Reuters has elaborated upon the ramifications of Disney‘s buyout of Marvel Comics and how it may affect both Hasbro and Mattel:
Toymaker Hasbro Inc may end up one of the biggest losers after Walt Disney Co agreed to buy Marvel Entertainment, as it loses out on a rich source of content for its new TV channel and faces much tougher licensing negotiations in the long term.
Hasbro’s agreement with Marvel to make toys and games based on the latter’s characters extends through 2017.
But what happens thereafter is a question mark, especially since Disney has a longer history with Hasbro’s arch-rival Mattel Inc.
Some analysts had hoped Hasbro, the power behind such franchises as Transformers and G.I. Joe, would be able to add some of Marvel’s stable of 5,000-odd characters including Spider-Man and Iron Man to its newly launched TV venture with Discovery Communications.
Now, Disney would most likely bring Marvel into its own vast entertainment network, they said.
“In the near term, we expect Disney to deploy Marvel’s content onto its young male focused cable network, Disney XD,” UBS analyst Michael Morris said.
“As many of these deals conclude over time, we will have the flexibility to either bring them in-house or pursue third-party licensing agreements depending on how we feel we can create the most value,” Disney Chief Financial Officer Tom Staggs said in a conference call.
But the company is known to drive tough deals, so after it takes over Marvel’s brands, Mattel and Hasbro likely face tricky licensing negotiations in the future.
“The squeeze is there from the retail side and now the squeeze will be there from the Disney side,” said Jed Ferdinand, a licensing and intellectual property attorney for Grimes & Battersby LLP. “They command very favorable and strict terms from their licensing manufacturers.”
oth Hasbro and Mattel face a tougher negotiator in deep-pocketed Disney when they try to secure lucrative contracts to churn out everything from toys to backpacks and lunch boxes, experts say.
Mattel has deals with Disney for Cars, Toy Story, Disney Princess, Mickey Mouse and Winnie the Pooh, to name a few. Mattel declined to comment on the deal.
For toy companies, licensed products help bolster sales, particularly during challenging economic times.
In 2008, brand owners collected $5.7 billion in licensing royalty revenue, but that was down 5.6 percent from a year earlier as tight consumer spending took its toll, a Licensing Industry Merchandisers’ Association survey showed in June.
If toymakers are worrying what the Disney-Marvel deal means for the longer term, they may have company.
Viacom unit Paramount Pictures has worldwide distribution rights for Marvel’s ‘Iron Man 2,’ ‘Thor,’ ‘Captain America,’ ‘Avengers’ and ‘Iron Man 3’ movies, which are not affected by the deal, a Paramount spokesman said, adding that it looks forward to working with Disney after that.
Not toys related...Yet. But it is of interest to our Marvel fans.
Disney Buys Marvel | IshTalkers
This is really a crazy news story. Marvel just got a whole lot more money to back their projects. This will clearly send shockwaves through their various divisions, as well as the industry as a whole. Imagine going to Disney World and having a Marvel themed park there instead of Universal Studios? Crazy.
I was reading about this on Yahoo earlier. I thought the same exact thing concerning the Marvel section at Universal's Islands of Adventure. What will happen to that?
This is absolutely HUGE news! I'm definitely interested in hearing more about the outcome of this deal.
I don't know how I feel about this. I guess it comes down to how the Marvel characters and story lines will be handled. This could be Pixar Marvel movies too, along with Marvel themed rides at the Disney Parks. I would imagine Disney is going to market the crap out of the Avengers movie, including a possible ride. That would be interesting.
Crazy. I wonder how Disney will feel about properties like the Punisher?
I'm very mixed up about this. The possibility of marvel pixar sounds good.....but if they waiver from story lines to far it could cause me to be very very sad. On second thought they have screwed up several story lines anyway. I would like to read more about what this all means
Is Hasbro loosing it's license? I'm freaking out !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I'm kinda surprised by this news, but I don't think there should be much concern for how Disney would effect Marvel's properties. They own Miramax and they're pretty much a separate entity, allowed to do their own thing. To be honest, most Marvel comics aren't that "dark" or edgy (at least not the most popular characters) in any real controversial sense. Yeah, Punisher is violent, but it's not anything people aren't already used to. I think it will be fine.
Although if you take the Fahrenheit 9/11 example, Disney refused to distribute it but the Weinsteins ended up buying the property and distributing it under the Miramax banner. So I dunno. In the end, these are comic book characters, so I don't think it's a big deal for Disney. I'm sure Marvel will just continue the status quo.
I'm sure everything will stay the same in the MARVEL world, everything will go according to plan as if DISNEY hadn't been in the picture.... I think all things MARVEL will be safe except for universal theme park rides, DISNEY is just a financial backing. I dont think MARVEL would sell itself to DISNEY for only $4B and not have control over anything....I mean come on SPIDERMAN alone is worth that much!!!
I think, in my personal view, that it will be mainly about merchandising. The comics and movies will likely just have more money behind them. Kids shows might end up on the Disney channels exclusively. But the real money for Disney will come from cross-promoted merchandise. Super Hero themed Disney characters will undoubtedly begin to show up over the coming year. Marvel products will have a presence at Disney retail stores and theme parks.
I hope they don't change too much when they don't have to. Messing with characters that have been around decades would be a no-no, imo. I, too, will wait and see.
On a side note, I wish I had 4 Billion dollars in cash.
I'm with the others who mentioned that there shouldn't be too much to worry about. I believe Disney is buying Marvel to secure another stream of revenue. I don't think that they'll be interfering too much with how Marvel operates.
Mickey Mouse VS. Wolverine!
FTW!
http://www.superherohype.com/news/x-...8100&offset=25
I just heard about this a few hours ago. I hope that only good things come out of this, like Iron Man 2 being done on VR Headsets. They can do that at Disney, right, RIGHT???
I responded to the friend who told me by saying that "this would be interesting", and then he said "By interesting then you mean Deadpool in Kingdom Hearts." I cracked up.
"...bringing characters like Iron Man and Spider-Man to..."
That fragment is inaccurate, as Sony will be retaining Spider-Man, much like Fox will retain the X-Men.
Hasbro, Marvel and Spider-Man Merchandising Extend Deal - Superhero Hype!
That fragment is inaccurate, as Sony will be retaining Spider-Man, much like Fox will retain the X-Men.
this kinda scares me, like wolverines losing his claws....
although i kinda see this could be good in ways, maybe more animated features like WB does for DC,(i thought they made them anyway) i kinda see this sort of being a tactic for Disney against WB.
o_0 Uh.. Well should be interesting to see how things change.
well that 2012 thing looks to be possible disney will screw up characters like punisher and drop captian marvel(nooooooooo) but i will say this at least dc is still goin
FUCK. Is the correct term to be used here. First they take over google now marvel? Why doesn't disney just keep to there fantasy ass bullshit, and let us have a our cool stuff?
Keep reading: Disney Buys Marvel - Page 2
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