I think we worry about this stuff more than the execs doPretty much. It'll be cool for us park fans who don't have to worry about the things Disney has to though
As long as their options vest and bonus checks don't bounce they are happy.
I think it's highly possible they had some sort of contract for the Avatar IP that made it difficult to back out. In fact I've always figured James Cameron's motivation in all this is to build the perception of Avatar as this Harry Potter or Star Wars type franchise. I think this was heavily used as bargaining to get the production of the other movies moving along (which even still seem to be suffering from setbacks), this enabled James Cameron to reference the fact that it's going to be a theme park land to give credibility to the idea of Avatar as a franchise not just a one time hit. I think this is the reason Avatar land was announced so early, I suspect James Cameron pushed for the announcement. In short I think Cameron was/is playing the studio and Disney against each other as the reason Avatar will be so great. They also would have worried about how the cancellation of Avatar would have looked. How would stockholders have reacted to the cancellation of The highly hyped Avatar, especially if that happened before the announcement of Star Wars land.
I don't think the specifics of the contract were ever disclosed, but based on personal knowledge of similar transactions it was most likely structured as an option. Disney would have paid some upfront lump sum of money for the exclusive theme park rights to Avatar. That would prevent anyone else from developing a land based on the movie. Most likely Disney then had a certain amount of time to start construction. If they failed to start a project the contract would be terminated and Cameron would keep the upfront payment and be free to sell the rights to someone else. At that point Disney would only be out the initial payment. If the project went forward then there would be specific terms relating to additional payments or profit sharing from merchandise. The point is I'm sure Disney has done enough of these type of deals to leave themselves an out.
Maybe the Lumberjacks at EPCOT...
Well I don't know your connection to the deal and if you were involved than I understand but barring that I highly doubt it's known who approached who. These deals often start over lunch and quick meetings that result in Cameron saying "have your people schedule a meeting and we can work something out".
other than Tom Staggs and Bob Iger absolutely saying they approached JC, multiple times....
Yep, that's pretty well documented. Here's an LA Times article from back in 2011:
once again facts vs internet myth
Cameron repeated that statement in several interviews as well. He thought they just wanted to do a ride like Universal did with Terminator but they had bigger ideas.
That really doesn't mean anything at all. Not saying it isn't true but simply that it doesn't discount my theory which in it self is just speculation. These are complex deals and they don't just walk into the studio and pitch their idea and ask for licensing. Millions of deals start from someone pointing someone in the right direction or someone putting the word out. My speculation is simply based off the fact that James Cameron seems very eager with this project.
If I were trying to play up my movie franchise to the studio I don't think I would say "I went to Disney and asked them to build a ride for me and they said yes!" I think I would instead go with "I was approached by Disney, I thought they wanted to build an Avatar ride, but turns out it's such a huge franchise they want to build a whole land!". Just saying.
The story was the same from both sides. It wasn't just Cameron saying this to boost his film. Is it possible that both sides agreed to somehow spin a false story and say Disney reached out to Cameron? Sure, anything is possible, but what would be the point? Why would Iger lie. There's nothing in it for him. It's much more likely that Disney just reached out to Cameron like both sides are saying.
I'm not saying Disney didn't reach out to him, these deals are often far more complex than that, they don't just happen they come out of a lot of back and forth communication as well as back channels. With anything like this it's pretty much impossible to nail down just exactly how it began.
Well, they already have done so.. with LOTR movies and the MATRIX.
But technically, he almost always delivers and wows..
