Marvel revisited

[cart-mom]

Sorry if this has already been posted but my search didn't bring anything up on this subject. I understand the whole bs with US having rights to the marvel characters they have had in their parks at the time of their agreement with Marvel before Disney acquired Marvel. I think it sucks but there's nothing I can do about that. My question is the "new" characters, like Guardians of the Galaxy. Am I the only one that thinks that would be an awesome ride. I'm kind of thinking of something along the lines of the star tours ride and I know there are loads of people that probably think that is stupid because it would just be a copy of an existing ride but wouldn't it be cool? With Peter Serafinowicz doing the intro (think Patrick Wharburton on Soarin'). And Groot! I would totally wait in line for that ride over and over again.
Why can't DW have Star Lord in their park?

 

[Missyrose]

Sorry if this has already been posted but my search didn't bring anything up on this subject. I understand the whole bs with US having rights to the marvel characters they have had in their parks at the time of their agreement with Marvel before Disney acquired Marvel. I think it sucks but there's nothing I can do about that. My question is the "new" characters, like Guardians of the Galaxy. Am I the only one that thinks that would be an awesome ride. I'm kind of thinking of something along the lines of the star tours ride and I know there are loads of people that probably think that is stupid because it would just be a copy of an existing ride but wouldn't it be cool? With Peter Serafinowicz doing the intro (think Patrick Wharburton on Soarin'). And Groot! I would totally wait in line for that ride over and over again.
Why can't DW have Star Lord in their park?

Disney had Star Lord and Gamora at their own dance party at Villains Unleashed.

So Disney is "allowed" to have those characters in the parks, they just haven't done anything about it yet.

 

[bumbershoot]

I understand the whole bs with US having rights to the marvel characters they have had in their parks at the time of their agreement with Marvel before Disney acquired Marvel. I think it sucks

Uni had it long before, and countless lawyers hammered it all out in countless billable hours. Nothing BS about it. It's what Disney agreed to!

Perhaps you could visit universal to see how much fun their versions of things are? Could go to Disneyland, too, since they have different rights.

 

[Ambear]

I could see Ant-Man hanging out at the "honey I shrunk the kids" playground lol.

 

[jsilvers]

My question is the "new" characters, like Guardians of the Galaxy.

Although they were quite different from the film team, the Guardians of the Galaxy first appeared in 1969; Yondu was one of them. As for the other major film characters, Ronan first appeared in 1967, Drax in 1973, Gamora in 1975, Star-Lord and Rocket Raccoon in 1976, and Nebula in 1985. Groot in fact predates Marvel Comics, having first appeared in a comic published by its predecessor, Atlas, in 1960. So unless Universal had some pretty bad lawyers when it cut a deal with Marvel, I would expect all of the major (and most of the minor) Guardians characters to be part of its deal.

 

[FeralCatRogue]

Some marvel things can appear in park it seems. As we saw at villians unleashed GOTG characters can, X-men cannot though. X-men you will only find in Universal. Avengers I think is disney owned, but the newest Avengers comic includes X-men so... some of the "new" Avengers comics characters could be in Disney and some not. It's very confusing as a marvel fan figuring out what is what. What really makes it suck though is when they want to do movies. Would love a Carol Danvers movie, but Disney owns her and Universal owns Rogue and ya can't really have a movie without both of them.

 

[karly05]

I never saw GotG (the movie) till it came on Starz, and I'm still surprised by how much I like it and how many times I've watched at least portions of it when it's been on TV.

I wish they could add a "Guardians" ride at DHS - I'd be happy with anything as long as it included a really awesome animatronic Rocket.

Oh, and if you ever want to see Michael Rooker (Yondu) in something different, he's one of the ballplayers in "Eight Men Out," the story of the "Black Sox" scandal when the White Sox threw the World Series - good movie. That was the first time I ever saw him or David Straithairn.

 

[FeralCatRogue]

Some reason animatronic Rocket to me makes me think of five nights of freddys....with a bazooka.... Even if there isnt rides and what not you can get merchanise from GOTG there. I got a Gamora action figure when i went, and some Marvel encylopedias. I saw pics on disneyblog with shirts and what not with Rocket and Groot.

 

[Lesverts]

There is a lot of mixing going on here between film and theme park rights.

Universal licences the rights to and likenesses of the comic book versions of all Marvel characters for theme parks in Florida. Universal cannot use film versions of the characters. Hence Cyclops in the yellow and blue spandex suit. As long as USF keeps up Marvel Island and keeps it relevant the theme park rights are in perpetuity. These rights were agreed to before Disney owned Marvel. Acquisitions of companies confer previous agreements.

Film rights to the X-men are licensed to to 20th Century Fox, as is The Fantastic Four. Film rights to Spider-man are held by Sony/Columbia. These rights do not interfere with the theme park rights in Florida. Hence why an Iron Man attraction is going in at Hong Kong Disneyland, but as it stands cannot even be considered in Florida.

The rights are complicated but currently stable. No one wants to give anything back to Marvel-Disney. Look at what giving back Daredevil did.

We wouldn't even be talking about the rights to Marvel or care at all if Marvel hadn't sold the film and theme park rights to begin with. Fox and Sony made Marvel relevant again because of Spider-Man and X-Men. Without those movies Iron Man would have never been made and there would be no MCU like we knew it. Be grateful for what we have. I mean if Disney wants to buy the Star Trek rights and do a trade, that'd be awesome. But right now Universal has the sole rights to produce rides and characters in a theme park. Just think though, every time you buy a Marvel product at Universal, you are paying a royalty to Disney. So don't feel so bad about it.

As Craig says, there is no sense moping over it. Disney is moving ahead with their plans and has enough intellectual property to fill their parks 5 times over and build a few more. Plus Disneyland is getting Marvel rides if the rumors at to be believed. So just gives us all a reason to trek to the Mecca instead of always just visiting Medina.

 

[FeralCatRogue]

Thanks for the explanation its even more complicated then I thought :/

 

[LittleDreamer]

Universal parks has theme park right east of the Mississippi to all heroes represented in the park and their associated family. So they Avengers (Hulk Coaster), Fantastic Four (Doom drop), X-men (Storm Accelerator). They also have spider man which is a tricky one since the extent of his family unknown contract wise. The Guardians of the Galaxy were in the parks during Halloween since they were not within one of those families. Now if the renovation to Islands of Adventure remove any rides their claim may change.

 

[johde]

There is a lot of mixing going on here between film and theme park rights.

Universal licences the rights to and likenesses of the comic book versions of all Marvel characters for theme parks in Florida. Universal cannot use film versions of the characters. Hence Cyclops in the yellow and blue spandex suit. As long as USF keeps up Marvel Island and keeps it relevant the theme park rights are in perpetuity. These rights were agreed to before Disney owned Marvel. Acquisitions of companies confer previous agreements.

Just to give you something to think about, how do you explain this inside one of the stores at IOA.

That is definitely the current cinematic version of Thor. With Hulk scheduled to go under an extensive queue and track retheming/refurbishment It will be interesting to see what they do. All indications is it's going to remain Hulk. But how they redo the queue could give us an indication of the future direction of Marvel Superhero Island and exactly what rights Universal feels they have.

 

[Lesverts]

How do you explain Marvel merch inside the parks when they can't even wrap the monorail that goes into Epcot with anything Marvel?

In the end I think a deal will be reached to either switch some IP or Disney facilitates Universal acquiring IP in exchange for the return of Marvel. But this will probably not be until the 2020's.

The Hulk is actually the most complicated IP of the bunch, theme park, film and film distribution rights are held by 3 different companies.

 

[Angel Ariel]

Universal owns the theme park rights to all of the *families of characters* that were represented in their parks when they negotiated the deal with disney. so, for ex, having one avenger related ride like hulk gives them theme park rights to all avengers related characters. disney cannot use those characters in theme parks east of the Mississippi, but they *can* use them in Disneyland (which is how there are avenger m&gs at DL. it jis my understanding that universal did not have a theme park ride related o guardians of the galaxy, and so Disney has the theme park rights to that family of characters in WDW and DLR.

 

[cart-mom]

Thanks for the legal lessons included in your responses. Wow. Who would've thought comic books would ever complicate our lives like this?

 

[Phil Dunphy]

^ when they make billions of dollars with a b

 

[jcvalenti]

We wouldn't even be talking about the rights to Marvel or care at all if Marvel hadn't sold the film and theme park rights to begin with. Fox and Sony made Marvel relevant again because of Spider-Man and X-Men. Without those movies Iron Man would have never been made and there would be no MCU like we knew it. Be grateful for what we have.

Great post. Without the capital Marvel obtained from Universal by selling off theme park rights, Marvel would have been bankrupt long before Disney acquired them, and the modern superhero movie era would never have happened.

What's interesting is the reported terms of the Marvel/Universal contract, allegedly requiring that Universal keep the Marvel character area in good repair and they continue to actively promote the attractions. Universal can't be happy about having to promote (and pay royalties) to their main competitor, but selling the rights back would give Disney a geek IP superstorm that would dwarf Harry Potter. No question the theme park IP rights have more value to Disney than Universal, though, so at some point, I wouldn't be surprised if a deal to reacquire them is done - heck, Universal might do it just to reclaim the area for park expansion at IOA.

Can you imagine the price tag on that deal ? Disney could basically be forced to fund construction of the equivalent of the next HP expansion just to get the superheroes back for its own parts.

 

[Skywise]

Great post. Without the capital Marvel obtained from Universal by selling off theme park rights, Marvel would have been bankrupt long before Disney acquired them, and the modern superhero movie era would never have happened.

What's interesting is the reported terms of the Marvel/Universal contract, allegedly requiring that Universal keep the Marvel character area in good repair and they continue to actively promote the attractions. Universal can't be happy about having to promote (and pay royalties) to their main competitor, but selling the rights back would give Disney a geek IP superstorm that would dwarf Harry Potter. No question the theme park IP rights have more value to Disney than Universal, though, so at some point, I wouldn't be surprised if a deal to reacquire them is done - heck, Universal might do it just to reclaim the area for park expansion at IOA.

Can you imagine the price tag on that deal ? Disney could basically be forced to fund construction of the equivalent of the next HP expansion just to get the superheroes back for its own parts.

So long as Disney moves/recreates the Spider-Man ride exactly as it appears at Universal IOA!!!