August 31, 2009 8:34 AM PDT

Disney to pay $4 billion for Marvel

With the deal, Disney will acquire more than 5,000 Marvel characters, including Spider-Man, Iron Man, and Captain America.
(From The New York Times)

The story "Disney to pay $4 billion for Marvel" published August 31, 2009 at 8:34 AM is no longer available on CNET News.

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16 comments

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I can see a Spider Man Ride at Disneyland any time now. With Captain EO coming back, I'll have to go back to Disneyland again soon
Posted by tubaloth (132 comments )
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What will this mean for Universal Studios? Don't they have several "Marvel-based" attractions?
Posted by quadj (133 comments )
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The Hulk, Spiderman, and Dr. Doom are three I remember from the islands of adventure park in Orlando.
Posted by Stormspace (631 comments )
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I was wondering the same thing. I grew up in Orlando and spent many hours riding the rides at Islands of Adventure. Spiderman and The Hulk are probably their most popular rides.
Posted by bj1126 (168 comments )
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The Islands of Adventure in Orlando will be home to an all new Harry Potter world in 2010. I don't iknow if that means all Marvel attractions have been taken over or not.
Disney purchased Jim Hensen/Muppets and there are very limited crossovers with Hensen and Disney. Marvel will still be "Marvel" and funded and marketed by Disney.
There are too many snap judgements on the internet. Keep that in mind before allowing prejudice to dictate your thoughts.
Posted by acarhart (1 comment )
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Love to see all the "Tech" sites picking up on this news for no real reason or angle.
Posted by stigmattaman (257 comments )
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@stigmattaman-- naw, it's not a huge stretch of the imagination. tech geek = comic book nerd. :-)

Any movies coming out of Marvel Studios is going to suck now and be made for kids.
Posted by chonnom (88 comments )
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@chonnom. "Any movies coming out of Marvel Studios is going to suck now and be made for kids"

What a stupid stereotypical assumption . Not every film made, financed, or subsudized by Disney is a G-Rated kid movie. They've done everything from Drama to Comedy to Fantasy. I for one liked the Pirates of the Carribean movies. Either way, not all movies made by Marvel Studioes were that great....what, did you think Hulk, Electra, or Ghost Rider were aimed at sophisticated adult audiences? Disney certainly couldn't do much worst.
Posted by viper396 (1828 comments )
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I'm hoping Disney will put some sanity back into their books. I mean, one "Marvel Zombies" mini-series was okay, but they are beating that - and other garish subjects - to death.
Posted by solitare_pax (7586 comments )
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The other thing that should be pointed out is that Disney owns more labels already than you may realize, such as touchstone, hollywood pictures, and Miramax. All used as outlets for more adult-targeted films. Marvel may likely not be much different.
Posted by bookshire (196 comments )
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Great another merger that won't help Disney much, and won't do any good for the public at all.
Posted by Renegade Knight (9796 comments )
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So when were corporate mergers suppose to be about helping the public? ...What a decidely naive comment to make.

While Disney is feeling the effects of the down economy (just like everyone else) they aren't exactly in any serious danger from past mergers and are doing just fine.
Posted by viper396 (1828 comments )
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I see product placement here. Imagine Hulk/Spiderman/Iron man fighting in a disney park. Bruce banner checking the time with mickey mouse watch. Hulk punching Donald Duck in the face. Endless possiblilties for pure cheesiness.
Posted by tekwiz4u (347 comments )
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Personally I think the best Marvel outside of the actual comic books was the cartoon series they had for X-Men and Spider-Man. Those definitely blew the movies out of the water. I would rather have great drawing and voice acting versus movies where the actors have stupid lines. X-Men movies sucked hard. Spiderman movies were probably the best out of them all. I never did make sense out of movies that were nonanimated being done for these types of licenses. Maybe Disney will introduce characters to the Pixar realm and make titles that are better. I am not too worried about Disney screwing up and making everything G rated as their movies have frequent innuendo if you pay attention.
Posted by shootfirst (286 comments )
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This does not bode well for Marvel.
Either new employees will start having yiddish accents and or every room Marvel office will have a mandatory framed image of Mickey Mouse.

Wow talk about destroying corporate culture! I guess a crossover game of Wolverine VS Dumbo.

This strange convergence could have only thought up by executives smoking some illegal substance while watching the SYFY channel.
Posted by inachu (964 comments )
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R.I.P Marvel.
Posted by 10012-1a (8 comments )
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