Rumor from the ME bus driver! A fifth theme park! - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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Of course, we all know these things can be taken with a grain of salt! But, on our way back to the airport, we had a very entertaining ME bus driver! And as the bus wasn't very full, it made for some good conversations! ANYWAY, he was discussing the purchase by Disney of the rights to Marvel Comics. He was saying that in approx 6 years the contract states that Disney can begin to use those characters, etc (Spiderman, etc) in their marketing and theme parks. At that time Disney plans to begin a fifth theme park based mostly around bigger rides (roller coasters, etc) themed mainly around the marvel characters. Now, how true is that? I dunno! But the idea is exciting! Time will tell what REALLY happens, though! I will be more interested to see what Universal does when they officially lose the rights to those characters since a lot of their rides and attractions are themed around them. Hopefully the Harry Potter thing helps offset that for them. Oh, and the driver also joked (but it may well be true!) that the pricetag to the rights to Marvel Comics is how Universal paid for the Harry Potter stuff! That part is probably true!! LOL!
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It will be interesting to see what WDW does. I still can't see Spiderman as a Disney character, weird.
Spidey is one of my fav. attractions at Universal- it will leave a huge hole in Universal as it is one of their major attractions, such a great ride. Wow! I wonder if they have a clause that it can remain?
In this economic climate I can't see another major expansion at WDW, they already are working on the Fantasyland expansion.
I would be surprised if Universal's contract with Marvel gave a time after which Universal could no longer use the characters in existing rides, though it's possible. When Disney's contract with MGM ended, for example, the Great Movie Ride kept scenes from MGM films.
It's plausible that Disney is not allowed to use the Marvel characters in their theme parks for a set period of time, and especially plausible that they can't use the characters already licensed to another theme park for some time. However, even when they can use the characters, I'd guess they would integrate them into existing parks, or as part of a more far-reaching park concept, rather than devoting an entire park to a theme that would appeal to certain demographics much more than others. That's what Universal did -- the Marvel area is one part of Islands of Adventure, which also has more young child-friendly attractions and attractions for adults who don't care for thrill rides.
I'm highly skeptical about the Marvel acquistion paying for Harry Potter, because Disney purchased Marvel from its shareholders. Universal had a license to use the characters, but did not own them. It's possible that Disney or Marvel owed some kind of payment to existing licensees, but I can't imagine that would be anywhere close to the cost of the Harry Potter area (which must have been already in the works at the time the Marvel-Disney deal was announced).
Time will tell what really happens, but speculation is always fun.
Those crazy WDW bus drivers are at it again!! I think they love to share these top secret "rumors". It probably breaks the monotony of driving all day long.
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I'm highly skeptical about the Marvel acquistion paying for Harry Potter, because Disney purchased Marvel from its shareholders. Universal had a license to use the characters, but did not own them.
You're right. Universal didn't own Marvel. And the Disney acquisition won't affect Universal according to statements from Iger and a Universal spokesperson in this article:
A rumor from a Mears Transportation employee? Highly credible.
The "rumor" is entirely speculation. There's been a lot of talk since the Marvel acquisition. A project of this magnitude would be kept a very deep, dark secret until publicly announced. If a DME (Mears) driver knew for certain what "Disney plans," there would have already been a whole lot of media coverage about it (and there hasn't).
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MGM's name was a different contract than MGM content. As it is, Ted Turner bought MGM's film library in 1986, so well before DHS even opened, MGM no longer owned The Wizard of Oz. It's now property of Time Warner.
as for Marvel, it's my understanding that the characters at Universal are there perpetually and they have exclusivity (at least on that side of the Mississippi). This makes more sense because that's how Marvel conducted other deals, particularly for motion pictures. Studios that have licensed the rights to create films using Marvel superheroes must continue to do so otherwise the rights default back to Marvel. This is why the troubled Spiderman 4 is moving along, as well as a Fantastic Four reboot, a Daredevil reboot (I believe), etc is all happening.
All that said, there is a tiny ounce of truth here. Bob Iger has said that he believes it's reasonable to expect that Marvel characters will someday appear in the parks, but hasn't given a timeframe, nor an indication as to which characters that may be as Marvel has thousands.
But not likely to encompass a 5th gate. I don't think Disney sees enough saturation in the existing 4 parks to bother investing in a 5th one yet.
Funny, on another site an ME bus driver said that Disney was in early talks to buy Universal. - According to a Reedy Creek District report in the Orlando Sentinel, there may be a major 5th park built not before 2013 but by 2018. I don't know what the theme will be. I doubt that there is a time limit to the Marvel-Universal contract from what I've read. There may be some deal between Disney and Universal that the public isn't aware of at this time. I have heard that Shanghai Disneyland will have a Marvel City section instead of a Tomorrowland. They hope to clone some of these attractions to different parks.
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