Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey, the low-budget horror film that opened in America on Friday, has grossed more than $2.5 million globally, according to Box Office Mojo.
Admittedly, $2.5 million would be a disastrous figure for most films, but the haul makes Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey a financial hit. This is because the movie reportedly cost less than $100,000 to make, which means it’s already grossed 25 times its production budget—a massive return for its backers. Most Hollywood blockbusters only make between two to four times their production budgets.
The filmmakers struck gold by taking the beloved, cuddly character created by author A. A. Milne and illustrator E. H. Shepard—and made iconic by Disney—and turning him into a monstrous, grizzly murderer. Why on earth did Disney, which held the exclusive rights to Winnie the Pooh since the 1960s, allow their Pooh Bear to be portrayed this way? Well, the studio had no choice.
That’s because the 1926 storybook, titled Winnie-the-Pooh, which introduced the titular character, passed into the public domain at the start of 2022, voiding its copyright, and thus Disney’s media exclusivity over the character. How long a copyright lasts—and thus keeps an IP out of the public domain—differs by country. But in the U.S., it’s 95 years for most IP created before 1978 (see more on this below), and Pooh had run out that clock, meaning that now anyone can make content featuring the lovable, or otherwise, bear. In the next dozen years or so, a slew of other iconic characters will be following Winnie the Pooh into public domain, wresting control from the likes of Disney and Warner Bros., who have made billions from them.
Toons, superheroes, and Hobbits
This year the iconic detective Sherlock Homes and the teen detective duo the Hardy Boys entered public domain. And over the next dozen years or so, many other well-known characters will see their copyright expire, too, including:
- Mickey Mouse (2024)
- Pluto (2026)
- Donald Duck (2030)
- Superman (2034)
- The characters from J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit (2033)
- Batman (2035)
- Captain Marvel (DC’s Shazam) (2035)
- The Flash (Jay Garrick version) (2036)
- Captain America (2036)
- Aquaman (2037)
- Wonder Woman (2037)
These characters have earned billions for entertainment giants in the past decade: 2018’s Aquaman film grossed more than $1.1 billion for Warner Bros, while The Hobbit film trilogy from 2012 to 2014 made the company nearly $3 billion. And what about Superman, another Warner Bros. property? Since 1978, the character’s films have generated more than $2.4 billion at the box office, and billions more through comics, toys, video games, party plates, and more.
But come 2034, Warner Bros. will no longer own the exclusive rights to use Superman. So what happens then?
Public domain, with limits
Just because a character like Superman enters the public domain in 2034 doesn’t mean that anyone will be able to use the character however they wish. U.S. copyright law is complex, and public domain comes with caveats.
As Copyright.gov notes, “a general rule, for works created after January 1, 1978, copyright protection lasts for the life of the author plus an additional 70 years.” This is why no one can predict when the Harry Potter character will enter the public domain. The character is protected by copyright from creation until 70 years after J.K. Rowling passes.
Most corporate works created before 1978 enter the public domain 95 years after their date of first publication. Because the characters listed above were first published in the 1920s and 1930s, many will enter the public domain in the coming decade.
But there are limits to what someone can do with public domain characters. For one thing, the character can only be used as it existed 95 years earlier.
Let’s take Superman, for example, who first appeared in DC’s Action Comics #1 in 1938 and enters the public domain in 2034. Were I to make my own Superman movie in 2034, my Superman wouldn’t be allowed to fly, as Grunge notes. Why? Because the Superman of Action Comics in 1938 didn’t process the power of flight—he could merely “leap tall buildings in a single bound.” If I had Superman fly in my 2034 film, Warner Bros. would have a valid case against me since DC Comics gifted Superman flight power later in the character’s mythology—and they would still own the copyright over that version of Superman, since 95 years hasn’t passed since Superman was granted flight. Also, the iconic “S” chest emblem on Superman’s 1938 costume looked different than in later years. My film’s version of Superman’s costume would need to look nearly identical to his costume in Action Comics #1 and not as he looks in comic books today or in Warner Bros. movies.
Mickey Mouse is another example. The chipper rodent enters the public domain in 2024—yet not all iterations of the character will be fair game, notes The New York Times. The Mickey Mouse we know today is iconic due to his big smile, big eyes, and white gloves. But the Mickey Mouse from 1929, whose copyright expires in 2024, had smaller eyes and didn’t wear white gloves. The white-gloved version of Mickey will still fall under Disney’s copyright.
You can be certain that as more of these iconic characters enter public domain, lawyers from entertainment giants will be scrutinizing any third-party media featuring them—and taking action against creators when they can. But people will certainly try.
As Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey has shown, even if the movie isn’t a critical success, it can still make a hefty profit. Indeed, not only has a Winnie the Pooh sequel already been announced but so has a “twisted” childhood horror cinematic universe that will let the murderous Pooh cross over into other movies, reports The Hollywood Reporter. Other upcoming films in the franchise include Peter Pan’s Neverland Nightmare and Bambi: The Reckoning (both Bambi and Peter Pan are already in the public domain).
The latter film, director Scott Jeffrey told Dead Central, will feature Bambi as “a vicious killing machine that lurks in the wilderness.” Just as Walt Disney never intended.
[Editor’s Note: Copyright expiration dates for some characters had been listed inaccurately and have since been amended.]
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