Stan Lee Sues Marvel Comics

night_flyer writes "In a story that demonstrates the way the entertainment industry manipulates its artists, Marvel is claiming that the 400 Million dollar blockbuster movie Spiderman produced no profits, and they are trying to weasel out of their contract that gives Stan Lee 10% of the profits from his creations. Nuff Said!"

And in other news

[youngerpants]

Pop stars are getting ripped off, developers are getting ripped off, fishermen are getting ripped off, the fire department are getting ripped off, etc, etc, etc

Dont mean to sound despotic, but Stan, join the queue

Why should Stan Lee get anything?

[JSC]

After all, he didn't do anything important re: Spiderman. All he did was develop the idea in print, nurse it along for years, pour his sweat and blood into it, bring respectability to a substandard art, etc.

The studio did the hard part. They hired the lawyer to screw Stan! If that isn't worth the 10% I don't know what is.

Big companies, big lawyers, screw everyone else

[GnomeKing]

After reading the article, it seems that this is another case of a large company screwing the people who work for them out of their money...

Marvel has reported millions of dollars in earnings from the film but has told Lee the company has seen no "profits" as defined by their contract.

I guess they got to define "profits" in the same was as microsoft got to define "remedy" (its a joke!)

Time for the hulk!

[colonelteddy]

ME LOSE MONEY??
that makes me angry, You wouldn't like me when I'm angry.

Re:Why should Stan Lee get anything?

[jonr]

Yeah, he only drawed the thing. I mean, I could do that! Corporations have rights, too you know. Anybody can dabble wit pencils and paper, but it takes real work to create all those special effects...
J:

Typical Spidey Plotline

[LittleGuy]

Huge Economic Success due to Spiderman, but Peter Parker can't benefit because:

* Check written in Spiderman's Name
* False agency
* Peter's sense of morality (and flashbacks of Uncle Ben) prevents him from accepting check.
* Etc etc.

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

The Same Old Villain Strikes Again!

[Steve B]

Marvel is claiming that the 400 Million dollar blockbuster movie Spiderman produced no profits

The "piracy" problem must be even worse than they're admitting....

By Marvel's reasoning...

[nmnilsson]

Stan should be happy that they didn't lose money on the movie, or he'd have ended up owing them money...

Re:This is why you never deal in profits

[ComaVN]

That should be:

- Make blockbuster movie
- ????
- No Profit!
- Profit!!!!

but...

[thoolihan]

are trying to weasel out of their contract

Weasiling your way out of things it what separates man from animals. Except the weasel.

-Homer J. Simpson

Visions...

[grub]

Peering into my crystal ball...

StanLee: You owe me $40 million.
Marvel:Well, we calculated that 30 million copies of Spiderman were downloaded via peer-to-peer programs...
StanLee:..and..?
Marvel: ..at $20 per DVD that would have been bought, we lost $600 million. So with the $400 million we earned on the movie release we have a net loss of $200 million. You owe us 10%, or $20 million.

Re:Stan Lee is lucky he has a way to talk about th

[gorgon]

You've got the quote all wrong. Here's the correct quote from our esteemed President:
"There's an old saying in Tennessee - I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee - that says, fool me once, shame on--shame on you. Fool me--you can't get fooled again." - Nashville, Tenn., Sept. 17, 2002

Forget Batman vs. Superman....

[Anonymous Coward]

Stan Lee vs. Marvel!

Re:No Profits

[damien_kane]

Qouth Kevin Smith:

"Oh I disagree...
We had a contract, for likeness rights; remember?
As we are not only the character basis but obviously the artistic basis for your intellectual property, when said property was optioned to Miramax you were legally obligated to secure our permission to transfer the comic book to another medium.

Since you failed to do that, Banky, you find yourself in a very actionable position..."

In this case, all Stan is saying is: "Where's my mothefsckin' movie check?"

Re:I completly agree

[The Grassy Knoll]

So was Gross Points Blank a film about a rookie writer who had to accept Net Points only??

I thank you... I'm here all week...

.

The "Little Man" ( OT )

[A55M0NKEY]

Every time someone mentions the "Little man" I get this picture of a ten inch tall pissed off construction worker chewing a wad of tobacco sitting on someone's shoulder complaining about how nobody respects the little man.

Marvel's been playing too much Hitch-Hikers...

[docbrown42]

...Guide to the Galaxy (original text game). I mean, how else can they claim to have "no-profit" and "profit" at the same time?

Tune in next week, when Spidey battles the Ravenous Bug-Bladder Beast of Thrall!

Re:Could be a good thing

[captaincucumber]

It's too bad there's no Mod option "Dumbass" because that's what the parent thread here deserves.

Seriously, Stan Lee made a contract goof - or, more accurately his lawyer/negotiator/agent did. We don't need more laws and regulations to "correct" (such laws and regulations always over-correct) the situation, we need artists to be less stupid. Rather than being outraged, the public should learn from Stan Lee's mistake.

Re:And in other news

[c13v3rm0nk3y]

isn't /. holding up its end of the bargin and providing plenty of interesting reading material between the "idle" times at the office?

<HOMER>Look at me! I'm surfing the net! And getting PAID. Woo-hoo!</HOMER>

If I do just a little more "research" for only one more hour, I can go for lunch!

Re:No Profits

[Malcontent]

"Relative to the value of a dollar, gasoline is cheaper in the USA now than it has been anywhere in the world, *ever*."

Well somehow I doubt the gasoline in the US is cheaper then in Quatar or Abu Dhabi.

Also remember that all the oil in the world actually belongs to us. We may let other countries sit on top of our oil reserves but we reserve the right to kill them anytime we want if they mess with our oil supply.

I'm glad...

[Eric Damron]

that the entertainment industry makes no profits from movies... If they did, they could afford to go to Washington and lobby for digital copy protection laws that would threaten our fair use rights...

Whew... What a relief!

Re:Taxes and the Little Guy

[Kwil]

Yes and no. Tax cuts are good, but how they are applied makes all the difference. Consider that that same Death Tax change also makes it so that a man who would have gained nearly $90,000 from an estate now gains nearly $200,000. Good right?

Except, think about what that tax reduction could have done for you if instead it meant that your payroll taxes were eliminated? So that 36K/year you earn stays a lot closer to 36K/year?

Not only would you be able to finish college and build your strawbale home (though it might be a year later than you can now), but your earnings would continue to be greater throughout the rest of your life.

Instead, the big guy, who never actually works for a salary, is basically using your payroll deductions to finance the increase he received on his parents death.

Re:This is why you never deal in profits

[Tablizer]

How about:

1. Profit!!!
2. Hide Profit
3. Profit More!!!

Re:/.ed already

[Daetrin]

Wow, it's amazing how much shorter the article looks when it isn't in MSNBC's super-tiny-narrow-column format.