Disney negotiating the LOTR rights!

Denise Thress

New Member
With a $6000 tag on just a couple of nights in a Star cruiser hotel, shoulder to shoulder crowds in even February, and an irrational control over all ideas… I’m a negatory on Disney taking the LOTR franchise. LOTR is large enough to have it’s own series of parks, not just a carved out corner in one. For years, players of Roller Coaster Tycoon have built custom parks, toying with the pairing of Tolkien and Disney… and Disney missed a huge opportunity to jump into the ring with a ”Disney Park” builder. Their versions at video games were seriously under par with RCT. I fear they will do the same… underwhelming, high priced, over-crowded… and so controlled that no one else can provide anything Tolkien. Still, Rivendell, Hobbiton, Mt. Doom, a Balrog here, and an Ent there would make for a great afternoon… just not in the overcrowded, sell-your-soul price of Disney.
Agree 100%
 

ohioguy

Well-Known Member
Lord of the Rings is a hot property. Like Star Wars, Pixar, and Marvel, the IP has business prospects that would be highly profitable in future years, especially given the current and potential licensing agreements. The benefit of Disney ownership means continued development and exploitation of the LOTR universe. This is one of the reasons that George Lucas wanted Disney to buy Lucasfilm; it ensures the property will live on forever. I'm all for this acquisition, much as I was for Planet of the Apes for the same reason.
 

wm49rs

A naughty bit o' crumpet
Premium Member
It's been rumored several times before. I'd throw his thread out there with the other times it didn't happen....
 

mysto

Well-Known Member
What we need here is someone with cash and no grasp on reality to obtain the rights to LOTR and build a 10 square mile park with 30 rides and a permanent renaissance fair in the center of it for a $5 entry fee and government subsidization. Elon Musk would be perfect.

'The blancmanges are really Australians trying to get the rights of the pelote rules from the Czech publishers!' -- Monty Python, Science Fiction Sketch
 

PalisadesPkteer

Active Member
You take one look at Phantasialand and Europa Park in Germany, and the Efteling park in the Netherlands, and you'll see theming that will blow your mind and break your heart. Even the MINOR theme parks in Europe are kicking Disney's butt. Here's a video from Theme Park Worldwide that features a visit to Plopsaland (yes I know, but the park's in Belgium, different language) and a ride on its amazing new coaster "The Ride To Happiness":



Isn't that amazing? Holy cow. And Disney could totally afford theming of this level. But it won't. Because they think we Yanks will happily settle for so much less...

Would love to ride these. However, I can not go upside down. At Disney Quest once, went on Cyberspace Mt. and the ride operators thought that my programed ride was too tame. They put in a loop without telling me. When I TRIED to get out of ride vehicle I couldn't stand up. They had to drag me out and both had to help me over to a bench. Lost my equilibrium and couldn't stand up for an hour or more.
 

Dan Deesnee

Well-Known Member
LOTR is a great fit for Disney. They have violence but certainly no more than an average marvel movie. They also have great characters and role models and no bad language.

I imagine animated spinoffs, possibly a reboot of the original trilogy (but they're nearly perfect already in my opinion), merchandise galore. I would expect a new land incorporating elements of Galaxy's Edge. Like something where kids can craft a magic staff or swords similar to the lightsaber experience. Photo opportunities and character meets aplenty. Live shows doing archery or sword play. The ride opportunities are also tremendous. Riding on the backs of Giant Eagles in some flight of passage style attraction, riding in the barrels down the river, and a ride similar to guardians of the Galaxy where it has coaster and animatronic elements.

Seems like a no-brainer for Disney to go after this and two billion is a drop in the bucket for how much they'll make on it. Let's say they release some kind of trilogy, as long as it's decent or better, they'll probably make the 2 billion back right there.
 

Minnesota disney fan

Well-Known Member
I was reading an article on a website talking about Saul Zaentz Co., that they were selling the rights of the The Lord of the Rings universe with a price of 2.000 million dollars and many sites were saying that Disney were leading the bid to get the rights of the novel. Also, I read that Disney wants Peter Jackson to be involve in all the series, theme park and movies that Disney wants to release in the future, like Avatar with James Cameron! Anyone knows something about this? and if this is true, what do you think Disney would do about it? 🧐

I haven't read all 8 pages, but I would hate for disney to get LOTR. It is a great series, and I wouldn't want disney to ruin future movies like they did with the new SW movies. That would be a disaster, IMO. I'm going by their track record with SW and how they messed up the sequels. Just my opinion - no flaming please:)
 

fryoj

Active Member
For all of the talk about theme parks, Amazon is most likely going to buy the rights. They have the streaming service that needs content, they have the money, they already bought some of the rights, and apparently Bezos is a big Tolkein fan. It's a recipe for an overbid.

The question then is, will they work with a park for the theme park rights? In that scenario, that fits more into the Universal business model.
 

MisterPenguin

President of Animal Kingdom
Premium Member
Disney is already spending more than Netflix on new content for their streamers. Right now there's a new title per week. In the second half of this year, they'll be ramping that up to two titles a week. Disney doesn't need LotR for parks or content. Medieval magic is covered by most of Fantasyland and so many other IP that Disney has access to.

Besides, Disney Live Action studios has been spitting out a lot of duds for a long time now.
 

JoeCamel

Well-Known Member
Disney is already spending more than Netflix on new content for their streamers. Right now there's a new title per week. In the second half of this year, they'll be ramping that up to two titles a week. Disney doesn't need LotR for parks or content. Medieval magic is covered by most of Fantasyland and so many other IP that Disney has access to.

Besides, Disney Live Action studios has been spitting out a lot of duds for a long time now.
They are mass producing, like restaurants serving outsize portions to justify higher prices (oh wait CFO comment here) more is not better if it is just more garbage.
A quality taste is better than mediocre (or worse) platefuls in every case
 

UNCgolf

Well-Known Member
They are mass producing, like restaurants serving outsize portions to justify higher prices (oh wait CFO comment here) more is not better if it is just more garbage.
A quality taste is better than mediocre (or worse) platefuls in every case

Generally speaking, yes, but not really for streaming services. They need constant content updates to keep people subscribed; otherwise it's too easy for people to sign up for one month to watch what they want and then cancel for several months until the next thing comes out.

Of course people could do that anyways, and I think a not insignificant part of the current streaming model is just hoping people forget to cancel/don't think about how easy it would be to only subscribe when there's something specific you want to watch -- it's why I won't be surprised if it eventually turns into year long contracts or something similar -- but it's still easier to keep people on the hook (not to mention advertise) if there's constantly something new they can watch.
 

Minnesota disney fan

Well-Known Member
Why spend the money on rights to another franchise when they have so much material to work with? Save the money and spend it on amazing rides with current IP's!
Because Chapek said in an interview I watched that he buys up the IP because he can and he will then use it. If he didn't buy it up then others would, in his opinion. I agree he should support what he has but he doesn't think that way apparently.
 

Heppenheimer

Well-Known Member
Because Chapek said in an interview I watched that he buys up the IP because he can and he will then use it. If he didn't buy it up then others would, in his opinion. I agree he should support what he has but he doesn't think that way apparently.
So, he just wants to make sure nobody else can use it, even if that means he destroys it in the process.

Why does this remind me of someone else who's been in the news a little bit lately?
 

tcool123

Well-Known Member
Honestly I dont think Disney has handled Star Wars the worst. I find Solo one of the most enjoyable Star Wars films, Rogue One is highly beloved and is constantly in the too of many peoples favorite Star Wars films, and the Disney+ series have all been decent to amazing. Arguments can be made about the Sequel series dropping the ball completely, but just like how many felt the prequels underdelivered only timy can tell how the population will truly feel and remember these films.

If given the right person I think LOTR could flourish under Disney however they can’t do what they did with Star Wars. They need communication and an understanding on how each piece of media connects and flows together as that was the biggest flaw in the Star Wars sequel series.
 

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