Marvel's Ike Perlmutter Offered The Movie Rights of Every Marvel Character to Sony in 1998 and Sony Turned Them Down!

Wow! The Marvel movies almost could have gone in a completely different direction than what we currently are enjoying now. Marvel Studios has changed the way that comic book movies are made, and the only reason they are making the movies that they are now is because Sony Pictures made a made stupid-ass decision to turn down a stupid-ass offer from Marvel CEO Ike Perlmutter. 

Wall Street Journal recently published an article that included an interesting extract from an upcoming book called The Big Picture: The Fight for the Future of Movies by Ben Fritz. It recounts the story of how in 1998 when Sony Pictures was trying to purchase the movie rights to Spider-Man, Perlmutter used the opportunity to offer them the rights to nearly every freakin' Marvel character! Luckily Sony was dumb enough to turn down the offer. You have to remember, at the time, Marvel was just exiting bankruptcy and they were looking for some cash. Here's the story:

In 1998, a young Sony Pictures executive named Yair Landau was tasked with securing the theatrical screen rights to Spider-Man. His company had DVD rights to the web slinger but needed the rest in order to make a movie.

Marvel Entertainment, then only a famed name in the comic-book world, had just begun trying to make film deals. The company was fresh out of bankruptcy and desperate for cash, so its new chief, Ike Perlmutter, responded with a more audacious offer. Sony, he countered, could have the movie rights to nearly every Marvel character—Iron Man, Thor, Ant-Man, Black Panther and more—for $25 million.

However, Sony wasn't interested at all in playing with any of the other characters in the Marvel Universe:

Mr. Landau took the offer back to his bosses at Sony, whose response was quick and decisive, he recalled in an interview: "Nobody gives a sh—about any of the other Marvel characters. Go back and do a deal for only Spider-Man."

Hahahaha! Marvel certainly dodged a bullet there! Had Sony actually went through with the purchase, we would not have seen any of the films that have been made or will be made. Luckily, the executives in charge at Sony at the time had no creative vision of what could have been. 

Obviously, the Spider-Man deal went through and Sony has held on to them ever since. And it's been great that they've been kind enough to share him with the MCU.