Moulinsart Washing Dirty Laundry in Public

Further to our reports yesterday Bad Press for Moulinsart it seems that Moulinsart (holds of the Tintin copyright) are in dispute with Casterman (Tintin’s publishers). Via a magazine interview, Moulinsart have announced they are setting their lawyers on the problem. A long and costly courtroom battle looks likely.

Combined with attacks on fan groups, this looks like Moulinsart getting organised ahead of the sales bonanza that will surround the release of the film. A box office smash will generate hundreds of millions of dollars of merchandise and book sales and a significant slice of it will go straight into Moulinsart pocket. Even a poor box office performance will generate a lot of sales of the books as old fans are reminded of Tintin and seek to complete their collections.

This is shrewd business by Moulinsart. If they can increase their earnings from Herge’s creation by just 0.5% by these legal maneuverings they will be tens of millions of dollars better off.

Source: Tintinologist (via The Tintin Blog)