Disney And Fox Bosses Respond To FANTASTIC FOUR Comic Book Cancellation

Disney And Fox Bosses Respond To FANTASTIC FOUR Comic Book Cancellation

There's been a lot of controversy surrounding the decision to cancel the Fantastic Four comic book in what many claim is a move to hurt next summer's The Fantastic Four movie. Here's what both Disney Chairman Alan Horn and Fox CEO Jim Gianopulos had to say about the matter...

News
By JoshWilding - Nov 15, 2014 08:11 AM EST
Filed Under: Fantastic Four
Source: The Hollywood Reporter (via ComicBook.com)

Earlier this week, a number of studio bosses took part in a roundtable interview with The Hollywood Reporter and among them were Walt Disney Studios Chairman Alan Horn and Fox Chairman and CEO Jim Gianopulos. ComicBook.com have been through the video and came across some very interesting information in regards to the upcoming cancellation of the Fantastic Four comic book and what, if anything, it has to do with Josh Trank's movie at 20th Century Fox. Asked if he felt bringing an end to the series was being done to harm the Marvel properties owned by Fox, Gianopulos responded, "No, I don’t think so. I don’t know how that decision came about. The comic was not a huge seller. The Fantastic Four is a very established group of characters, and the film is awesome. Yeah, I think…I don’t know how that played into their decision, but it wasn’t…the book wasn’t selling as well as others." He also points out that it doesn't really matter from their perspective, something Horn reiterated. "Fully independent decision, by the way, I didn’t even know about it. I mean, honestly, we don’t even [shrugs his shoulders]." Of course, before you think this debunks those rumours, bear in mind that the decision apparently came from Marvel Comics CEO Ike Perlmutter who sounds like an interesting character to say the least...
About The Author:
JoshWilding
Member Since 3/13/2009
A lifelong comic book fan who grew up on Spider-Man: The Animated Series in the '90s, Josh Wilding has been contributing to ComicBookMovie.com since 2009.

While he's also written for websites like Batman-News, HeyUGuys, and WhatCulture, Josh is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic for CBM and the site's #1 contributor with nearly two decades of experience covering film and TV news (including interviews with Tom Holland, Chris Pratt, Gary Oldman, Halle Berry, Jon Bernthal, Tom Welling, and hundreds more).

Based in the UK with his wife, Josh is also an avid WWE and Formula 1 fan and writes about those passions on CBM's sister sites, TheRingReport.com and FullThrottleHQ.com. Favourite superhero? Spider-Man. Favourite pro wrestler? CM Punk. Favourite F1 driver? Max Verstappen.
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HulkOnion
HulkOnion - 11/15/2014, 8:22 AM
WHINE UNTIL YOU GET THE RIGHTS BACK
Highflyer
Highflyer - 11/15/2014, 8:23 AM
The news didn't bother that much tbh
HulkOnion
HulkOnion - 11/15/2014, 8:26 AM
First




In honor of Yoss
RIP
?-2014
BatmanNews
BatmanNews - 11/15/2014, 8:55 AM
finally
BANEofExistence
BANEofExistence - 11/15/2014, 8:56 AM
in 2013- april2014 who the hell bought guardian of the galaxy books? yet the film was a huge hit so I honestly don't think the comic cancellation matters
soberchimera
soberchimera - 11/15/2014, 8:56 AM
TomSolo
TomSolo - 11/15/2014, 8:56 AM
He handled it well enough. Now if it turns out that his studio made a killer F4 film, well then that'll really be the icing on his cake. How that is going to happen, I have no idea. Given the images and news that have leaked, I don see it happening. Hopefully it works though.
Pedrito
Pedrito - 11/15/2014, 8:59 AM
This has nothing to do with getting any rights back (because it has zero effect). People thinking otherwise are delusional.
m0th3r
m0th3r - 11/15/2014, 9:02 AM
FF has been going downhill for a while and clearly movies are the future..they will focus on characters they can fully utilize..
CherryBomb
CherryBomb - 11/15/2014, 9:03 AM
Cancelling it for that reason hurts the comic sales more than Fox.

Comics aren't exactly selling amazingly well, and the film being released and publicised would only help the sales of the F4 comic, if anything.
TheRationalNerd
TheRationalNerd - 11/15/2014, 9:05 AM
I'm just hoping we get our first trailer sometime late this month or early-mid December. I know they're working on the VFX and all but man, I just need to see this "tone" that they're endlessly referring to within these interviews. It's going to be something different for sure which is why I'm anticipating it.
TomSolo
TomSolo - 11/15/2014, 9:06 AM
And free Yoss! Wait... I'm not really sure what this means anyway. But this is the Innerwebs and I am ''Merican, so upon the wagon I will jump!
FordEl
FordEl - 11/15/2014, 9:07 AM
@CherryBomb

Exactly
Baka
Baka - 11/15/2014, 9:08 AM
FF comics are being cancelled cause the whole brand comic wise has been declining and slumping badly in sales.
Nivekian
Nivekian - 11/15/2014, 9:11 AM
Nice dodge, wasn't expecting him to say "Well, you know we are trying to squat on the rights, so this put's us in a pickle...". fox doesn't own the characters, Marvel does. Fox is just leasing them, and refuses to give the property back to the rights holder.
Enphlieuwince
Enphlieuwince - 11/15/2014, 9:11 AM
For once I just want want of these big wigs to come out and say, "Damn right we did it and WHAT!?"



#FreeYoss
ALegendaryPanda
ALegendaryPanda - 11/15/2014, 9:13 AM
I wonder when Fox plans to start promoting their movie, I mean we don't even have a god damn poster yet!
BatmanNews
BatmanNews - 11/15/2014, 9:15 AM
Get the rights to Transformers and G.I Joe already damn it!!! you have enough room.
Baka
Baka - 11/15/2014, 9:16 AM
What the hell I'll join the club
#FreeYoss
SaxoWolf
SaxoWolf - 11/15/2014, 9:18 AM
Mastyrwerk
Mastyrwerk - 11/15/2014, 9:18 AM
Translation: They don't know why.

I just hope Foxtastic Bore fails horribly, Marvel Studios gets them back into the fold, and I can buy the comics again. Once the series ends it will mark the first time since I was ten that I won't be able to get new FF comics.

DON'T SEE THIS MOVIE!
TomSolo
TomSolo - 11/15/2014, 9:22 AM
Anyway, it's been skated around on this thread, but in general, the General Public buys many movie tickets but buys almost no comic books in comparison ($11 billion in box office sales alone to $517 million in CB sales in North America). So while a movie can definitely influence CB sales, as @bane and others pointed out, I would find it hard to believe that a significant number of the uninitiated will not see the new F4 movie because they can't find a comic in a comic book store they are probably not visiting in the first place (in my area, comic books are pretty much only sold in comic book stores and nowhere else. I'm not sure if that is how things are everywhere).. Now, if the CB movie is terrible, it will have an effect on the associated CB sales in some way. While I doubt the Green Lantern film stopped GL fans from buying the books, I could believe it didn't gain the books many new fans like the GotG movie probably did for the GotG books.
LeonNova
LeonNova - 11/15/2014, 9:36 AM
It's obvious Marvel is cancelling the Fantastic Four comics to slight Fox; that goes without saying. However, the fact that the book wasn't a good seller also factors into things. Marvel won't so readily do away with all their X-Men titles because those are still pretty big sellers, and would hurt them in the long run. This isn't really going to hurt Fox anyway. There is a little correlation between the failure of a blockbuster Action/Sci-Fi film and the cancellation of a comic book series. Most of the general audience that goes to see movies at the box office doesn't read comic books. All of my friends have seen Captain America: The Winter Soldier for instance and loved it. But none of them have ever read a Captain America comicbook in their lives I'm pretty sure. If Fox actually starts giving this film a promo run on the level of DOFP and they deliver a film at least somewhat near that quality level (and yes I'm well aware that the users on this site think it'll be the worse CBM of all time) then this film has potential to be a big box office hit and I'm wagering it will at least gross about $400 Million. Hell, it may even end up doing GOTG numbers if word-of-mouth is good enough.
TelaVizion
TelaVizion - 11/15/2014, 9:56 AM
The FF books will come back after the group joins back up. It all goes with the current future storyline.
BIGBMH
BIGBMH - 11/15/2014, 9:57 AM
I question this idea that Marvel as a publishing company has beef with Fox. Fox is continuing to do decent work with the X-men movies, which is good for the Marvel brand (unlike how Sony is mishandling Spider-man). Clearly Marvel and Fox are able to coexist well enough to share the rights to Quicksilver.
TomSolo
TomSolo - 11/15/2014, 9:58 AM
@Jhuntaprodigy... Agreed. A major player like Disney/Marvel is not going to make decisions just to "slight" another studio. It may motivate a change, but these decisions are made by folks who make criminal amounts of money and, like the majority of their decisions, are based mostly on money. Marvel may have wanted to cancel the F4 series partly because they want the movie to fail and then they may have a better chance of getting the rights back. But if the F4 was their best selling book, it would never be cancelled. As you said: the Xmen are not being cancelled and Marvel is still making new characters in those books. And nobody is even talking about Spiderman. The book (I assume) does well enough. I would be stunned to learn that Marvel doesn't want the movie rights. The movies Sony is making are loved by neither fan nor critic (I think they still do make some money though). So if it would make fiscal sense, Marvel would cancel The Spider-Man books. But they aren't. In fact, they are expanding them. Point is... Money motivates the final decisions. Everything else just aims the arrow in the general direction.
TheAmericanPatriot
TheAmericanPatriot - 11/15/2014, 9:58 AM
The FF comic series is one of the lowest selling titles in comics, this was a mercy move.
ChuckV
ChuckV - 11/15/2014, 9:58 AM
Last time FF was fun for me-

Image and video hosting by TinyPic

Maybe they wouldn't be canceling the series if they were still made like this!!!
MercwithMouth
MercwithMouth - 11/15/2014, 10:22 AM
Right from the horses' mouths, and half these idiots still think Marvel is trying to beat down Fox.

The general audience doesn't give two shits about the Fantastic Four comics. Even comic fans aren't reading it. And to think that a comic book could influence box office for a movie studio coming off the biggest XMen film ever...delusion at it's finest.

IF the Fantastic Four reboot is good and successful, it will affect Marvel in a positive way, and you'll likely see Marvel relaunch Fantastic Four with similarities to the film.

IF the Fantastic Four reboot fails, Marvel will let some time go by before they relaunch.
KrazyForKomix
KrazyForKomix - 11/15/2014, 10:45 AM
Don't know why the books weren't selling that well. Hickman's take on the FF was EASILY up there with Byrne's run as the best since Stan's first 100 hundred issues. I was very sorry to see him switch to the Avengers.
grif
grif - 11/15/2014, 10:52 AM
the 4 if done right would fit so well into the mcu. give the rights back.
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