Valiant Entertainment the award-winning comic book publisher with a library of more than 2,000 characters has signed a deal with Chinese-based DMG Entertainment to turn their comic book properties into movies and television.
“Comic superheroes are profitable and highly sought intellectual properties for film franchises, so taking a stake in the last independent massive comic universe is a strategic investment for DMG that will produce movies and TV that are both appealing and relevant to a global audience,” said DMG, Chief executive officer Dan Mintz in a statement.
DMG is investing a whopping nine figures into Valiant’s movie and TV projects and then another eight figures into Valiant itself. In addition to movies and TV, DMG will partner in producing “Chinese-language publishing, animation and theme parks, as well as toys and apparel,” the Times said.
If that sounds familiar, it’s because Marvel Studios also got funded by a nine-figure deal back in 2005. Their superhero movies featuring the likes of Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, and more have gone on to gross billions at the box office and are still enjoying huge success, so there’s isn’t a bad model to follow.
Valiant movies currently in development include Bloodshot, Shadowman, Archer & Armstrong, and Harbinger. The publisher has their own version of the Avengers called Unity, so if the endeavour is a success, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see their characters assemble for a team-up movie.
In total, the new agreement is the first deal of its kind brokered between an internationally based entertainment company and a leading independent publisher of comic books and graphic novels.
Bloodshot, a vengeance-driven super soldier with nanites in his blood that give him cool powers, is the first up to bat, with his film being co-funded and distributed by Sony Pictures and Neal Moritz’s Original Film, the latter having produced the Fast and the Furious and Jump Street movies.
Valiant’s comics were popular in the ‘90s, but once that faded they were bought by video game maker Acclaim in 1994, only for Acclaim to go bankrupt in 2004. The comic maker was re-launched as Valiant Entertainment in 2012 by Dinesh Shamdasani and Jason Kothari to critical and consumer success, carving out a niche for themselves in the comic book market or at least getting their old one back.
“Today marks one of Valiant’s biggest milestones yet with a huge step towards bringing the Valiant characters to the big screen and forging the foundation of the first truly international cinematic universe,” Shamdasani said in a press release. “By bringing Valiant’s biggest heroes to theaters around the world in concert with our new partners at DMG, we look forward to making Valiant not only an iconic name in comics, but global entertainment as well.”
The unprecedented partnership between Valiant and DMG offers both companies the ability to develop and co-produce tent-pole theatrical films for distribution and release simultaneously in the US, China, the world’s fastest growing film market with more than $4.8 billion in box office receipts in 2014 and rest of the world.