I guess we can bet on BOOM! As reported by The Hollywood Reporter 20th Century Fox has signed a first-look deal with BOOM! Studios and the recently acquired BOOM! imprint Archaia Entertainment. BOOM! saw it’s first comic to movie adaptation this summer with 2 Guns which seems to have been a success. Archaia already has some of their releases making their way through Fox including Rust, a fantastic graphic novel that has director Carlos Saldanha attached to make his live-action directorial debut and a script by Aline Brosh McKenna.

According to THR, this deal is a big one:

The pact potentially could be one of the most lucrative underlying rights deals ever made with a comic book company. According to insiders, as part of the new pact, Boom!, in an unprecedented move, will get first-dollar gross on the movies made from its properties, with those earnings being split 50-50 between the publisher and the adapted comic’s creator(s).

In the article Ross Richie, the principal at BOOM! and a producer for 2 Guns said:

In an era where Jack Kirby doesn’t get paid for The Avengers, we are bringing the Jack Kirbys into the circle. They can use our expertise in the field while they focus on being creative.

This is a great deal for Fox who quickly catches up with Disney and Warner Bros. and adds a mountain of material to mine for future movies. Disney owns Marvel and it’s characters while Warner Bros. owns DC Comics and theirs. Think of BOOM! as an IP creation tool for Fox.

But, BOOM! gains from the deal as well. Out of it, the comic publisher now has access to Fox’s back catalog and will be able to pick and choose movies to carry on in comic book form. Fox then could use that to make a movie. The cycle of creative life I guess….

The publishers to make this type of deal with is limited. While many would look towards Image, that publisher does not own any part of the titles it produces. Instead the creative rights lay with the creators and Universal had a deal with Dark Horse which only produced R.I.P.D., one of this summer’s biggest stinkers, before it expired.

Part of the credit for this deal goes to the merger of BOOM! and Archaia which gave the publisher a deeper library to mine. It is reported the deal took six weeks to make happen.