Boom! Studios Inks Massive First-Look Deal with Fox

Boom! Studios and 20th Century Fox announced a new deal today that will give them unprecedented access to one another’s catalog and will provide for significant creator payments in the event of a feature film going to production.Under the terms of the deal, as relayed by The Hollywood Reporter, Fox will have their pick of Boom! Studios-published comic book properties to develop (presumably beginning with the Boom!/Archaia Rust, which is already in pre-production at the studio) while Boom! will be promised a share of the “first dollar gross,” meaning that they get their percentage regardless of whether the film is profitable, and before anybody else gets paid. Certain movie stars–but generally only those on the level of A-list leading men–are offered such deals but it’s very uncommon for a first-look deal to offer that kind of assurance to the intellectual property holder.Boom! Studios will then share their cut of the film 50/50 with the creator or creators credited with creating the property (not necessarily the creative team behind the comic; Steven Grant got paid for 2 Guns, for instance, while it’s been suggested that Mateus Santaluoco, who was brought in to draw the series after it was already “created,” did not).