After having a lengthy conversation with my friend ,who is the head of copyright at a major studio / media company, I can tell you that it's impossible to compare one piece of IP to another. They pretty much all have the potential to stand on their own with involved artists, various departments, third parties, etc having some sort of voice on how the IP is used. Not saying that I know the specific case here, but after this conversation I would never assume that anything with IP licensing on a major title would be even remotely easy.