New MARVEL attractions to Disney Parks

[lebeau]

Characters in use and their "families" are off limit. Captain America nad Hulk have a restaurant and ride respectively. They're both in "The Avengers" family. Therefore Iron Man, Thor, and SHIELD are off limits. Same with the Fantastic Four family, Spider-man family, and X-Men family. After that, you really don't have anything worthwhile to build an attraction on.

Well, their was the Rawhide Kid. I don't think he's spoken for yet.

Perfect fit for Frontierland, doncha think?

 

[misterID]

Disney can totally do Ant-Man.

 

[Jimmy Thick]

Actually there is an annual fee...

"Upon the opening of THE SECOND GATE, and on an annual basis thereafter, MCA will pay a fee of $***. "

and there is a royalty fee on merchandise:

"MCA will pay an annual guaranteed merchandise advance of $*** which will be applied against merchandise royalties from any of its retail outlets calculated at a rate of ***% of wholesale cost. After the annual guaranteed advance is fully earned, the royalty on additional sales will decrease to ***% and will be paid quarterly."

There is nothing in the contract that says these number can be re-negotiated.

All of this is from the contract at the SEC. Might be different in DisDay's "mystery contract".

Now if these numbers can be renegotiated, who is to say Disney can't make these values higher and high enough Uni might not want to deal with it? Uni could tell Disney to take a hike, but Disney could say, and these are just made up numbers please nothing more, but I don't know when the contract was signed, but for the sake of argument...


Say the contract was signed in 2000 and, for example this annual fee was 1 million dollars, Disney could claim one million dollars dont cut it, the want 500 million a year now, Uni says no way, Disney goes to court stating inflation bla,bla bla...

A crafty lawyer could make things work.


Will it happen I seriously doubt it, but there are a lot of things people could work with if so inclined.


Jimmy Thick-You know, Iam getting a headache thinking about this crap now...

 

[lebeau]

Except for the fact that Harry Potter IS hurting Disney and the fact that Universal is the only place in town with Marvel Land. This will continue to hurt Disney in the future as the Marvel brand grows. Kids don't give a crap about mickey mouse and cinderella anymore its a different world now.

No it's not.

Clearly you don't have kids. Walk into a daycare. The place will be wall to wall with Mickey Mouse, princesses, fairies, Cars and Toy Story.

 

[lebeau]

Disney can totally do Ant-Man.

Ant-Man is an Avenger.

Yep, Disney can't even do Ant-Man.

 

[Jimmy Thick]

Sure, Marvel has valuable assets. But they had sold the rights to just about everything at the time.

And sold them for nothing apparently. Whoever was incharge at Marvel was a fool.


Jimmy Thick-Blame Joe Quesada!!!

 

[Captain Neo]

No it's not.

Clearly you don't have kids. Walk into a daycare. The place will be wall to wall with Mickey Mouse, princesses, fairies, Cars and Toy Story.

Have you been to a Disney Store lately? Half the store is Marvel stuff now

 

[mgf]

Marvel was never about theme parks but....

It seems to me that if Disney seriously wanted superheroes in WDW it would/could reach into its own IP. Using the Incredibles for an attraction (or M&G) is a perfect way to address a fan desire for superhero-based entertainment, while still remaining accessible to families. Rather than entice UNI/IoA to completely refocus their parks - essentially egging them to go for a Potter-level relaunch - Disney is better off countering with an attraction that keeps people in their parks. Certainly, it would not be the same draw, but it would an added layer that makes the parks more palatable to aging families.

 

[misterID]

Ant-Man is an Avenger.

Yep, Disney can't even do Ant-Man.

Ant Man says NOOOOOOO!!! I'm the Potter Swatter!!!!!

I guess that just leaves Ant Man as a Disney/Pixar project.

 

[lebeau]

Have you been to a Disney Store lately? Half the store is Marvel stuff now

I have. In fact, I have purchased Marvel coffee mugs there. Great deals too. They were on sale.

The local Disney Store is divided in half with roughly half the store being devoted to things that are traditionally of interest to girls and the other half being devoted to things that are of interest to boys. The boy side is mostly Cars. There's a smattering of Pirates stuff. Some Mickey and friends. Phineas and Ferb. Toy Story. Oh, and some Marvel. It's at most 1/5 of that half of the store.

So, yeah, like 1/10 of the Disney Store is Marvel.

I didn't say kids don't like Marvel. I said they still like Disney's other stuff.

 

[lebeau]

Ant Man says NOOOOOOO!!! I'm the Potter Swatter!!!!!

I guess that just leaves Ant Man as a Disney/Pixar project.

It's Tough to Be a Bug refurb anyone?

It's Tough to be a second-string Avenger?

 

[danlb_2000]

I am not a lawyer, but I would think that if there was an option to re-negotiate the numbers it would have to be spelled out in the contract.

As for Marvel characters they could use, my vote is Howard the Duck. Be a nice friend for Donald and Daisy!

Now if these numbers can be renegotiated, who is to say Disney can't make these values higher and high enough Uni might not want to deal with it? Uni could tell Disney to take a hike, but Disney could say, and these are just made up numbers please nothing more, but I don't know when the contract was signed, but for the sake of argument...


Say the contract was signed in 2000 and, for example this annual fee was 1 million dollars, Disney could claim one million dollars dont cut it, the want 500 million a year now, Uni says no way, Disney goes to court stating inflation bla,bla bla...

A crafty lawyer could make things work.


Will it happen I seriously doubt it, but there are a lot of things people could work with if so inclined.


Jimmy Thick-You know, Iam getting a headache thinking about this crap now...

 

[Jimmy Thick]

Demand? You mean millions of people marching on Orlando? Calling and writing? Won't matter.

Disney is making a mint selling Marvel merch around the world. They are satisfied. Not having it it at WDW is meaningless, a drop in the bucket.

The other stuff, rides and characters...also not worth it. The slight, if any, attendance increase wouldn't translate into enough revenue to offset the cost. If anything they would just enjoy guests heading to the other resorts for their Marvel fix.

Disney doesn't do anything just to make guests happy. There has to be profit, and a buyout of the Uni deal just for WDW's sake doesn't offer it.

Also, Disney doesn't have the power to arbitrarily raise any fees on Uni. There are set limits and parameters.

Disney is a billion dollar conglomerate with people under their employ who are well aware of peoples spending habits. If Disney notices they are significantly losing money to a competitor due to properties the competitor is using but Disney owns, are you really that naive to believe Disney will sit on their rears collecting a small revenue stream?

Billions in the short term compared to possible trillions in the big picture is a risky venture, but someone might have the guts to try.


Jimmy Thick-Eisner would have had Marvel at Disney World by now.

 

[lebeau]

Even Dazzler was an X-Men. I'm seriously scraping the bottom of the barrel here.

Squirrel Girl was a freaking Avenger. Disney can't even use Squirrel Girl!

 

[lebeau]

As for Marvel characters they could use, my vote is Howard the Duck. Be a nice friend for Donald and Daisy!

He was a card-carrying member of the Avengers!

 

[GLaDOS]

Literally every worthwhile character is part of Avengers or X-Men.

 

[danlb_2000]

He was a card-carrying member of the Avengers!

My dreams of "Howard the Duck Land" have been shattered!

 

[WDWmazprty]

I can say that as a Marvel fanboy, it sucks that we'll probably never see any Marvel rides at WDW and I would love to see more Marvel at the parks.

However, Lee hits it right on the head. With the licenses/rights/contract(s) the way they are, it's unlikely it'll change. If it does for whatever reason in the future, then great.
Also, its definitely safe to say that with Disney being able to use just the merchandise alone in stores and parks around the world, they will make ridiculous amounts of money still. Of course, with the potential of rides in the other Disney parks as well that'll be more profits in addition to that.

I'm happy with that. Looking at the positive it's not a total loss for Disney and as a Disney fanboy I can say that's great.

 

[Lee]

Disney is a billion dollar conglomerate with people under their employ who are well aware of peoples spending habits. If Disney notices they are significantly losing money to a competitor due to properties the competitor is using but Disney owns, are you really that naive to believe Disney will sit on their rears collecting a small revenue stream?

But Disney isn't "losing" money. Not even close.
They're raking in the dough from everywhere in the world except for the Florida resort. Are you thinking that just having Marvel merch and characters at WDW would dramatically increase revenue? It simply wouldn't, and Disney knows that.

As I've said many times, Disney knows this situation inside and out, and are quite content to sit back and count the Marvel money that's coming in from everywhere but a certain 47 square miles in Florida.

 

[Tod&BigMamaOdie]

Allow me to ask this: Could Disney do a Marvel attraction within DHS without using any of the characters? For examples, create a Disney's Marvel attraction, generic if you will or free of any recognizable, forbidden characters (maybe use some of those lesser knowns who never grew legs), where guests can create through next gen tech a comic version or caricature of themselves, choose their superpowers, get their mission and board the ride. ??

This, to me, seems like a work-around the contract to get the Marvel name in the resort. If Disney evens cares about that...

I don't know; just curious so thought I'd ask.

PS - Long-time lurker. Enjoy reading everyone's opinions in many threads. I'll slip back into the shadows for now.