Should Disney buy Warner Bros next?

[ChrisFL]

Disney would have a better chance at buying Sesame Street than WB.

But I'd prefer Disney not buy any other properties. They need to market so many existing characters in the parks better, for instance a Muppet ride, 101 Dalamations anything, Lady & Tramp besides Tony's Restaurant, Hercules, Wall-E, Robin Hood, Pinocchio, Tangled, a character meal for boys.....I could go on and on.

Isn't Sesame Street part of the Muppets?

 

[101disneyfan]

Isn't Sesame Street part of the Muppets?

The Sesame Street characters were created and originally co owned by the Jim Henson Company, and are now 100% property of CTW renamed Sesame Workshop in the early 2000s. They are completely separate from any other Henson properties.

 

[seascapemvy]

WB owns
DC Comics
Looney Tunes
Hanna Barbera
Cartoon Network

etc, etc, etc

They have so many amazing characters that rides and even lands could be based on. If Disney has a chance to buy WB, they should do so. Because it could really help them in their battle with Universal.

You forgot another thing they own, Harry Potter. The rights depend of JKR but if you look at the contract it's with TWX and JKR.

 

[Josh Hendy]

I think that most of us would agree that Disney is doing a pretty lousy job representing its existing IP in the parks. I mean, what is actually in the Florida parks right now for Star Wars, Marvel, Muppets and even Pixar to some degree. Let alone the extremely popular Disney characters and movies that are unrepresented.

It would be a shame to see Disney buy WB for the cartoons and then watch them fob off the fans with occasional meet-and-greets or a couple of parade characters. Or shoehorn them into an inappropriate park, pavilion or land.

Someone mentioned that WB cartoons are inferior ... I would say that the cartoons were great until the Roadrunner era when they started making cheap 3 minute quickies for television. Until then I would rank the classic Bugs, Daffy, Sylvester and Foghorn Leghorn cartoons right up there with Disney shorts. 'Way more better than Woody Woodpecker or Popeye. I'm not saying that Bugs and friends deserve a large and reverential theme park land or an entire theme park, but they deserve respectful treatment in line with their tremendous popularity.

If you add in Hanna Barbera, DC Comics and Cartoon Network then it gets just plain confusing. How could you use all of those very different properties and make any kind of sense to fans with respect to characters or movies "living" at one theme park or land? In a way it doesn't matter, it's just a bunch of silly comics. But Disney has built its company and its theme parks on the premise that people really care about visiting Mickey Mouse, shaking hands with Lilo and Stitch, and so on. You can't treat that kind of fandom with contempt by throwing things into theme parks willy-nilly.

But I doubt if Disney is considering a WB acquisition mostly from the point of view of the fans or from the theme park angle. If they're considering it at all, the decision will be left to the beancounters who are considering cash flow, the cost of debt incurred to buy WB and/or the dilution of stock, the savings or cost of consolidating IT systems, etc. etc. etc. It's quite possible that they'll pull the trigger based on financials, they'll make money hand over fist forever after on film/tv/toys and video games, and in the theme parks you'll see "the usual" mish-mashed hash of half-baked representations of former WB properties.

 

[Tonka's Skipper]

I have been running this around my.mind for a few months....and with the coming demise of the cable division ofComcast and other cable services I think it would be not a impossibly that Disney may be in a position to offer Comcast to buy their theme parks....with out the cable division, Comcast may not have the money to kepp pumping into thier parts.Just a though here nothing in writing or even a rumour.

ALK

 

[Horace Horsecollar]

What "coming demise of the cable division of Comcast and other cable services"? Comcast has a market capitalization of $162 billion! That's what the investment world thinks Comcast is worth. The role of cable companies will change as technology changes, but companies that deliver high bandwidth and related services into homes and businesses have a future.

I don't think Disney wants Comcast's theme park assets.

 

[JimmyBean42]

With Universal / Comcast having rights to Nintendo properties in their theme parks, I could see Comcast selling Marvel characters theme park license rights to Disney (D23 announcement please!!!) for a high price, but never the theme parks. And let's face it - we want Disney to have theme park competition. It only makes them work harder to think of new attractions, shows, restaurants and shopping to put in the parks.

 

[ChrisFL]

With Universal / Comcast having rights to Nintendo properties in their theme parks, I could see Comcast selling Marvel characters theme park license rights to Disney (D23 announcement please!!!) for a high price, but never the theme parks. And let's face it - we want Disney to have theme park competition. It only makes them work harder to think of new attractions, shows, restaurants and shopping to put in the parks.

Here we go again...Comcast is NOT selling the Florida rights to Marvel, it is NOT happening. They're actually building new attractions for IOA that are Marvel based and upgrading existing attractions right now (Hulk)

 

[JimmyBean42]

Here we go again...Comcast is NOT selling the Florida rights to Marvel, it is NOT happening. They're actually building new attractions for IOA that are Marvel based and upgrading existing attractions right now (Hulk)

Whoa whoa whoa. Who peed in your Cheerios there bub? I said for a high price and let's face it, if high enough price anything can be bought. People also said Spiderman would never appear in a movie with any Avenger and that it could NOT happen and would NOT happen and guess what....it's going to happen. Sure the chances are tough but it's NOT impossible.

 

[Horace Horsecollar]

Here we go again...Comcast is NOT selling the Florida rights to Marvel, it is NOT happening. They're actually building new attractions for IOA that are Marvel based and upgrading existing attractions right now (Hulk)

I agree.

Comcast's Universal theme park business segment is not averse to paying other studios for IP. Think of Harry Potter. The Universal parks are full of non-Universal IP.

Disney's Parks & Resorts business segment has better things to do with its money than dropping a boatload of it on Universal. Under the current arrangement, Universal pays Marvel (Disney) an annual licensing fee for the rights, is required to sell Marvel merchandise, and promotes the Marvel brand. Meanwhile, Disney can use Marvel IP at all its parks except at WDW.

Disney has plenty of IP for its four parks at WDW. In addition to its whole library of great animated features, there's the IP from the Pixar and Lucasfilm acquisitions. Disney doesn't need Marvel in Florida.

The status quo of the Marvel deal with Universal seems to work well for Disney and Comcast.

 

[crazy4wdw]

I agree.

Comcast's Universal theme park business segment is not averse to paying other studios for IP. Think of Harry Potter. The Universal parks are full of non-Universal IP.

Anyone know what happened to Universal's pursuit of the "Lord of the Rings" franchise? Supposedly an agreement was close about a year ago.

 

[101disneyfan]

Anyone know what happened to Universal's pursuit of the "Lord of the Rings" franchise? Supposedly an agreement was close about a year ago.

Reportedly it was the Tolkien estate that put a stop to it.

 

[Mouse of Mystery]

Someone mentioned that WB cartoons are inferior ... I would say that the cartoons were great until the Roadrunner era when they started making cheap 3 minute quickies for television. Until then I would rank the classic Bugs, Daffy, Sylvester and Foghorn Leghorn cartoons right up there with Disney shorts.

I think I made that comment. What I am referring to is mainly the production values of the WB cartoons. Disney was in a class by itself in those early years in terms of skill: animation, use of sound, and innovation. WB cartoons were infamous for their use of limited animation. Technically, they are fine for what they are, but the philosophy behind them were altogether different.

Lucky for WB, they had tremendous talent like Mel Blanc, Tex Avery, and Friz Freleng who were able to make highly memorable characters out of the resources they were given. There's no denying the place for Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies characters in the list of cartoon greats -- it's just not a good fit with Disney. Not to mention there's a lot of overlap.

Of course, the counter-argument (of keeping the properties separate) to all of that would be Who Framed Roger Rabbit? Who can possibly watch Donald Duck and Daffy Duck in the dueling pianos segment and not beg for more?

 

[ChrisFL]

Whoa whoa whoa. Who peed in your Cheerios there bub? I said for a high price and let's face it, if high enough price anything can be bought. People also said Spiderman would never appear in a movie with any Avenger and that it could NOT happen and would NOT happen and guess what....it's going to happen. Sure the chances are tough but it's NOT impossible.

Sorry, this topic has been brought up and beaten to death more times than I can count.

 

[gsimpson]

I can't imagine such a purchase would pass muster with the government for anti-competitive reasons. Ignoring that, I don't think I could stand the thousands of threads that would be spawned talking about Disney putting Harry Potter in their parks and blathering about how to pry it away from Universal.

 

[Tonka's Skipper]

What "coming demise of the cable division of Comcast and other cable services"? Comcast has a market capitalization of $162 billion! That's what the investment world thinks Comcast is worth. The role of cable companies will change as technology changes, but companies that deliver high bandwidth and related services into homes and businesses have a future.

I don't think Disney wants Comcast's theme park assets.

Cable TV is on the way out........new techno and systems like satellites are expected to make operating and maintaining cable hard wire systems to expensive. Just like Cable put out the antenna system TV, new techno is putting cable out of business. So if Comcast's nation wide cable service goes under along with other systems like charter and WB, the $162 Bil takes a big cut. All that hard wire nation wide system becomes basically worthless. THEN THE question is, how much money does Comcast have to keep putting UNI parks, nationwide?

As to Disney wanting UNI parks, I am not sure they do either, its just a possibility.


AKK

 

[JimmyBean42]

Sorry, this topic has been brought up and beaten to death more times than I can count.

No worries. Completely understand. For me, it's very much wishful thinking & I know that. I know the chances are extremely slim, if not zero. I also know Comcast is more concerned with their internet and cable business and now with competing with Hulu & Netflix and the other streaming services. So I wouldn't think it was out of the realm for Comcast to offer up the rights to characters in the Florida parks in exchange for exclusive rights to stream Disney (including ABC, ESPN, etc.) movies, shows and broadcasts. And also for a high monetary value. Again def. a pipe dream but knowing Comcast the one thing they do not want to fail is their internet / cable / phone / streaming businesses. They are not a theme park company. Hopefully legacy leaders at Universal keep things competitive with WDW and moving forward.

 

[bfost87]

Here we go again...Comcast is NOT selling the Florida rights to Marvel, it is NOT happening. They're actually building new attractions for IOA that are Marvel based and upgrading existing attractions right now (Hulk)

Which Marvel based attractions are being built in Islands of Adventure..?

 

[ChrisFL]

Which Marvel based attractions are being built in Islands of Adventure..?

Most likely an Avengers attraction if the latest insider info is still accurate, and possibly more than that.

 

[fannatic]

Disney should Definitely buy Time Warner SOON!