Fox Paid Marvel A Ridiculously Low Price For X-Men Movie Rights
Another indication of how bad pre-MCU Marvel were at business...
No matter how many times the conversation happens on the Internet, there's very little chance Fox and Marvel will ever get to the table to discuss the X-Men joining the MCU. The Fantastic Four might be a more likely option, but the reason for that is exactly the same reason X-Men won't - it's all about success.
Fox might need the assistance from Marvel for their first family, but the X-Men franchise has been financially very lucrative for Fox and though they were very quiet at CinemaCon, there are plans for at least five new films - X-Men: New Mutants, Supernova, Deadpool 2, X-Force and Gambit. Nothing is going to change on that front for a while.
It probably also helps that Fox paid Marvel a paltry figure to get the rights in the first place.
According to a transcript from the Industry Focus podcast on The Motley Fool, the 1993 deal involved only $2.6million - just over 1% of the production budget of X-Men: Apocalypse.
When you consider that Deadpool made $322.2m in profit, it's no wonder they'd be resistant to passing the rights back for anything. And while Marvel did get a slice of ticket sales (estimated at 2% for the original X-Men), that's still a tiny drop in the ocean, even on the likes of Deadpool.
That sort of business shouldn't come as much of a surprise: Marvel didn't have their rights in order before the idea for the MCU came about - which is why they're still so messed up for certain characters - and it's ridiculous to think on the missed financial opportunities they passed on.