reasons why Fox isn't selling FF rights by voider

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reasons why Fox isn't selling FF rights

POSTED BY: VOIDER
UPDATED: Wednesday, November 23, 2005 17:31
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Monday, November 21, 2005 11:05 AM

Saw serenity again last weekend (only 3 bucks); a good-sized crowd, plenty of laughters and EVERYONE (except me) was really shocked when wash got impaled...but they all loved it!

Anyway, on my way out I was wondering: Why wouldn't Fox sell the rights to FF? (Please shoot me if you have discussed this at lenght already. I just recently moved to the US and got hooked on FF straightaway:))

1.) They are just stupid.

2.) They are planning to do more episodes and/or another movie (yes, please)

3.) They don't know if they can make money by producing more episodes, but don't want to give someone else the chance of possibly making money from it; so they just hold on to it

What do you think? I assume that the SciFi channel would be willing to buy it and keep making more episodes, or not ?

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Monday, November 21, 2005 11:13 AM

UNREGISTEREDCOMPANION

I think #3.

They would feel like idiots if someone made money off of something they had and couldn't. In their minds it is better to kill something than let someone else have it.

Assholes.

~~~~~
"Funny and sexy. You have no idea. And you never will."

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Monday, November 21, 2005 11:19 AM

STAKETHELURK

Quote:
In their minds it is better to kill something than let someone else have it.

Yup, that sounds like the Fox we all know and revile. However, this whole rights issue has gotten even messier for me since now it seems that 10 year contract thing was just a rumor that Joss has disavowed. I'm not really sure who owns what and what can be done about it these days.

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Monday, November 21, 2005 11:35 AM

TALLGRRL

They're not selling the rights to FIREFLY so they can make ancillary money off of it.
As long as the DVDs continue to sell (which they are) and as long as networks like Sci-Fi are willing to pay the license fee to do re-runs, then they're not willing to sell this property.
And the "Maybe Sci-Fi Channel will buy it." dead horse has been so beaten that there's no more flesh on its carcass.
It doesn't matter if Fox isn't selling it.
No one is buying.
It was shopped all over hellandgone when the show was killed at Fox. No one wanted it for many reasons, most of them being monetary.
Fox has Firefly. They aren't selling the rights. They're making cashy money off of the DVDs.
Universal/NBC has Serenity, from which there will spring other things like movies, comics, and other stuff.

"Take me, sir. Take me hard." -- Zoe

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Monday, November 21, 2005 12:09 PM

GATORMARC

It could be:

4) The amount they could make selling the franchise isn't much money to them.

They figure they might as well sit on the product... make some money on the DVDs, and hope that Serenity picks up steam on DVD and Firefly becomes a hot commodity.

Then they can sell it for real money or start making more shows.

It's probably just a risk vs. reward case scenario for them.

In the meantime, anyone who's interested in making Firefly probably isn't willing to shell out as much as Fox wants.

GatorMarc

Eat 'em up, chomp, chomp.

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Monday, November 21, 2005 12:57 PM

GIANTEVILHEAD

They are willing to sell the FF but no one has bought it. Not to mention the fact that a network doesn't have to buy the rights to have the show on their channel. Buffy and Angel were both produced by fox but shown on the WB and later UPN, Friends was produced by WB but it was shown on NBC.

"I swallowed a bug." -River Tam

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Monday, November 21, 2005 1:05 PM

JASON2025

I suspect that at the time Joss originally was shopping the show around, the low ratings likely had a fair bit to do with why other networks weren't interested. Now of course with the DVD sales and movie in place along with growing interest and accolades, I suspect the biggest barrier to Firefly returning is availabilty of the cast who have moved on, and more importantly, Joss himself.

That said, I'd like nothing more than see FF return and I'm fairly hopefull that someday we might see it.

J\

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Monday, November 21, 2005 6:26 PM

KWICKO

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." -- William Casey, Reagan's presidential campaign manager & CIA Director (from first staff meeting in 1981)

Why sell the rights when you can *license* them and KEEP making money off a property you essentially have no interest in? You can probably safely bet that Fox is one of the infamous "ten percenters" (as Warren Zevon called the likes of agents, copyright lawyers and such) who leech onto a product like Firefly or Serenity to milk every penny they can get out of it.

Fox might not have any big plans for Firefly themselves, but if someone else makes a compelling enough case (as Universal and Joss obviously must have), they WILL let someone use the Firefly 'verse for a bit... as long as Fox gets its taste of the money pie. It's like they're saying, "Yeah, sure you can use 'our' 'verse. We get ten percent of the gross, and we retain the merchandising rights, even if we never offer squat for merchandise."

Unfortunately for us and Joss, it seems to be not only Fox's ball, but their bat, bases, and playing field as well. You wanna play, you gotta pay, or they'll take it all and go home. And if you've got a sweet li'l' setup like that, why sell it outright, when you can keep bleeding it little by little?

Man, did that sound jaded, or is it just me? ;)

Mike

Grrrrr. Arrrgghh.

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Monday, November 21, 2005 7:26 PM

BLUE786

I think you've got it about right Kwicko.

I don't think Fox wants to sit on the rights just to piss off us Browncoats.

They are a network, and all they care about is the money.

Right now, it seems like Fox is making a bunch of "free" money off of Firefly. The DVDs were selling well when they were released. Then, the BDM* is released, which only increased the poularity of the Firefly DVD's.

Now, Fox is making money off of SciFi running the series.

I'm sure Fox is going to milk this as much as they can.

However, all of these sales are coming from 15 episodes and one movie. After awhile, there is going to be nothing left to milk. Everyone who wanted to see the series and the movie will have seen it. The DVD's won't be selling anymore.

I would seem, that at that point, it would be in Fox's best interest to license someone like SciFi to continue the series.

* Big Damn Movie, for you newbies

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Tuesday, November 22, 2005 4:50 AM

VOIDER

hmm...good points you all make (or actually bad ones for FF) but what i am getting at is MAKING NEW EPISODES! of course fox is a money-leeching congealed piece of monkey vomit and they will milk the cow as long as it lives. but we are really concerned about new stuff, are we not ?

i just assume that without the rights no one else can film new episodes, whoever they may be. and if the popularity does increase (and it will baby!) then there should be an incentive to do more FF. however, once the actors have moved on (as they will) it will be too late :((

well, never say never - who knows what will happen...i keep my fingers crossed!

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Tuesday, November 22, 2005 5:10 AM

CASSIUS

I didn't read the whole thread, so forgive me if this has been said:

Fox own Firefly, right?
And Universal own Serenity?

So why can't Joss just make a 'Serenity' TV series with Universal's backing?

Noah's ark is a problem.

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Tuesday, November 22, 2005 5:32 AM

PHILYBURKHILL

Fox just keep selling the DVDs, all the merchandise like STs so they are making a lot of money off FireFly. They see no reason to sell the rights. Unfortunately, I don't think we'll ever see our BDH in live action format again

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Tuesday, November 22, 2005 6:06 AM

20THCENTFOXHATER

I think we should just leave it at this: Firefly WILL NOT come back. Sorry, but it's true. Serenity was just the final ripple in the wave (besides the upcoming books). As much as I would LOVE this to COME BACK, it won't; because the FOX network are just a bunch of bitter, stupid, right-wing, capitalist-loving assholes. They are like variuos people in history saying, "Well, the world will be better off with this (insert idea/object). But being that we came up with it and can't get it to work, it's just better off to prevent those who want to use it, develop it and benefit from it from getting it because it may make us look bad". In a way it is kind of cool that there is that REMOTE chance of it coming back, but if it doesn't we will always have what is here, and we will always be able to ponder what could have been. Hell, who doesn't like a good mystery?

"I aim to misbehave."

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Tuesday, November 22, 2005 7:58 AM

BLUE786

I respectfully disagree with anyone who says Firefly will never come back.

After all, in the end, it's all about the money.

To answer some questions:

Universal owns the rights to the Serenity movie, but I'm sure that just changing the name of the series is not enough to get around the legal issues

I think Fox will want to sell the rights at some point. The DVD's can only sell so well, for so long.

As far as actors go, again, it all comes down to money. None of the actors in Firefly are A-list (yet). They're all working actors who need to pay the bills. If they all enjoyed working on it for the first season, I'm sure they would all want to come back to it.

I gotta admit, it is a long shot to bring a series like this back. But it has been done before.

So, where does that leave all us Browncoats? What can we do to help? I think the most important thing is to continue the viral marketing. Keep attracting new Browncoats. Loan out your Firefly DVD's. Loan out your copy of Serenity when you get it. Talk up the series and movie with friends and on message boards. If all the networks pay attention to are the numbers, then lets show them the numbers.

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Tuesday, November 22, 2005 8:05 AM

CITIZEN

In the words of the great philospher Homer Simpson:
"It's cause they're stupid, that's why everybody does everything!"

More insane ramblings by the people who brought
Remember, the ice caps aren't melting, the water is being liberated.

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Tuesday, November 22, 2005 8:36 AM

DAISYDANA

**Possible Spoiler Info**

Voider,

In the future, you might wanna add whether not there is a spoiler in your posts. Since I haven't been able to see it, I have been avoiding all the "Serenity" posts. When I found out about "the death" I was ticked at myself but managed to console myself with the fact that I didn't know how it happened. Now, that little suprise is gone as well.

"Good night. Don't let the spacebugs bite!"
- Kaylee

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Tuesday, November 22, 2005 9:02 AM

JAYTEE

The real reason Fox won't sell the Firefly rights is #4.

#4) The majority shareholder in Fox, Rupert Murdoch is in league with the Devil. Not only that but he is going to "The Special Hell" and Rupert doesn't talk in theatres.

Jaytee

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Tuesday, November 22, 2005 11:40 AM

XEROGRAVITY

I've long since been confused to hell and back again. Threads like this throw me for a loop every time. I never know what to believe anymore.

I do believe that

(1) the actors will (and already are) moving on,
(2) Whedon moved on a long time ago, and
(3) Fox and Universal both profit from movie/show, and are golfing buddies at the end of the day.

By the time they decide to bring it back, it'll be too late. It'll probably be under a different director, different cast, different screenwriting talent, etc. The only thing that will remain the same will be the title of the show and the golf clubs.

XG

No such thing as gravity. The "Earth-that-was" just sucks.

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Tuesday, November 22, 2005 12:56 PM

CORNCOBROB

Quote:
Originally posted by JayTee:
The real reason Fox won't sell the Firefly rights is #4.

#4) The majority shareholder in Fox, Rupert Murdoch is in league with the Devil. Not only that but he is going to "The Special Hell" and Rupert doesn't talk in theatres.

Jaytee

are you implying Rupert Murdoch is a nonce?

The best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry

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Wednesday, November 23, 2005 5:31 PM

KWICKO

Quote:
Now, Fox is making money off of SciFi running the series.
I'm sure Fox is going to milk this as much as they can.
However, all of these sales are coming from 15 episodes and one movie. After awhile, there is going to be nothing left to milk. Everyone who wanted to see the series and the movie will have seen it. The DVD's won't be selling anymore.
I would seem, that at that point, it would be in Fox's best interest to license someone like SciFi to continue the series.

You're right - all the money is coming from a half-season on DVD and a movie that is also soon to be on DVD. At some point that money WILL stop, or slow to a trickle, which is why it would make sense for Fox to LICENSE the rights to Firefly instead of outright selling the rights. Every time a new movie gets made in the series, sales of Firefly and Serenity DVD sets will jump a bit, for a while, and if Fox licensed the rights to another network (say, SciFi) to start making new episodes of the show, that would drive DVD sales of Firefly and Serenity as well.

Don't look for Fox to sell the rights, but they'd be stupid not to at least look into licensing them. They'd take a percentage of the box office, PLUS a percentage of DVD sales and rentals, pay-per-view, or what have you, PLUS they'd likely still retain rights (again, these could be licensed as well) to the merchandise.

It makes business sense for them to license the rights for a share of the take, especially if they have no plans to continue the Firefly 'verse on their own. It's a case of another studio or network saying to Fox, "Look... do you want to let us use this 'verse or not? Do you want SOME money in your hand, or do you want NO money from this? 'Cause if you don't let us take Firefly back into the black, you'll get NO money for it." Studios want money. Oscars and Emmies are nice, but Fox doesn't really seem to care about those; they'd rather have butts in the seats and money in their hand, as their cancellation of "Arrested Development" so clearly illustrates...

Mike

Grrrrrr. Arrrrgghhh.

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