Acquiring Rights to a Property

[uniderth]

I'm curious. How much could an old TV or Movie property that hasn't seen the light of day for decades possibly cost? Certainly some old movie from the 70s, or even a show like seaQuest couldn't cost millions to obtain the rights to. Or am I that naive in thinking that a "dead" property shouldn't cost millions to obtain? Is there anyway to search how much a property is worth?

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

It might depend how stupid or greedy the owner of the property is.

I'm sure there are examples of some property or idea that didn't get used because someone wanted too much for it's use.

 

[Professor Zoom]

I'm curious. How much could an old TV or Movie property that hasn't seen the light of day for decades possibly cost? Certainly some old movie from the 70s, or even a show like seaQuest couldn't cost millions to obtain the rights to. Or am I that naive in thinking that a "dead" property shouldn't cost millions to obtain? Is there anyway to search how much a property is worth?

I guess it depends what you looking for. If it's a book, contact the author's agent, or estate if they are dead.

If it's a TV show or a movie, most likely the studio that produced it owns the rights, there is a possibility that after a certain amount of time, it would go back to the creator of said project--like, Terminator, I believe those rights are supposed to revert back to Cameron in a few years.

So, in those cases, you would have to contact the studio, and most likely you would be licensing the intellectual property... and yes, you would be paying much more than you think. Probably not millions of dollars, but, most likely a lot, depending on what you want to do with it.

What are you thinking of doing?

 

[Gaith]

In middle school, I came up with the IP of a San Francisco private eye, Mr. Ned A. Clue.

... The rights can be yours for a mere fifty thousand dollars.





(Considering what Johnny Depp/his studio no doubt spent on that Mortdecai fiasco, I'd say my offering is a bargain!)