Disney to buy Marvel Entertainment

[Atomicmickey]

Think of the possibilities!

101 Mutants

Snow White and the Seven Skrulls

The Many Adventures of Spider-Pooh

Galactus Wore Tennis Shoes

The Little Sub-Mariner

The Avengers Down Under

Fantasia Four

Lady and the Thing

The Adventures of Ichabod and Ant-Man

Mary Hulkins

Beauty and the Wolverine

The Human Torch's New Groove

X-Piglet

:lol:

 

[Pumbas Nakasak]

well, certainly anything with Marvel themes...and while some have discussed licensing agreements that may insulate Universal from this, lets not forget that every contract out there has loopholes and outs...and if one party aggressively wants to end the contract, it can put pressure on the other party.

Either way, Disney gets a piece of Universal's gate (by way of the licensing fees that Universal pays to Marvel) or it finds a way to force Universal to retheme.

Either way, not good for Universal.

Maybe it because Im not from the US and people that read comics over here tend to be young adolescent males with hairy palms and a life of solitude ahead, that I just cant associate this possible acquisition with a cataclysmic failure of Disneys main rival in Orlando.

Now I know much of whats being posted is the usual anti Universal fan boy nonsense and should be treated as such, but being older and more prone to moaning I tend to like things like facts influence my thought processes rather than just wishful thinking. To be fair the hysteria in this thread does seem to support my belief that Universal and Barry Spotter Land has the fan boys worried and desperate for some news.

I have no idea about the licensing just like every other user of the board, but given that Disney has been flogging off assets to 3rd parties to guarantee income without exposing themselves to costs/ profit risks Id guess that getting money from Universal is in their thought process, especially if the parks get an attendance boost from Potter.
As for Marvel Island, it is the poorest themed of all the lands, and it looks almost as cheap and nasty as MILF Q area. If it does require a re think I cant think of a better part of the park to do it to.

 

[goreesha]

They'll never be in MK.

What makes you so sure? Marvel characters are a hot property, popular all over the world. Can Disney really resist putting them in MK somehow?

 

[majortom1981]

hmm

Maybe this means disney is thinking of putting in some more roller coasters.

Six flags uses the DC characters for rollercoasters and universal has some marvel themed thrill rides.


I honestly think this is more for the movie rights then to put the characters in their theme parks.

 

[hrcollectibles]

So is Disney Buying Marvel.. Disney's Response to Universal getting the rights to Harry Potter?

 

[SirGoofy]

What makes you so sure? Marvel characters are a hot property, popular all over the world. Can Disney really resist putting them in MK somehow?

Yes. They don't fit.

Disney is dumb, but not moronic. Marvel characters are present day figures, and don't fit in any timeline of the lands in MK.

 

[tirian]

Hmmm...this is interesting.

I really, really wish that this could have been DC Comics instead of Marvel.
I have always liked DC better.

I prefer DC characters too, but it's truly sad that Marvel has always had a better theme park presence than DC. Marvel had Universal, and now (eventually) Disney; DC is stuck with Six Flags.

Good question, Marvel land is just an exposed steel coaster, two carnie rides and some flat facades. Only Spider-Man would pose any kind of challenge.

I'm surprised it's only going for $4 billion considering the profits made by recent Marvel movies.

As for getting a target demographic don't forget that Pirates of the Caribbean was made in house and got it for a period of time. It speaks volumes when a creative company has to buy someone else in order to secure funds from a specific age group. Do we all forget about how Touchstone was made? Disney wanted to make movies for an older audience so after experimenting with redefining their own brand they made a separate one to produce and distribute more mature films. Same with Hollywood Pictures.

It's not the idea that Marvel characters begin in DHS that upsets me, it's that Disney can't be bothered to think up their own thing (or try redefining a previously made property...Rocketeer/D*ck Tracy anyone? Hell, try doing something someone else hasn't done for awhile like The Shadow) to try and appeal to the teen/young adult crowd.

It's a good business deal none the less.

Most fanboys have forgotten that Ron Miller, not Michael Eisner, developed Touchstone, and Ron kept trying to push the company forward with EPCOT Center and the Black Cauldron. Roger Rabbit and Mermaid also began development during Miller's days. Of course, he also turned down Star Wars, so I'm not saying the man was particularly smart.

IMO, the first POTC was a good (not great) film because Disney allowed Bruckheimer to develop it independently. As soon as Disney got involved (POTC 2 & 3), the franchise s u cked.

 

[Disneyfan1981]

I so want an ultimate Marvel comic book store at DTD right now!* (lower-case ultimate, not just Ultimate Comics, but the full line with graphic novels, toys, clothing, themed to the hilt.)

I think a Marvel store is one of the locks out of this whole thing...

Didn't they just announce a Green Lantern film? And I know there is work (mostly writing) being put into Wonder Woman, The Flash & Captain Marvel lately. I highly suspect this deal with prompt DC to get going on some of these tentative plans.

Yes. Green Lantern is in Pre Production (with Martin Campbell from Casino Royale directing and Ryan Reynolds starring), there are is already Preproduction on Captain Marvel/Shazam and a few other properties. The Flash and Wonder Woman have been in Pre Production Hell though being stalled at very turn, both properties were in the works before The Dark Knight and have lost directors, writers, producers, etc. Joel Silver owns the rights to Wonder Woman and refuses to let them go.

Yea, but I just mean other than Batman, Superman, Wonderwoman, and MAYBE Flash, they don't have characters/brands that are very popular with the general populace.

Compare that to Spider-man, X-Men, Iron Man, Captain America, the Avengers, Hulk, etc Marvel really beats the pants off them in that department.

Its a balancing act, about ten years go people would have made the same comment about DC beating the pants off of Marvel. If DC gets their film department under control you'll see a real competition as DC's characters are much more "God like" whereas Marvel's characters are more "humanistic" but since DC is stalling in every franchise except for Batman right now they are obviously losing the battle of public consciousness at the moment.

already in the works with Geoff JOhns writing..

Actually Geoff Johns is writing the treatment for Shazam!/Captain Marvel. The last real news on The Flash was that David S. Goyer, the writer of the Batman franchise, was writing and set to direct The Flash with Ryan Reynolds in mind. It stalled and has been so for a long time. I believe Johns wrote a treatment but Goyer decided to do it himself. I'm not sure just how attached to the project he still is but Reynolds moved on to GL and The Flash has been stagnant for a bit....

 

[PirateFrank]

Maybe it because Im not from the US and people that read comics over here tend to be young adolescent males with hairy palms and a life of solitude ahead, that I just cant associate this possible acquisition with a cataclysmic failure of Disneys main rival in Orlando.

Now I know much of whats being posted is the usual anti Universal fan boy nonsense and should be treated as such, but being older and more prone to moaning I tend to like things like facts influence my thought processes rather than just wishful thinking. To be fair the hysteria in this thread does seem to support my belief that Universal and Barry Spotter Land has the fan boys worried and desperate for some news.

Im not so sure about that. The X-men franchise alone is huge....and has LOTS of legs, purely from a movie perspective...I'm not so sure Spiderman has any more legs left, but I'll defer to people who feel stronger on it.


Where I find it to be an implication on Universal, is that if Disney wanted to, now they own the company, they could find a way to kill off any theme park related agreements Marvel has with Universal....I have no doubt of that, irrespective of the agreements.

So even if Harry Potter land is a success....they still have to pour another year and a half of money into the place before they start seeing an ROI. Now, universal has to start considering the possibility that they are going to:

a) have to retheme *anything* with a Marvel character on it
b) throw out a ton of inventory (merch) and take a related loss on the Income Statement
c) consider the possibility that they would lose some business due to the loss of the theme. I personally know a spiderman fanatic. He's the type that would stop exclusively going to universal and start going to WDW, just because....

 

[jt04]

Yes. They don't fit.

Disney is dumb, but not moronic. Marvel characters are present day figures, and don't fit in any timeline of the lands in MK.

DHS? 5th Gate? Possibilities are endless.

Even DTD! Now that would be new and bold!

Never doubt the sheriff. He knows what he is doing.

Spiderman, Spiderman.......:lol:

 

[Kamikaze]

Yes. They don't fit.

Disney is dumb, but not moronic. Marvel characters are present day figures, and don't fit in any timeline of the lands in MK.

I can see them in parades.

 

[DocMcHulk]

In the LONG term, here's what i would do at DHS:

Rip down or repurpose the Disney Animation building and use the area between that building and Rock n Roller Coaster.
You could also retheme RnR into something Marvel if they really wanted to.

 

[WDWFigment]

Maybe it because Im not from the US and people that read comics over here tend to be young adolescent males with hairy palms and a life of solitude ahead, that I just cant associate this possible acquisition with a cataclysmic failure of Disneys main rival in Orlando.

Now I know much of whats being posted is the usual anti Universal fan boy nonsense and should be treated as such, but being older and more prone to moaning I tend to like things like facts influence my thought processes rather than just wishful thinking. To be fair the hysteria in this thread does seem to support my belief that Universal and Barry Spotter Land has the fan boys worried and desperate for some news.

I have no idea about the licensing just like every other user of the board, but given that Disney has been flogging off assets to 3rd parties to guarantee income without exposing themselves to costs/ profit risks Id guess that getting money from Universal is in their thought process, especially if the parks get an attendance boost from Potter.
As for Marvel Island, it is the poorest themed of all the lands, and it looks almost as cheap and nasty as MILF Q area. If it does require a re think I cant think of a better part of the park to do it to.

You speak with sage wisdom, as always.

I would agree that your last paragraph is likely the case, but I think there are a couple of options for Disney: 1) heavily brand the Marvel characters as "Disney" which makes Universal hesitant to want to continue using them and thus likely to sell back the rights to Disney, or; 2) restructure the deal with Universal to get more money in exchange for Disney 'walling off' the Marvel arm of the company to prevent people from associating Marvel characters with Disney.

My bets are that #2 is more likely to happen than #1 for the reasons you pointed out. I think this is just a revenue cow for Disney, honestly. I would be surprised to see much in the Disney parks in the way of Marvel--at least the US Disney Parks (or the Florida Disney Park, specifically) that are in close proximity to Universal Parks. Even still, I think this puts the screws to Universal.

 

[Chezman1399]

Yes. They don't fit.

Disney is dumb, but not moronic. Marvel characters are present day figures, and don't fit in any timeline of the lands in MK.

The only place they could possibly fit would be characters like Cable, Bishop, and some of the more futuristic characters in tomorrowland, but they're not exactly bright happy characters. I'd love to see Deadpool just show up at random places, but that's probably just me. Like someone mentioned before if they were to divide up the Studios into lands, they work there, otherwise I could only see them seriously being used for a more thrill based park. Either way, I'm just happy to see that the Marvel characters are in the hands of a capable movie studio because while Iron man was great, the last 2 X-Men movies, X3 and Wolverine, were not good, I just hope Sam Raimi maintains full creative control on SpiderMan.

 

[tmp]

I just think in a bad economy when sales are down there is only one way to grow and buying other companies is the way. Disney has bought Power Rangers and Teenage Mutant Turtles and they had little presence in the parks. This is bigger because it effects Universal but I agree that Marvel will run indepently.

 

[WDWFREAK53]

The origin story of Ghost Rider would fit into Frontierland pretty well.

 

[jt04]

The origin story of Ghost Rider would fit into Frontierland pretty well.

Niiiiiiiiiiiiice :sohappy:

 

[gettingsmaller]

Here's how I would imagine the licensing working for Universal. They have a contract that says something like "Universal has exclusive use of <character> for <xxx> years from date <xxx>. This agreement shall survive any bankruptcy, purchase, etc. of MVL".

Even without that last part, I would imagine that it comes down to this:
MVL "sold" the rights--either indefinitely (unlikely) OR for a certain period of time. Therefore, those "rights" are the legal "property" of Universal until expiration. When Disney purchases MVL, the rights are technically not the property of MVL--and therefore not the property of Disney until the expiration of the previous contract.

Anyone who thinks that Universal would just be up a creek right away isn't rowing with both oars (how's that for meshing two sayings? lol). The lawyers are much smarter than that, and (I like to think) the law is more just than that.

That's not to say that DIS couldn't "sabotage" the characters licensed by Uni, as was suggested...

 

[goreesha]

Yes. They don't fit.

Disney is dumb, but not moronic. Marvel characters are present day figures, and don't fit in any timeline of the lands in MK.

I agree with you that they don't fit. That didn't stop Monsters Inc. from going to Tomorrowland.

Personally, like others, I would enjoy seeing the Marvels characters at DHS, not so much the other parks. But the popularity of these characters will be very, very tempting for TDO, I think.

 

[Pumbas Nakasak]

Im not so sure about that. The X-men franchise alone is huge....and has LOTS of legs, purely from a movie perspective...I'm not so sure Spiderman has any more legs left, but I'll defer to people who feel stronger on it.


Where I find it to be an implication on Universal, is that if Disney wanted to, now they own the company, they could find a way to kill off any theme park related agreements Marvel has with Universal....I have no doubt of that, irrespective of the agreements.

So even if Harry Potter land is a success....they still have to pour another year and a half of money into the place before they start seeing an ROI. Now, universal has to start considering the possibility that they are going to:

a) have to retheme *anything* with a Marvel character on it
b) throw out a ton of inventory (merch) and take a related loss on the Income Statement
c) consider the possibility that they would lose some business due to the loss of the theme. I personally know a spiderman fanatic. He's the type that would stop exclusively going to universal and start going to WDW, just because....

All nice opinion based on your best wishes for Disney, just cause you post a scenario dont make it so. Or are you concerned that Disneys creativity is now so weak that they are unable to compete with competition from a rival? But I notice fan boys have now moved into fictional hypothesising that sales of companies make pre existing agreements disappear. I must try that with some of my suppliers that I am due to pay.

Though I must say I bet Universal execs are bricking it to hear your mate wont visit if Spideman isn’t there.