“Two Israelis named Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus bought the rights from Marvel Enterprises for $225,00. Their production company went bust, Mario Kassar paid $5 million for the rights. MGM inherited Kassar's rights, but Sony claimed rights because it had the video rights and Viacom claimed rights because it had TV rights. Each company tried to get Marvel to support its claim, but then Marvel went chapter 11. Then a lawyer noticed that when the first sale was made to the Isrealis, no one had registered it with the US Copyright Office, so rights reverted to bankrupt Marvel, which sold the rights to Sony for $10M. Its opening weekend it grossed $114.6 million ”
