This from Bloomberg.com
As Marvel’s new owner, Disney will collect license fees from Universal Orlando theme-park rides in Florida that include “The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man” and “Incredible Hulk Coaster,” as well as ticket sales from the films “Iron Man 2” and “Thor,” distributed by Viacom Inc.’s Paramount Pictures.
With Marvel, Disney is buying its way into business with competitors who have had rights to super-hero films, theme-park rides and television shows for years. Disney, based in Burbank, California, gains a stake in revenue streams that have enriched its rivals -- until it can take over the deals itself.
“I don’t think they’re going to play nice, I don’t think they’re going to share,” Jamie Rizzo, an analyst with Fitch Ratings in New York, said yesterday. “The days of licensing any of these characters to any of the other guys or letting any of the other guys distribute any of these movies is over.”
The deal helps Disney, which struggled earlier this year at the box office while competing studios benefited from superhero fare and franchises such as Paramount’s “Star Trek.”
Marvel has licensed X-Men to News Corp., Spider-Man to Sony Corp. and the Incredible Hulk to General Electric Co.’s NBC Universal Inc. Disney will get revenue from future projects involving those franchises, whose combined box-office take has totaled $4.5 billion worldwide, according to researcher Internet Movie Database.
“They have done a nice job with the deals they have in place,” Disney Chief Financial Officer Tom Staggs said yesterday in an interview. “When those deals expire, we’ll take a look at whether to bring them in-house.”
Paramount Deal
Paramount is exposed as the distributor of films made by Marvel, Michael Morris, an analyst , said yesterday in report. New York-based Marvel began making pictures on its own instead of licensing characters, starting with last year’s “Iron Man,” which took in $585.1 million worldwide, according to researcher Box Office Mojo.
Paramount’s deal runs out after five more Marvel movies, including two “Iron Man” sequels, “Thor,” “The First Avenger: Captain America,” and “The Avengers.”
“We look forward to continuing to work with Marvel and, with today’s announcement, to working with Disney to replicate the incredible success of ‘Iron Man’ on all our future collaborative projects,” Paramount said yesterday in a statement. The studio declined to comment further, spokeswoman Patti Rockenwagner said.
Acquiring Marvel also gives Disney the right to deprive its rivals of access to more than 5,000 Marvel characters that aren’t already in use, said Bob Gersh, partner and co-president of the Gersh Agency, a Los Angeles talent-representation firm.
The Marvel deal marks the second time this year that Disney Chief Executive Robert Iger has muscled in on turf occupied by rivals.
A Disney film based on a Marvel storyline could reach theaters within two to three years, Gersh said yesterday in an interview. Disney isn’t likely to interfere with Marvel’s existing contracts, he said.
“Those deals will run out and then Disney will have them exclusively,” Gersh said. “You look over the last several years starting with Pixar, then the Spielberg deal and now Marvel, these are three very significant deals for Disney.”
Disney will use Marvel characters in its theme parks wherever possible, Iger said in an interview with CNBC yesterday. “Marvel characters have already proven to be strong in terms of theme-park attraction, and we believe there are a lot of opportunities around the world,” he said.
Spider-Man and other Marvel characters may begin to appear alongside Mickey Mouse and Buzz Lightyear by next year in parades at Disneyland in Anaheim, California and the adjacent California Adventure, said Robert Niles, editor of ThemeParkInsider.com, an industry newsletter, in an interview.
The earliest Disney could add a Marvel theme-park attraction in California would be 2013, Niles said.