Marvel shareholders are expected to give final approval to Disney’s acquisition of the comic book giant this week, according to The Hollywood Reporter, despite questions in some corners as to whether the $4 billion plus price tag is too much. After all, many of the company’s A-list characters, such as Spider-Man, The X-Men, The Hulk and The Fantastic Four are tied up with long-term deals with other companies. Paramount has exclusive distribution of the “Iron Man” movies.
"With Marvel, it's not just about 'Iron Man' and 'Hulk,' " Caris & Co. analyst David Miller told the show business daily. "It's all about the other 5,000 characters that you and I don't even know about yet."
Possibilities include classics such as Ant-Man, the alter-ego of mad scientist Dr. Henry Pym, and supernatural superhero Dr. Strange. Both have connections to the Avengers line of characters that Marvel had started developing for the big screen long before the Disney deal. Iron Man and the Hulk are among the Avengers that Marvel already has already adapted.
There are about 5,000 more characters, including obscure ones such as the seventies martial arts-themed comic “Iron Fist” and up-and-coming ones such as the Runaways, a street-savvy pack of teenagers that have become a recent Marvel comic-book hit. Bear in mind, “Iron Man” wasn’t an A-lister until the first movie earned over a half billion dollars at the box office.
Disney hasn't yet tipped its hand on what lesser-known characters it believes have the potential to leap off the printed page. Disney also says it’s content to let other movie studios keep developing the characters movie audiences already now familiar with, including Spider-Man at Sony Pictures and the X-Men and Fantastic Four at 20th Century Fox. Marvel earns royalties and a piece of the merchandising sales from those movies, and Disney will, too.
Disney shares have already risen more than 20% since the deal was announced, partly on the hope for new character development and better use of Marvel heroes in movies, stores and theme parks.
Through the deal, Marvel gains the ability to quickly reach more markets worldwide. Disney is by far the world's top licenser of its character brands, with $30 billion in retail sales in fiscal 2008, compared with fourth-place Marvel at $5.7 billion.
"It gives Marvel the opportunity to expand internationally and leverage the Disney retail relationships as well as their licensee relationships," Tony Lisanti, the magazine's global editorial director told THR.
The Burbank-based Disney plans to keep Marvel's operations in New York.
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