The Walt Disney Company announced Monday that they were to buy Marvel Entertainment for $4 billon.
Disney is paying for ownership of the comic book company. Shareholders at Marvel are expected to receive a payment of $30 per share in the form of a cash payment as well as 0.745 Disney shares for each Marvel share they originally owned.
Disney plans to promote the Marvel dynasty even further by means of financial and commercial support. “Marvel’s brand and its treasure trove of content will now benefit from our extraordinary reach. We paid a price that reflects the vale they’ve created and the value we can create as one company. It’s a full price, but a fair price,” said Robert A. Iger, Disney’s chief executive.
Marvel Entertainment, which was a primary initiator of the revival of comic book movies in the early 2000s, will be affected by this change the most. Beginning with Blade, X-Men, and Spider-Man, the success of Marvel blockbusters have flourished throughout the past decade with last year’s Iron Man being such a financial success. Studios are worried that bringing their upcoming projects over to Disney will compromise the integrity of the films as well as put employees over at Marvel out of a job.
Existing contracts for upcoming movies such as Iron Man II, Captain America, Thor, and The Avengers will be left to the studios. Eventually, Disney plans to bring new comic book movies “in house.”
John Lasseter, Chief creative officer at Pixar Animation Studios, who met up with Marvel Entertainment the previous week mentioned a discussion regarding a possible collaboration between Pixar and Marvel.
Joe Quesada, Editor in Chief of Marvel Comics, is very happy with this development. “If you’re familiar with the Disney/Pixar relationship, then you’ll understand why this is a new dawn for Marvel and the comics industry,” said Quesada. “I haven’t seen this much excitement in the Marvel halls since, well, ever!” In response to fans’ fear that their favorite comics will be greatly affected by Disney, Quesada said, “Everybody take a deep breath all your favorite comics remain unchanged.”
Brain Michael Bendis, a popular writer for Marvel Comics, seems to be pleased with the buyout as well. Bendis joked on his Twitter page that, “I’d like to welcome Selena Gomez to the cast of Ultimate Spider-Man. Congrats to Bambi’s mother joining the cast of Marvel Zombies. My dream of “A Bug’s Life: Disassembled” just got a little closer to reality.”