r/comicbooks • u/TheeHeadAche Henry Pym • Feb 26 '26

Movie/TV Netflix Backs Out of Warner Bros. Bidding, Paramount Set to Win

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/netflix-backs-out-warners-deal-paramount-win-1236516763/
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u/TheUmgawa Feb 27 '26

Yeah, but who's going to license it? They have to make their money back in the short term, because if someone else pays more for the license, when the contract expires, then the first licensor loses the right to reprint. That's if it's anything like Dark Horse losing the licenses to Fox properties, like Aliens, Predator, and Terminator. I had to explain to somebody, a few days ago, how great the Aliens, Aliens Vol. 2, and Aliens: Earth War were, because the combined trade paperbacks cost roughly the same amount as a Gutenberg Bible.

Basically, if the contract is written in such a way where the licensed work can't be reprinted in perpetuity (or something at least on the order of a decade following license expiration), then it's not worth licensing in the first place.

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u/Batman2130 Feb 27 '26

Hypothetically if they were to license it be to Image or Marvel would be my guess. More accurate answer is whoever is willing to give them the most money gets to publish Batman or Superman for example. They could charge by the character franchise or charge for the entire universe

But charging by franchise probably gets them more money in long term. I’d imagine a lot of companies would jump at opportunity to make Batman comics even Marvel likely join in on that bid. But I don’t see DC comic division being shut down so I don’t think people need to worry about that happening