Marvel Joins the House of Mouse

http://www.latinoreview.com/news/marvel-jo...e-of-mouse-7867

By Genevieve M. Blaber "ScarletScribe" on August 31, 2009

Well, here's some surprising news to start the week. The Walt Disney Company has just announced that it will buy Marvel Entertainment to the tune of approximately $4 billion.

The boards of both Disney and Marvel have already approved the deal which will add more than 5,000 Marvel characters to the Disney's already teeming legion of toons.

The chief executive of Marvel, Ike Perlmutter, explained, “Disney is the perfect home for Marvel’s fantastic library of characters given its proven ability to expand content creation and licensing businesses. 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.”

What does this all mean? Well, Disney just saw its third quarter profit dip 26 percent thanks to a combination of reduced profits at its theme parks and some trouble with ad sales over at ABC and ESPN. Marvel, with all of its established characters and brands, is the perfect vehicle for a new money-making arm of Disney, with the bonus that Marvel will benefit from Disney's smart marketing and licensing.

In the meantime though, Disney will continue to honor Marvel's old deals with regards to its characters -- which means that Spider-Man remains Sony's, and both the Fantastic Four and X-Men will still at Fox for the time being. In addition, Paramount is still set to distribute Iron Man II as well as the upcoming Thor feature. Just don't expect Disney to renew these types options when their time is up. The idea is for Disney to exercise more control over all Marvel properties both in regards to their creation and distribution.

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