Disney Entertainment, owner of damn near everything in the entertainment world, is planning on purchasing Marvel Entertainment. The purchase price is purportedly $4,000,000,000. That’s four billion, for the zero challenged.
No word on what will happen to the current crew of Marvel employees, but as of this writing the House of Idea is not expected to move to the west coast.
More as this story develops.
Marvel’s second quarter earnings reports are in, and while they beat expectations, it wasn’t by much. They made (almost) exactly the same amount in the first quarter as they did in the second, which is not really a good thing for a business to do.
Publishers Weekly summarized the reports thusly:
Publishing revenue at Marvel Entertainment was flat in the second
quarter, slipping from $31.8 million to $31.7 million. Operating income
fell more noticeably, dropping 6.8%, to $10.9 million. A lower level of
high-margin advertising and custom publishing sales was cited as the
reason for the decline in earnings. For the first six months of 2009,
sales in the publishing segment fell 1.4%, to $57.5 million, and
operating income declined 17.1%, to $17.9 million. The company said it
expects the publishing segment to finish 2009 with revenue between $115
million and $120 million; in 2008 sales were $125.4 million.
DeadlineHollywoodDaily.com’s Nikki Finke has more detail:
The company said it benefited from growth at its film production segment, primarily in initial revenue for Iron Man DVD
sales and domestic pay TV window. But Marvel’s profit fell 38% after a
decline in licensing sales for toys and character-related products
following its Iron Man and Incredible Hulk bonanzas.
Marvel’s 2nd-quarter revenue fell 26%, and net income fell. But Marvel
also raised the low end of its full-year profit and sales forecasts
with Iron Man 2 coming out in 2010.
Heidi MacDonald over at The Beat says it’s a sign of a slower Q2 for comics all around. What do you think?
Nikki Finke of Deadline Hollywod Daily points to the most delicious piece of schadenfreude pie I’ve seen in a long while:
So fired New Line founder Bob Shaye told his close pals the following story: Years ago, as everyone knows, New Line had Iron Man in development. But then Shaye and Avi Arad, the longtime chairman and CEO of Marvel Studios, got into an argument over whether Iron Man should fly. (This is what grown men debate in the movie biz…) Bob contended that Iron Man would look goofy soaring in an iron suit. But Avi was adamant that the pic had to stay true to the comic book so the character should take to the sky. Eventually the option ran out, and Avi announced a deal with Merrill Lynch to self-finance Marvel’s future films. Now, most men would have left the argument there. Not Bob. He told his friends that he was so convinced Marvel would run into trouble on its Iron Man movie that he took out a big short on Marvel stock. But, as we all know, the pic not only made gobs of money, but Marvel shares shot skyward to an all-time high. And then the stock was recently listed on the S&P’s midcap index so it went up another 4%. Now, most men would have given up there and then. Not Bob. He told his friends he was still shorting the stock because he believed Marvel would give it back when The Incredible Hulk failed. That didn’t happen either.
Wow. And I thought Shaye keeping Peter Jackson from making The Hobbit was dumb. A shame he’s already been fired from New Line — this is almost worth hiring him back just to fire him again for good measure.
Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige was full of details about current and future projects during a recent screening of new footage from The Incredible Hulk, according to various reports from the event.
Among the juiciest of the news was info related to two highly anticipated Marvel Studios films, The First Avenger: Captain America (When did this film get slapped with the "First Avenger" portion of the title, by the way? Did I miss something?) and the big-screen debut of Marvel’s favorite Norse god, Thor.
According to Feige, Captain America will be a period piece, with a story that occurs during World War II, while the plot of Thor will rely heavily on scenes occurring in Asgard, the mythic Norse realm where the gods go about their godly business.
From Sci Fi Wire:
"The film is not all Asgard, but it will be a big chunk in Asgard, yeah," Feige said.
Feige promised an announcement about a director for Thor "later this summer." Mark Protosevich (The Cell) is drafting a script, which should be submitted in a couple of weeks, he added.
Feige also confirmed that a familiar object in the background of a scene in Iron Man was indeed Captain America’s shield. As the sleuths over at io9 report, the object was absent in the film’s trailer, which happened to include the very same scene — making me that much more impressed with Marvel Studios’ willingness to include these types of Easter Egg elements.
Head over to SciFi Wire for more on Marvel Studios’ slate of films and information from the Hulk screening, and check out the before-and-after screenshots from Iron Man (featuring a glimpse of Cap’s shield) posted over at io9.
Following up on the previous story that Iron Man placed 14th in the "highest grossing opening day," reports are now coming in that Marvel Studios’ first production brought in an estimated $104 million since Thursday here in the states and an estimated $96 million overseas.
This ranks Iron Man as the 10th highest grossing film on opening weekend, and easily the highest-grossing film for 2008 thus far. The film also produced the fourth highest-grossing opening weekend ever for a superhero movie.
This will no doubt provide the go-ahead for the proposed sequel, getting Robert Downey Jr. back into the suit in around five months for an expected May 2010 release.
We’ll be tracking the box office numbers for all of the big comics-related films this summer, so check back here at ComicMix for more to come!
It was an auspicious start for the Metal Marvel Hero, as Iron Man grossed an estimated $5.5 million at around 2,500 theaters during its Thursday night previews and made an estimated $32.5 million at 4,105 theaters on Friday, making it the 14th highest-grossing opening day on record. (You can read the ComicMix reviews of the film here and here.)
The Friday gross was comparable to X2: X-Men United, which debuted May 2 five years ago, bringing in $31.2.
Paramount big-wig Brad Grey went on record last week by saying that as long as the flick does "as well as expected", the studio wants to get a sequel in theaters for the same May weekend in 2010 — and with numbers like these, that could be more realistic than we imagined.
While this is actually a Marvel Studios-produced film, with Paramount distributing, it’s no surprise after these numbers that they will be rushing to get Downey Jr. back in the red-and-gold ASAP. Director Jon Favreau has already stated that he planned a loose structure for three movies, with the Mandarin presumably making an appearance somewhere down the line.
Keep your eye on ComicMix for more updates on how the first big blockbuster of the summer does in the box office!
One of the things made Marvel Comics stand out from other publishers back in the Silver Age was the concept of a shared universe. Other publishers would have guest stars every now and then, but Stan Lee reasoned that if all these costumed types were all running around New York City, they should be bumping into each other left and right. And fans loved it.
Marvel Studios is taking a cue from its comics roots and is having Iron Man star Robert Downey Jr. cameo as inventor Tony Stark in this summer’s other Marvel superhero movie The Incredible Hulk.
Downey confirmed the rumor in an interview on MTV Movies Blog.
“It happens to be a scene where I basically approach [William Hurt’s character, General Ross], and we may be considering going into some sort of limited partnership together,” Downey stated.
Downey also teased that another unnamed star would appear in the Iron Man credits. Maybe the Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury rumor buzz we’ve been hearing? Hmm. We’ll be sure to stay in our seats until the end for both movies this summer.
Audiences love superhero movies. They also love zombie movies. What if… What if Marvel Studios decided to greenlight Marvel Zombies: The Movie?
Sadly, this is not reality. But Ojala Productions created a fan made, not-for-profit trailer for the popular comic book that gives us a peak and what could be. Similar to Batman: Dead End, the famous internet short where the Dark Knight squared off against Joker, an Alien and a Predator, Marvel Zombies was filmed as a calling card to show studios Ojala Productions’ capabilities.
Click here to see the trailer. Warning: graphic portrayals of violence and gore
Well, comics fan, it looks like you might have something to buy with that Pottery Barn gift certificate you received at your wedding after all.
Brandweek reports that Marvel Entertainment has partnered with Pottery Barn to begin offering a line of Spider-Man products, including bedding, lighting and various home decor and furniture, starting this spring. The agreement between the upscale chain and superhero product provider is part of a broad strategy on Marvel’s part to tap into the more affluent portions of the consumer market.
Pottery Barn, a relative novice in entertainment licenses, felt Spider-Man was a good fit for its mom-heavy consumer demo.
Jill Larue, senior vice president and general merchandise manager of catalog for Pottery Barn Kids, said it “pairs well with the classic and timeless approach” of its furnishings.
In order to fit in with the stable of Pottery Barn merchandise, the two companies toned down the standard, brightly colored Spider-Man presence on various products and plan to offer "a vintage look with lots of solid colors and less frenetic character images" on the products that will be exclusive to Pottery Barn — primarily children’s furniture and other home furnishings.
(via mmm)
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