reasons why Fox isn't selling FF rights
POSTED BY: voider
UPDATED: Thursday, November 24, 2005 03:31
VIEWED: 6007
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Saw serenity again last weekend (only 3 bucks); a good-sized crowd, plenty of laughters and EVERYONE (except me) was really shocked when wash got impaled...but they all loved it!
Anyway, on my way out I was wondering: Why wouldn't Fox sell the rights to FF? (Please shoot me if you have discussed this at lenght already. I just recently moved to the US and got hooked on FF straightaway:))
1.) They are just stupid.
2.) They are planning to do more episodes and/or another movie (yes, please)
3.) They don't know if they can make money by producing more episodes, but don't want to give someone else the chance of possibly making money from it; so they just hold on to it
What do you think? I assume that the SciFi channel would be willing to buy it and keep making more episodes, or not ?
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I think #3.
They would feel like idiots if someone made money off of something they had and couldn't. In their minds it is better to kill something than let someone else have it.
Assholes.
~~~~~
"Funny and sexy. You have no idea. And you never will."
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Quote:Yup, that sounds like the Fox we all know and revile. However, this whole rights issue has gotten even messier for me since now it seems that 10 year contract thing was just a rumor that Joss has disavowed. I'm not really sure who owns what and what can be done about it these days.
In their minds it is better to kill something than let someone else have it.
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They're not selling the rights to FIREFLY so they can make ancillary money off of it.
As long as the DVDs continue to sell (which they are) and as long as networks like Sci-Fi are willing to pay the license fee to do re-runs, then they're not willing to sell this property.
And the "Maybe Sci-Fi Channel will buy it." dead horse has been so beaten that there's no more flesh on its carcass.
It doesn't matter if Fox isn't selling it.
No one is buying.
It was shopped all over hellandgone when the show was killed at Fox. No one wanted it for many reasons, most of them being monetary.
Fox has Firefly. They aren't selling the rights. They're making cashy money off of the DVDs.
Universal/NBC has Serenity, from which there will spring other things like movies, comics, and other stuff.
"Take me, sir. Take me hard." -- Zoe
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It could be:
4) The amount they could make selling the franchise isn't much money to them.
They figure they might as well sit on the product... make some money on the DVDs, and hope that Serenity picks up steam on DVD and Firefly becomes a hot commodity.
Then they can sell it for real money or start making more shows.
It's probably just a risk vs. reward case scenario for them.
In the meantime, anyone who's interested in making Firefly probably isn't willing to shell out as much as Fox wants.
GatorMarc
Eat 'em up, chomp, chomp.
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They are willing to sell the FF but no one has bought it. Not to mention the fact that a network doesn't have to buy the rights to have the show on their channel. Buffy and Angel were both produced by fox but shown on the WB and later UPN, Friends was produced by WB but it was shown on NBC.
"I swallowed a bug." -River Tam
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I suspect that at the time Joss originally was shopping the show around, the low ratings likely had a fair bit to do with why other networks weren't interested. Now of course with the DVD sales and movie in place along with growing interest and accolades, I suspect the biggest barrier to Firefly returning is availabilty of the cast who have moved on, and more importantly, Joss himself.
That said, I'd like nothing more than see FF return and I'm fairly hopefull that someday we might see it.
J\
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Why sell the rights when you can *license* them and KEEP making money off a property you essentially have no interest in? You can probably safely bet that Fox is one of the infamous "ten percenters" (as Warren Zevon called the likes of agents, copyright lawyers and such) who leech onto a product like Firefly or Serenity to milk every penny they can get out of it.
Fox might not have any big plans for Firefly themselves, but if someone else makes a compelling enough case (as Universal and Joss obviously must have), they WILL let someone use the Firefly 'verse for a bit... as long as Fox gets its taste of the money pie. It's like they're saying, "Yeah, sure you can use 'our' 'verse. We get ten percent of the gross, and we retain the merchandising rights, even if we never offer squat for merchandise."
Unfortunately for us and Joss, it seems to be not only Fox's ball, but their bat, bases, and playing field as well. You wanna play, you gotta pay, or they'll take it all and go home. And if you've got a sweet li'l' setup like that, why sell it outright, when you can keep bleeding it little by little?
Man, did that sound jaded, or is it just me? ;)
Mike
Grrrrr. Arrrgghh.
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I think you've got it about right Kwicko.
I don't think Fox wants to sit on the rights just to piss off us Browncoats.
They are a network, and all they care about is the money.
Right now, it seems like Fox is making a bunch of "free" money off of Firefly. The DVDs were selling well when they were released. Then, the BDM* is released, which only increased the poularity of the Firefly DVD's.
Now, Fox is making money off of SciFi running the series.
I'm sure Fox is going to milk this as much as they can.
However, all of these sales are coming from 15 episodes and one movie. After awhile, there is going to be nothing left to milk. Everyone who wanted to see the series and the movie will have seen it. The DVD's won't be selling anymore.
I would seem, that at that point, it would be in Fox's best interest to license someone like SciFi to continue the series.
* Big Damn Movie, for you newbies
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hmm...good points you all make (or actually bad ones for FF) but what i am getting at is MAKING NEW EPISODES! of course fox is a money-leeching congealed piece of monkey vomit and they will milk the cow as long as it lives. but we are really concerned about new stuff, are we not ?
i just assume that without the rights no one else can film new episodes, whoever they may be. and if the popularity does increase (and it will baby!) then there should be an incentive to do more FF. however, once the actors have moved on (as they will) it will be too late :((
well, never say never - who knows what will happen...i keep my fingers crossed!
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