Regardless of what you will have heard, Disney isn’t shopping for Sony’s roster of Marvel characters. Sony
A fast perusal across the web during the last 24 hours will reveal a juicy but baseless rumor making the rounds: Disney goes to purchase Sony Footage particularly to amass the rest of the Marvel Comics character library. As engaging as this gossip might sound for comedian e-book obsessives who would like to see the Disney-owned Marvel Studios full its assortment, logic has different plans.
Right here’s each motive why Disney is not going to be shopping for out Sony in relation to Marvel.
Sony isn’t on the market
Sony Footage has lengthy been a supply of hypothesis in relation to Hollywood’s ravenous merger and acquisition urge for food. Sony Group, which was as soon as rumored to be eyeing an exit from Hollywood to raised concentrate on its core companies, may make a fairly penny on the open market by dangling the leisure division. However in Might, CEO Yoshida Kenichiro shot down that risk by reaffirming that Sony Footage is just not on the market. Definitively.
The CEO is proud of Sony Footage’ place because the lone main content material arms supplier in Hollywood, which has led to huge cash licensing offers with the trade’s greatest studios. Talking of which…
Sony and Disney have already struck a licensing deal
Again in April, Sony and Netflix agreed to a huge Pay 1 window licensing deal rumored to be value $3 billion. Two weeks later, the corporate struck a Pay 2 licensing pact with Disney. You merely don’t lock in these two long-term agreements if a sale is within the near-term future. (You additionally don’t exit and spend $1.2 billion to amass anime streaming service Crunchyroll, as Sony did in April, if you wish to rid your self of your leisure division). It’s simply not a sound technique and would additional complicate a future sale, not expedite it.
And in the event you’re Disney, you don’t fork over a large licensing sum for the much less precious Pay 2 window in the event you’re angling to purchase the joint. Double dipping could also be frequent at Tremendous Bowl events, however not on the company government ranges of Hollywood.
Disney in all probability couldn’t purchase Sony
Disney has grow to be recognized for its splashy acquisitions in the course of the Bob Iger period. This embrace Pixar ($7.4 billion), Marvel ($4 billion), Lucasfilm ($4.05 billion), and Fox ($71 billion). Sony Footage Leisure may fetch round $30 billion, a tall order after such a spending spree during the last 15 years, even for an organization with a market cap of $315 billion. Whereas Disney isn’t going to show away from a aggressive benefit, the corporate doesn’t look like out there for a serious addition in the mean time.
Extra importantly, the Division of Justice and Federal Commerce Fee would have a conniption if such a transfer was proposed. Disney has already absorbed one main studio in Fox. Would regulatory powers actually enable the corporate to amass a second? Chair of the FTC Lina Khan has been vocal about her want to crack down on monopolies. Although she’s largely targeted on huge tech corporations similar to Amazon and Apple, a Disney energy play of this magnitude would elicit backlash.
Sony is banking on its Marvel roster
The opposite motive Disney is unlikely to purchase out Sony and purchase its roster of Marvel characters is as a result of Sony is, uhh, utilizing them! The studio is all in on its terribly named Sony Footage Universe of Marvel Characters (SPUMC).
Tom Hardy’s Venom by some means earned $856 million worldwide again in 2018, Jared Leto’s Morbius and Venom: Let There Be Carnage are due out within the close to future regardless of COVID-related delays, and Tom Holland’s Spider-Man might very nicely be reclaimed solely for Sony’s burgeoning continuity. Plus, there’s a Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse sequel within the works.
In 2019, Sony tapped Phil Lord and Chris Miller (21 Bounce Avenue, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse) to create a Marvel TV universe for the studio with a five-year, nine-figure deal. Amazon Prime Video is anticipated to be the on-screen dwelling for the upcoming deluge of sequence.
Spider-Man: Far From Dwelling ($1.1 billion) is Sony’s highest-grossing movie worldwide of all time. The studio isn’t throwing away its most prized asset(s) in a one-off deal when it might as an alternative leverage them for profitable recurring income and worth long-term. Because the lone high-profile third-party movie and TV supplier to an trade determined for streaming success, Sony finds itself in a singular place cushioned with fee potential.