crazy off the wall probaly won't work idea

POSTED BY: ianw
UPDATED: Monday, March 26, 2007 00:56
VIEWED: 8270
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CITIZEN

Sunday, February 18, 2007 3:09 AM

Aren't the rights to FireFly owned by 20th Century Fox not the Fox network?

More insane ramblings by the people who brought you beeeer milkshakes!
No one can see their reflection in running water. It is only in still water that we can see.

DROSTIE

Tuesday, February 27, 2007 4:46 AM

The question is, why do you want the rights?

We're not presently in a situation where people are trying to make Firefly stuff but being denied the rights to make it. We're in a situation where no company is making Firefly stuff in the first place.

Why not? Because there's (sadly) not much profit to be had here.

Universal Studios worked on 19 films in 2005. They made substantial profit margins on all but four of them -- Serenity, Doom, Two for the Money, and The Producers. Serenity, after worldwide gross, broke even, and the other three were losses.

Most of Universal's total profit margin was made up, in 2005, out of three pictures: King Kong (cost: $207 million, world gross: $549 million), The 40-Year Old Virgin (c: $ 26 M, wg: $151 M), and Pride and Prejudice (c: $ 28 M, wg: $93 M).

Compare with poor li'l Serenity (c: $39 M, wg: $39 M). It was endowed with the normal (median) budget of a 2005 Universal Pictures film, and yet it didn't provide any real profit whatsoever. Maybe it didn't cause a loss (unlike Doom, which they lost about $4 million on) -- but no profit, either.

By contrast, Universal's other 2005 films had a normal (median) return-on-investment of ~100%. Universal Studios was hoping to see Serenity gross $78 M worldwide, or so. It was sorely let down.

If Serenity had either large profits (like King Kong), or a large return on investment (like The 40 Year Old Virgin), we'd see sequel opportunities. But Serenity had neither -- so a sequel is highly unlikely.

It's not the rights that you need to worry about -- it's the profits.

IANW

Tuesday, February 27, 2007 4:09 PM

the profits aren't a concern though. We want to break even becuase the stock holders sole reason to owning stock is to make it possible to buy the rights and create more firefly, weither sold to a production company or leased to some small firm that can sell the episodes individually via the internet.

i didn't say this was an easy task becuase it's far beyond the box in terms of conventionality. It's possible- but a lot of risk is involved and herin, probaly wouldn't work becuase of that risk factor.

i started this thread to see if anyone can expand off my ideas and maybe come up witha better one. unfortuinately, that hasn't happened.

it's fun to brainstorm though right?

MSG

Tuesday, February 27, 2007 4:13 PM

Well it would depend on the wording of Joss's contract. If he had time periods built in for the show to be optioned/ canceled/ and opened up then we likely could get our hands on it. If however he didn't specify time period under which control rights reverted or became open to purchase, then we'd be dependent on the good will of Fox to be willing to relinquish those rights ( and I don't think that looks good 'cause they're still making a steady stream of revenue from the box sets and such and of course from allowing SciFi to air the episodes on occasion) So it all depends on Joss and how the contract was set. Some films do not ever become open options and others do. If we could get a copy of the contract to the lawyers they should be able to tell us if it's possible and what would need to be done to secure purchasing rights. I still think we might be able to convince Fox to do some made for tv movies ( like they did with Alien Nation after the fans protested the cancellation for so long) if they see some profit in it.

"I'm not all that interested in the mental health of people who want to kill me. "- Leroy Jethro Gibbs

DOROTHEA

Monday, March 26, 2007 12:56 AM

It's been a while since I visited the boards. I guess I'm sort of resigned to the fact that Firefly/Serenity is finished. This thread sort of has reawakened my enthusiasm though...

Do we really have to buy the rights? That's already so much money without us having anything to show for it. What if we just raised the money for some studio to make a sequel? Maybe the fans could get back whatever they put in and the studio could get the profits, if there were any... Firefly cost like 40 million, rihgt?

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