is a commercial company, and I am responsible for hundreds of employees, and we are in business, and business problems are solved by business. Relativity Entertainment provided Marvel with a $40 million commercial loan, Marvel used the copyrights of its 2,000 characters as collateral, and Relativity Entertainment has 30 years of access rights, how about it?"

Avi Arad's face remained unchanged: "Mr. Anderson said with a smile, how can Marvel take advantage of his friends for no reason?"

The copyright of 2,000 characters, this person can also open his mouth?

Ronan gave Robert Lee a look, and Robert Lee said at the right time: "Avi, we will follow the previous negotiation and only ask for the copyright of 35 superheroes and their associated characters. ”

Avi Arad said with a smile: "I have said more than once that I agreed to this deal, and the 35 superheroes and their associated characters have a total of $50 million in licensing fees. ”

Ronan didn't answer, this price will be completely the price of cabbage in ten years, but it will definitely belong to the lion's mouth now.

"The $25 million licensing fee is the highest price we can accept," said Robert Lee. ”

Avi Arad knew who was really in charge, looked at Ronan, and said: "In 1997, Sony Columbia Pictures got the rights to Spider-Man for $7 million. ”

"As far as I know, Sony Columbia didn't buy the rights from Marvel, and it's the rights to the entire Spider-Man universe. When Cannon Pictures bought Spider-Man from Marvel, it only paid $350,000. Last year, you sold Ghost Rider, and the base license fee was only $1.5 million!" Ronan said calmly: "Spider-Man is the most famous superhero in Marvel Comics, and his influence far exceeds that of other characters. ”

He looked at Avi Arad: "Our ideal target is A-line superheroes such as Spider-Man, Hulk and Fantastic Four, but after Robert contacted you, he found out that you have sold all the rights to A-line superheroes. ”

Avi Arad sighed in his heart, the first-line heroes were sold out, so it was the turn of the second-tier ......

It's not a long-term solution, he knows it very well, but he can't change it in a short time.

Ronan continued: "You know better than us how much the hero character of this negotiation is worth. Captain America is outdated, how many young people know Captain America nowadays? Black Panther is not an American superhero at all, Black Widow and Hawkeye are third-tier at best, Guardians of the Galaxy comics have not sold much, Doctor Strange is not well-known enough among comic book fans, Thor's magical heroes have always had a bad reputation, Falcon, War Machine, Ant-Man, Captain Marvel, etc., they are not as well-known as Spider-Man, even Iron Man. ”

Robert continued: "We can't afford to pay so much for these second- and third-tier superhero characters. If you can get back the rights to characters like Hulk, Fantastic Four, and Iron Man, and join the deal, we can consider $50 million. ”

Avi Arad smiled and said, "Two, so many roles, how many movies can you make?"

Ronan was thick-skinned, and said directly: "Many of the characters in it are not well-known at all, they are just green leaf characters in the comics, and the adapted movie can only exist as some supporting roles at best, such as the Guardians of the Galaxy, Black Widow, Ant-Man, Falcon and War Machine, etc., is it possible to shoot independent films? I'm afraid we will lose as much as we invest." ”

Avi Arad knows these characters and knows that Ronan is right.

Even Captain America, the most famous on the list, is very risky to make a movie, and there will still be people who like to watch Captain America movies in this era? The Captain America made in 94 was so miserable that he was embarrassed to mention.

Robert said at this time: "Before you contacted Artisan Pictures, there were more than a dozen superhero roles, and the other party only offered $15 million. ”

Avi Arad said with a smile, "So, we didn't have any agreement with Artisan Pictures. ”

Ronan added, "$50 million is fine." But you're going to sell all the rights, just like Marvel sold the Fantastic Four to Twentieth Century Fox. ”

Because based on the agreement between the two parties, any new characters created by Marvel Comics in the Fantastic Four comics will directly become the property of Twentieth Century Fox, and Marvel basically has no right to share in the benefits of the Fantastic Four adaptation.

To be precise, Marvel was robbed by Twentieth Century Fox because of its terrible situation.

In the previous life, Marvel later directly let the Fantastic Four suspend the publication.

Such an agreement is not wise, it is just a condition that Ronan uses to drive down the price, and these characters leave the support of Marvel Comics, like a rootless pinch.

"It can't be. Avi Arad said directly: "Marvel must participate in the post-production of the adapted movie. ”

No one is a fool, and the benefits that can be won by the adaptation right will certainly not be easily given up.

Ronan took advantage of the situation and said, "So, you should look farther away, not just stare at the present. If the copyright fee is too high, it will cause us to compress the budget of other aspects when making the movie, which will affect the quality of the finished film, which in turn may lead to a decrease in post-production revenue, which is also not in Marvel's interest. ”

The first meeting between the two parties lasted a long morning, after Robert did a lot of work, and Avi Arad and Marvel executives were inclined to complete the deal, but the most critical licensing fees and post-sharing ratios have not been negotiated.

In the following days, Ronan continued to negotiate with Marvel. Take a look at the latest chapters of "The Best Entertainment Era Claw Book House" to read for free for the first time.