Sumerian Records & Films have acquired comic book and gaming company Behemoth.

Do they want to get into comic books and games? Not especially. They are keen to make more film and TV content and increasingly comic books are seen as solid source material.

When commenting on the Hugh Grant as Doctor Who and a Marvel style reinvention of the franchise rumour, we noted that the four current highest grossing film franchises are all genre.

Two of those - Marvel and Spider-Man - derive from comic books.

In sixth place is the Avengers films which are part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe but performed well enough to earn an independent spot.

In seventh, ninth and eleventh places are Batman, X-Men and the DC Extended Universe.

That's six out of the top eleven. Four Marvel and two DC.

Those are massive, decades old comic book franchises with huge fanbases.

Is there room for others?

In November we learned that Taika Waititi is set to direct a film adaptation of French comic book series The Incal.

Also in November, Netflix struck a deal to produce a new series based on the Nocterra comic book series which was less than a year old and had begun its life on Kickstarter.

From a film and TV production perspective, comic books might now effectively be elaborate storyboards with built-in focus group testing.

[ Main Image: Behemoth comics. Credit: Behemoth. ]

References

Behemoth - official website. (viewed March 24, 2022).

Behemoth Comics - official website. (viewed March 24, 2022)

Wikipedia. Behemoth (entertainment company). (viewed March 24, 2022)

Wikipedia. List of highest-grossing films. (viewed March 24, 2022)

Wiseman, Andreas (March 23, 2022). Sumerian Records & Films Acquires Comic Book Publisher And Gaming Company Behemoth. Deadline.