How much did the X-Men cost 20th Century Fox?

Marvel’s ‘X-Men’ is now a multi billion-dollar franchise…

But it looks as though 20^th Century Fox had quite a deal back in 1993.

According to a report by Sean O’Reilly and Vincent Shen back last year on the Industry Focus financial podcast, it looks as though 20^th Century Fox has made a killing from its 1993 deal in which they bought the rights to Marvel’s ‘X-Men’.

“You’re going to laugh at this number, I know you will,” said Shen. “Fox acquired the X-Men live action and animated rights from Marvel for $2.6 million.”

And it just keeps getting better.

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Obviously, $2.6 million is an absolute steal.

Even back in 1993, it wasn’t a huge amount… and this shrewd investment led to the creation of the ‘X-Men’ universe with the first ‘X-Men’ movie hitting cinemas in 2000. Obviously, it didn’t end there, with a number of sequels and spin-offs bringing Fox’s earnings from the ‘X-Men’ into billions of dollars.

“So, they purchased those rights for $2.6 million,” he explained, “And in terms of the percentage of what the gross box office recipes actually came out to be, in that legal filing, from 2001, actually, the original X-Men film generated about $160 million in profits for Fox. Not bad at all. Marvel earned just about $6 million in back-end contingent compensations — about 2% of worldwide ticket sales.”

Based on a worldwide gross of $296 million, this sounds about right.

Assuming these figures are correct (and that their 2% deal hasn’t changed at all since 2001) it looks as though Marvel continues to make money on the back of 20^th Century Fox’s efforts.

But it’s really not a lot.

Let’s take ‘Deadpool’ for example…

‘Deadpool’ toppled box office records, becoming the best selling R-rated movie of all time, with a staggering $783 million worldwide gross. At 2% it looks as though Marvel made a paltry $15.6 million in back-end contingent compensations. Not an awful lot for one of their biggest R-rated characters.

And it’s just as bad for the other ‘X-Men’ movies.

‘X-Men: Apocalypse’ managed a respectable $543 million at the worldwide box office, resulting in just $10.8 million for Marvel. And when it comes to ‘Logan’ it’s a similar story – earning $585 million so far, this results in a $11.7 million payday for Marvel.

In fact, the entire franchise earnings are as follows:

• X-Men – Fox: $221.3m Marvel: $5.92m

• X2: X-Men United – Fox: $297.7m Marvel: $8.15m

• X-Men: The Last Stand – Fox: $249.3m Marvel: $9.19m

• X-Men Origins: Wolverine – Fox: $223m Marvel: $7.46m

• X-Men: First Class – Fox: $193.6m Marvel: $7.07m

• The Wolverine – Fox: $294.8m Marvel: $8.29m

• X-Men: Days of Future Past – Fox: $547.8m Marvel: $14.96m

• Deadpool – Fox: $725.1m Marvel: $15.66m

• X-Men: Apocalypse – Fox: $365.9m Marvel: $10.88m

• Logan – Fox: $488.5m Marvel: $11.71m

(Note: Fox’s earnings are estimated based on worldwide gross minus production costs)

Clearly, 20^th Century Fox has made a phenomenal amount of money from their $2.9 million investment… even taking production costs into account, the folks at Marvel must be kicking themselves.

Overall, 20^th Century Fox has made a staggering $3.6 billion profit.

Marvel, on the other hand, received just $99.3 million in compensations… plus the initial $2.9 million rights purchase for a meagre $102.2 million total.

Quite a difference… and again, the folks at Marvel must be kicking themselves.

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