Waiting To See Spider-man
Victor was excited to see the new Spider-man movie–but the first weekend, every theatre was sold out. Theatres continued to be sold out as the week progressed. The success of the new film was phenomenal, around the world. Victor was thrilled at the film’s success.
If you asked why Victor was thrilled, given he had no stake in the film whatsoever, he would reply apart from loving the character—successful in career, often a failure in his personal life, so Victor related in some ways—he supported the brand. He wore Spider-man tee shirts and underwear. He a Spider-man wallet. He collected the first 124 issues into five bound volumes, to treasure forever.
Victor drew the line at being branded on his butt.
He was surprised one afternoon to see an electronic deposit to his bank of $1.27 in his bank account for him to accept. Turned out, the production company owning Spider-man was sending royalty payments to fans. Victor had gone from fan to employee/stockholder. It was a new corporate strategy. It began with theatres selling film branded popcorn buckets to a huge number of free fans on the web.
Sending royalty payments was the logical conclusion.