From time to time, we here at Gabbing Geek deviate from cosplay and afternoon funnies to give you hard hitting analysis. Or at the very least, talk about the hard hitting analysis someone else did! This is one of those times!
The short answer is yes. Disney has made enough in the first few years of owning Marvel to make it an amazing investment for the lifetime of the deal. In other words, the rest of their perpetual ownership of this media property is gravy. Why? One film. The Avengers.
“They were able to, I think, almost get the company for free,” DeSanto says. “By that, I mean, they paid for the company, and with Avengers and all the box office and DVD and licensing and merchandising, their investment was basically paid back. They were in profit mode already. And now they own these characters in perpetuity.”
There’s certainly gold in those Avengers hills. DeSanto thinks that once Disney released Avengers, Iron Man 3, and the Thor and Captain America sequels, the acquisition was essentially paid for.
And Holbeck points out that for as long as Marvel superheroes remain all the rage in the public consciousness, the effect will keep paying off.
“Assuming that that there will be sequels, Avengers almost becomes an ‘annuity’ and almost pays for the $4 billion purchase price alone,” he says.
Even if superhero movies cool off a bit, the property is still a gold mine for a company like Disney. ASAP, Spidey and Cap will stop roaming the sidewalks of Universal and start signing autographs and posing for pictures at Disney theme parks. Even if we want to see less of Iron Man at the cineplex, people at Disney theme parks love seeing characters from movies they USED to like.
Kids aren’t pining for Mickey Mouse movies anymore, but they still get excited when they see him on Main Street USA. Why? Nostalgia. When you are at a Disney theme park, you beckon to yesteryear. Tom Kelly has no power there. That is why this investment, already a cash cow, will continue to pay off for the mouse.
Gabbing Geek 