Deal with No Devil: How Ryan Coogler’s Sinners IP Deal Was Born and What it Could Mean for Future Films
Writer, director, and producer Ryan Coogler’s Sinners—a provocative, socially conscious, genre-blending film—has kept audiences buzzing for over a month. Coogler not only broke new ground with the movie itself, but also highlighted a developing trend in the film industry through his deal with Warner Bros. (WB). WB, a studio known for being difficult to deal with, gave Coogler first-dollar box office cuts, full creative control, and rights to the film after 25 years.
Key themes throughout Sinners, such as the realities of Black ownership, freedom, and agency, are reflected in Coogler’s noteworthy deal. In a recent interview, Coogler noted the deal isn’t unprecedented, pointing to a broader shift within studio-director dynamics. Looking at such success stories, studios may increasingly share the intellectual property (IP) rights to films with writers and directors to boost commercial success and offer alternatives to massive payouts. Increased auteur power like this could lead to IP portfolios that allow creatives to engage with their stories on their terms, re-license to another platform, develop sequels or spin-offs, or even pursue alternative forms of media and grow a franchise. Instead of relying on the green light from studios, more creators in the film industry may start building their own empires.
The first motion picture studio, the Black Maria, was created by famous inventor (and patent troll) Thomas Edison in 1893. Soon after, the “Big Five”—Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Warner Bros., Paramount, Fox, and RKO—took over Hollywood, pushing for a vertically integrated system wherein production, distribution, and exhibition were handled within the studio itself. They created the “Star System” in which actors would be contracted to work only with the studio, sometimes leading to exploitation of those with less power. The entire ecosystem would change again with the 1948 United States v. Paramount Pictures Supreme Court case, which ended the Star System and the vertical integration studios employed.
Following the “Big Five” era, the “New Hollywood” (1967-1976) launched the careers of Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, George Lucas, and many others as studios granted filmmakers broad creative liberties. One movie that signaled the death of this era of artistic creativity, ironically, was Star Wars, since studio executives saw a formula for success that could be repeated with blockbusters. Though Star Wars was initially released as a standalone film, Lucas had sequels in mind and retained the rights to make them despite no initial deal for sequels.
In 1979, riding the wave of “New Hollywood” and the success of auteur-driven films like Star Wars, Michael Cimino was given full creative control by studio United Artists over Heaven’s Gate after his commercial hit, The Deer Hunter. However, his obsessive attention to detail and full creative control caused the movie’s budget and length to balloon out of control. United Artists forced major cuts, and the film flopped, damaging Cimino’s career and leading to the studio’s sale to MGM.
Linking the creative freedom Cimino held over Heaven’s Gate with its heavy critical and financial failures led studios to rethink their previous model, fearing a similar fate as United Artists. Instead of financing the auteur filmmaker, studios opted to retain a heavy level of influence over films they produced. To disperse the risk and insulate themselves and their investments further, studios began jointly investing in films with outside investors, whether it be individuals, private equity firms, or other studios. Additionally, studios increasingly began interfering with the director’s creative control, with notable examples of Once Upon a Time in America, Alien 3, David Lynch’s Dune, and Blade Runner.
Over the years many writers and directors have expressed immense frustration over not owning the rights to their ideas even though they were the ones who created the concept, such as Sylvester Stallone with Rocky. To combat this new paradigm, many directors sought to own their films’ IP. George Lucas founded Lucasfilm in 1971, through which he released Star Wars and was thus able to retain its IP until selling the company to Disney. To share the copyright to his movie, Boyhood, Richard Linklater waived his usual seven-figure pay. For The Passion of the Christ, Gibson distributed the movie himself and invested $20 million of his own money into the production. Peter Jackson funded the development for District 9 and the independent sales deals allowed him to retain ownership of the rights.
Some studios have historically avoided deals where the director holds IP rights to their movies. Unlike their recent deal with Coogler, Warner Bros. chose not to participate in Tarantino’s bidding process for Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood, fearing they would open the floodgates by awarding the movie’s IP rights to Tarantino.
Following WB’s actions with Tarantino and their split with Christopher Nolan, due in part to the studio’s treatment of Tenet shortly after COVID-19’s effects on the film industry, Warner Bros. moved away from this mentality likely to prevent losing another high-profile director. As such, it accepted Ryan Coogler’s demanding—but well-justified and deserved—terms.
Coogler’s example marks the latest instance of this trend, creators that can establish and maintain control of their IP. The critical and financial success of Sinners shows that this model is viable, and can spark greater incentive for directors to push for original ideas that have the potential to grow into franchises and give studios more confidence in greenlighting such ideas.
The relationship between studios and creatives is shifting, as directors like Denis Villeneuve, Christopher Nolan, Quentin Tarantino, Jordan Peele, Greta Gerwig, and Ryan Coogler are increasingly drawing in audiences to theaters solely because of auteur status. More directors may be able to use newfound bargaining power, similar to Coogler. As this trend continues, we may see more joint copyright ownership within the film industry. This is especially relevant given the growing impact of artificial intelligence (AI), its use within Hollywood, and legal uncertainty around ownership and usage of AI-created works. Creatives negotiating joint ownership deals with studios may be a response to addressing future issues revolving around AI usage by preventing its misuse by studios altogether.
