King Kong's Rights Issues

[CyberpunkCentral]

Originally Posted by Galactus123

That video I posted says that Universal bought the rights from Merian C. Cooper's son after court ruled that Cooper's Estate owned the name and character.

That's what I'm saying. It's convoluted. Okay, so where is Universal's name anywhere in these recent Monsterverse movies?

[WJWS Channel 13:Amity]

Originally Posted by CyberpunkCentral

That's what I'm saying. It's convoluted. Okay, so where is Universal's name anywhere in these recent Monsterverse movies?

Universal owns the character and name, but for the monsterverse they gave legendary a license to use the character for those specific films, which originally were going to be released by Universal, when the realtionship between the studios (specificially their CEO's ) soured, Legendary took the films (KSI & GVK) to WB instead. Its up in the air now if universal will grant a extension of the Kong character license to Legendary for further films though

[Galactus123]

Originally Posted by CyberpunkCentral

That's what I'm saying. It's convoluted. Okay, so where is Universal's name anywhere in these recent Monsterverse movies?

They signed a deal with Legendary that will end at some point. I'm sure Universal gets money from Monsterverse movies.

[CyberpunkCentral]

Originally Posted by WJWS Channel 13:Amity

Universal owns the character and name, but for the monsterverse they gave legendary a license to use the character for those specific films, which originally were going to be released by Universal, when the realtionship between the studios (specificially their CEO's ) soured, Legendary took the films (KSI & GVK) to WB instead. Its up in the air now if universal will grant a extension of the Kong character license to Legendary for further films though

But how does that explain that King Kong is in Space Jam 2?

Space Jam: A New Legacy – Trailer 1 - YouTube

[Galactus123]

Originally Posted by CyberpunkCentral

But how does that explain that King Kong is in Space Jam 2?

Space Jam: A New Legacy – Trailer 1 - YouTube

WB probably asked Universal and they liked the idea. Kong also appeared in Ready Player One that was distributed by WB.

[GuruAskew]

Universal doesn’t own Kong in any way, shape or form.

The Legendary Kong movie started off with Universal, in its earliest stages it was related to Peter Jackson’s Kong and Jackson was producing.

Universal basically dropped out and let Legendary take the Kong movie to Warner. They undoubtedly realized that they could try to sue them and they’d lose again like they did when they tried to sue Nintendo over Donkey Kong. Kong: Skull Island clearly doesn’t build upon Universal’s one and only Kong movie, they clearly made a movie using a public domain character using no elements that Universal introduced, so it would have been a waste of money for Universal or Peter Jackson to try to claim they were owed money, so they just let Kong go without raising a fuss.

And for the person that asked about how the inclusion of Kong is credited in the movies: it isn’t. They credit Toho for Godzilla, but there is absolutely no credit given to RKO or Warner or Universal or Cooper & Schoedsack. Kong is a public domain character. You don’t need to credit Bram Stoker in the Hotel Transylvania credits and you don’t need to credit the creators of Kong in the Kong credits.

[CyberpunkCentral]

Originally Posted by Galactus123

WB probably asked Universal and they liked the idea. Kong also appeared in Ready Player One that was distributed by WB.

No but it doesn't make sense within the story because Space Jam 2 is about WB's algorithm and how it becomes self-aware. Which implies that WB has the rights to Kong. But you could be right. WB probably just feels like they have some ownership to Kong just because they own the original.

Kong was also in The LEGO Batman Movie too, BTW.

[WJWS Channel 13:Amity]

Originally Posted by CyberpunkCentral

But how does that explain that King Kong is in Space Jam 2?

Space Jam: A New Legacy – Trailer 1 - YouTube

They most likely licensed the character from Universal to use him in this. and again keep in mind they own kong from King Kong 33 and son of kong.

[GuruAskew]

Kong was also in LEGO Batman.

Warner didn’t license Kong from anyone. Kong is public domain. Kong is public domain. Kong is public domain. Kong is public domain.

[vertigop1ayer]

I am not sure Universal owns the movie rights. If they did, wouldn't the credits in these movies indicate Universal Studios in some way, as the films specify Godzilla and other monsters' connection to Toho? I am open to reading some documentation that affirms Universal owns the character outright.

Universal owns the 2005 movie and the rights to the King Kong name, but not Kong the character. That's my understanding. Sort of like if hypothetically Kal-el was public domain but only DC/WB could call him Superman.

[GuruAskew]

They don’t even own the rights to the name.

[Galactus123]

Originally Posted by GuruAskew

Universal doesn’t own Kong in any way, shape or form.

The Legendary Kong movie started off with Universal, in its earliest stages it was related to Peter Jackson’s Kong and Jackson was producing.

Universal basically dropped out and let Legendary take the Kong movie to Warner. They undoubtedly realized that they could try to sue them and they’d lose again like they did when they tried to sue Nintendo over Donkey Kong. Kong: Skull Island clearly doesn’t build upon Universal’s one and only Kong movie, they clearly made a movie using a public domain character using no elements that Universal introduced, so it would have been a waste of money for Universal or Peter Jackson to try to claim they were owed money, so they just let Kong go without raising a fuss.

And for the person that asked about how the inclusion of Kong is credited in the movies: it isn’t. They credit Toho for Godzilla, but there is absolutely no credit given to RKO or Warner or Universal or Cooper & Schoedsack. Kong is a public domain character. You don’t need to credit Bram Stoker in the Hotel Transylvania credits and you don’t need to credit the creators of Kong in the Kong credits.

Universal bought the rights from Cooper's Estate so they have to own something. It could be like Tarzan's rights. The old books are in public domain but not anyone can make a Tarzan movie.

[GuruAskew]

People didn’t even really know that Kong had slipped into the public domain until all of that stuff in the 70s. de Laurentiis and Universal both claimed they’d been promised the rights. When the lawsuit went de Laurentiis’s way Universal actually figured out that the character was public domain and successfully argued that fact in court. Then less than a decade later they tried to argue that they owned King Kong when they sued Nintendo over Donkey Kong and they lost because they’d previously argued that the character was public domain.

It Universal paid someone for the rights to a public domain character that doesn’t mean that the character isn’t public domain, it means Universal ****ed up. Kong is in the public domain. Universal doesn’t own Kong.

If you feel so strongly that I’m wrong then go try to find something, anything, that credits Universal for using Kong. A movie. A toy. A book. A video game. Knock yourself out, you won’t find anything.

[GuruAskew]

Also, Cooper thought he owned the rights and tried to get a Kong Meets Tarzan movie made in the 40s or 50s with some other studio and RKO actually owned the rights. So if someone at Universal paid the estate of a guy who didn’t even own the film rights for film rights he didn’t even own after the character in question slipped into the public domain then all I can say is lol

[blakninja]

Disney will buy them all and own the rights to King Kong. And will introduce him into the MCU.

[mwynn]

Originally Posted by blakninja

Disney will buy them all and own the rights to King Kong. And will introduce him into the MCU.

Why would Disney want ATT's massive Debt?

[CinephileConnoisseur]

Originally Posted by blakninja

Disney will buy them all and own the rights to King Kong. And will introduce him into the MCU.

LOL! Disney isn't buying nothing. Disney has many problems thanks to Bob Iger's short-term poor planning that's going to hurt them on so many levels in the long-term. There is so much the general public isn't aware of pertaining to Disney's broad issues. Disney isn't the powerhouse the media tools & their sheep think (not surprising). For example, Disney's purchase of LucasFilms has actually backfired in many ways as the Star Wars property is financially hurting as merchandise sales have continued to decline in the property since Disney's purchase (even though it was already on a downtrend but it has progressed more so). Disney has had to do a significantly massive write-off on its Star Wars theme park entities that have failed. I mean I could on & on but if you think Disney is going to be some ultimate powerhouse over everyone else in the long-term... no, they won't as they are in trouble. Also, Marvel & its whole MCU programming will meet its decline in due time as well as its inevitable. Hell, Disney's entire business model is troubling in an array of facets but that's a whole mess of eggs that I'm not getting into.

[CinephileConnoisseur]

Originally Posted by mwynn

Why would Disney want AT&T's massive Debt?

They wouldn't because Disney themselves is in massive debt as well.

[Zillamon51]

In terms of # of tickets sold, King Kong vs. Godzilla is still the most successful G-movie in Japan. In the '90s, Toho wanted to remake it, but the rights were too expensive. They even thought of having Godzilla fight Mechani-Kong instead, but found out they couldn't use any likeness of Kong without paying. If Kong was free-and-clear in the public domain, Toho would probably have remade it three times by now.

[GuruAskew]

They licensed Kong from RKO when they made KKvG and KKE in the 60s, so those incarnations wouldn’t become public domain any more than the Warner-owned 1933 film is, or the de Laurentiis/Paramount film from the 70s is.

They would have to start from scratch and steer clear of anything they’d introduced under the RKO deal. Mechani-Kong would actually be more problematic because they would need approval from Toei and RKO.