This just in... Disney will buy Marvel for $4 billion. Wow. Aside from the business aspect of this, think of the new character pairings. Donald Duck can advise the Hulk on appropriate anger management. Goofy could be Spider Man's new sidekick, taking the whole Spider Man comic in a radical new, bumbling comedy direction. The possibilities are endless!
Seriously, though, this is a marriage of two mega-franchises, and it definitely fills a gap for Disney. My question: Do they modify the current theme parks or build a new one that's young-guy-centric and so chock full of adrenaline that parents check their teens in, but never enter themselves?
This situation very much reminds me of commentary I read from one of the prolific book gurus (Guy Kawasaki, I think), who was contrasting Universal Studios and Disney theme parks. The theory was that Universal's positioning, with rides that were almost violently exciting, served as a natural and defensible counter to Disney's family-friendly image.
ReplyDeleteI think it is a more or less reasonable analysis that would suggest that Marvel be maintained as a separate franchise. As you imply, Disney and Marvel exist in alternate universes. Hopefully they are not overestimaing oft-discussed but rarely realized "synergies."