brodie999
Active Member
Oh... thanks. So maybe you should subscribe to read the article. I tried all of my passwords, but they wouldn't let me on. That way you can paste the full details onto this page.
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News Disney and Fox come to terms -- announcement soon; huge IP acquisition
- Thread starter ohioguy
- Start date
After the Fox purchase Disney will be at 39-40% of box office share. What would buying Sony put them at? 45/50%? If it was 45% it would pass. DOJ doesnt get involved until you own 50% market share.
How much you make at the box office is not how they look at it. If you made one movie and it made 75% of the box office for the year the DOJ would not care. It is actually much more complex than that.
AnotherDayAnotherDollar
Well-Known Member
Disney buying Sony Pictures is a non starter. Not happening. Not because it wouldn't pass anti trust law (it would pass. BO percentage is not a good measure and there are many more variables involved when determining a monopoly). However, Disney has no reason to buy out Sony Pictures. 0.
What seascape alluded to earlier is that if the Disney and Sony have to make a deal for something else then they could buy out the Spider-Man contract and distribution rights to previously released Spider-Man movies. Similar to if Disney buying out Comcast's interest in Hulu, they could make a deal to buy out Comcast's Marvel rights at the same time.
It's possible and fun to speculate, but one shouldn't speculate on the buying of Sony Pictures by Disney. After the Fox acquisition they will spend 2-3 years balancing their sheets before any further acquisition, Hulu equity and amendments to licenses/contracts notwithstanding. After that I would speculate that a further big acquisition from the Mouse is more likely to come in the form of videogame companies with great IPs that can be mined across their businesses (as well as making great games with Disney's IPs).
What seascape alluded to earlier is that if the Disney and Sony have to make a deal for something else then they could buy out the Spider-Man contract and distribution rights to previously released Spider-Man movies. Similar to if Disney buying out Comcast's interest in Hulu, they could make a deal to buy out Comcast's Marvel rights at the same time.
It's possible and fun to speculate, but one shouldn't speculate on the buying of Sony Pictures by Disney. After the Fox acquisition they will spend 2-3 years balancing their sheets before any further acquisition, Hulu equity and amendments to licenses/contracts notwithstanding. After that I would speculate that a further big acquisition from the Mouse is more likely to come in the form of videogame companies with great IPs that can be mined across their businesses (as well as making great games with Disney's IPs).
Slpy3270
Well-Known Member
They tried video game publishing once. Didn't work out.
Twilight_Roxas
Well-Known Member
Disney would need to buy the distribution rights to the Hulk from Comcast.
AnotherDayAnotherDollar
Well-Known Member
"Tried". I can tell you that getting into game publishing and doing it "right" was in their roadmap a few years ago. Not sure if that changed or got moved due to the Fox acquisition. It's much like Iger saying they are doing independent movies and "R" rated movies "right" now with Fox as opposed to what they had with Miramax.
Twilight_Roxas
Well-Known Member
Luckily Deadpool will still be rated R.
Slpy3270
Well-Known Member
To me, their biggest mistake in terms of video game publishing is not seizing an opportunity when it showed. All they were doing is buying development studios and not dedicated game franchises and IPs.
When Warner Bros. bought Midway's game assets, including Mortal Kombat, everyone thought it was a joke. Well, look where they are now versus Disney.
It's not clear whether or not Disney will look into publishing games again after the Fox deal is settled, but I wouldn't bet on it.
Twilight_Roxas
Well-Known Member
Well they could buy-out EA who has the video game rights to Star Wars & The Simpsons.
Slpy3270
Well-Known Member
EA is such a toxic brand in the game trades that Disney would be hurt badly if they had them under their wing.
I was thinking more in the lines of the current incarnation of Atari.
Which is as equally toxic nowadays... if they were still developing software... and if they were actually Atari and not just it's name purchased by a horrible developer.
Lafayettecalboy
Member
@AnotherDayAnotherDollar Well Disney buying Sony could face antitrust issues overseas.
Twilight_Roxas
Well-Known Member
It's for Star Wars to be created by other video game companies. The Simpsons Tapped Out is still good.
AnotherDayAnotherDollar
Well-Known Member
Correct. They went at it the worst possible way. I would think they will get back to it at some point, but not in the near future. Mid 2020s and they'll probably get back in it by buying a couple of publishers and developers.
Disney would kill to own Epic Games or Blizzard right now due to Fortnite and Overwatch. Spider-man making a killing in sales on PS4 also shows Disney their products can be big sellers if properly taken care of. SW Battlefront 2, even with all the backlash, still made a boatload of money.
Also worth remembering that Consumer Products is the worst performing division of Disney and the only reason it doesn't get talked about more is because Wall Street is obsessed with ESPN.
EA is not only toxic, but extremely overvalued. Their must popular IPs are of no interest to Disney either (FIFA, Madden). Nintendo is probably out of the question as the Japanese government would protect it, but something along the lines of Square Enix, Capcom, Ubisoft, Take 2 is what they would be looking at in terms of publishers with IPs.
Not worth debating over as that's not happening.
Possibilities are for India assets that would need to be divested/acquired by Sony/Disney respectively and/or Endemol Shine being divested by Disney and acquired by Sony which would then allow the SM contract to be amended and distribution rights to previously SM titles being purchased.
twilight mitsuk
Well-Known Member
What’s next universal buying out wb
AnotherDayAnotherDollar
Well-Known Member
1 of them is not like the others (Sony does not own any video game rights to the character).
As per the 2011 amended contract, Sony has no Video game or animation rights. They have feature film rights (both animated and live action). Disney could develop a SM live action TV show with Tom Holland if they wanted and they wouldn't need Sony's approval to do so. This could have changed in 2015, but I highly doubt it changed in Sony's favor.
That's why Sony's plan to develop TV shows based on spider verse either A) Will need Disney/Marvel's approval or B) Each episode has to be over 78 minutes long.
Fun fact (spoiler for Spider verse just in case)
Peter Porker is a frozen character. Disney/Marvel had to give Sony the OK to use him in Spider Verse
And yes, Spider Ham/Peter Porker is listed in schedule 7A Frozen characters.
Kingpin is a shared character and can freely be used by either party with some small restrictions (i.e. have to notify the other party). So that wasn't a stoppage. Peter Porker is a big question mark and makes me wonder what Disney/Marvel got in exchange for it (probably just money).
And yes, Spider Ham/Peter Porker is listed in schedule 7A Frozen characters.
Kingpin is a shared character and can freely be used by either party with some small restrictions (i.e. have to notify the other party). So that wasn't a stoppage. Peter Porker is a big question mark and makes me wonder what Disney/Marvel got in exchange for it (probably just money).
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