Marvel

[mbrou24]

Does anyone know when universals agreement with marvel ends for their section in IOA. When that happens who thinks marvel gets an expansion into Disney parks??

[Horace Horsecollar]

Originally Posted by mbrou24

Does anyone know when universals agreement with marvel ends for their section in IOA. When that happens who thinks marvel gets an expansion into Disney parks??

Universal's license for Marvel characters does not have an expiration date.

Universal has exclusive theme park rights "East of The Mississippi" for the Marvel characters it is now using and other characters associated with them. As long as Universal's Marvel Super Hero Island at IOA is "operated and maintained in a first class manner consistent with the highest standards of the theme park industry" and Universal continues to pay the licensing fee, Universal has the these rights forever.

Disney could expand Marvel into Disneyland immediately if the company wished to.

And Disney could expand Marvel into Walt Disney World immediately, if the company only used characters that are not being being used by Universal and are not heroes or villains associated with those characters.

Universal is doing an excellent job operating Marvel Super Hero Island at IOA. The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man is now even more amazing with digital 3-D projection.

[mbrou24]

Originally Posted by Horace Horsecollar

Universal's license for Marvel characters does not have an expiration date.

Universal has exclusive theme park rights "East of The Mississippi" for the Marvel characters it is now using and other characters associated with them. As long as Universal's Marvel Super Hero Island at IOA is "operated and maintained in a first class manner consistent with the highest standards of the theme park industry" and Universal continues to pay the licensing fee, Universal has the these rights forever.

Disney could expand Marvel into Disneyland immediately if the company wished to.

And Disney could expand Marvel into Walt Disney World immediately, if the company only used characters that are not being being used by Universal and are not heroes or villains associated with those characters.

Universal is doing an excellent job operating Marvel Super Hero Island at IOA. The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man is now even more amazing with digital 3-D projection.

Completely agree. Was just at universal and the new Spider-Man quality is great. Just thinking Disney should take advantage of marvels fan base.... Maybe an iron man ride or Thor.

[PALionKingfan]

Disney does not copy anything other parks do so having Marvel themed characters or attractions in a Disney park is extremely unlikely.

[mbrou24]

Originally Posted by PALionKingfan

Disney does not copy anything other parks do so having Marvel themed characters or attractions in a Disney park is extremely unlikely.

Yeah it was just an idea to take advantage of a huge fan base. Similar to what people have had suspicions about with Star Wars

[Horace Horsecollar]

Originally Posted by mbrou24

Just thinking Disney should take advantage of marvels fan base.... Maybe an iron man ride or Thor.

Universal owns the theme park rights to Ironman and Thor "East of the Mississippi" even though there's not an Ironman or Thor attraction. The agreement applies to characters who part of a "family" that Universal is already using ("e.g., any member of THE FANTASTIC FOUR, THE AVENGERS or villains associated with a hero being used").

Also, Universal features many Marvel characters as artwork on and in the buildings of Marvel Super Hero Island at IOA.

Walt Disney World cannot make theme park use of the top Marvel characters. Walt Disney World could make theme park use of unrelated Marvel characters or new Marvel characters.

For the time being, Disney can simply collect licensing fees from Universal and make money from Marvel merchandise sales at Universal -- without having to invest money in Marvel content at its own theme parks. And the box office numbers for Marvel movies from Disney can benefit from the publicity that Universal provides for those characters. Not bad for Disney, if you think about it.

[mbrou24]

Originally Posted by Horace Horsecollar

Universal owns the theme park rights to Ironman and Thor "East of the Mississippi" even though there's not an Ironman or Thor attraction. The agreement applies to characters who part of a "family" that Universal is already using ("e.g., any member of THE FANTASTIC FOUR, THE AVENGERS or villains associated with a hero being used").

Also, Universal features many Marvel characters as artwork on and in the buildings of Marvel Super Hero Island at IOA.

Walt Disney World cannot make theme park use of the top Marvel characters. Walt Disney World could make theme park use of unrelated Marvel characters or new Marvel characters.

For the time being, Disney can simply collect licensing fees from Universal and make money from Marvel merchandise sales at Universal -- without having to invest money in Marvel content at its own theme parks. And the box office numbers for Marvel movies from Disney can benefit from the publicity that Universal provides for those characters. Not bad for Disney, if you think about it.

True I didn't even think about that. Disney is basically getting free publicity at universal. It's genius(insert evil laugh here)

[diamondpixienc]

For the time being, Disney can simply collect licensing fees from Universal and make money from Marvel merchandise sales at Universal -- without having to invest money in Marvel content at its own theme parks. And the box office numbers for Marvel movies from Disney can benefit from the publicity that Universal provides for those characters. Not bad for Disney, if you think about it.[/QUOTE]

Awww! Working smarter and not harder. Now, if only they would put some of that Marvel moolah into stepping up their resort game. The quality is going down but the price keep rising.

[MJMcBride]

Originally Posted by Horace Horsecollar

Universal owns the theme park rights to Ironman and Thor "East of the Mississippi" even though there's not an Ironman or Thor attraction. The agreement applies to characters who part of a "family" that Universal is already using ("e.g., any member of THE FANTASTIC FOUR, THE AVENGERS or villains associated with a hero being used").

Also, Universal features many Marvel characters as artwork on and in the buildings of Marvel Super Hero Island at IOA.

Walt Disney World cannot make theme park use of the top Marvel characters. Walt Disney World could make theme park use of unrelated Marvel characters or new Marvel characters.

For the time being, Disney can simply collect licensing fees from Universal and make money from Marvel merchandise sales at Universal -- without having to invest money in Marvel content at its own theme parks. And the box office numbers for Marvel movies from Disney can benefit from the publicity that Universal provides for those characters. Not bad for Disney, if you think about it.

which is why the Avengers monorail was on the resort loop as it could not go thru the parks aka the Epcot loop

Correct if Im wrong but Disney must approve any changes or new attractions to Marvel land at IOA. And they wont allow any so at some point in the distant future Universal will give them up

[jvptravels]

Couldn't Disney raise the licensing fees to the point that Universal gives up on the Marvel association. Or maybe they could require Universal to put the Disney name in the copyright area of each licensed Marvel attraction.

[Horace Horsecollar]

Originally Posted by MJMcBride

Correct if Im wrong but Disney must approve any changes or new attractions to Marvel land at IOA. And they wont allow any so at some point in the distant future Universal will give them up

According to the agreement, "This Marvel-themed complex would be designed in coordination with Marvel, and all major elements and themes would be subject to Marvel's reasonable approval." Marvel also needs to approve marketing artwork.

The agreement is still in effect. All that has changed is who owns Marvel and who owns Universal.

I'm not a lawyer, but my understanding is that Marvel has to act in good faith. Marvel cannot veto everything just to hurt Universal.

The other side of the issue is whether Universal would still want to invest in major enhancements to Marvel Super Hero Island at IOA, beyond keeping up with technology. Universal is investing heavily in their parks -- enhancements based on Harry Potter, The Simpson's, Transformers, and Despicable Me -- but the Marvel Super Hero Island enhancement has been limited to replacing Spider-Man's 3-D film projection with 3-D digital projection.

[Horace Horsecollar]

Originally Posted by jvptravels

Couldn't Disney raise the licensing fees to the point that Universal gives up on the Marvel association. Or maybe they could require Universal to put the Disney name in the copyright area of each licensed Marvel attraction.

The annual fee is fixed in the agreement, but the dollar amount is confidential and has been removed from the document filed with the SEC. The agreement also commits Universal to sell Marvel merchandise and to pay at least the guaranteed royalties. The percentage and the dollar amount are again confidential.

Marvel Entertainment, LLC is owned by The Walt Disney Company, but it's still its own business entity. Marvel has several major business units, including Marvel Worldwide (comic books) and Marvel Studios. The copyright to the intellectual property of Marvel is held by Marvel, not by directly by The Walt Disney Company.

[MJMcBride]

Originally Posted by Horace Horsecollar

According to the agreement, "This Marvel-themed complex would be designed in coordination with Marvel, and all major elements and themes would be subject to Marvel's reasonable approval." Marvel also needs to approve marketing artwork.

The agreement is still in effect. All that has changed is who owns Marvel and who owns Universal.

I'm not a lawyer, but my understanding is that Marvel has to act in good faith. Marvel cannot veto everything just to hurt Universal.

The other side of the issue is whether Universal would still want to invest in major enhancements to Marvel Super Hero Island at IOA, beyond keeping up with technology. Universal is investing heavily in their parks -- enhancements based on Harry Potter, The Simpson's, Transformers, and Despicable Me -- but the Marvel Super Hero Island enhancement has been limited to replacing Spider-Man's 3-D film projection with 3-D digital projection.

it must bother Universal to some degree that for every t-shirt they sell Disney gets some money

and every ride is helping Disney synergy to some degree

[pilferk]

Originally Posted by mbrou24

Does anyone know when universals agreement with marvel ends for their section in IOA. When that happens who thinks marvel gets an expansion into Disney parks??

Just this side of "Never".

Unless Universal wants it to end.

The provision is in perpetuity, unless/until Universal decides they want to end it. As long as they maintain the rides to a certain standard and pay their licensing fees....there is no end date.

Now, they can't build anything NEW in IOA without Marvels reasonable approval (meaning the process to gain approval needs to be reasonable, not that Marvel needs to be reasonable in it's decision). But Marvel Island is going nowhere until Universal decides they've had enough of it.

[pilferk]

Originally Posted by mbrou24

Completely agree. Was just at universal and the new Spider-Man quality is great. Just thinking Disney should take advantage of marvels fan base.... Maybe an iron man ride or Thor.

Both Avengers.

And Hulk is also an Avenger. So is Captain America. I think Spidey has been part of the group, too. All are being used at IOA So all other Avengers are off limits.