The New York Times has a funny item up today on the legal battle between Fox and Warner over the rights to the upcoming (or is it?) superhero movie Watchmen. In it, the Times quotes a few excerpts from the legal documents that, taken out of context, seem to reduce this lawsuit to a juvenile bragging contest:
In one exchange, lawyers for Warner Brothers filed paperwork opposing Fox’s attempt to block evidence that Warner says would show that Fox is an “underperforming” studio or that Warner is “better.” This follows earlier assertions by a Fox executive, in a deposition, that his studio is “unique” and “the very best in the business.”
Never mind the fact that this isn’t a custody battle, so it doesn’t really matter which studio could give the movie a better home, so to speak — either Fox owns the rights or Warner does, period.
One of the amusing things about this is that Fox, for all its self-styled “uniqueness” and “very bestness”, really has been underperforming lately. When all is said and done, it seems likely that Fox will have released only two movies in 2008 that grossed over $100 million in North America, namely Dr. Seuss’ Horton Hears a Who! and the surprise hit Marley & Me.
Meanwhile, Warner already has five such films. But now we come to another amusing irony.
Three of Warner’s $100 million movies — Sex and the City, Four Christmases and Journey to the Center of the Earth — were actually put into production by New Line Cinema, and had to be distributed by Warner after New Line’s distribution arm was shut down in February following that studio’s own streak of “underperforming” films.
So if it weren’t for those New Line leftovers, Warner would have had only two $100 million movies themselves, namely The Dark Knight — which, like Watchmen, is based on a DC comic-book series — and Get Smart.
And if you’re wondering how the other studios are doing:
- Paramount will probably end up with seven $100 million movies, four of them produced by DreamWorks: Iron Man, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull; Kung Fu Panda; Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa; Tropic Thunder; Eagle Eye; The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.
- Sony has four: Hancock; Quantum of Solace; Step Brothers; You Don’t Mess with the Zohan.
- Universal has four: Mamma Mia!; The Incredible Hulk; Wanted; The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor.
- Disney has three: WALL•E; The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian; Bolt.
And then there is Summit, which isn’t a major studio like those other outfits, but it, too, hit the big time this year, with Twilight.
JAN 4 UPDATE: Based on how well they have performed over the past week, it looks like the Class of 2008 will produce at least two more $100 million movies: Bedtime Stories, which brings Disney’s number up to four; and Yes Man, which brings Warner’s number up to six (or three, if we bracket off the New Line films).
Fox, meanwhile, remains at two.
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