This is the place to discuss the episodes of the Comic Book Page podcast, the Comic Book Page website or pretty much anything else of interest to the Comic Book Page community...
"This transaction combines Marvel's strong global brand and world-renowned library of characters including Iron Man, Spider-Man, X-Men, Captain America, Fantastic Four and Thor with Disney's creative skills, unparalleled global portfolio of entertainment properties, and a business structure that maximizes the value of creative properties across multiple platforms and territories," said Robert A. Iger, President and Chief Executive Officer of The Walt Disney Company. "Ike Perlmutter and his team have done an impressive job of nurturing these properties and have created significant value. We are pleased to bring this talent and these great assets to Disney."
"We believe that adding Marvel to Disney's unique portfolio of brands provides significant opportunities for long-term growth and value creation," Iger said.
"Disney is the perfect home for Marvel's fantastic library of characters given its proven ability to expand content creation and licensing businesses," said Ike Perlmutter, Marvel's Chief Executive Officer. "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."
Under the deal, Disney will acquire ownership of Marvel including its more than 5,000 Marvel characters. Mr. Perlmutter will oversee the Marvel properties, and will work directly with Disney's global lines of business to build and further integrate Marvel's properties.
Wow!
I'd be sweating if I was Boom! (who just acquired the Disney comics license). I'm going to guess that won't be renewed in a year or two when it expires.....
"If you want to watch a Pixar film, or you want your kids to watch it 50 times ... then owning it becomes a lot more convenient and more valuable than renting it," Disney Chief Executive Bob Iger told analysts during a conference call. " ... The notion that there's a market for everything isn't necessarily the case anymore. "It has to be good, and the price-to-value relationship has to be really high."
Do you think Pixar will play with the Marvel characters?
I don't think Disney is going to change the publication of the Marvel books. They may try to add to the Marvel Adventures Line with Disney characters, down the road (2 to 3 years). Disney is more interested in movies and DVD sales. The success of Marvel Studios made Disney take notice of the Marvel Characters appeal beyone X-Men and Spider-Man.
80sJunkie wrote:What would happen with Boom was one of the first things that popped in my head when I heard the news.
Nothing yet. I'm sure they're probably scrambling/planning for the future but, they're safe until their license contract runs out. Maybe they can leverage Mark Waid's work/good standing with Marvel into something positive for them--but I would imagine Disney wants as much to be in-house as possible.
But, to play devil's advocate here for a moment, consider what happened when Disney bought the Power Rangers. That property is aimed at the same boys audience that is being tossed around as the reason Disney is buying Marvel with an exceedingly long track record for a kids TV show (17 years). Disney made *major* changes in the way that show was being produced. It shut down the North American production company and restarted the franchise in New Zealand with only a few key people being retained. Now they are reportedly shutting down production on Power Rangers entirely and flipping to re-edited versions of the original season. They took a proven property aimed at boys and pretty much drove it into the ground.
While I don't think that Disney is going to overhaul Marvel, we really have no way of knowing for sure until it either happens or doesn't. My take is that Disney is buying Marvel because of the recent success Marvel has had with movies and not because Disney is trying to get into comic book publishing.
As for the comment about Boom losing the license once it expired because Disney wanting everything in house, that makes zero sense. Disney licensed out the property in the first place. If Boom is successful with it, they stand a decent chance of keeping it. When was the last time Marvel was successful with a licensed property? The 1980s?
