Disney acquires Marvel – Superheroes to join Disney fold
I had to check my calendar to make sure it wasn’t April Fools when the news of The Walt Disney Company’s latest acquisition rolled across my screen. Disney is now the proud owner of Marvel Entertainment at a cost of a cool $4 billion. That quickly adds 5000 new characters to Disney’s cast including some of the most famous and hot properties in the market today – Iron Man, Spiderman, Thor, Captain America, and the X-men.
With Stan Lee, the creator of much of Marvel’s super hero cast, working closely with Disney for about a year now. I guess he’s had plenty of time to sow Bob Iger’s ear with how valuable a product this would be for Disney. At $4 Billion it is practically a steal compared to Pixar and Pixar has turned out to be a good buy for the Mouse House. Frankly, many analysts wondered why Disney just didn’t acquire Marvel at the same time it acquired Lee’s POW entertainment. No sense making up new superheroes when those with strong existing brands are there for the taking. Plus this might put Stan Lee back in a position of power at Marvel, which is where he belongs.
News reports indicate that there are no immediate plans to have Mickey and Ms. Marvel co-habiting at any of the theme parks or other properties. But at the same time Iger admits that Disney is now in a position of power to renegotiate all the deals that its competitors, like Sony, hold in regards to Disney. There is also ‘Marvel Island’ over at Islands of Adventure Universal Orlando. Wonder when the license agreement runs out on that (Aside: Can you say fifth gate Walt Disney World fans? WDW might finally get its thrill park. Let that sink in.) It also puts Disney head to head with Warner Brothers in the comic book to movie market place.
Is this a good deal? Well time will tell. But Disney has always been about ‘Story’ and Marvel Entertainment has some great stories to tell. So, that’s a good sign if you ask me. With Spielberg’s production company, aka Dreamworks, now on board with Disney I have to think the possibilities are endless.
I’m just waiting for the first Condorman / Spiderman crossover. You?
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Wow! My jaw just bounced off my desk. I’d love to see them extend this franchise into some 3D animated movies. My kids would love that.
I’m actually really excited about this. I don’t want to see Wolverine hanging around the Magic Kingdom any time sooner, but the prospects of this merger are endless!
A major hinderance to moving Marvel Island to Disneyworld is the economy right now. Any plans to build a fifth gate would have to wait a couple years.
On the plus side, that’s plenty of time for Imagineers to get started on ideas and plans! I love Disney and I love Marvel, so I would be ecstatic to see a Marvel park at WDW.
This is great for Disney. I’ve talked about this for a while — Marvel is probably the most successful independent (until now) studio since Pixar. Most of their films have turned into pure gold at the box office. Not sure yet what this will mean for their films and their characters, but it is certainly a good deal for Disney.
I wonder what this means for the Marvel-oriented attractions at Universal?
I really don’t what the heck will happen to the Marvel area of Universal’s Islands of Adventure. I recall when that park first opened that the Marvel area would be the NUMBER ONE reason why people would want to come to that park. If Universal completely loses the rights to the Marvel characters all together, I wonder if they would then consider retheming the Marvel area into a, are you ready for this?, a whole Transformers themed area since Universal acquired the rights to do a Transformers theme park ride that will open at their new park in Singapore in 2010 and in their Hollywood park in 2011.
Stan Lee and Walt Disney actually have a lot in common – there name appears on everything even though they didn’t “create” as much as the public believes.
Condorman!
Disney will have to honor Marvel’s contracts and licensing agreements fro now, but WOW in a few years there could be a lot of changes coming to the theme parks of Orlando. What I would like to know is if they will get some creative control over some of the Marvel movies already in development. The Hulk movies were terrible, but with Disney/Pixar’s story telling abilities they could make some awesome movies.
I’m really excited about this news, but also completely bummed that I had to sell my Marvel stock earlier this year in order to pay off my back taxes. Grggggh. Oh well. Live and learn. Buy and hold! I hadn’t realized that Disney had already picked up POW.
Congrats John on the USA Today quotes and mention!
I wonder, if Universal loses the rights to use the Marvel characters all together, how about they retheme the Marvel area at Universal’s Islands of Adventure park in Orlando into a ,are you ready for this?, a Transformers themed area since Universal acquired the rights to do a Transformers ride which will open at their new park in Singapore in 2010 and at their Hollywood park in 2011. As regards to a potential fifth park in Disney World, of course this deal has 100% everything to do with getting a fifth Disney theme park in Orlando. Anyone who doesn’t think that is as dumb as Sarah Palin and Brandon Marshall. I would absolutley love for Disney to have an all Marvel park. It would be insane!