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Chapter 150: Acquire a Superhero!

"Not just superheroes, I'm also happy to invest in other promising projects. I've already asked Drew Barrymore to spread the word for me."

Tang Jinshan said.

"Looks like you've made a lot of money lately!"

Robert Shay's eyes burned with passion.

I heard him say last time that he wanted to work on the Nasdaq index.

The Nasdaq index has been soaring recently.

From 3300 points at the beginning of the month, it has surged all the way to 3700 points now!

Tang Jinshan mortgaged 200 million yuan to him.

Did he bet everything on it?

He made a killing this time!

They all regretted not joining in.

However, stocks are risky, and investment requires caution. There's still half a month to go!

Nobody knows if it will suddenly collapse.

If he were to actually take action, he certainly wouldn't act recklessly.

"Don't worry about the money, I can pay in cash. Also, I heard that Sony bought the rights to Spider-Man? Could you help me out? I'd like to buy it too."

This is exactly what Tang Jinshan wants most!

Especially, we can't let Sony get off easy!

"You want to buy Spider-Man? That's very expensive, and Sony just acquired it, so they might not be willing to let it go."

Robert Shea said.

Previously, Marvel wanted to sell all of its characters, except those that had already been sold, to Sony for $2500 million.

However, Sony declined the offer and instead acquired the rights to Spider-Man and a series of derivative characters for only $700 million.

Then, due to copyright disputes, they went to court with MGM.

The Spider-Man rights were originally sold to Caroco Pictures, and they even wanted to hire James Cameron as director.

However, Caroco Films went bankrupt, and the projects that had already started were also canceled.

Cameron then went on to make Titanic.

Marvel then sold the Spider-Man rights to Sony.

However, MGM acquired the bankrupt Caroco Films, believing that the Spider-Man rights still belonged to them, the project had already started, and even Cameron had written the script, so the conditions for automatically returning to Marvel had not been met after 5 years of no filming.

So he filed a lawsuit against Marvel and Sony.

Sony then resorted to underhanded tactics as well.

He poached John Carly, president of United Artists, a subsidiary of MGM.

And this person owns the copyright to 007!

When MGM saw that its money tree was gone, it almost lost its soul.

The two sides are locked in a life-or-death struggle: if you want Spider-Man, I dare to make 007; if you dare to make 007, I want Spider-Man.

They were fighting fiercely.

Ultimately, the two parties reached an agreement: the rights to 007 would be returned to MGM, while the rights to Spider-Man would belong to Sony.

Therefore, it will probably not be easy to get Sony to give up its rights now.

"I'm willing to pay more, ten million or twenty million is no problem. I just don't want the Spider-Man copyright to fall into Sony's hands. I want to develop it myself, just like Lord of the Rings."

Tang Jinshan adopted a willful attitude.

Money gives you confidence to speak!

Robert Shea finally realized just how determined Tang Jinshan was!

It seems he wasn't just talking when he said he wanted to buy Marvel's rights to develop it.

They are really preparing for a major conflict.

That makes sense, considering how many people grew up reading Marvel and DC comics.

It's not surprising that people with money can be capricious.

"So you want me to be the middleman?"

Robert Shea also knew that Tang Jinshan and Sony had clashed.

The overseas distribution rights for "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" were originally intended for Sony, but the two parties had a falling out.

Tang Jinshan then came to find him.

Now that "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" has become a box office hit, he has made a fortune!

As a condition, Tang Jinshan even invested in his Lord of the Rings project.

A whopping $2.5 million!

He achieved a win-win situation and made a fortune!

In truth, I should really thank Sony!

Now, Tang Jinshan wants to buy the Spider-Man rights himself, and he needs Tang Jinshan's help again.

"It's not convenient for me to show up, otherwise they would definitely ask for an outrageous price."

Tang Jinshan nodded and said.

"No problem, I can help you with this."

Tang Jinshan was not only a wealthy man, but also his lucky star, and Robert Shea was happy to do him a favor and enhance their friendship.

The more things Tang Jinshan relies on, the better!

From Robert Shea, Tang Jinshan learned a lot more about the copyright status of various Marvel superheroes.

Because Marvel went bankrupt and had to sell assets to survive, its copyrights are in a state of chaos.

20th Century Fox owns the rights to a range of superheroes, including the X-Men.

Including Professor X, Magneto, Wolverine, Storm, Cyclops, Jean Grey, Mystique, Beast, Quicksilver,

Scarlet Witch, etc.

And side quests featuring Deadpool, Cable, Psylocke, Apocalypse, Sentinel, Black King, Hellfire Clan, and the Brotherhood —

There are also a series of characters from the Fantastic Four.

It can be described as a great treasure trove.

Iron Man is now in the hands of New Line, and even Blade is with him.

Blade had previously achieved impressive box office results.

The Hulk is on the Universal Pictures side.

Tang Jinshan was most concerned about Sony.

The $7 million price tag includes Spider-Man and all related derivative characters, totaling over 900!

Including Spider-Man spin-offs such as Spider-Silk, Spider-Gwen, Spider-Man 2099, Scarlet Spider, and so on.

There are also a series of supporting characters and villains, including Mary Jane, Gwen Stacy, Uncle May, Black Cat, Silver Sable, Iron Fist, Green Goblin, Doctor Octopus, Sandman, Venom, Carnage, Mysterio, Baldy, Electro, Kingpin, and many more.

That's why it's so expensive.

Tang Jinshan also learned a piece of information from Robert Shea.

Marvel is currently in negotiations with Artisan Entertainment.

The plan is to sell a package of fifteen characters, including Thor, Captain America, Black Widow, Black Panther, Deadpool, Iron Fist, Ant-Man, Punisher, Humanoid, and Morbius.

"Shay, I'm also interested in this deal, and I'd like to buy the rights permanently. Could you ask Marvel about their prices for me?"

Tang Jinshan said.

"A permanent buyout of the copyright? That's not cheap."

Robert Shea exclaimed in surprise.

Some of the copyrights Marvel sold were for perpetual use, such as the X-Men series sold to 20th Century Fox.

However, most of them are 5-year agreements, such as the Fantastic Four from 20th Century Fox and the Hulk from Universal.

And there's the Iron Man suit he just got.

Many copyrights have returned to Marvel in this way, only to be sold again.

"It's okay, I really want to buy it. Price is not a problem, and you can tell Marvel that I can pay the full amount in cash."

Marvel has completed its bankruptcy reorganization, its stock price has plummeted, and it owes an unknown amount of debt.

Therefore, he has no plans to acquire the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe for the time being.

Let's get the character in our hands first.

This is already Marvel's greatest asset.

What Marvel, now reborn, probably needs most right now is cash to keep it running.

"Okay, I'll talk to Marvel. I'm sure they'll be happy to hear this news."

Robert Shay laughed.

Young people are just so willful!

"So, what about your Iron Man? I want one too. Your company must have a lot of projects to develop, you probably won't be making an Iron Man movie, right?"

Tang Jinshan recalls that New Line Cinema bought the Iron Man rights but did not develop it.

After five years, it will automatically return to Marvel.

Then in 2005, Marvel developed its own technology, ushering in another period of great success.

In fact, New Line has always had quite a few projects in hand.

For example, the movie "Final Destination" which is currently being filmed.

Tang Jinshan actually wanted to snatch the role, but Robert Shay was fully capable of developing such a low-budget horror film on his own.

I never mentioned it to him.

Tang Jinshan couldn't intercept the deal even if he wanted to.

Now, Iron Man can't miss out.

Since the new line has made so much money, it should at least let me make some back.

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