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Disney To Buy Marvel in $4 Billion Deal.

Good find - Cheers Ben. That is good news really both sides. As I say, I imagine some arrangement will be sorted. It does mean that Disney will get a look in on the payments of that arrangement though. Which is very good news for the Disney bank balance after a 26% downturn in profits in the last quarter.
 
All current contracts for Marvel characters will remain the same, so X Men/Spiderman/Iron Man sequels will continue with their current studios and the parks keep the characters etc until contracts run out.

I think the most we will see in the Disney parks (after 2012 when the deal is completed) is meet 'n' greets in some of the parks, maybe even just the Studio parks. Don't forget Disney purchased Power Rangers a couple of years ago and all they do is own the copyrights for the TV show, sell merchandise and (I think) have a meet 'n' greet at the Studios park in Florida.

I also read on one website that John Lasseter has already been in discussions with peeps at marvel, the website hinted at maybe a Marvel character related Pixar film. That sounds interesting, I mean, the Incredibles was awesome so a Marvel character being given a decent Pixar film would be cool.
 
Or an excuse to build a Marvel themed area at each of the parks.
I'm not sure what to think of this as I'm not sure what will come out of it so I'll just have to wait and see.
 
AmandaPanda said:
I can image it now, a thrilling ride at Disney World *sighs of happiness*.
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Not happy with the awesomely themed Marvel coasters at the Six Flags parks? Of which half has the name as their only selling excuse?

I really hope Disney can restore my feelings toward Marvel themed rides, because at the moment, I feel that quality coasters are being slapped on a brand name and drowned in the name ("Hey! It's Superman, guys! Woo, Superman is awesome!") while the manufacturing company is forgotten. ("Huh? What 'airtime'? That was Superman, jerk. Marvel made it")*

Or yet worse, crap rides get slapped on a brand name and declared awesome because of it (The Escape, anyone? What is that without Superman?).

Go on Disney. Woo...


*not as common and may be exaggerated
 
Ben said:
^Um, Six Flags build DC rides, not Marvel.
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Thank the life of me that I wasn't the only one having comic book nerd knowledge there.

Ollie, I find it highly unlikely you will see Marvel areas of the park. The Main park for instance has no actual area theming relating to specific Characters or even films. They just have generalised areas and then the characters fit into to which ever of the areas they deem best.

Personally, I agree with Peep in the theory that if anything at all, we will see the Characters as part of Meet and Greets and the sale of Merchandise.
 
AmandaPanda said:
I can image it now, a thrilling ride at Disney World *sighs of happiness*.
Click to expand...

From what I could tell, you won't be getting many rides at Disney World with marvel theming, because Universal holds the rights to theme park usage of these characters East of the Mississippi, in a deal that never expires unless Universal stop operating their Marvel rides. It's Disneyland California that is most likely to start getting these rides soon.
 
I hope they keep Marvel rides out of Disney parks tbh.

Build a new park by all mean, but please do not let it take over like Pixar stuff has.

Disney parks should be about Disney and not Marvel.

Marvel is already at IoA, Disney will make enough money from these rather than build their own attractions from which they will not make anything.

They will probably sell things in the parks, like they do for Lost and Power Rangers but thats where I hope it stops.
 
I would bet vast sums of money we won't see ANY Marvel rides in ANY Disney parks, I don't think that's why the bought them somehow!
 
Ben said:
I would bet vast sums of money we won't see ANY Marvel rides in ANY Disney parks, I don't think that's why the bought them somehow!
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Totally agree. This will be for films etc, but I find it strange that a lot of the films have been done such as X-Men Spiderman etc. I can not wait to see what they have planned tbh.

Universal must be feeling a bit sick though, they will now be paying Disney for having Marvel things in their theme park lol.

Sorry for the double post.
 
^But, since Universal hold the rights to use the characters in their parks in their current state (ie, to keep Marvel Super Hero Island as it is), why would they have to pay Disney? They hold the rights to that one, not Disney!
 
I dont know I just assumed Universal pay Marvel to use the characters and names, just like the Harry Potter stuff. They might only have a 10 year agreement or something like that they need to re sign.

Disney will own the rights to the Marvel things so Universal will have to pay them to use it.

I have probably missed something then, I did not know Universal had bought the rights.

Sorry Ben I missed the link you posted on page 1 :oops:
 
Indeed Marc.

Universal own the rights to use the characters of Marvel comics within Islands of Adventure as per the agreement they would have made with Marvel back in the 90s when the park began. This does not give them any rights over the characters as such. Just the ability to use them within IoA. Either way, they would have paid Marvel for this deal and the use of it's copywritten material. Essentially, like a song, the characters have a royalty system. Since Universal would have paid Marvel for this, it is safe to assume that as Disney now owns Marvel, the money paid for the exclusive rights for use of the Characters within its park would be now paid to Disney. Unless of course Marvel were allowing the use of the characters within IoA free of charge, which I would find most unusual.

It is similar with the exact reason why JK Rowling refused to sell the character of Harry Potter to Warner Bros. Had she sold the characters themselves WB could do with it whatever they see fit. By her only selling the rights to the stories they are unable to do anything outside of the set stories with Harry Potter. However, they can represent the stories (within certain contractual obligations) however they like and she would be paid accordingly for the use of her stories and characters.

Marvel would never have signed over the characters to Universal as ownership, only the ability to use them. A privelage Universal would be paying for.

Subsequently, Iger (from Disney) has made the statement that any previous arrangements between Marvel and the theme park industry will be honoured. Suggesting that both Marvel and Universal had an arrangement of course and that Disney would take on this arrangement. Hence the thinking that Disney will earn at least some money from the use of the Marvel characters within IoA.
 
^This is all true, but you have to keep in mind that Universal made that deal with Marvel long before those intellectual properties took off, in other words before the successful movies were made and the popularity of their comics boomed again. I'm sure that Universal made a very good long term deal by the sounds of things and they will only be paying a small portion of what said properties are really worth. Disney is probably only going to get pennies on the dollar in that sense.
 
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