Walt Disney Company, never content with just one empire, has ponied up some petty cash to buy a little comic book company named Marvel.
The tab? A mere $4 billion.
Hopefully, they’ve learned from their initial Pixar bungling and allow Marvel to continue to develop their own properties, then just sit back and rake in the dough.
But why this deal? Why now? One could certainly argue that a deal of this magnitude in these troubled times is a big gamble. Then again, maybe Disney feels it’s a buyer’s market and saw something.
Should other comic book movie companies be quaking in their latex boots? Not likely. Warner Brothers seems to be doing just fine with DC Comics, and comic book films are plentiful and do good business, all things considered. There seems to be enough room for everyone at the trough at the moment.
There is one question I do wonder about though. What of the Marvel properties that have franchises with other companies? The most obvious example of this is Sony and the Spiderman series, easily the most successful Marvel-based property. Does Disney just get a piece of the action? Do they assume control of the project? Shooting is about to commence on Spiderman 4 (yes, they’re making another one), and I’m sure this is a hot topic at the Sony lawyers’ table (if not decided already).
I’ll do some poking around and see what I can find out about it, but what do you think should happen?
