Walt Disney Co, the world's largest media company, has acquired comic book pioneer Marvel Entertainment Inc. to the tune of $4 billion. As the new owner, Disney will collect license fees from Universal Orlando theme park rides in Florida, including "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.
Disney will also collect revenue from future projects involving the existing X-Men license to News Copr, Spider-Man to Sony Copr and the Incredible Hulk to General Electric Co.'s NBC Universal Inc. According to the Internet Movie Database, these franchises have a total combined box-office take of $4.5 billion worldwide.
"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.”
Disney is now in a position to deny its rivals of access to more than 5,000 Marvel characters that aren't already in use. Which marks the second time this year that Disney Chief Executive Robert Iger has asserted on grounds occupied by rivals. After holding talks with Universal