Current Events > Marvel Studios Only Pays Comic Creators $5000 For Using Their Stories

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https://screenrant.com/marvel-studios-mcu-movies-comic-creators-pay-details/

A new report indicates that Marvel only pays comics creators and writers $5,000 if their stories are used in any of the MCU feature films. To date, Marvel has released 24 films in the MCU, with the 25th premiering next month when Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings hits theaters. Marvel will release two more movies this year: Eternals and the highly anticipated Tom Holland-led Spider-Man: No Way Home, the latter in partnership with Sony. In 2022, Marvel will release a total of five films, each of which are likely to bring in hundreds of millions of dollars, with tentpoles like Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and Black Panther sequel Wakanda Forever being of particular interest.

Marvel Studios has also moved into the streaming realm in 2021, premiering hits like WandaVision, Falcon and the Winter Soldier, and Loki. Winter Soldier co-creator Ed Brubaker revealed his mixed feelings surrounding the show earlier this year, but creators of the iconic characters usually stay mum. Marvel typically honors them with a nod in the credits and it was always assumed that they were receiving compensation in some form or another. Now that new details have come to light, though, the compensation structure may have been revealed.

According to The Guardian, Marvel pays writers or artists whose work is featured in an MCU film a flat $5,000 fee. Three different sources confirmed this amount. Additionally, they also send the creator an invitation to the premiere of the movie their work is featured in. Marvel declined to comment on the matter, citing a concern about privacy when discussing these matters.

To date, the MCU's 24 movies have grossed nearly $23 billion at the box office and several of the films have crossed the $1 billion mark on their own. Avengers: Endgame was the highest grossing movie for a time before James Cameron's Avatar took back the title. Captain Marvel, Captain America: Civil War, Iron Man 3, Black Panther, Avengers, Avengers: Age of Ultron, and Avengers: Infinity War all surpassed the billion dollar mark, too. Once the box office recovers, it seems all but guaranteed that the franchise could continue to post record breaking numbers.

This certainly indicates that Marvel Studios and Disney itself is more than capable of paying the creators of these characters a much better fee. The fact that they don't is deeply concerning. There would be no MCU without the writers and artists whose work served as the inspiration for the live-action franchise that millions around the world now enjoy. Now that this information has come to light, coupled with the damaging lawsuit filed by Scarlett Johansson concerning the release of Black Widow, Disney and Marvel can't take much more heat. Hopefully this information alongside pressure to give artists their proper due could see a change in the ways they compensate the artists that are vital to the franchise.
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Jim Starlin, the creater of Thanos, got less money in royalties from Disney than he did from Warner Bros for the use of his DC character "KGBeast"

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Damn that's pretty shitty

If they directly use a comic story, they absolutely should properly pay the original writer

Seriously? I'd tell them fuck right off.

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The two big comic companies have been doing sleazy shit like this for decades, it's no surprise they're still doing it today.

Wow talk about shitty. They're making billions off of these creations and they give the original creators a one time payment of $5,000? I wonder if they can say no, or if it's just damned if they do damned if they don't.

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Are you even surprised?

NoxObscuras posted...

I wonder if they can say no, or if it's just damned if they do damned if they don't.

Doubt it, Disney owns Marvel so unless these writers had some really good contracts, I'm sure Disney owns the IP they produced while working under Marvel.

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I just assumed they didn't get paid to begin with. Not because they don't deserve to get paid, but because Hollywood in general royally fucks writers regularly.
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how many movies are direct adaptations? and the writers don't have anything to do with the movie besides influencing a part of the story? and they get 5k for it?

could be higher but it also doesn't really sound too bad

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To play devil's advocate here, just because you are using a person's story, doesn't mean it's readily adaptable to film.

Though the sad thing is that people who are paid to turn the story into a workable screenplay are likely paid more than the original writers themselves.

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Tyranthraxus posted...

Jim Starlin, the creater of Thanos, got less money in royalties from Disney than he did from Warner Bros for the use of his DC character "KGBeast"

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I thought they'd get at least a mil with royalties. A flat rate of $5,000 is nonsense for a major movie studio, shouldn't be legal. Maybe people still accept that rate to get their foot in the door or something.

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There are shades to this. Civil War has nothing to do with the comic book. If Mark Millar got $5000 for the concept of Iron Man and Captain America disagreeing, he was overpaid by $4999.

On the other hand, Bucky's story in the Winter Soldier is relatively close to how it was original written in the comics. But the Hydra plot in the movie is mostly original or Frankensteined from different comics. I'd say that Ed Brubaker probably deserves a bit more credit and money than what he got.

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Tyranthraxus posted...

Jim Starlin, the creater of Thanos, got less money in royalties from Disney than he did from Warner Bros for the use of his DC character "KGBeast"

I wonder if he got any royalties from the NES Batman game.

KGBeast appears in the game as a random ninja just before the first boss fight (Killer Moth).

Guerrilla Soldier posted...

how many movies are direct adaptations? and the writers don't have anything to do with the movie besides influencing a part of the story? and they get 5k for it?

could be higher but it also doesn't really sound too bad

As we know, these films are successes when they stick closely to the comic source material and abyssmal failures when they don't.

They should be paid alot more because we know this is fact.

I mean, they could just make movies without basing it on the comic. They have and they were terrible.

refmon posted...

Jim Starlin, the creater of Thanos, got less money in royalties from Disney than he did from Warner Bros for the use of his DC character "KGBeast"

Goddamn
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^Never trust WGTC
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