Wrong, they regained the movie rights when disney bought marvel. Except Hulk universal still has the movie rights today
Also which is it, they not unknowns than what are they? I told you they were as big as Any justice league member outside of the big 3. How was Aqua Man ever bigger than Captain America? martian man hunter and cyborg, green lantern were never as big as Iron Man today or back then, Hulk was every bit as big as Wonder Woman ever was. Lou Ferigno hulk series just as popular and iconic as Lynda carters wonder woman show.
my point is you guys are exaggerating their unknown status. You treating them the same as characters that never appeared in live action until the MCU. Cap been making live action movies every decade since the 40s. they have never been some D list characters. At the least they were B list individually, with Hulk and the Avengers as a team being A list properties.
You're confusing a few things... Marvel tried to sell their entire catalog and Sony said "We'll take spidey and fukk them other bums."
That should tell you the popularity of other characters at the time. Marvel/Disney wasn't a thing when Ironman was being started. Ironman was C list at best. Yes people knew the name Captain America, Thor, definitely Hulk as he already had tv shows, cartoons, movies and recent movies... But they was not the A list of Spidey, Bats, Superman.. They wasn't even B level of Thor, GL, Aquaman and such............
Nobody gave a damn about ironman, everyone thought Cap would flop, they still can't count on Hulk for a full series or movie anymore, and Thor was known more for the actual god than the comic character.
You can go back and read articles at the time, but this was not seen as a sure thing at all. These characters were bottom tier when those movies dropped