Actually, from the reading I've done on the subject, Universal has the rights to the characters they presently use. Disney can use any other character.
I thought they contract made reference to "character families" or something to that effect. My interpretation was that since they have the "X-Men" in Islands of Adventure, basically everything X-Men was off limits...not just the specific characters IOA uses.
Again from my past reading of the public docs, it seemed that specific characters were named in some separate addendum which isn't publicly available.
And Disney will receive millions in rights fees from Universal.
Yup.
Is that how it works? I honestly don't know the full details, I just know for sure Disney can't do Marvel rides in Florida.
Do we know if there is anyone Disney could take the rights away or is there a contract or a deal forever? I'm just wondering because a lot of people on the Dis lately have been talking about how Disney needs to compete more with Universal and I feel like if Disney really could/had to they could take the Marvel rides away from Universal. That would have to be a huge kill even with HP still intact there, Universal really built their reputation on super heroes original if I am right and if Disney took that away from them, well then wow.
Again, it probably isn't possible, I am just really curious about this now. I loved the Avengers and was thinking it would be cool if WDW could do rides with that but I know they can't.
Common thinking is that the agreement exists in perpetuity...in other words, as long as Universal keeps paying the licensing fees.
Financial terms aren't posted publicly so there could be escalator clauses involved which may someday become unwieldy. However, the agreement was reached around 1999 when Marvel wasn't in the greatest of financial health. It's doubtful that they held Universal's proverbial feet to the fire.
One interesting clause basically states that Universal cannot dramatically alter Super Hero Island without Marvel's approval...which now means Disney's approval. So it's certainly conceivable for Disney to prohibit any new attraction construction, and the land eventually becomes stale. However it could take 20-30 years (or more) before US really feels compelled to replace.
There are also minimum standards of upkeep, marketing guidelines (how characters can be used), etc. which basically give Disney the right to involve itself in IOA operations. Disney COULD be very rigid in its monitoring of those standards, and use any slip-up as an excuse to wrest the rights away. Or US could get tired of having to deal with a competitor on such an intimate level.
But in the meantime, Disney earns licensing and merchandise revenue off of the Marvel characters without having to lift a single shovel of dirt. And they've got 8 other theme parks, 4 cruise ships and other destinations where Marvel characters can be used. (Only WDW is excluded.) There have even been rumors that Disney may eventually build a third park in Anaheim which is largely themed around Marvel.
