DVDizzy Forum

Even if Sony should end up selling Columbia Pictures, Disney would probably not be allowed to buy it because of the antitrust laws. But what if they made a deal that said if Sony is ever going to sell, Disney would have the rights to buy Spider-Man back? That way the potential owner, whoever it is, would have the movie studio, and Disney the Marvel character. Shouldn't be any problem, assuming Sony would be willing to sign the deal. Maybe they could even buy him back without someone buying Colombia.
Another possibility would be if Disney bought another studio, and then divide into two or more units, but keeping all the streaming and video rights under the same roof. Not sure if that's how it works, but the bigger a movie library, the better. Netflix a couple of years ago, not sure how it is today, could offer about 1000 titles. A single video store with a huge selection of movies to choose from can have over 128,000 unique titles (Scarecrow video) . The combined library of all the streaming services should ideologically speaking represent a huge movie library that is as complete as possible. Including indies, public domain and niche and cult films. And also foreign movies when possible. Sooner or later we will see a consolidation of streaming services, and it should be in every one's interest that as many titles as possible are easy available.

If Disney really wanted to they would have simply bought Spider-Man back from Sony. It would have cost them way too much, perhaps more than its worth, but it would have been possible. With Disney's current deal with Sony, they get to put Spider-Man in their own movies so there's not much of an incentive anymore to buy it back. They don't care enough to buy the much cheaper distribution rights of standalone Hulk movies from Universal, let alone buy back a very expensive Spider-Man.

It's more plausible for them to just buy all of Sony Pictures!

Several analysts say independent studios like Lionsgate and MGM should expect bids, but also Sony Pictures and Paramount.

Source: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/ ... ls-1067622

Sotiris wrote:It's more plausible for them to just buy all of Sony Pictures!

Several analysts say independent studios like Lionsgate and MGM should expect bids, but also Sony Pictures and Paramount.

Source: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/ ... ls-1067622

Well, it would be nice to hear it straight from the horse's mouth what their plans with Spider-Man are. It would be nice to see all Marvel characters under the same umbrella. Including Hulk and Fantastic Four.

At this rate we won't even need a disney discussion board, everything can just go in the general board. It'll all be disney at some point.

Even if Disney wanted to buy them, would it even be possible so soon after the expensive Fox acquisition?

Sony Entertainment, Including 'Spider-Man', Might Be Up For Sale
http://comicbook.com/marvel/2018/02/03/ ... pider-man/

So far it seems to be just speculations, but who knows, it could be true not too far into the future. It all depends when it happens if they decide to sell their entertainment branch. If the deal between Disney and Fox has been cleared by that, and Warner and AT&T for that matter, they could possibly include Colombia as well. The only way to keep it as a separate studio was if someone from the outside bought it, like Amazon for instance. (And the future of Paramount (Viacom) still remains uncertain. but CBS is most likely.) That would mean all the major animation studios would be restricted to Disney, Warner and Universal.

But no matter what happens, I hope Disney is able to buy back the movie rights for Spider-Man and the Spider-Man universe. Then, as mentioned, there is still the problem with Hulk and the distribution rights, and there is still some confusion about Namor. It is claimed the Fantastic Four rights has been cleared out, but still no details about it.

If Columbia Pictures got sold to some another company, wouldn't the rights to Spider-man automatically revert back to Disney/Marvel?

^No, if Sony Pictures were bought by or merged with an another company, the Spider-Man rights would go with them. According to the 2011 contract between Sony and Marvel, the Spider-Man license is transferable. It seems like Sony was prepared for such an occasion from way back then.

A rumor says that Apple is planning to buy Sony. If it is true or not remains to be seen, but considering that the rumors about Fox and Warner Bros. being sold were correct, who knows.

The point is that if the movie studio is sold, which could happen With so many major players in the streaming business looking for ways to expand their own content library, Peter will return to Marvel.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/apple-tv ... 44095.html

https://wegotthiscovered.com/movies/spi ... umor-true/

I doubt this will happen. Earlier this year, the president of Sony Corp revealed he had no intention of selling Sony Pictures as he views it as one of his company's most important assets.

It doesn't help that Bob Iger just left the Apple board.

Bah, let Sony keep him. MCU Spiderman was terrible, so maybe with Sony we'll have something more in line with the comics. I don't want to see Zendaya, Uncle Tony and Aunt Bombshell ever again.

Even if Sony Pictures were to be sold, Spider-Man would not revert to Marvel as the rights to the character are transferable.

Can't Disney just buy out Sony's rights to Spider-Man?

thedisneyspirit wrote:Bah, let Sony keep him. MCU Spiderman was terrible, so maybe with Sony we'll have something more in line with the comics. I don't want to see Zendaya, Uncle Tony and Aunt Bombshell ever again.

You already have the Sam Raimi Trilogy for that.

Avaitor wrote:Can't Disney just buy out Sony's rights to Spider-Man?

You can't buy something that's not for sale. Spider-Man is Sony's biggest and most consistent moneymaker. They're never letting him go.

I'm just the messenger. But the rumors has it that Apple is planning a huge acquisition. If not Sony, then someone else. It makes sense, considering that Apple intends to become a significant player in the streaming market.

Assuming the old clause from 1997 still counts, things could change if someone else buys the studio: https://twitter.com/IwanR0berts/status/ ... 84/photo/1

These are the kinds of contracts I wish would be more available for the public. If we know what they say, we could avoid all the speculations regarding the rights for Namor or if Constantin Film still have some rights concerning Fantastic Four.

Someone prefer the Sony Spider-Man, others the Marvel Spider-Man. My opinion is that Spider-Man lives in a far more restricted universe at Sony. At Disney his world becomes much larger.




But no matter what is going to happen, let's assume that Apple really does buy Sony, and that Spider-Man returns to Disney/Marvel.

Since we are talking about Spider-Man here, it is only fitting that such an incident would add further to the already existing web. Perhaps mentioned before, but if so, it doesn't hurt to repeat it:

I don't know about Jack Kirby, but Stan Lee was influenced by Walt Disney while growing up. So was George Lucas (https://topdisneyblog.com/did-you-know- ... the-1950s/). If not for Disney, it is possible Lucas would have picked a different career.

Alexander Schure wanted to become the new Walt Disney, and hired several computer scientists at NYIT, amongst them Ed Catmull, who wanted to become a Disney artist when he was a kid, but after finding out his artistic skills were not good enough, became a computer scientist instead. Schure's and his team's goal was to make the first computer animated feature, like some modern Disney studio.

After the success of Star Wars, Marvel published a comic book version based on the universe. According to the rumors, these comics helped save Marvel back then from bankruptcy.

George Lucas then headhunted several of the employees and created his own graphics lab at Lucasfilm. John Lasseter, who became a Disney artist because of his fascination about Disney animation, was hired behind Lucas' back.

It was spun off as Pixar, and Apple creator Steve Jobs became its investor, and later owner. It was Pixar that created CAPS for Disney, which gave their movies an energy injection. And because Disney was buying both some of the expensive Pixar computers and paid well for the CAPS product, it helped Pixar to survive.
It was Steve Jobs who saved Pixar by keeping it alive all these years, paying as much as 50 million dollars. And it was Toy Story that saved Steve Jobs and made him a billionair and a golden boy again. When Apple decided to buy Seve Jobs' Next, he became a part of the company again and boss once more. He used the success and experience he had gained during his absence and made an Apple that was almost bankrupt to one of the biggest companies in the world.

So to sum it up; Disney influenced Marvel and Lucas. Lucas saved Marvel, or at least made it easier for them to survive during a hard time. Lucasfilm hired Disney fans that wanted to make the first computer animated movie. They later became Pixar, created CAPS for Disney, and riding on a wave of success, agreed with Pixar that they should distribute Toy Story for them.

Disney would then buy both Marvel, Pixar and Lucasfilm.
If Steve Jobs hadn't created Apple, he wouldn't have been fired from his own company. If he hadn't been fired he wouldn't invested his millions in Next and Pixar. According to Alvy Ray Smith, who couldn't stand Jobs, nobody else in this world would have refused to give up on the money drain that Pixar was for so many years.
And the chain of events that included Lucasfilm, Pixar and Disney made it possible for Jobs to return and save a struggling Apple. They became big enough to launch their own streaming service, and even buy Sony. If they do that, and if Spider-Man then returns to Marvel, it is thanks to Apple. Apple in turn can thanks Disney, at least indirectly, for Steve Jobs' rescue.

(And both Disney and Apple have created their own streaming services as a consequence of Netflix. And Netflix exist as an independent company thanks to Blockbuster, who turned down the offer to buy them and just laughed at their business suggestions. It started the streaming era, which is why Disney acquired Fox and all the other mergers in the movie industry.)

It's all connected.

Sony & Marvel made up; Spidey's back in the MCU:
https://variety.com/2019/film/news/sony ... 203351489/

I knew this feud wouldn't last long. There was no way either company would be okay with the ramifications of this.