Walt Disney buying Marvel

Disney bought Marvel in December 2009 for $4bn (£2.5bn) in cash and stock as a subsidiary to the Disney empire.

In Detail

When Disney bought Marvel they also bought the rights to produce certain films. “Marvel’s The Avengers” was just one of the films they bought which turned out to be the top-grossing film last year, with $1.5 billion in worldwide ticket sales, according to Box Office Mojo, an industry researcher. “Iron Man 3” leads this year with $1.2 billion in worldwide box office which was also purchased by Disney from Marvel. Disney have tried to create an monopoly here by buying the films off Marvel trying to own all the comic action movies. However Warner Brothers (Disney's main rivals) purchased DC comics (Marvels main rivals) allowing them to make DC comic book action movies. Another reason why Disney will find it hard to create a monopoly in this field is Marvel had already sold the rights to some of there best selling comics such as Spiderman to Sony in a long term agreement, 21st Century Fox has made the “X-Men” and “Wolverine” films under a similar arrangement.

Market impact

This purchase will definitely have an impact on the other major film companies. This purchase has given Disney lots of new opportunities and clearly been very profitable for their company. Other major film companies will be influenced by this as they may make more actions movies or even try to close a deal with a comic company themselves.

Main Issues

One of the main issues I have already talked about is that Disney will not be able to own rights to all the Marvel comics. With Sony owning Spiderman and 20th Century Fox owning X-men (two of Marvels best selling and most famous comics) Disney will find it hard to keep up with other companies versions of Marvel films.

Another main issue with this deal is that Disney in the past have be famous for their family loving cartoon movies. Marvel however are famous for their violence action packed comic books with a mainly male audience. Therefore Disney in some peoples opinion might not have been the best choice of people to make their movies as they have little experience in the action movie field.

One other main issue with Disney's company is that they have always found it hard to appeal to young male audiences whereas Marvels main audience is young males. This could be seen as a positive or negative for Disney, on one hand this will clearly increase Disney's male audience, on the other hand Disney as I have said briefly before may not be able to appeal to this audience as well as other companies with more experience in approaching this audience.

Summaries

I have learnt that ownership of franchises in the film industries is a big market which I previously didn’t know too much about. I didn’t know there was so much money in simply selling stories and characters to another company without even producing the film themselves. This made me realize how much competition there is in the film industry and the importance of well known characters and stories. I also learnt about how one company purchasing another can result in big company rivalries even in subsidiary's of the company’s.

FUNDING AND THE FILM INDUSTRY.

How the film industry make money

corporate investment product placement

sponsorship private investment

development funds

ticket salesDVD sales

TV screenings

merchandise

Product placement is when a movie uses another companies product in their movie as advertising. But this wouldn't happen like an advert you would see on television instead the product would be used or seen in the film and would make sense in terms of the story. Companies will pay large amounts of money to get their products used in big movies as this is a large scale form of advertising.

Back to the future used more product placement than any other film. Throughout Back To The Future film we see Nike trainers, Pepsi cans, Mc Donald's signs and many more famous companies branding.

Product Placement

The avengers assembly

The Avengers Assemble was sponsored by Apple to use their products in the new film. In the film we don't see the superheroes using Apple products instead we see the civilians and average people on the street using them. By doing this Apple wanted to show that their products would be used in the future (as The Avengers Assemble is set in the future) making the audience want to purchase their products in the future. Another way Apple used product placement in The Avengers Assemble is through noise and the sounds in the film. When Iron Man moved or performed special moves in the film we heard noise that you would commonly hear when using Apple products making the audience make a connection with future technology and their brand.

How Independent film companies get their funding

There are many ways in which an independent film company can get funding for their films such as the UK film council, Local Councils, Charities, Production Schemes & Competitions. The UK film council would be the first place to look for funding for an independent film company, they were set up by the government in 2000 and are funded by sources such as the national lottery. Local councils may also give funding to independent film companies to increase film making in their local area. Charities could also supply an independent film company with funding especially if their charity is involved in the film. Film makers could also enter competitions where funding and equipment could be rewarded if won.

Sponsorship deals

The Smurfs 2 made £95 million through sponsorship deals before the movie even came out in cinemas. They did this buy getting sponsors from a wide range of companies such as McDonalds, Haribo to Toys R Us and Wal-Mart. These companies didn't sell the DVD or tickets to the film they just sold the toys for the Smurfs 2 movie. These companies would have bought the rights to sell the official Smurfs 2 toys and products. McDonalds would have sold their toys in their happy meals, Toys R Us and Wal-Mart would have sold their toys in their stores and Haribo may have used the Smurf characters on front of their sweet packets. All of these would have increased sales for these retailers and products as people will be excited about the movie and want to buy related products. However Smurfs 2 will also benefit from this as when people see and buy the Smurfs 2 products they will think about and want to go and see the movie.