David Poland says "Disney might kill Thor."

[Ash Talon]

Marvel's initial loan was for $500 million.

(in millions)
Iron Man cost: $140
Incredible Hulk cost: $150

Iron Man advertising: $100 (guess)
Incredible Hulk advertising: $100 (guess)

Iron Man box office: $585
Incredible Hulk box office: $263

which leaves $358. Paramount and Universal get a cut, but they may have also helped on advertising. Obviously, theater chains get a cut as well. Add in DVD/Blu-Ray revenue. And all the merchandising revenue which is actually probably at least another hundered million. And Marvel clearly made a profit off the two movies.

Do they have enough left over to finance another movie? Well, they have 2 movies in pre-production which takes some money. And of course are shooting IM2 as well. Therefore, their original loan has probably run out.

However, didn't they get another loan? I'm pretty sure there was a story about them getting another line of financing. At the very least, they had a revolving line of credit at Merril Lynch. So basically they'd be fine with funding other projects.

But it all comes down to this....why would Disney pay to acquire the Marvel brand and then kill the next Marvel films which are already in the pipeline? It makes no sense. So, Disney isn't going to kill Thor or Captain America.

 

[Webhead2006]

Yea and we know they did this deal for one of the reasons to gain the boy/teen/young adult male audience they lost in the last few years.

 

[Antonello Blueberry]

Marvel's initial loan was for $500 million.

(in millions)
Iron Man cost: $140
Incredible Hulk cost: $150

Iron Man advertising: $100 (guess)
Incredible Hulk advertising: $100 (guess)

Iron Man box office: $585
Incredible Hulk box office: $263

which leaves $358. Paramount and Universal get a cut, but they may have also helped on advertising. Obviously, theater chains get a cut as well. Add in DVD/Blu-Ray revenue. And all the merchandising revenue which is actually probably at least another hundered million. And Marvel clearly made a profit off the two movies.

Why waste time in speculations and first grade math when there's a yearly report ?
http://marvel.com/company/pdfs/2008_annual_report.pdf

 

[FaT_tONle]

Our 2008 net sales rose 39% to $676 million, driving a 47% increase in net income to $206 million, or $2.61 per diluted share.​

So where does that 47% increase fit in? They sold 676 million in the green last year, and that was an increase of 206 million from last year or am I not reading that correctly?​

 

[Chewy]

Net sales were $676M. Net Income was $206M. The percentages are the change from the previous year's Net sales/net income

 

[Webhead2006]

I myself dont get the whole money talk stuff, its something i dont really follow or understand.

 

[FaT_tONle]

Net sales were $676M. Net Income was $206M. The percentages are the change from the previous year's Net sales/net income

Ahh, I assumed sales were basically 100% income. 206 million in income for 2008 seems pretty light though no?

 

[Chewy]

Not really when you take into account the huge loan they had to repay and their assorted costs

 

[FaT_tONle]

Yeah but I don't think they had to pay that off in year one... or did they? Again if these loans work perpetually then I'd assume Marvel would have to pay them off on a year by year basis, but going from almost 700 in sales to 200 in income is a pretty wide margin. Obviously those sales numbers won't be nearly as high in 2009 and they probably needed a huge chunk of money to get these other films moving forward.

 

[TheComicbookKid]

Didn't Merrill Lynch get bought out by Bank of America? Maybe Marvel wanted to get out from under the loan ASAP.

 

[Octoberist]

potentially TDK2 will be 2011 as well.

TDK 2 sounds so weird. I prefer 'untitled Batman film 3'.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Technically, untitled Batman film 7, when you get right down to it.

 

[Spider-Vader]

I don't believe this *****e for a second.
Why would Disney cancel this movie when they're looking for an epic LOTR style series. Thor's right up their alley & it could be a potentially big hit. A mix between Iron Man & LOTR would sound pretty appealing to some people.

 

[Timstuff]

Marvel's initial loan was for $500 million.

(in millions)
Iron Man cost: $140
Incredible Hulk cost: $150

Iron Man advertising: $100 (guess)
Incredible Hulk advertising: $100 (guess)

Iron Man box office: $585
Incredible Hulk box office: $263

which leaves $358. Paramount and Universal get a cut, but they may have also helped on advertising. Obviously, theater chains get a cut as well. Add in DVD/Blu-Ray revenue. And all the merchandising revenue which is actually probably at least another hundered million. And Marvel clearly made a profit off the two movies.

Do they have enough left over to finance another movie? Well, they have 2 movies in pre-production which takes some money. And of course are shooting IM2 as well. Therefore, their original loan has probably run out.

However, didn't they get another loan? I'm pretty sure there was a story about them getting another line of financing. At the very least, they had a revolving line of credit at Merril Lynch. So basically they'd be fine with funding other projects.

But it all comes down to this....why would Disney pay to acquire the Marvel brand and then kill the next Marvel films which are already in the pipeline? It makes no sense. So, Disney isn't going to kill Thor or Captain America.

Your guesses for advertising are way off. No movie has ever had an advertising budget of 100 million or more. I'm pretty sure the most expensive on record is 50 or 60 million. Also, Iron Man's production budget was 183 million, not 140 million.

 

[FaT_tONle]

I assume the distributors cover much of the marketing fees.

 

[Antonello Blueberry]

I assume the distributors cover much of the marketing fees.

And you're right...

 

[Microchip]

But it all comes down to this....why would Disney pay to acquire the Marvel brand and then kill the next Marvel films which are already in the pipeline? It makes no sense. So, Disney isn't going to kill Thor or Captain America.

Exaaaaactly. Disney already has a youth following and people who know how to cater to them. They aren't going to make Marvel all kiddy just to bolster an already successful fanbase.

They've got Marvel for hitting the teen and young adult demographic, somewhere they have trouble with. They're not going to shut down Thor or Captain America. They want to see what their new assets can do.

 

[irishjosh]

Sorry but f**k that I'll be pissed if they do that

 

[Ace of Knaves]

Marvel short on cash? The comic book industry is booming. High sales, high prices. Big profits from the likes or Iron Man.

Disney didn't take over because Marvel needed cash. Disney took over because THEY wanted a big piece of the comic book pie. Which is very lucrative at the moment. End of story.

And anyway, this guy is a film critic? What the **** does he know about the takeover of business in general? He's a film critic. He can't be taken seriously when talking about business things, that hasn't got anything to do with him.

It would be like a chef making bold and supposed factual statements about government wetwork operations.

 

[I SEE SPIDEY]

I agree, I don't understand what the big deal is? David Poland is a critic that I don't listen to, nothing more.

Anything can happen with movies in early development so I'm not saying it won't be cancelled but I don't think David Poland knows anything.

 

[Evil Twin]

Marvel short on cash? The comic book industry is booming. High sales, high prices. Big profits from the likes or Iron Man.

There's nothing "high" about comic book sales on a historical basis. Quite the opposite actually. It's better than it was in the post-crash 90s, but far, far from the peak days.

Disney didn't buy Marvel because of their comic book sales.

 

[Ace of Knaves]

No not comic book sales. For the comic book market in general. Books, movies, merchandise etc. The whole shebang.

 

[Evil Twin]

No not comic book sales. For the comic book market in general. Books, movies, merchandise etc. The whole shebang.

Sure, there's large interest at the moment. That doesn't mean that everything is going to be a mega-hit and there's no restraint on resources spent on a property. Or that Marvel isn't paying substantial interest on their borrowing.

Neither Disney or Marvel are going to move forward on a Thor project without budget being a consideration. While I doubt that Thor is on the verge of being killed, projects of this kind have a way of having budgets start to expand. I'm sure they're having a lot of very hard discussions on how to get the most bang for their buck.

 

[Ace of Knaves]

Yea but that isn't really new...news. That happens for anything this day and age.

 

[Brian2887]

People are taking this Disney acquisition too seriously. I don't think day-to-day life at Marvel is going to change all that much. Disney owns a lot of movie studios and television channels that operate pretty autonomously.