Disney to Acquire Marvel

[apocrypha]

This is the kind of bullshit that is slowly killing this country world.

FIFY 

[Yegolev]

There's a question, how much of Marvel's stuff is part of the UA parks?  Anyone been before?  Will this be a, "Whoops, there goes that chunk of attractions." or a "Meh, nobody really cares" like when Hanna-Barbara was no longer a part of King's Island.

I've been to Universal's Islands of Adventure a couple of times.  One of the "islands" is Marvel Land.  The Spiderman ride is probably the single best ride in Orlando (YMMV and other disclaimers).  The Hulk steel coaster is pretty good, and Doctor Doom's Fear Fall is a terrorizing nightmarish creation (meaning, it's good).  Also you get frequent parades where Marvel characters ride through on four-wheelers.  This purchase could cause some theming problems with the IoA park, although I expect in most cases they can just change the signage.  The Spiderman ride, however, would be somewhat harder to re-engineer.  Just sticking a Batman/Tick/El Kabong mask on Spiderman's face won't cut it.

[NiX]

OTOH, part of me thinks this will just see more mediocre Marvel movies come out as Disney seeks to justify their purchase. Or more cruddy kid-friendly fare. I could see a Power Pack movie being done.

Marvel has so much lined up for the next 2-3 years that Disney won't have to do a damn thing except for sign the checks. Once Avengers is done, we'll see what Disney does, unless Marvel has more up their sleeve, especially with there probably being a whole whack load of "X-Men Origins" movies unannounced.

[HaemishM]

Fox is rebooting the Fantastic Four movie series - and they own the rights in perpetuity for that franchise (meaning as long as they keep making movies every few years, they can keep the rights forever). They hold the same kind of rights on Daredevil and X-Men, which is why you are seeing so many X-Men: Origins movies being made, including Magneto and X-Men First Class.

This purchase is all about the movie franchises and the merchandising opportunities on all that sweet, sweet IP.

[Sir T]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8230504.stm

Disney to buy Marvel in $4bn deal

Entertainment giant Walt Disney is to buy Marvel Entertainment in a shares and cash deal valued at $4bn (£2.5bn).

The deal means Disney will take over ownership of 5,000 Marvel characters, such as Spider-Man and the X-Men.

Marvel shareholders will get $30 per share in cash plus 0.745 Disney shares for every Marvel share owned.

The boards of Disney and Marvel have both approved the deal, which now needs the backing of Marvel shareholders and competition authorities.

Marvel shares were ahead $9.68, or 25%, to $48.33 in Monday trading while Disney shares fell 80 cents, or 3%, to $26.04.

'Great assets'

"We believe that adding Marvel to Disney's unique portfolio of brands provides significant opportunities for long-term growth and value creation," Disney president and chief executive Robert Iger said.

"We are pleased to bring this talent and these great assets to Disney."

Other Marvel's characters include Captain America, the Fantastic Four and Thor.

"Disney is the perfect home for Marvel's fantastic library of characters given its proven ability to expand content creation and licensing businesses," said Marvel chief executive Ike Perlmutter.

"This is an unparalleled opportunity for Marvel to build upon its vibrant brand and character properties by accessing Disney's tremendous global organization and infrastructure around the world," he added.

'Good deal'

Arvind Bhatia, an analyst at Sterne, Agee and Leach, said that the deal appeared to be a "win-win situation for both companies".

"They [Marvel shareholders] are getting a good deal in my opinion. The CEO of the company, Isaac Perlmutter, is also the largest shareholder of the company.

"From that standpoint, we think the chances of this deal going through are pretty high."

Last month, Walt Disney reported a fall in profits of more than a quarter as the downturn hit revenue at its film and theme park divisions.

Let your nerd rage flow. 

[Yegolev]

Merging: It's not just for breakfast anymore.

[Yegolev]

I noticed today that both Disney and Universal Parks are visiting us today.  I don't believe in coincidences but maybe this is one.

[NiX]

Wear your white t. Dress to impress!

[Yegolev]

They don't let me near the guests.  I'd ask if they were hiring.

[NiX]

Try leaving your gun at home. I'm sure they'd be ok with you being a Dinosaur, but the gun might be the breaking point.

[Velorath]

DC is also having a fairly sizable shake-up:

After years of trying to figure out an efficient way to work with DC Comics and exploit more of its costumed characters -- which include Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, the Flash and Green Lantern -- as movies, TV shows and digital properties, the studio's final solution was essentially to take complete control of the comicbook publisher.

The company has been rebooted as DC Entertainment, which will now be run by Warner Bros. vet Diane Nelson. Nelson has long overseen the "Harry Potter" franchise for the studio and managed Warner Premiere, which produces original direct-to-DVD pics, including several based on DC's more iconic heroes.

"It's no secret that DC has a myriad of rich and untapped possibilities from its deep library of iconic and lesser-known characters," said Alan Horn, Warner Bros. Entertainment prexy and chief operating officer. "The formation of DC Entertainment will help us bring more DC properties across additional platforms to fans around the world."

As part of the move, Paul Levitz will step down as president and publisher of DC Comics and segue into a new post as writer, contributing editor and consultant to DC Entertainment. His duties will include advising DC on rights-holder relationships, especially when it comes to DC's complicated ownership of Superman (Daily Variety, Aug. 14)

The article continues on for a while after that, but that's the most important chunk.

[Margalis]

I don't get it. The comic book side doesn't really matter. If the DC characters are untapped it's because the film/tv guys are dropping the ball, the comics don't have to do anything other than exist.

The general public knows who Superman is and they don't give a shit about the latest year-long crisis of infinite spaces crisis 2: the crisening.

[Velorath]

I don't get it. The comic book side doesn't really matter. If the DC characters are untapped it's because the film/tv guys are dropping the ball, the comics don't have to do anything other than exist.

The general public knows who Superman is and they don't give a shit about the latest year-long crisis of infinite spaces crisis 2: the crisening.

I don't really know what's been going on behind the scenes, but Batman aside, it seems for quite a while trying to get a DC comics related movie into production has been a nightmare for people.  There's Kevin Smith's anecdote about his attempts to do the Superman movie for instance.  Also I seem to recall Whedon saying somewhere that his Wonder Woman deal eventually fell through because the people in charge of greenlighting it couldn't would shoot down every idea essentially saying "we don't know what we want but this isn't it".  There was a failed attempt at getting a Flash movie together, as well as a Justice League movie that got put on hold almost as quickly as it was announced.

Maybe it was just an organizational issue and this is an attempt to clear some of that up, I don't know.

[HaemishM]

I think the biggest problem with DC movies getting made is the Warner Bros. execs who would be pulling the money strings. IMO, they don't generally respect the comics guys and tend to think they have all the answers to success despite every attempt at a comic movie but the Batman stuff being a complete fucking failure. Maybe DC Entertainment will have a little more pull in the movie department, or at least a little more respect, but I'm not holding my breath.

[angry.bob]

While our embrace of natural selection in business has made the USA the largest economy in the world, it does have it drawbacks.

Such as being an unsustainable, artificial ourobouros of human misery. American style capitalism has proven beyond any reasonable doubt to be nothing more than a scheme specifically designed to strip money away from the lower classes and funnel it up to the people who need it the least.

Also, Disney ruins everything they buy. Name a good Pixar movie since Disney took them over. Prior to then everything they did was a classic. Now it's just torture.

[Teleku]

Uh, Wall-E and Up?

[angry.bob]

Uh, Wall-E and Up?

I'm still waiting for you to name a good movie. Wall-E was okay, but a total failure as a kids movie. 

[Teleku]

Uh, Wall-E and Up?

I'm still waiting for you to name a good movie. Wall-E was okay, but a total failure as a kids movie.