Disney buys Marvel - Not New News

[AnthonyJPreston]

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[MJMcBride]

Originally Posted by AnthonyJPreston

In doing so the Walt Disney Company aquired about 5,000 Marvel Characters. (I bet you would be hard pressed to name 50 of those said characters). That by the way is not an invitation to google Marvel characters in an attempt to prove me wrong.

True but there are a great many people who couldn't name 50 disney characters

And Spider Man is probably as well known as any Disney character including Mickey Mouse

[fannatic]

I've thought for years that Disney should buy Marvel. I think that it is a great deal. I don't believe that Disney should have one particular style. Disney is a company for the whole family, not just mom, dad, and the little kids. My definition of family is not an exclusive term. Family should imply all people, not just people with kids. Disney also realizes that there are some people who would be more interested in Marvel characters than Disney characters. In this way, they increase their possible customers. In fact, there are some parts of the world that are more familiar with Marvel characters than Disney characters. This gives Disney a chance to open new markets. In my opinion, it's a win-win situation for both parties.

[E-Rock]

Being a fan of both companies I've been following this for quite a while and reading a lot of opinions (you should see the Marvel boards when the news came out it was pure outrage and a lot of knee jerk reactions that made no sense considering all we had at the time was an announcement with no details). I'm finally goign to post my thoughts here as this is somewhere I can say what I want and not have 20 000 000 posts flaming me. I've been considering the pros and cons for quite some time and I think it all comes down to one thing and one thing only.....

Faith

Faith in the companies you've loved and how they operate. I know that right now with a lot of things that iger has done that is a hard thing to swallow. But the man certainly is all about the bottom line and knows a cash cow when he sees one. Likewise (and more re-assuringly) Lasseter sits on his shoulder like Jimeny Cricket guiding him how not to totally completely piss off both the creative teams that do all this but also as much as possible the fans. And while the results are not always what we want them to be they are keeping things profitable so that later (most likely under the next head of Disney) we can hopefully get back the wonderful balance of creativity and profitability thta both the company and the fans wish to see.

Likewise I have to have faith in the heads of Marvel (who's names escape me right now... whoever is above Quesada, and no it's not Stan Lee) have enough sense not to sign a deal that not only ruins everythign they've ever done before but also any future credibility them or any of their creators would have in the future of the buisness.

That being said I would be equally as upset if I saw the latest issue of Dark Avengers guest starring Goofy as if I saw Punisher wandering through Fantasyland.

But I think both companies have more sense than that. If Disney decides to integrate marvel into the theme parks I expect it would be in an appropriate way, most likely in the Studios. Other than this I see no reason whatsoever that the two sets of characters shoudl interact in any way shape or form. So basically to me the deal ends up coming down to Marvel gets increased backing power to develop their own franchises and a crapload of money, and Disney gets the advantage of having an established comics creation team to help develop their own characters into the comic market (under a seperate line of course) and a continuous crapload of money.

But in the end you can't please everyone and even if I end up beign right I'm sure many will still complain on both sides of the argument. Just remember these are companies that you've enjoyed for years, why lash out from a buisness related descision (not a content one) that we haven't even seen the effects from.

Oh and if you double dare me I'm up for the challenge of naming both 50 Marvel and 50 disney characters sans google... I bet including formatting I could do both lists in under 40 minutes. :P

[schmitty]

Disney owns Touchstone. They have movies about sex, drugs, and violence. Cars had drug references. Lion King had violence and Beauty and the Beast had sex. Comic books have regulations and most of the main comic book characters do not go heavy into those topics. The most popular Marvel character that gets its highest rating is the Punisher.

[bgohre]

Originally Posted by E-Rock

Faith

That is exactly what I was thinking when I read the first post.

The truth is, there are only a handful of people that know the down dirty details of this deal and what Disney has planned.

Personally, I think the deal was twofold for Disney. First, create a bigger fan base and thus make more money. And Second, stick it to Universal. Sure Universal can still use X-Man, Hulk, Spidey, but everytime they sell a Spidey T-shirt, part of that money goes straight to the Mouse. I'm sure that leaves a pretty sour taste in the mouths of the Universal execs.

I have to believe that Disney has more sense that to introduce most of the popular Marvel Characters in any park except studios. They just don't fit and I think everybody knows that.

[WebmasterCricket]

I keep hearing movies and parks talk but...

Disney is also aquiring Wideload Games and one of the creators of Bungie and Halo to oversee Disney video games.

I think the Marvel deal and the Wideload deal make sense together more than some of the other avenues.

[skier_pete]

I think this is a win for Marvel as long as Disney stays (mostly) out of their hair - it gives them much deeper pockets to fund their movies. With the success of Iron Man - which is certainly a "not top-line" character - they've proven that in the right hands they can take a character with limited name recognition and sell it.

For Disney - I am not so sure of how good this is - but I think its good. $4 Billion is a big investment - though of course you are obtaining tangible assests for that $$$. However, they have very limited rights to the "Big Names" Spidey, Hulk, Fant 4, X-men, in terms of movies.

But -on 2nd thought - think about these movie franchises. If Fox release the Wolverine movie and it disappoints), Fox loses money - but Disney via Marvel will still get their share of the profits for licensing fees. Same for Marvel Island at IoA. Universal Parks can have a good year or a bad year - but Marvel gets their dime no matter what. THIS is why they are not concerned about licenses and how long they last - having other companies put out the capital while they make profits regardless of whether the project works or not. It's with these licensing fees that Marvel Studios is getting off the ground.

I think Disney is not worried about bringing these characters to the parks anytime soon.

SkierPete

[AlienBrain]

My response to the OP is that it could be worse. I agree with previous posters who were saying we should just have faith.

Do you realize that Disney is one of the very few things in this world today that has tirelessly tried to preserve its history and what Walt wanted. Yes, they didn't do EPCOT the way he wanted and many other things were probably not the way he wanted. But WDW is not that far of the track from what Walt would have done. Granted, Walt would have been about 20 years ahead of where WDW is now. But you don't have many Walt Disney and Steve Jobs type of people walking this planet. They are great becauset they are visionaries. These are 1 in a hundred million types of people.

I understand your concerns. But I know that Disney will make the right decision because they haven't done anything that bad so far.

Also, I think that Disney will not incorporate Marvel into their parks. They may have shops to buy merchandise and comic books in DTD or DHS, but that's about it. I would like to allude to franchises such as Star Wars and Indiana Jones. Star Wars is very un-Disney like, but it works great. It is in its own little corner, it doesn't overpower the Disney vibe, and they have a Star Wars weekend every year that attracts many people who would never come to Disney World.

In our modern times where there isn't many "rosey" things in life (reality TV, every prime time show is about sex or violence, etc.) I think that Disney is doing pretty darn well with displaying the more family friendly and happier things in life.

[kyoung6166]

SkierPete[/quote]

Disney is a Publicly Owned company that has to make money for its shareholders. They happen to be a huge Media company that has their footprint in Movies, TV, Print, Radio, Theme Parks, and Merchandising. They do all of these things on a scale that most people cannot fathom. Aquiring Marvel and the Intellectual Property of Marvel gives them more characters to work with. They don't have to change anything they do as a company but decide what characters to put on TV, what new movies to develop, how much merchandise they going to sell, and collect the royalties from all of it. I think they have no desire to put the Marvel Characters into the Parks, it's just another way to make more money for the company.

[tjkraz]

Originally Posted by AnthonyJPreston

Also, giving Disney an "x" amount of time, Disney could make a pretty penny off of this deal. Assuming they start throwing out their own Marvel based movies, or perhaps putting in characters and attractions at the parks located all over the world, and let us not forget merchandise.

Disney will IMMEDIATELY begin to make money off of the deal. All of Marvel's current revenues will be part of TWDC. When Sony goes forward with Spider-Man 4, Disney makes money. When Iron Man 2 is release, Disney makes money. When Universal writes their licensing check for Marvel Land, it goes to Disney.

This deal wasn't about putting a Wolverine character meal at DCA and attracting a few more 8-year olds. Benefits to the theme parks are FAR down the list of reasons to make a deal like this (particularly since DIS can't do much in Florida.) The deal is about the long-term earnings potential of the brand.

Marvel walks hand in hand with drugs, sex, violence, etc. (These are not things that offend me personally) but when it comes to Disney, these factors need to stay out, Walt said it himself.

That bridge was crossed years ago with events like the purchase of ABC and release of films like Pulp Fiction and Scream.

If Walt had lived, Florida would not be home to four theme parks, two water parks and 20+ hotels bearing his company's name. Walt probably would not have approved of Johnny Depp's portrayal of Capt. Jack Sparrow. He may not have agreed with expanding the company into cruise ships, timeshares, international parks, stand-alone resort hotels and many of the other experiences that we have come to cherish over the last 3-4 decades.

For better or worse, this isn't Walt's company anymore. Society has changed. Our economy has changed. The company has changed.

[IndianaSPEED]

Unfortunately, time is the essence in which we burn. One great man's dreams are slowly being destroyed year after year, buy after buy, price increase after price increase. Jean Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) once said, "and history may die with him." Disney just isn't "DISNEY" anymore and I refuse to go to a Disney park when they are completely ignoring what they were supposed to be all about. It's like going to the Indianapolis 500 and have everything decked out in NASCAR sponsorship from shops to pre-race festivites. <Just because it sells? Come on.