Rebirth of the Great Entertainment Empire

v1 Chapter 501: Acquisition of Marvel (Part 2)

last life.

Marvel Comics went public in 1991, run by Wall Street veteran Ron Perelman.

With the listing of Marvel Comics, Ron Perelman naturally made a lot of money.

But Ron Perelman's appearance is really ugly - it's just a contract to take all the copyrights of the characters created by the contracted cartoonists to the company, but you Ron Perelman At any rate, Lehman asked these cartoonists to follow him to drink some soup, and at the worst, he also made them feel a little hopeful. But Ron Perelman just raised the buyout price a little for these cartoonists.

Later, because of dissatisfaction with Ron Perelman's receipt of all the copyrights of all his signed cartoonists in the company's hands in the form of a contract, some Marvel signed cartoonists pressured Ron Perelman to change the contract, Among them, editor and cartoonist Nathan Burcher proposed that Marvel give up the one-time buyout of copyright that has been implemented for half a century and follow DC's example and also provide some cartoonists with guaranteed share contracts.

This very unreasonable request in Ron Perelman's view obviously seriously damaged the interests of the company, so it was categorically rejected by Ron Perelman.

Afterwards, many of Marvel's contracted cartoonists chose to protest the company's domineering by collectively breaking the change, but under the constraints of the contract, the matter could only be left to nothing in the end.

but--

The contract has a time limit. Later, after the contract expired, some comic artists who signed with Marvel would rather give up the follow-up creation rights of the works they created before, and also refused to continue to sign with Marvel. Jim Lee, McFarlane, etc. A group of star painters left Marvel to set up their own businesses and established Impression Comics, the third largest comic company in the industry.

The wave of exodus from Marvel's cartoonists reached a new high in the first half of 1993, because the contracts of a large number of its cartoonists expired this year, except for Jim Lee, McFarlane and others who rely on personal relationships to actively In addition to attracting expired cartoonists to join Impression Comics, including Marvel's old rival DC, and even a newly established publishing company such as Dark Horse Comics, they are all eyeing Marvel's big fat. Marvel executives led by Lehman have repeatedly raised the copyright buyout price, but it is still difficult to prevent the loss of a large number of contracted cartoonists.

Learning this lesson, Xu Cun brought Weng Hong, Huo Wenxi, his own bodyguards and Stan Lee, who had been included by himself, after DreamWorks Group signed the Marvel Comics acquisition agreement with the Goodman family. , screenwriter Joe Simon, painter Jack Kirby, and painter Steve Ditko came to Marvel's headquarters to hold a meeting with a group of cartoonists and screenwriters from the original Marvel.

The one who wants to meet with him is the only boss of Marvel in the future, and what he is talking about is related to his future destiny. All the cartoonists and screenwriters of the original Marvel came to the conference room early to wait for Xu Cun.

And Xu Cun led the people to arrive on time.

As soon as he sat on the main seat of the conference hall, Xu Cun smiled and said, "Before I saw you, I thought I came to the wrong place. How can such a poor environment be a place for a group of geniuses to work?"

pity--

Xu Cun thought about the opening remarks all the way, but did not get any response from the cartoonists and screenwriters of the original Marvel.

However, Stan Lee, who has been edited by Xu Cun, said a little embarrassedly: "The company's performance has been very unstable in recent years, and it owes a large amount of foreign debt to the bank, and Goodman has no money to buy the environment for everyone. Nice office."

Xu Cuncai didn't believe what Martin Goodman's brother-in-law Stan Lee said - Marvel hasn't been having a good time all the time. If Martin Goodman had the heart, how could he not be able to get the money for a few offices?

Xu Cun smiled and said, "For Mr. Martin, the poor days are over. I think, after paying back the money owed to the bank, Mr. Martin and his children will have at least two or three hundred million dollars in pension." Then, Xu Cun looked at the cartoonists and screenwriters who were sitting, and said, "It's everyone, I'm afraid you have to keep fighting, or you may not even have money for retirement!"

As soon as Xu Cun's words came out, several people were immediately angry!

As if he didn't see the faces of these people, Xu Cun continued: "Okay, let's get down to business... I think, even if I don't introduce myself, someone should know me, right? However, after all, there should be people who don't know me. So, let me introduce myself first. My name is Xu Cun. I'm the owner of DreamWorks Group. DreamWorks Studios and DreamWorks TV are both my industries. Now, Marvel Comics is my industry, and I'm alone industry.”

Looking at everyone's reaction, Xu Cun continued: "I think one of the impressions some of you have of me is that I am rich. Well, I admit it. So, you work for me, it should be A kind of luck, because you will get the highest benefits and treatment in the industry.”

As soon as Xu Cun's words came out, many cartoonists and screenwriters immediately showed joy on their faces, but they still didn't speak - obviously, they would rather hear Xu Cun say something real, and Not just empty talk now.

Seeing this, Xu Cun said: "Then let me talk about what you are most concerned about first." After scanning around, Xu Cun continued: "From now on, Marvel can provide guaranteed bottom-line sharing agreements for cartoonists in need. The price is equivalent to the highest in the industry, and given that some cartoonists are used to buyout contracts, Marvel will respect the choice of these cartoonists and continue to provide them with buyout contracts.”

Xu Cun's promise made all the cartoonists and screenwriters sitting there full of joy - they finally waited for the hope of getting a high salary!

When the emotions of the cartoonists and screenwriters stabilized, Xu Cuncai said again: "I am a businessman and a greedy businessman~lightnovelpub.net~ So the copyright of the characters you create must be completely owned by me!"

After listening to Xu Cun's domineering words, the joy on the faces of some cartoonists and screenwriters immediately began to fade!

Xu Cun didn't go to see these people, and continued: "However, although the copyrights of the characters you create are all owned by me personally, as long as you work in Marvel and the characters you create make money, I will give you a portion of it. , I promise, that's a lot more money than you'd get by meddling with the rights to these characters."

Afterwards, Xu Cun took a look at Stan Lee, screenwriter Joe Simon, painter Jack Kirby, and painter Steve Ditko, and said, "For example, DreamWorks Studios will be preparing for the filming of Captain America this year. ' and 'Spider-Man', I'll give 'Captain America' and 'Spider-Man' each three percent of the total worldwide box office."

As soon as Xu Cun's voice fell, there was an uproar at the scene, and some cartoonists and screenwriters even stood up excitedly - the high guarantee, plus the high share, plus the share of the film and television, although they could not own the creations they created. , but they can live comfortably with the characters they create, and if they can create characters that people like, they can make a lot of money with the characters they create! How could they not be excited?

Seeing that the emotions of all the cartoonists and screenwriters were aroused, Xu Cun threw out what he wanted to say most today: "In a few days, someone will organize you to travel to Hong Kong and take a look at DreamWorks Films, which I am proud of. If you like the people there, someone will arrange a comfortable residence for him and a suitable high-paying job for his family. If you don’t like the people there, you can create independently at home and communicate with the headquarters through E-mail, ah, yes, I mean, the headquarters of Marvel Comics is going to move to Hong Kong."

...