
Disney to Acquire Marvel Entertainment - webology
http://corporate.disney.go.com/news/corporate/2009/2009_0831_disney_and_marvel_entertainment.html
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patio11
Superficially this makes sense, as they're both massive IP conglomerates who
sell fantasies, but Disney and (American) comic books seem to be going in
different directions as of late. The days when comic book consumers were
primarily 8 to 13 are long gone, and even for the older tween through high
school set Disney is trying to reach as of late, the franchises don't pack the
resonance they once did.

What would fit Disney to a freaking T is a shoujo manga publishing house. They
could slide that in to transition young ladies from their little princess
empire into a lifetime of Disney fandom. (Sort of in the manner of Disney
Japan, where Tokyo Disney is a respectable destination for twenty-something
girlfriends to go to.)

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gabrielroth
This has very little to do with comic books. Marvel is now a movie studio that
happens to publish comic books as a kind of R&D.

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antidaily
Wait until Pixar gets their hands on some of that material. Probably won't
happen, but that could be very cool.

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zach
Maybe not directly, but Pixar's Andrew Stanton is starting filming on the
PG-13 _John Carter of Mars_ movie later this year with Disney:

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Carter_of_Mars_(film)>

And this is even as Brad Bird is in development on filming 1906 in conjunction
with WB. So maybe not Pixar per se, but...

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bmelton
My only real concern with this is that Disney will decide that the more adult
titles don't align with their core values.

Garth Ennis' run on the Punisher, for example, is extremely good, and
extremely violent by necessity. I have a hard time imagining Disney allowing
that to remain as it is.

After I passed my teen years, I'd pretty much written off Marvel for grown-up
stories, favoring DC/Vertigo/Dark Horse, etc., as they seemed more willing to
service the non-teen crowd. Marvel regained my business when they added their
Max and Knights lines, which are pretty much all I'm buying of them lately.

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replicatorblog
Don't forget that Pulp Fiction was produced while MiraMax was under Disney or
just before they acquired them. They do a good job of keeping brands separate.

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sachinag
But they also declined to distribute Kids. Disney has a line, and it's likely
before some stuff that Marvel does do.

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SamAtt
I think this is great for Marvel. Even with their movie success the comic part
of the business hasn’t managed to get back into stores in any meaningful way.
When I was a kid comics were sold every place you found magazines. Now not so
much.

Disney on the other hand has distribution channels that Marvel alone could
only dream of.

It’s no secret that the average age of comic fans has pushed into the 20s at
this point and if my childhood is any indicator that has a lot to do with
comics being completely absent from your average convenience and/or grocery
store.

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javanix
_On-Topic: Anything that good hackers would find interesting. That includes
more than hacking and startups. If you had to reduce it to a sentence, the
answer might be: anything that gratifies one's_ intellectual curiosity _._

Why on earth is this relevant here?

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replicatorblog
javanix, my guess is that there is a big overlap between the hacking community
and the comic book fan community. Beyond the superficial commonality there is
also the fact that it is a major M&A transaction. For a community focused on
start ups it is an interesting reference point. Another way to test if
something is on topic might be to ask what would a founder do with this
information. With this data point you could come to a couple conclusions:

1\. Content does have value - for all the talk about user generated content
having an IP library is worth something. You might hire some content
specialists rather than work on an open ended CMS.

2\. Selling physical goods is smart - A huge portion of Marvel's revenue is
based on licensing and huge revenues are attractive. If I were working on a
tech startup I might think of ways to produce artifacts to sell in addition to
digital services.

There are probably other lessons to be learned as well. Not hacker focused,
but certainly useful to start ups.

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javanix
Of course there is overlap, but seeing as it is a _press release_ this article
adds nothing to the general hacker/start-up knowledgebase, and considering the
discussion here itself seems mostly centered on what crossovers/new movies are
possible, I'm really having a hard time gaining any value from this sort of
thing.

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replicatorblog
This is a smart move for Disney, give them some of the most boy friendly IP to
go along with their Princess and Fairy stuff. Disney has a lot of cool
technology too so it will be interesting to see how they integrate it all.

Will also be a big poke in the eye for Universal Studios theme parks, they
have a lot tied up with Marvel IP. Exciting times for the Marvel Zombie!

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joezydeco
We better go ride the coasters one more time before they rename The Incredible
Hulk to The Incredible Hank.

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steveplace
Friend of mine on twitter listened in on the conference call, you can see his
notes here (posted @11EST, so time sensitive)

<http://twitter.com/wood83>

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esila
Kingdom Hearts X will be insane:

Form a party of Sora, Donald, Wall-E, and Wolverine and watch as Wolverine
guts Ursula while Silver Surfer sings 'Under The Sea' with Ariel.

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sachinag
I'm not sure why this was downvoted. Kingdom Hearts is the only easy place
that Disney can exploit Marvel characters before 2017, given their outstanding
deals with Activision and other publishers.

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brown9-2
Is someone downvoting every single comment posted about this story (perhaps
because they can't downvote the story itself)? I don't think I've ever seen a
story before where every single top-level comment (at the time I write this)
had < 1 points.

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wmf
Don't worry; that kind of behavior gets corrected in minutes.

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Tiktaalik
Is it foolish to invest in a company that is so invested in an ancient 60s
catalogue? I look at what they haven't touched for their movies and it seems
like all B tier franchises.

Has Marvel created any new IPs the last 5 years that anyone is excited about?

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loganfrederick
For as much sense as this deal makes, I can't help but feel that the Mouse is
starting to subtly acquire all my childhood memories.

On the other hand, I welcome our new mouse overlords.

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TrevorJ
Yeah, until they start implementing their engineered scarcity on the new IP
"Buy this now, before it goes into the Disney vault for 50 years!"

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replicatorblog
Trevor,

Disney actually stopped that practice when Michael Eisner joined. There is a
great book called DisneyWar that gets into all the reasons why. Kind of an
interesting "Intrapreneurial" story about looking at a set of assets in
relation to new market conditions. A great read for anyone building a
business.

~~~
TrevorJ
Hey, thanks for the book suggestion!

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jnoller
This should be interesting. Imagine the cross over possibilities - Mickey
Mouse Clubhouse + X-Men for example: "It's the Mickey Mouse X-Men lair, come
inside there's Mutants inside!" and "I think we need a Mousektool! Everyone
say "OH XAVIER!!"".

I really hope they don't change the way the films have been going - Iron Man
was a perfect example of what's possible. Then again, I hope they nuke the
Spider Man franchise from orbit - it's the only way to be sure.

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adw
Cmon, Disney own ESPN. Wolverine on Monday Night Football. (Either the US or
UK version - it hardly matters).

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umjames
I didn't know the UK had a Monday Night Football. Well, with X-Men, they'll
have a large pool of candidates for that 3rd announcer spot if Gruden gets
another coaching gig.

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adw
As of a couple of months ago: the new ESPN UK has some rights to Premier
League soccer.

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javery
The most surprising thing to me is that go.com still exists...

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jonknee
Even more surprising, ESPN.com is still a subdomain of go.com

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varjag
Waiting for the new patrons in next week's Mickey Mouse Clubhouse!

(Rhetorical: how's that hacker news?)

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FrankBlack
Does this mean that someone will finally get around to making a decent Dr.
Strange film?

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jasonlbaptiste
Finally someone can whoop mickey mouse's ass. He was always such a smug little
passive aggressive type :-).

