This is pretty much the biggest news we have seen in the past few days and I really needed some time to get my thoughts together on the purchase. Let us go over the basics first. Disney has paid 4 billion dollars (billions with a b) to buy Marvel Entertainment during a slow economy. They have already stated that this large purchase will probably dilute Disney earnings until 2012. While I think the deal may make some sense to Disney, the price and what it does to Disney as a company is up for discussion. Disney CEO Bob Iger and CFO Tom Staggs discussed why they paid $50 per share to make the deal happen. Marvel is a “premium” company Staggs said and that they deal was not something that “had to be done” by either company. Both CEO and CFO said that they feel the companies can create more value together. While I can not begin to grasp all the financials it seems to be something that has the potential to hurt both Disney and Marvel if they are not careful. Now let us get on to some of my thoughts.
- Has anyone asked the question of what the frick happens to all that Marvel stuff at Islands of Adventure in Universal Studios Orlando Florida? They have a damn area called Marvel Super Hero Island. It would not seem likely that Disney would be happy to have a theme park so close to Disney World doing things with their new company. Will Universal have to pay Disney to use a license? If anyone knows please explain it to me.
- Will Disney Theme parks go crazy with the Marvel theme? Seems with Universal opening a Harry Potter area this is a good license to own with the hotness of the current Marvel Movies.
- You ever see those Marvel Super Hero Squad figures that are geared towards kids 5 and up? Do you think Disney pushes the Marvel license further into that direction? Do they use the popularity of the heroes and push them on their key audience?
- Cross promotion, will anyone be surprised to see Marvel stuff appear more regularly in highly successful Disney Channel shows? Dr. Strange hits Wizards of Waverly Place?
- Can Disney as a company who rarely ventures past the PG rating manage to give Marvel the freedom to do darker things without having to feel that they need to cater to concerned parents? How seperate will the companies stay?
- Does the Disney deal in any way allow Marvel to push more comics? Does some of Disney’s in place sales avenues allow Marvel to get ramped up quicker to the digital publishing age?
- Does the film end of Disney add anything to the newly formed Marvel Studios? I would have to think since Disney has been at the movie studio game a longer time it has some added advantage, probably in the money saving category. Does Disney have a better grasp on a Marvel Studios movie timeline? Will this hold up any Marvel Studio movies already in the queue because they do not want to over saturate?
- I bet Pixar could make some pretty dope cartoon/movies with the Marvel characters.
Hey I do not proclaim to be that knowledgeable in the field of comics (I am not the comic guy here), but these are just some questions that I had. Any thoughts?
The rights to the Marvel movies are already owned by another company so Disney won’t mess up the films. I read somewhere that Disney doesn’t want to mess with anything Marvel does. Disney feels that they need Marvel in order to appeal to male audiences of 15 and older. Marvel gave in because Disney can give Marvel a lot of publicity.
I am looking forward to the Goofy/Punisher crossover.
Words cannot describe my depression regarding Disney owning Marvel. As a huge fan of Marvel, this is probably the last thing I would have wanted to see happen to the company, aside from shutting down completely.
Hopefully, Brandon is right and Disney will keep their nose out of Marvel’s business. If they don’t, everything that’s Marvel is going to go straight into the toilet.
My only mid to long term range thought is that I hope Marvel stays with Diamond
So why does everyone think Disney will screw up marvel? Disney is the largest empire in the wold. They own theme parks, radio stations, tv stations including ABC and ESPN, a freaking city. Why would you assume that the number one marketing company in the work would “screw up” something like Marvel Comics. I get that the fan boys wont like “being owned” by the mouse but come on and get real they have a lot more experience and have already said they want to work with Marvel and not just take it over. Leaving marvel to continue such masterpieces as the Hulk (the First one), Spiderman 2 & 3, x-men 2 & 3, and the block buster that was wolverine.
Will this also be for the Disneyland in Califronia too?
When I originally heard about this buy out I was overwhelmingly positive about it, but after reading a bunch of blogs I’m more apprehensive. This video helped me understand the issue more broadly:
http://www.newsy.com/videos/spidey_meets_mickey
I hope Disney doesn’t mess around too much with Marvel, like in this funny parody of the situation.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MrAwJzda69I
I honestly think it’s funny that people think it would be Disney we should be most apprehensive about. As far as I can tell, Disney knows what the hell its doing, and if that involves a shake-up, or not they will do what they think is the best to get that product in front of more people. I’ll always be able to find quality comics If the worst thing that happens is that this is the first step to (not noted here, but as I’ve seen elsewhere) is somebody actually starts marketing comics to actual kids, where they might actually see them, I’m all for it.
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