Could DC buy the Fantastic Four from Marvel?

If DC asked and paid enough could DC buy the rights and add the Fantastic Four to there universe? I mean lets face it. Marvel could care less about the F4 and at this point probably only care about some of there villains like Doctor Doom and Galactus. I mean I doubt DC would want to buy the F4 seeing how they aren't doing that good at the moment but is it possible?

No

Absolutely no.

Nope. The Fantastic Four is indelible to the Marvel Universe.

I suppose there is a possibility, tho honestly there's a better chance of me hitting the lottery on the same day my wife decides she's cool with a threesome, what I'm saying is its unlikely.

The Fantastic Four is the bedrock of the Marvel universe, most of its concepts originated from it.

Technically yes. They could also buy Spider-Man, but Marvel would never sell either of those.

There's always a chance for anything to happen. But this is at the bottom of what could happen.

I wish

only when Stan Lee dies (so never)

That would never happen. Ever.

I guess but why would anyone want the F4 in the DCCU?

Why would DC want those scrubs?

I don't think that Marvel would ever give DC rights to the Fantastic Four, given the huge hole in the Marvel comic universe it would cause when DC forbids Marvel from being able to use those characters.

Yeah, Marvel doesn't even have the movie rights for F4.

Yes, DC could.

While it is possible to buy the rights to Fantastic Four, it's not going to happen. Legally speaking, yes it is very possible to do so. It is also likewise possible to only buy one or two characters from Fantastic Four separately.

Each comic book character created by a comic book company are seen as a separate trademark (i.e. assets much like a car you may own) and as such the comic book company, marvel in our discussion, as the ability to sell it or parts of it to other company.

The possibility of that actually happening is pretty close to 0.

Fairly certain most people would already take the second part as equivalent to winning a lottery :p

With enough money, anyone can buy anything. Especially when that thing is owned by a mega-corporation whose primary concern is maximizing profits.

It could, but it won't

No they could not.

When people say "Fox/Sony" own the rights to a movie, that's the wrong term. They don't own anything. Marvel owns those characters.

Fox/Sony are LEASING them for film. So as long as they meet the terms they get to continue to use them for movies. If not they revert back to Marvel.

But they cannot sell them to another studio.The only people who could sell Marvel characters rights is Marvel.

This was covered on AMC Movie Talk like a couple weeks ago. It cannot happen. Fox/Sony can keep the properties they "own" and continue to make movies, but they can't give them to another company at all.

Nope.

Beata

I can just imagine Mr. Fantastic talking to Batman, "We're receiving more wealth in this universe so we just decided to move over". Yeah, I highly doubt it'll happen.

DC, or anybody else, could buy the rights to any character or team. They could completely buy out Marvel if they wanted to. Marvel would have to be willing to sell those rights though, which they won't.

I guess it's possible the way anything could be possible. I don't expect to ever see it happen, and I wouldn't want to see it happen, anymore than I'd want Marvel to get the rights to Superman. I'm fine with the list of characters both have right now. That said, I wish the FF was showcased more in the Marvel Universe.

I doupt DC would even think of doing that.

This doesn't change the fact that someone could make a deal with both Disney and Fox/Sony on any franchise.

This entire thread is really big on the hypothetical though, nobody is going to pay the amount of money that would be required to own the FF because there would be no profit left and it would be a huge net loss. The only reason Marvel leased out the movie rights in the first place was because the company was desperate for capital at the time, which they currently are not.

Na

Marvel could sell the rights to their characters, yes. But Fox/Sony cannot. So as it stands, DC cannot buy F4 from Marvel because its physically not for sale.

So if the rights to F4 reverted back to Marvel from Fox, they could sell them. But they wouldn't.

And yes. I know why they sold their rights.

Ha ha ha no.

No.

It's legally possible only if Marvel offers to sell first or accepts the offer and sells it themselves to DC. Look at Wildstorm and Vertigo.

But still extremely unlikely to near implausible. Sure, Marvel is mistreating the F4 and DC would probably do better at giving them spotlight considering how unadvertised the F4 is nowadays, but Marvel is still going to keep them unless they go bankrupt which is near impossible.

They would better buy Sailor Moon and put Batman in it.

Screw the DCCU, this should happen before JL Movie.

It'd be pretty hilarious if Warner Bro's took the X-Men and Spidey movie franchises from Sony/Fox before Marvel could get them back.

@y2g: Sony/Fox likely cannot transfer the rights to another studio. Otherwise they would've sold the rights on the franchises that have already reverted back to Marvel.

They could, but I'm pretty sure there will be thin chance of Marvel selling F4.

Have Dc and Marvel ever done business like this with one another?

Sorta, but it never ended well. Pretty sure the Amalgam universe got so jacked (and ended) because of legal or creative disputes or something between Marvel and DC

@catofellow: Yeah I didn't think it'd be possible but the thought is pretty interesting

Is it possible for DC to buy all of the Fantastic Four rights from Marvel/Disney? Yes. Would it happen? No. Even if for some reason Marvel/Disney sold the rights to DC/WB they'd still have to uphold Marvel's original agreement with Fox when it came down to the movie rights.

That being said Marvel/Disney are very vocal about wanting their characters back so they'll never be giving them up again anytime soon. There are always deals on the table though I'm sure if DC wanted the FF to appear in a DC comic they could pay enough to have them find their way over. But those are crossovers and not the same thing as to what you were asking.