Disney in a fix? Spider-Man's exit from Marvel may cost the entertainment giant $22.5 bn
Disney acquired Spider-Man when it bought Marvel Entertainment for $4.2 billion in 2009.
By Bloomberg |
Agencies
Sony and Disney had been co-producing Spider-Man movies, and including the web-slinging character in Disney’s Marvel Cinematic Universe.
By Christopher Palmeri and Nick Turner
The Spider-Man character is expected to disappear from Walt Disney Co.’s Marvel movies following a split with Sony Corp., but he’ll still be front and center in new theme-park attractions that Disney is planning for France and Southern California.
At a fan convention on Friday, the company showed off plans for rides and experiences that feature Spider-Man, Spider-Bots and a high-tech version of the hero’s red-and-blue suit.
Disney acquired Spider-Man when it bought Marvel Entertainment for $4.2 billion in 2009. But there’s still a tangled web of rights surrounding the character. Sony owns the movie license, letting it make films about the superhero and related characters, such as the Green Goblin and Venom.
Universal Studios, meanwhile, owns the theme-park rights to many of Marvel’s superheros east of the Mississippi -- under a deal that predates Disney’s ownership. It operates a ride called Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man at the Universal Orlando Resort in Florida. The Spider-Man comic books, where the character was born, are part of Disney.
Sony Schism
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Sony and Disney had been co-producing Spider-Man movies, and including the web-slinging character in Disney’s Marvel Cinematic Universe. But talks to extend the arrangement broke down after Disney asked for more generous financial terms, people familiar with the matter said this week.
At a fan convention on Friday, the company showed off plans for rides and experiences that feature Spider-Man, Spider-Bots and a high-tech version of the hero’s red-and-blue suit.
If the parties don’t return to the table, the falling-out means Marvel President Kevin Feige won’t be lending his touch to Sony’s future Spider-Man films. And the character probably won’t appear in Disney’s Marvel universe, a series that’s generated more than $22.5 billion globally.
That puts Disney in the somewhat awkward position of promoting a character, but not getting a payoff at the box office.
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Disney has been gradually increasing the presence of Marvel characters in the decade since it acquired the business. An Iron Man ride opened to much fanfare at Disneyland Hong Kong in 2017. That same year Disney converted its Twilight Zone Tower of Terror at its California Adventure park in Anaheim, California, into a ride based on Marvel’s “Guardians of the Galaxy.”
Now it’s creating new superhero-themed lands at Disney California Adventure and Disneyland Paris that it will call Avengers Campuses.
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“When guests visit Avengers Campus, they will become part of an interconnected, global story that spans from California to Paris to Hong Kong, with the Avengers recruiting new extraordinary people to join them,” the company said in a blog post.
But that interconnected, global story may only include Spider-Man when he’s offscreen.
'Avengers: Endgame', 'Aladdin': Hollywood Films To Look Forward To In 2019
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2018 was a great year for entertainment. Hollywood churned out a slew of hits, from the stable of Marvel, DC Comics, to those from Disney.
Well, this year too, promises to be an exciting one. The line-up in 2019 includes Quentin Tarantino’s latest, 'Once Upon a Time in Hollywood', 'Moonlight' director Barry Jenkins’ second feature, and Taraji P Henson in 'What Men Want'.
From 'Avengers: Endgame' to 'Toy Story 4', 'StarWars' to 'The Lion King', Disney has at least five films that could very well shatter records at the global box office in 2019.
Here are the biggest and most anticipated movie releases of 2019:
(In Pic: On the left is the poster of 'Avengers: Endgame' and on the right is the poster of 'Aladdin'.)
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Marvel dropped the first trailer for their fourth film, 'Endgame', on December 7, as we saw Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr) adrift in space while his colleagues Captain America (Chris Evans) and Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) mourn him and try to come up with a plan to save him.
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The 'LEGO Movie 2' reunites the heroes of Bricksburg in an all new action-packed adventure to save their beloved city. It’s been five years since everything was great and the citizens are facing a huge new threat: invaders from outer space, wrecking everything faster than they can rebuild. The film stars Chris Pratt, Channing Tatum and Elizabeth Banks.
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This could be the romantic comedy to end all romantic comedies, fit with an all-star cast of Rebel Wilson, Chris Hemsworth, Priyanka Chopra, Jennifer Saunders and Adam DeVine. The movie is about the tale of a young woman who falls and hits her head, and wakes up in a sickly sweet lovey-dovey world that will only go back to normal when she falls in love.
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The film is likely to be a standalone adventure/love story, which will centre around the search for Bo Peep. The object of Woody's affections was missing from the last movie, with Lee Unkrich, who directed 'Toy Story 3' saying that she had been sold at a yard sale. Crumbs. The film stars Tom Hanks, Tim Allen and Joan Cusack.
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