Right now, X-Men comics make up a large percentage of Marvel's comic sales and this is a huge problem for the company because Disney doesn't own the movie rights to X-Men characters. Marvel is working hard to address this issue by advertising their more preferable characters in the majority of the X-Men books (the constant GotG, Avengers and SHIELD guest-stars) and by avoiding producing X-Men stuff for kids (games, cartoons, accessories, etc), however, they aren't quite where they want to be in terms of not having to sell X-Men comics. But they are working on it.

So, assuming Marvel is successful in their plan to convert current fans of X-Men into Avengers/Guardians/etc fans and minimize the exposure of young consumers to X-Men products, how long do you reckon it will be until Marvel can finally stop making X-Men comics without shorting their bottom line?

If this is a serious question (is it?) then the answer is simply that they can't.

First potential revenue is something they also have to account for. They can't stop selling X-Men comics because even if they successfully stopped making them without decreasing their current profits then they would still have to account for how much more money they could be making by producing X-Men comics.

Secondly every time an X-Men movie comes out they see a percentage from it. If they weren't then they wouldn't have sold the rights. So while they could be seeing more from producing in house it's not like they aren't seeing anything so there's that to consider.

Thirdly there's a big gap between prioritizing your greater profits (inhouse projects like Avengers, GotG, Antman) and eliminating your assets. They may not be promoting X-Men as heavily but it's because they stand to gain more by focusing their resources on things they have 100% control of as opposed to 70%. They can control when the next GotG movie comes out and what it focuses on, and can align a tv show with the goal of strengthening the brand for the next movie. Fox could decide to do 6 Gambit films and Marvel/Disney would have to follow them rather then set the tone. It's just easier to be the lead car then to tailgate FOX and now they don't have to.

Fourth....The number of X-Men titles out currently is greater then the number of several other Marvel franchises combined. It's arguably half the books they put out. We just got two more with a third on the way, three new solos in a year and All New X-Men(despite all odds) is one the better selling titles that isn't a number one in comics.....Marvel isn't prioritizing X-Men but they aren't forgetting them either. So the idea that they would consider not making X-Men books is like the saying you'd trade your left hand for a REALLY BIG right one.

It doesn't make it untrue that X-Men lacks editorial oversight, cohesion within storylines and that they've generally been used (and continue to be used) to boost interest in other franchises....but it doesn't make them on the chopping block either.

The saddest thing about X-Fans.....we treat ourselves like Fantastic Four Fans

I honestly don't think that Marvel will ever end their X-Men comics since they are a huge part of the Marvel universe, but I can see the X-Men getting less popular over the years, especially if Marvel doesn't get the rights back to the X-Men movies soon. I say if the X-Men starts losing their popularity it would be on either one or two things: if superhero movies start losing their popularity, meaning that the X-Men will lose their popularity as a superhero franchise or if Fox refuses to give up the rights to the X-Men movies, which I don't see Fox giving up the X-Men anytime soon since they already have many plans for future movies.

i think marvel has already started killing x-men:-(

They won't, in fact can't end the X-Men completely, because they are such a huge part of the Marvel universe...

They can't really afford to stop making X-Men books or erase them from the MU either. After all, if the X-Men were gone who else would the Avengers have to fight? :P

I believe they can't, but we never know.

@nateb1211: Yep, unless they want the Avengers to fight the Guardians of the Galaxy...hey it's possible!

I don't think they will get rid of the xmen completely. But in my opinion the Marvel U is getting really crowded now and it certainly could lead to the Xmen being put on the backburner more and more and thus pissing us x-fans off more and more

@hawk2916: Yeah, especially with so much attention being given to the Avengers and Guardians of the Galaxy lately, it might become difficult to get the X-Men in the lead these days.

Marvel can't rewrite history, most of us grew up with the X-men. There have been 7 movies (going to be more soon), you could watch them every day in the 90's on Fox, they were a fixture of Saturday morning television on the WB for 4 years with X-men: Evolution. In August, after the release of "Guardians of the Galaxy", Rocket Racoon shot to number 1 in the comic book sales. The next month? It was number 44 and issues 1 and 2 of Wolverine came in at number 1. Rocket Racoon went from 300,000 issues sold from the first issue to 53,000 issues sold in the second issue. The bump these comics tend to get from movies is momentary, you can't generate that level of excitement for every issue- the hardcore fans have to kick-in and be engaged. If they aren't enthusiastic about it then Marvel can't appeal to a broader audience because they need to sustain with the present consumers in addition to a greater audience.

They're trying to insinuate the Inhumans and Guardians of the Galaxy into everything and while they'll reach a certain level of success as franchises, they just don't have the track record the X-men has. In the past, when it was all just dependent on comics, the Inhumans and Guardians never touched what the X-men had. Marvel can't fabricate the narrative of their success by somehow pretending the X-men aren't still and, more or less, always have been a great asset to their company.

Yes, the Guardians of the Galaxy was the highest grossing superhero film of 2014 and Avengers was the highest-grossing superhero film ever but how long can either of those franchises last? Robert Downey Jr doesn't want to do another Iron Man, it's only 6 years into franchise and it all depends on him, after that, anything will be a hundred million dollar gamble. Goodbye, Iron Man franchise! You see X-men: Days of Future Past and there are numerous people who've come and gone in different capacities 15 years later. The X-men have zillions of characters who are viable, characters that have been in publishing for years they still haven't used yet like Cable, Deadpool, Gambit, Psylocke, and many more. Fox realizes this and they'll surely capitalize on it as best they possibly can.

The X-men have proven longevity and reliability. So what if Disney wants to cut licensing for toys and stuff? The X-men franchise is the longest-lasting superhero franchise and you can't erase the exposure of the movies. They have plans up until 2018 as far as their projects go- that's almost 20 years of exploiting ONE franchise.

The conspiracy says, destroy them from within. Slowly and consecutively drive them into irrelevance. Make their self imposed segregation logical in universe. Bind them to cheap, catchy drama and repetitiveness. Alienate the small fandoms of selected BZ-listers by treating them unjustly. Marginalize their Alisters and kill some of them off. Base feuds on that and let it consume most of the relevant product. Keep having their canon as confusing as possible. Cut their connections to the true elites pretending its all in the name of unbound creativeness. Isolate them form universe shaking events by dealing with their own messes. Let their trademark titles be used by the new corporate representatives of the same concept to make the outrage be heard all over the community thus promoting this new product using the popularity of the old one. Make them challenge the elites and come out of this devastated. Turn their defeats into bitterness thus fans themselves will ask for said segregation and isolation.

Eventually, fans themselves will also ask to put this franchise out of its misery with Marvel having a perfect cop out with a slogan "You see it wasn't us, it was you" and saving their face this way.

Why? We all know why.

trolololo

@phoenixegg: @koays: have you guys seen the new x-men card game with dice??!?!?!?!!?

@hopesummersforthefuture: nope. Where that at?

@koays: http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/158275/marvel-dice-masters-uncanny-x-men

@adamtrmm: I wouldn't be surprised if that's what Marvel is planning to do with the X-Men.

They're not just planning, they're materializing this plan.

Sad but true. But I'm fine with it. Fox is doing a great job with the X-men. So do whatever you want marvel we know you dont care about the X-men

Now? The movies have bankrolled Marvel with tremendous cash.

@adamtrmm: Sadly, that looks like that's what's exactly happening.

The day that happens is the day I stop reading Marvel. X-Men, Fantastic Four, and Daredevil are the only Marvel characters I even care about. I honestly can't stand the Avengers, Guardians of the Galaxy, Inhumans, SHIELD, etc. Marvel is already trashing Fantastic Four, so if X-Men ends, I'm out.

Marvel is starting to release star wars comics. This could potentially eclipse both xmen and avengers in sales.

@butterflykyss : I do wonder if the Star Wars comics would over run the other comics in popularity...nah...