ParkTrips Posted August 31, 2009 Share Posted August 31, 2009 Wonder what this will mean for Universal's many themed rides.. CHICAGO (MarketWatch) -- Walt Disney Co. said on Monday it has reached a deal to acquire comic book titan Marvel Entertainment Inc. for $4 billion in stock and cash. In a statement, Disney Chief Executive Bob Iger said "adding Marvel to Disney's unique portfolio of brands provides significant opportunities for long-term growth and value creation." Marvel shareholders would receive a total of $30 per share in cash plus approximately 0.745 Disney shares for each Marvel share they own. At closing, the amount of cash and stock will be adjusted if necessary so that the total value of the Disney stock issued as merger consideration based on its trading value at that time is not less than 40% of the total merger consideration. Under the deal, Disney will acquire ownership of Marvel including its more than 5,000 Marvel characters, including The Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, the X-Men, The Incredible Hulk and Iron Man, all of which have been turned into highly valuable feature film franchises. Ike Perlmutter, Marvel's CEO, would continue to oversee the Marvel properties, and work directly with Disney executives to integrate them into Disney's businesses. Source Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Homeboy23 Posted August 31, 2009 Share Posted August 31, 2009 Universal will probably just pay Disney to continue using them, well I would assume. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
denning Posted August 31, 2009 Share Posted August 31, 2009 If there is any provision for Disney to break the contract for the IOA license they will. The royalties cannot be enough for Disney to just allow their main competitor to continue with the proporties. I am sure that the executives hope that the embarassment of having IOA retheme it's most impressive ride, Spiderman, will offset some of the fury around during the opening of HP. Although such a stratedgy could backfire, as it may be relatievely easy to retheme Spiderman with the Transfomers theme that is being used in Hollywood, especially if the ride system is exactly the same as rumored. Should be interesting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ryno1986 Posted August 31, 2009 Share Posted August 31, 2009 ^ That was my thought as well. If they have to, they'll make Marvel Superhero Island into Sci-Fi City from Universal Singapore, complete with Transformers and Battlestar Galactica themed rides. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted August 31, 2009 Share Posted August 31, 2009 Its a good thing IOA is not a Cedar Fair park or we'd be seeing Peanuts Superhero Island Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CorkscrewFoley Posted August 31, 2009 Share Posted August 31, 2009 I can't say I'm truly excited about this, just not getting a good vibe off of it... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
natatomic Posted August 31, 2009 Share Posted August 31, 2009 Hmmm...I can't say I'm excited about this either. Marvel fits in perfectly at the park it's at now (IOA), and imagining it at Disney, honestly, kind of destroys that innocent, child-like "magic" they're known for. There's a vast difference between fairy tales and comic books (yes, even if you use the original, bloody versions of the fairy tales), just as there is a vast difference between Disney and Universal, and the use of Marvel characters at Disney seems so jarring and inappropriate to me. I love Disney and Universal both (and I LOVE Marvel), but I almost feel as though this move is gonna taint the purity Disney somehow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hercules Posted August 31, 2009 Share Posted August 31, 2009 I'm not really worried about how this will change parks. I'm more interested to see what Disney will be able to do with the brand as far as movies go. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cfc Posted August 31, 2009 Share Posted August 31, 2009 ^^I agree--Marvel Comics have a cynical edge that you normally don't associate with Disney (well, their products, at least). It'll be interesting seeing how this will shake out. Maybe we'll see classic Disney-character plushes in Marvel drag? (Donald Duck would make a great Hulk.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coasterfan21 Posted August 31, 2009 Share Posted August 31, 2009 I'm just curious with how Disney is going to use Marvel in its parks, if they decide to do that at all. I never says that Disney is going to use Marvel for park use it just says "Ike Perlmutter, Marvel's CEO, would continue to oversee the Marvel properties, and work directly with Disney executives to integrate them into Disney's businesses.". Which could also just mean movies, and novelties, but I highly doubt that. I'm interested to see if Disney will let Universal keep its Marvel themed rides, and if not for how long. I have a bad feeling about this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cgodsey Posted August 31, 2009 Share Posted August 31, 2009 If you can't beat your competition, buy them out. It's the American way! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arson Posted August 31, 2009 Share Posted August 31, 2009 Spiderman is the only IOA ride that's joined at the hip with Marvel characters. Everything else could be re-themed (plus, what are the contract terms, and how expensive would it be to break them... and if Disney suddenly gets a cut of the licensing profits, what rush is there?) It's simple: Hulk -> Battlestar Galactica Storm Force -> ____ (Waterworld? Drawing a blank on this one) Dr. Doom -> Chronicles of Riddick Spiderman -> Transformers Took me ten minutes to come up with "Sci-Fi Island." Universal Creative can mail me the check As far as Disney using these characters in the stateside parks... DCA's pretty much filled up right now for a couple years, and I can't see them putting anything Marvel in Disneyland proper. Hollywood Studios would be the best place for them, in my opinion. Wonder what this will mean for overseas parks (Japan, Singapore, S. Korea, Dubailand if they ever build it). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sir Clinksalot Posted August 31, 2009 Share Posted August 31, 2009 If there is any provision for Disney to break the contract for the IOA license they will. The royalties cannot be enough for Disney to just allow their main competitor to continue with the proporties. Exactly. You don't pay $4B for something to just have movie/comic-book rights. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DBJ Posted August 31, 2009 Share Posted August 31, 2009 I think in that Disney may not care if the Marvel rides remain at IOA. THis way, they earn royalty money from Universal without having to spend a dime on building marvel themed rides. It's win win for them. If anything, it might irk GE that they are sending royalty payments to Disney as IOA continues to do well. Also, more incredibly, Disney will now benefit from the success of other film studios that are releasing Marvel comic property movies. Sony with Spider-man, Paramount - Iron Man, Avengers, Hulk, Thor, Fox - Wolverine, X-men, FF. Again, Disney just kind of sits back and counts the money rolling in from their competitors. It would probably be GE that would make the decision to spend the money to drop the Marvel Super hero theme if they really wanted to stop sending payments to Disney. One random thought is that they could switch out Spider-man with Transformers as they will have the Hollywood attraction to base it on. Realistically, I don't see IOA changing in the immediate future because of this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sir Clinksalot Posted August 31, 2009 Share Posted August 31, 2009 ^ Royalties aren't going to even begin to pay off $4 Billion. If there is a way for Disney to get Marvel out of Universal, they are going to do it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arson Posted August 31, 2009 Share Posted August 31, 2009 What's the rush? Until Disney has a replacement attraction in the works at one of the WDW parks (and WDI does like to take it's sweet time), I can't imagine them opting out. Think of the long-term... there's no need to make that $4 billion back right away. Just look at how they're handling video game licenses: http://kotaku.com/5349343/disney-will-rexamine-marvel-video-game-deals-as-they-expire Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JT3000 Posted August 31, 2009 Share Posted August 31, 2009 And Disney's cutthroat antics continue. Not only would it be terrible to see Marvel Island closed because of corporate greed, but I can also guarantee that whatever Disney came up with for the property would be inferior. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CorkscrewFoley Posted August 31, 2009 Share Posted August 31, 2009 This is exactly why I do not like Disney (love the parks though). I hate to see what is going to happen with the next Spidey and X-Men films. As for X-Men, I have been waiting patiently for Apocalypse, and I can't see that going over well with Disney, IMHO. This is will be a disaster. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dammie16@vt.edu Posted August 31, 2009 Share Posted August 31, 2009 I am not really worried so much about the parks but I do not want to see PG superhero movies! That will be awful, unless Disney leaves them as is and just slaps a name here and there, kind of like what they do with ESPN's My Wish program. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CorkscrewFoley Posted August 31, 2009 Share Posted August 31, 2009 ^ No kidding. Then again, if I want PG bull crap, I'll turn on some WWE. Oh yeah, it's Monday night, time for some PG Raw. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sir Clinksalot Posted August 31, 2009 Share Posted August 31, 2009 ^^^ Yeah, because the last Spiderman and X-men related movies were SO well done. Also, remember, all 3 Pirates movies were PG-13, Disney is not afraid to do that now. Also, since they now own the "Marvel" name, they don't have to release them under Walt Disney Pictures. They can just release them under the Marvel name (as Iron Man, Incredible Hulk, etc were). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VegasCoaster Posted August 31, 2009 Share Posted August 31, 2009 I'm not really sure that theme parks are a major source of income for Marvel. I'd guess its the comics, the tv shows the movies... While I do see Disney capitalizing off of the rides at IOA or forcing them to retheme them, I think its the brand they are after. If Disney knows what they are doing they will let Marvel be its own thing and let combine their resources etc. Superheros just wouldn't work following the happily ever after model of Disney, and with the vault of characters Disney has I'm not too sure they need to incorporate Marvel into a park to make the acquisition make sense. I'm just hoping this wasn't all to make Hannah Montana comic books across the globe. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CorkscrewFoley Posted August 31, 2009 Share Posted August 31, 2009 ^^That's not sarcasm is it? If not, yeah, the last two aforementioned films were well done. I saw X-Men 3 twice, I wasn't impressed, mainly because I went opening night, and everyone yapped throughout the film, the second time I went, and there was like 5 other people, and it was fantastic. Having a geek moment, I think I was disappointed too was because Bryan Singer wasn't directing it so he could do Superman Returns--which was also fantastic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raptorcrew2002 Posted August 31, 2009 Share Posted August 31, 2009 Farness to the movies… Fox is the one that keeps screwing them up, not Marvel Iron Man, Hulk (last release) was Marvel… Wolverine, X-men, etc. were all destroyed by Fox. I think this is a brilliant move on Disney. First they take Spielberg and get Dream Work’s distribution rights from Universal, now this… I think it’s also some what personal. The amount of royalties, licensing, etc. This purchase could exceed even Harry Potter in the “big picture” and future growth. As long as Disney keep’s Jon Favreau to direct the movies, it’s all good. That’s a lot of materials and properties. Tv Shows, Games, Movies, toys, publishing… If Michael Eisner was behind this I would be terrified, but Iger seems to but much more aggressive “so far” and has a much better quality output strive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wes Posted August 31, 2009 Share Posted August 31, 2009 It fills a hole in their entertainment offerings for demographics. Obviously the existing Disney brand caters very well to families with kids from 0-12 or so with various characters and licenses. The tween/teenage girl market has been good for Disney, they can just pump out new versions of Hannah Montana/Jonas Brothers. For adults, they have Miramax. They never really had a good property for the teen to early 20's male demographic. Well, now they do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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