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The Walt Disney Company to Acquire Lucasfilm and Star Wars


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Gregg's post on facebook was the first I saw and I seriously thought this was a joke! Especially when I read the part about "Episode 7." Then I scrolled down and saw more and more posts.

 

I think it's a win all around! Disney can do so much with the Star Wars franchise and I can't wait to see how this plays out.

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So here's a question, and maybe this has been answered in some of the press materials already, but Lucasfilm was involved with projects like Land Before Time, Howard The Duck, Labyrinth, Willow, and American Graffiti.

 

Who owns the rights to those? Is it Lucasfilm or the movie companies that distributed the original film?

 

For example, if Disney wanted to do another "Willow" movie - do they now have the rights to do so based on this deal?

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I'd imagine if Lucasfilm gave up the rights to those movies for distribution n such, then those people would still own them.

 

Disney owns whatever Lucasfilm owns. If they wanted to make another Willow, but... Paramount (don't care to look up who it actually is) owns distribution then it would have to be distributed though them. I don't think they would have any contractual obligation to actually produce another Willow movie though. The characters n stuff are probably owned by Lucasfilm, if they ever wanted to make an awesome Willow ride.

Edited by SLUSHIE
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I was very surprised when I saw this as I grew up on Star Wars films and this is pretty exciting news. After seeing Avengers, I think that Episode 7 will most likely be better than Ep. 1 - 3 as I'm really not that big fans of those films. I'm excited to see what will be in the future for Disney parks especially Disneyland.

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Disney owns whatever Lucasfilm owns.

Right. So do they own distribution rights? Or I should say the right to choose another distributor for a future sequel or re-release in a franchise?

 

The reason why I ask is that Fox distributed all the most recent Star Wars films (except for Clone Wars which was Warner), and I can't imagine that Disney would have signed a deal to give up distribution to Fox, right? So if they have distribution rights to something as major as Star Wars, wouldn't you figure they would also have rights to something no one would really care about like Willow?

 

I'm only asking because Lucasfilm never distributed any of their own movies, and Disney has NEVER distributed one of their movies.

 

I guess I just couldn't imagine Disney paying $4 billion for something not being able to re-boot Howard the Duck if for some reason they wanted to...

 

--Robb "The details of this deal have got to be mind blowing..." Alvey

Edited by robbalvey
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^^ I know for the Marvel films there were pre-existing distribution contracts with Iron Man/Thor/Capt America (Paramount) and Hulk (Universal) so The Avengers was actually the first one distributed under "Disney" (All future ones will be Disney except for Spider Man which Columbia has held on to).

 

I may be wrong but I think the Star Wars distribution rights were just for the Prequels (Fox) and didn't include any future distribution since Lucas pretty much financed those movies on his own and they just had distribution rights. I would assume they wouldn't have any pre-existing contracts like the Marvel films and all future Star Wars films would be distributed solely by Disney. Of course, there could be some kind of deal in place that I haven't heard of.

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^ Yeah, no idea...was more just wondering if anything had been said in any of the press releases or videos as while Star Wars is VERY important, there is a whole "back catalog", which at the moment probably not very important, I'm SURE at some point some exec will be all "Heeeeey....can we do anything with the Land Before Time franchise we bought?"

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Dear Universal,

 

Checkmate.

 

- Disney

 

There's absolutely no doubt Disney will make a fortune from this acquisition, but I honestly don't think the biggest impact will be to Parks & Resorts. Lucas & Disney already had a strong partnership in the parks to begin with, and while I am sure this deal allows for more creative freedom on Disney's part...they'll make their money back in just that new Star Wars movie alone. Clearly a move to bolster the studios division after the heat they took from John Carter.

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Disney owns whatever Lucasfilm owns.

Right. So do they own distribution rights?

 

Looks like Fox owns the distribution rights to all future Star Wars sequels till the end of time (Note: my sources are a 5 minute cursory internet search)...That being said, Disney purchased the Avengers distribution rights for $115 M from Paramount after purchasing Marvel. I'm not so sure Star Wars distribution rights will come that cheaply, but Iger isn't scared of throwing money around.

 

 

Other franchises.. They are all different.. The "Howard The Duck sequel" distro option with Universal has expired.. Hopefully Disney immediately green lights this.

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^^I can't imagine a Star Wars film opening with the Disney theme rather than Fox's iconic drums & trumpets. And assuming Indy 5 is probably on the way too (2016?), I would miss the 'blend from Paramount logo into mountain/molehill' opening.

 

In the interests of full disclosure I didn't mind Indy 4 (not as good as the other three but still better than most similar films) but I think both Indy and Star Wars will benefit from a little less Lucas. Seems like the last couple of films were more about showing off CG effects, with the story taking a backseat.

 

Star Wars shooting dark ride, anyone?

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