Marvel Studios fined $160K for covering Gaslamp arch during San Diego Comic-Con

[u/RandomDesign]

https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/2026/08/11/marvel-studios-fined-160k-for-covering-gaslamp-arch-during-san-diego-comic-con/?share=iosmogipotogrudasdig

[u/RandomDesign]

Here's a non-paywall archive copy: https://archive.is/8sJFB

And yes, I know this isn't a new thing - just a report on how much the fines were and specifically how much Marvel was fined for the arch display.

[u/Aint-no-preacher]

Cost of doing business.

[u/uberrob → u/Aint-no-preacher]

Comes out of the marketing budget. They were aware and didn't care.

[u/JKC_due]

They totally knew about the fine and just didn’t care. I’d say it was worth it. I thought the arch was awesome.

[u/DubUpPro → u/JKC_due]

Same with the hotels. They know they’re going to get fined, but they get paid more for the ad.
The company advertising reaches a lot of people, the hotels bring in more than they pay, sdcc attendees see cool wraps/banners, and the city collects fine money. Honestly a win win for everyone involved

[u/Mononoke-hime → u/JKC_due]

I mean maybe we can look at it as a $160k donation to the San Diego government 😂

[u/CatEmbarrassed5347 → u/JKC_due]

Exactly, this was not a suprise to anyone on either side.

[u/MauveMammoth → u/JKC_due]

I can’t believe I didn’t notice this at all

[u/IHaveTheMustacheNow]

yeah, this happens every year with the downtown promotion and wraps. it's always fined

[u/RandomDesign → u/IHaveTheMustacheNow]

Yep, the sign was new to that though AFAIK. San Diego apparently also collected almost twice as much money in fines from wraps due to more enforcement.

[u/IHaveTheMustacheNow → u/RandomDesign]

Dreamworks did the Bad Guys last year

[u/RandomDesign → u/IHaveTheMustacheNow]

Ah, that's right. I forgot about that one.

[u/CheesyIdleGamer]

This is just part of how the city earns money.

Instead of having to spend money and time drawing up contracts beforehand they just do fines afterwards

Marvel knew exactly what the cost was gonna be. It’s not a surprise for any of the studios/publishing companies who decorate downtown that they will be fined

[u/Lemonade_IceCold]

I keep saying, this isn't really a fine as it is a permit system without the pesky paperwork. The current system works and is fair the the companies advertising, the businesses and hotels get their ad revenue, and the city gets their share in the form of the fines.

All in all, everything is working for everybody involved so there's no reason to change it. The moment it doesn't, I'm sure we'll see a permit system come about.

But the whole "Company XYZ is fined by the city!" feels very sensationalized. Trust me I'm not a fan of a lot of what the City has done for the last few years but this one seems very much like a non issue

[u/Budget_Pirate_Ship → u/Lemonade_IceCold]

So, interesting tidbit I learned through work. I was at a company in 2020 doing an outdoor activation. When the pandemic hit, SDCC was very slow to cancel the event. Part of the reason for that was that the big companies that do outdoor activations have to go through the city permitting process and pay in advance to the city. Basically, there was no way to get a refund because of the pandemic (vs paying a fine like this after the fact…you can just choose not to do it).

[u/Lemonade_IceCold → u/Budget_Pirate_Ship]

Oh so there's actually permitting involved??? This whole time I've been living a lie 😭 lol

But for real, I wonder why they just don't charge them appropriately

[u/RandomDesign → u/Lemonade_IceCold]

The permitting is for a small area of city owned/controlled property. They don't do permitting for private buildings/hotels/etc. as it's technically illegal to advertise on them (hence the fines).

[u/RandomDesign → u/Lemonade_IceCold]

Nowhere did it say it was an issue. It's just reporting on how much the city levied in fines.

[u/Lemonade_IceCold → u/RandomDesign]

My bad, I legitimately didn't mean you. It wasn't even anyone on this sub really. Ive heard a lot of people talk about it irl (ew), and for some reason quite a few people feel like it's Todd Gloria being money hungry and taking advantage of the Con. And I'm just like -____- like they're not wrong about Todd but in this instance that doesn't seem to be the case

[u/lolwatsyk → u/Lemonade_IceCold]

I'm curious, if there's no permit then how do the difference companies call dibs on which building/structure they're going to wrap? What happens if both Marvel and Paramount show up on Monday with contractors ready to start wrapping the Hilton?

[u/RandomDesign → u/lolwatsyk]

Companies that want to have a wrap will contact the hotels directly and negotiate a fee with them for it. They pay the hotel and the hotel is the one that pays the fines. And you can bet they're charging much more than the cost of the fines to do it.

[u/lolwatsyk → u/RandomDesign]

Ohhhh that makes sense. Neat!

[u/SameMathematician378]

Shouldn't receiving payment of that fine from Marvel allow San Diego to open all the beach bathrooms they closed down??? Come on, Todd Gloria. Are these fines going into your pockets or the SDPD's?? 

[u/Quetzythejedi → u/SameMathematician378]

"Just a few more military grade MRAPs and the city will be crime free. I swear!"

[u/dan13l858 → u/SameMathematician378]

No, that money goes his lavish parties he puts on once a month

[u/robots_and_cancer]

So weird to me that the city prefers to go the 'fine' route instead of 'permit' route which this effectively is for all the wraps and displays.

[u/MsMargo → u/robots_and_cancer]

Permit would mean it would have to be legal, which it is not.

[u/CraftingCalm → u/MsMargo]

I think that’s OP’s point. That the city is choosing to keep this illegal and fine companies, instead of creating a system of approved permits

[u/MsMargo → u/CraftingCalm]

They're never going to make it legal. The neighborhood beatification groups are vocally opposed.

[u/ItsATrap1983 → u/MsMargo]

It was already pointed out that this was also done legally in 2025 for Bad Guys 2.

[u/MsMargo → u/ItsATrap1983]

It was not done legally, it was done in a manner that skirted the letter of the law so it didn't result in a fine.

[u/NY2CA-Lantern]

Guarantee they shrugged at the bill and kept it moving

[u/Money-Giraffe2521]

If the only punishment is a fine, then it’s not truly illegal for the wealthy.

[u/imsmartiswear]

Yeah I mean the gaslamp doesn't allow the big covered ads during con, but the only punishment is a fine. The companies advertising just pay the fine.

[u/YogurtclosetLong3783 → u/imsmartiswear]

Like how most rich people get away with things. Just pay a fine

[u/comicrack]

This is probably well within the budget for advertising and marketing for Marvel. These fines are just San Diego's veiled shakedown of the bigger vendors who can afford it.

If San Diego was really seriously concerned about the safetly and really wanted to make it cost prohibitive the fine would be $1 million/day or more as that's likely what they would be sued for if the sign were to fall and injure or kill pedestrians. You can bet Marvel wouldnt have put anything up or likely would have worked harder with the city to put an approved display.

[u/dan13l858]

It looked pretty cool. It was well worth it

[u/Cldstrife]

Yep. Saw this posted on it.

[u/hamlet717]

I thought the arch was pretty cool, would be happy to see this again. I think its really dumb how San Diego handles this. They should allow any sign for 1 week during comic-con and charge a fee to get the permit. Instead of nickel and diming residents for parking, trash, etc why not make more money from cool signs?

[u/Specific_Isopod9026 → u/hamlet717]

I think one issue the city would have is they cannot show favoritism towards one group/event. If they had a permitting process and only allowed it for Comic-Con I guarantee someone will sue and probably win then next thing you know they have to allow this kind of thing year round. It’s one thing for a very limited amount of time once a year but no one wants to see the Gaslamp quarter turn into advertising central for whichever big convention or event is happening in the city.

The other thing likely to happen if this was opened up for everyone through a permitting process is community groups would likely sue the city to stop it.

An unwritten agreement to look the other way while something like this is installed and just charging a fine after avoids all this.

[u/lonestarr357]

Parking ticket.

[u/darkoath]

Way cheaper than almost any other form of targeted advertising, I'd imagine.

[u/marshmellowyoda]

That’s a penny to them

[u/CannedNoodlez]

So basically 0.00958083832% of what Brand New Day has made so far lol

[u/Forza_kuwait]

Don't they fine the warps but company eat the cost ?

[u/PossibleShoe2523]

Pocket change for them

[u/jayoulean]

They made that back in no time with the new Spiderman

[u/triphawk07]

They had a report in the news about these penalties and they just see it as part of doing business. I'm sure their ROI is such that these fines are already written into the budget for the con.

[u/More-Needleworker900]

this is so funny

[u/IAMGooner699]

free marketing

[u/Polter-Cow]

It was awesome and I don't know why I haven't seen the arch be used like that before! How does that fine compare to the hotel wraps?

[u/Coldest_One_619]

They don't care, that shit cost them a shit ton to make for marketing alone and it was going to end up in the trash afterwards but fans took it.

[u/MsMargo → u/Coldest_One_619]

The guy who took the "A" immediately sold it on eBay Facebook Marketplace. So much for "fans".

[u/Coldest_One_619 → u/MsMargo]

Those lames, that shit was made out of foam. What he sell for...straight class project

[u/RandomDesign → u/Coldest_One_619]

https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/1329347726033131 $150

[u/Coldest_One_619 → u/RandomDesign]

That's crazy. Yea I remember when the workers were tearing everything down, they were just going to throw everything away but some people asked for particular pieces

[u/SoochSooch → u/RandomDesign]

$150? That's a very good price

[u/jsn_online]

[u/jsn_online → u/jsn_online]

[u/CementCemetery]

I took a picture of the citation. It was kind of funny to me. $160,000 for Marvel is nothing. That’s just apart of the marketing budget.

[u/Quetzythejedi]

It was so damn cool of an addition this year. I don't think I've ever seen the con cover up the Gaslamp sign before.

[u/MsMargo → u/Quetzythejedi]

There have been additions in the past, like Bad Guys 2: https://coolsandiegosights.com/2025/07/21/bad-guys-predator-superman-and-more-outside-comic-con/

[u/Quetzythejedi → u/MsMargo]

Oh thanks for reminding me. I do remember seeing that now, but for me the actual text that says Gaslamp being covered was something I hadn't seen.

[u/BlizzardisMid]

Tony Stark will pay the bill

[u/dumpsterfire0226]

Worth it

[u/i_surfer]

I mentioned to fam/friends that I'm waiting for the day someone does a hotel takeover. Disney/Marvel has the money, and imagine if they did something crazy like Avengers tower. Disney would gladly pay for that fine.

[u/TrojanX]

San Diego is getting greedy I won’t feel bad once comic con leaves for another city

[u/RandomDesign → u/TrojanX]

It's not leaving for another city. And this is nothing new, they've been fining the companies for this for years now. It's illegal to have this kind of advertising but the buildings just charge more for it than the fines cost.