A Spirited Perfect Ten

[BrerJon]

I think 71jason has nailed it. While there might be a significant overlap between "Disney fans" and "Marvel fans" (or "Star Wars fans" etc.), the cause and effect of Disney buying those properties seems specious. I'm sure a lot of those fans also went ga-ga over The Dark Knight as well.

Maybe a better question is how many people who profess to love Marvel had read a Marvel comic before 2008?

 

[spacemt354]

Maybe a better question is how many people who profess to love Marvel had read a Marvel comic before 2008?

I think that's still irrelevant because you can be a fan of the Sam Raimi Spider-Man films without reading a comic book. It could have been due to marvel animated shows on tv or simply the fact that it was a good film.

Case in point being Guardians of the Galaxy. I doubt many of the current fans knew who they were in 2009, let alone read their comic book. Even hardcore Marvel fans admitted to that fact. How do you separate the people who only liked it because it was Disney with the sweeping population of people who liked the film, had no clue who they were beforehand, and aren't Disney-lifestylers?

 

[Cesar R M]

It should also be mentioned that these Spider-Man movies keep making less and less at the domestic Box Office. The Amazing Spider-Man 2 barley made more than $200 million in the US, something the Sam Raimi trilogy never had to worry about.

Audiences are getting tired, and Sony can't just keep putting out weak movies to justify a contract forever.

Agree, yet I cannot fathom why Disney and other moviemakers are putting all their eggs in the dumb "tentpole" technique.

 

[Jon81uk]

Yes, I understand that Disney has the character rights, but not movie rights, for ALL Marvel characters, including Spiderman. However, if you look at my original post, I was referring to the makers of the movie and not "who owns what".

Disney don't care as long as someone is making a movie, the merchandising rights are more important to them.

 

[Cesar R M]

I agree on the perception being mostly anecdotal. The number of true Disney nuts is pretty small in comparison to the number of people who actually went to the Avenger movies. While there is a subsection of pixie dusters who suddenly became Marvel fans there are probably also some teens and young adults who are turned off by Disney's involvement since Disney is for kids.

Probably a large portion of people who saw Marvel movies aren't even aware that Disney owns the rights. Many who weren't into comic books don't understand why Superman and Batman don't join Captain America and Spider-Man. This is just anecdotal evidence as well, but to your point on the costumes, between my 2 kids they have been all 4 of the major Avengers for Halloween. They have no idea Disney owns the rights to the movies especially since the characters aren't at WDW. They also went as Batman and Robin one year. My oldest son does know which characters are Marvel vs DC comics. Not sure how, must be something the kids in school talk about.

I think both sides are correct in this debate. There are definitely some Disney fanboys who only have interest in Marvel and Star Wars since Disney bought the products. On the other side those fanboys are not why the Marvel movies were successful. They make up an insignificant portion of the total viewing public. The Marvel movies made hundreds of millions at the box office. That's not just blind Disney loyalty.

Considering how the Marvel purchase was talked, spammed, and displayed in every single news paper and online news site of any form... I disagree with your notion of "aren't aware".

I still remember the gigantic flood of marvel disneysified fanart from every artwork site (and meme).
But then.. lets remember that merely a few years ago.. Marvel was dying and close to bankrupt... Yet the cinematic universe gave them a giant back-to-life turn around.

 

[spacemt354]

I think 71jason has nailed it. While there might be a significant overlap between "Disney fans" and "Marvel fans" (or "Star Wars fans" etc.), the cause and effect of Disney buying those properties seems specious. I'm sure a lot of those fans also went ga-ga over The Dark Knight as well.

Yes, exactly the point that I was trying to make as well. If we're talking specifically about the Disney fan community, interest in the MCU really skyrocketed with The Avengers. I doubt many Disney fans even realized that this film universe was produced by Disney considering their name didn't appear in the credits until then. It seems like if any Disney fans simply liked the MCU because it's Disney, they did so when the general audience started to like the films as well.

The rise in popularity had more to do with the quality of films in the MCU rather than brand advocates. Same with Star Wars. Star Wars was popular way before Disney got involved. It only escalated recently because the films seem shifting back to the original trilogy rather than the less well-received prequel trilogy.

 

[ford91exploder]

His security detail would tell you differently. You should see the security at a Shareholder meeting.

Heads of STATE have a smaller security detail than Bob Iger, Yet Tim Cook and John Chambers who run companies far more important to the global economy generally only have 2-3 visible ex-special forces guys as security and their assistant and I've met and had pictures with both. Strange how that works.

 

[ford91exploder]

Well yea, but I was referring to the hypothetical situation where he wanders around the park on his own without the security detail.

That's the thing he never visits the parks without his 'goon squad' and a dozen of so Plaid's surrounding him. Which I would argue makes him less secure as this little confab if you have ever seen it screams 'high value asset here'

Eisner usually if visiting as Eisner the CEO would generally only have his personal assistant visible, I'm sure there was a security detail but they blended in.

 

[ParentsOf4]

@ParentsOf4 I want to get my facts straight when I talk with friends and family who think Disney is being run so great and can do no wrong.

So, under Iger, Disney has spent $40 Bil on Stock Buybacks right? In that same tenure how much total $$$ has been invested in P&R and specifically at WDW?

A picture is worth a 1000 words.

 

[lebeau]

Audiences are getting tired, and Sony can't just keep putting out weak movies to justify a contract forever.

In fairness, that's not what Sony is doing. They are trying and failing to build a franchise similar to what Marvel built with the Avengers movies. It's not surprising that they are failing. Spider-man is a solo character who can maintain a series of his own. But he shouldn't be the basis for a franchise of different series like Avengers.

Making a hit super hero movie that pleases audiences and critics alike is hard. Building a franchise around it is harder. Building a mega franchise is extremely challenging. Doing so around a solo character is nigh impossible.

Anyway, Sony is not pulling a Roger Corman and putting out weak movies just to satisfy the terms of their contract and hold on to the property. They are really trying their best. But they have absolutely no idea what they are doing. So they are failing.

 

[WildcatDen]

Well at least I've got my _________ strait.

Not really required since the original line was quite good on it's own, but still, you rarely get such an opportunity

 

[lebeau]

It's insane the amount of people who now love Star Wars or Marvel movies but had no interest in them whatsoever prior to the Disney purchase. It's almost as if they see Iger as a personal shopper, or an Amazon recommendation engine, curating brands they might like, so that they don't have to form their own opinions.

You are joking right? I would estimate the number of people who became interested in Star Wars because of the Disney purchase to be roughly zero. Marvel, granted, has increased in popularity. That can be traced back to Iron Man being a good movie and has nothing to do with the Disney purchase.

I'll grant you there may be a couple of Disney loonies who latched on to one of these franchises based on their status as a Disney acquisition. But those scary individuals would be one in several million.

 

[flynnibus]

Heads of STATE have a smaller security detail than Bob Iger, Yet Tim Cook and John Chambers who run companies far more important to the global economy generally only have 2-3 visible ex-special forces guys as security and their assistant and I've met and had pictures with both. Strange how that works.

Chambers has a full on posse. From numerous attendants to his security... he rolls up in several SUVs.

 

[ParentsOf4]

@ParentsOf4 I want to get my facts straight when I talk with friends and family who think Disney is being run so great and can do no wrong.

So, under Iger, Disney has spent $40 Bil on Stock Buybacks right? In that same tenure how much total $$$ has been invested in P&R and specifically at WDW?

A picture is worth a 1000 words.

View attachment 80468

Or if you prefer to discuss growth capex (i.e. domestic theme park capex spending above depreciation) ...

 

[WildcatDen]

Spiddy rights....

There is a bill in congress for the civil rights violation to Seymore Spiddy. I had no idea this was related to Marvel. . .

 

[ford91exploder]

A picture is worth a 1000 words.

View attachment 80468

Thanks @ParentsOf4

I just threw up in my mouth over this, I think this really illustrates better than everything else just how the stock price has been manipulated over the years, Disney has reduced the number of shares in circulation by about 1/3

What would be interesting to see would be a plot of the estimated share price and EPS based on 2006 onward - assuming all the funds used for repurchases went to cash instead and were not expended.

Just imagine Disney with a 40-50 billion war chest.

 

[lebeau]

Correct. I licensed Fish Police for 8 million. I'm making 8 movies. I think that Val Kilmer as Inspector Gill will resurrect his career. I am going to let Disney sell t shirts.

Dude, let me save you some grief. You do not want to deal with Val Kilmer!

 

[ford91exploder]

Chambers has a full on posse. From numerous attendants to his security... he rolls up in several SUVs.

Oh I know they are THERE but they are not VISIBLE except for the 2-3 6'-4" guys built like a linebacker and his assistant(s). As I said I've had a few pictures with Chambers over the years both at Bldg 10 in SJC and at public events a perk of being with a relatively important customer.

The contrast is with Iger who has between 8-16 of the linebackers visible and a horde of handlers.

 

[71jason]

Maybe a better question is how many people who profess to love Marvel had read a Marvel comic before 2008?

Great point, but applies to the general population equally. Comics are dead, have been since around Death of Superman. In fairness, I think even going back to the '89 Batman, far more movie-goers knew the character from TV (West version, Superfriends, syndicated reruns of Filmation cartoon) than read The Dark Knight. And the 80s were when comics were booming, relatively.

[ETA: Of course, the reason comics are dying is they quit targeting a broad market when they went to essentially comic stores-only, and instead tried to make money with more and more upcharges on an ever-dwindling hard core fanbase. Hey, anyone go to that Halloween party within a party last October?]

 

[DisDan]

A picture is worth a 1000 words.

View attachment 80468

Thanks for that....so 40b in buybacks and 9b in P&R investment over 9 years.... Now, I ASSUME that with all the stuff happening at WDW now and all the planned stuff that P&R Capex number will probably be a lot higher over the next 3 years right?