Stan Lee's Spidey Score Settled
Stan Lee has just scored himself a superhero-sized wad of cash.
A court in New York has ruled that the 82-year-old creator of Spider-Man is due millions of dollars in unpaid profits from Marvel Enterprises for the success of the Spider-Man franchise and other Marvel Comics-based films over the past seven years.
U.S. District Court Judge Robert W. Sweet found in favor of the comic-book legend on Monday and ruled that Lee is entitled to a 10 percent share of profits earned by Marvel since November 1998.
No official number has yet been released, but considering Marvel has banked $50 million alone for the first Tobey Maguire- and Kirsten Dunst-starring Spidey flick, Lee is up for some major cash.
"It could be tens of millions of dollars," Lee's lawyer Howard Graff told the Associated Press. "That's no exaggeration."
As for Lee, who oversaw such unforgettable characters as Spider-Man, the X-Men, the Incredible Hulk, Daredevil and the Fantastic Four, he says he is thrilled with the settlement but unhappy that he had to resort to legal wrangling to get paid.
"I am very gratified by the judge's decision, although, since I am deeply fond of Marvel and the people there, I sincerely regret that this situation had to come to this," he told the Hollywood Reporter. (The combined worldwide box-office grosses for Spider-Man, Spider-Man 2, X-Men, X2, Hulk and Daredevil exceed $2.7 billion, according to BoxOfficeMojo.com, of which Marvel gets a small percentage. Spider-Man 3 and X3 are in the pipeline and the long-awaited movie adaptation of the Fantasic Four is due out this summer. A big-screen version of another Marvel favorite, Iron Man, is also in the works.)
Marvel reps say they plan to appeal the decision, and attorney John Turitzen was quick to point out that Lee won't be receiving cash from some of the merchandise from Spider-Man and The Hulk films, which didn't fall under this ruling.
"We intend to appeal those matters on which we did not prevail and to continue to contest vigorously the claims on which the court did not rule," Turitzin said in a statement.
Nevertheless, Graff calls the win a resounding victory and admonishes Marvel to pay the piper.
"The court essentially ruled in our favor virtually across the board," Graff said. "This is a sweeping victory for Mr. Lee."
The ruling is a long time coming. Lee began with Marvel in 1939, and served as writer, editor, art director, head writer and publisher for the company before effectively retiring from active duty and becoming chairman emeritus. He filed the lawsuit in November 2002, pointing out a clause in his contract that entitled him to 10 percent of TV, movie and merchandising deals, an amount he thought was significantly higher than the $1 million-per-year salary he currently receives. Marvel tried to find a loophole in the wording.
But it seems that Lee has prevailed. "In short, the first sentence of [the contract] is not ambiguous," Sweet said in his ruling "It provides that Lee is entitled to share in the results of Marvel's arrangements for movie and television productions involving Marvel characters."
Lee's lawyer says the victory is bittersweet.
"The foundation of [Marvel] was based on characters he created, and to have to ultimately sue to enforce an agreement under which they were supposed to give him his fair share was very disturbing," Graff told the Hollywood Reporter. "We're certainly hoping that Marvel, after they recover from the sting of this decision, will determine that it's time to own up to its obligations to Mr. Lee."
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