DON'T SELL YOUR CHARACTERS SHORT

The latest Batman movie was the subject of a number of licensing deals - to 101 different companies in the U.S. alone. That means that the owners of the rights to Batman earned money from each of those contracts to an outside company by allowing them to use Batman's name or image. Not only did all those company's purchase rights to the character, but many of the companies purchased the rights to use Batman for more than one purpose. This means more money to the owners.

Therefore, although Batman Forever earned box office receipts of $52.8 million in its first weekend and $184 milllion by the time the video was released, at least one of the licensees expected to make another $200 million from its licensed products alone.

Consider another character whose value is considerable. DC, the owner of Superman has earned over $250 million of the more than $1 BILLION in revenue that character has earned from movies, television and commercial product licenses since Superman's creation in the 1930's. The creators of Superman must have made a fortune. Not exactly. In 1938, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster sold the rights to Superman to DC Comics for $130. Sell the rights in your artwork wisely and carefully.

First Published Version, copyright 1996 David M. Spatt

INDEX TO ARTS & LAW

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copyright 1997 David M. Spatt, All rights reserved

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