Universal, Legendary Partnership is Now Official

By  · Published on July 11th, 2013

A new film partnership has just been born. Legendary Entertainment has entered a five-year deal with Universal Pictures, which will include the financing, distribution, and marketing of Legendary’s films, as well as expansion into other projects. As reported by Variety, the deal officially begins at the start of 2014. Legendary is still waiting on their current agreement with Warner Bros to expire, which will happen at the end of the year.

So what does this mean for the two companies- and more importantly, to us filmgoers? Well, Legendary is known for fanboy-friendly, big budget fare. Stuff like the Dark Knight Trilogy, Inception, The Hangover series and Man of Steel. In joining with Legendary, Universal gets in with the production company known for a long string of massively successful films. Comic book movies are also huge right now, and that’s a big part of what Legendary does best. Universal, on the other hand, only has two comic book movies slated for release- this summer’s R.I.P.D and Kick-Ass 2. But even so, partnering with Legendary doesn’t give them the rights to all those DC superheroes Legendary has had success with. All of DC’s properties are still under WB’s control.

Legendary, on the other hand, gets access to all of Universal’s departments outside the realm of movies, with theme parks and TV being two of the biggest. If Legendary’s Pacific Rim or their Godzilla remake hit it big enough to create a new franchise, they’ll want to extend it to places beyond the silver screen. And already, Legendary has fledgling TV and comic book divisions, as well as a second, Hong Kong-based production company. Expect to see Godzilla stomping his way through every single media outlet there is.