Wolverine, Hulk, Fantastic 4 to be fitted for Mickey ears

[Kwyjibo]

Disney Acquires Marvel for $4B

[vizzah]

This makes a little part of my soul die.  Am I alone in feeling that way?

[Kwyjibo]

I don't quite know how I feel about it.  The thought of Spiderman walking around getting his picture taken with kids at the Magic Kingdom makes me gag a little.

[rva]

This makes a little part of my soul die.  Am I alone in feeling that way?

I would have felt that way 5 or 10 years ago maybe.  But Marvel has sucked for so long that I haven't read one of their titles in ages. 

[Doug]

I don't quite know how I feel about it.  The thought of Spiderman walking around getting his picture taken with kids at the Magic Kingdom makes me gag a little.

You can't do that already?

[Ella Minnow Pea]

Disney's purchase of Pixar has worked out okay, so I'm not too worried.

[rva]

Yeah, but WALL-E never slit someone's throat with a playing card and then impaled them on their own Sai.  Somehow I doubt BULLS-I will, either.

But again, Marvel has already sold out by writing like 10,000 alternate histories to all their best storylines and completely diluting their impact.  And their movies tend distressingly towards the fambly-fare, kid-friendly side.  So it's not going to matter overly much.



 

[Dan]

I was really loving the Marvel Studios that they had started. I'd thought the films they'd turned out where pretty good. Now that Disney bought them, I imagine the Studios branch becomes redundant. Too bad.

[dirk]

I'm really curious where this leaves Universal Studios.  They obviously had some kind of agreement with Marvel since they had the Spiderman and Hulk rides, as well as characters all over the park.  Will this be killed and they have to rebrand everything?  DC already has an agreement with 6 Flags, so they can't pick them up, so where do they go from here?  this could be devastating for Universal. 

[Kwyjibo]

According to what I've read all of the current licensing associations stand.

[Poncho]

Perpetually.  As long as the rides exist, they have the rights to use the characters.

If they close the Hulk ride down, they can't build another Hulk ride.  If they refurbish the Hulk ride and it's under a certain % of worth in rehab... they still have the Hulk.  I have no idea what that % is, but my old licensing buddy from my previous job said that's basically how it works without getting too legal about it.

[rva]

I don't know what was in the specific agreement, but  absent explicit language or a few oddball exceptions, any time you buy a company you take on all their contractual agreements.

So if they had the Hulk ride licensed until 2014, they still have the Hulk licensed until 2014.  If they had it in perpetuity or the length of the operating ride, they still got it under the same terms.

[Hell Toupee]

I'm really curious where this leaves Universal Studios.  They obviously had some kind of agreement with Marvel since they had the Spiderman and Hulk rides, as well as characters all over the park.  Will this be killed and they have to rebrand everything?  DC already has an agreement with 6 Flags, so they can't pick them up, so where do they go from here?  this could be devastating for Universal. 

Actually, the rebranding of Universal studios wouldn't be that difficult either. Marvel Superhero Island of Islands of Adventure only has one attraction that they'd have to completely retool (Spiderman), and that ride is getting a twin built at US Hollywood themed to Transformers, so a retool would be easy. Every other ride in the Marvel section of the park isn't as heavily tied into a character like Spidey is. All they would require is changing props, soundtracks, and a couple coats of paint.

It's something similar to what Kings Island does with their kiddie land every so often. First it was Hanna Barberra, then Nickelodeon, and next year it'll be Camp Snoopy. Same rides... different names and props.

[rva]

Yeah, all the amusements parks do that.  Like when King's Island changed The Outer Limits to Flight of Fear and everything else when Paramount sold them.  I mean, it's not any different than when it was Paramount's Kings Island other than paint schemes.