Did Disney buy DC Comics

Answer 1

Admit it. We’re all thinking about it. Monday came with the seismic news that DC Comics had just suffered a round of major layoffs. High ranking executives, fired. 1/3 of the editorial staff, fired. DC Direct, the toy and collectible branch of the brand that had been operating for the last 22 years, shut down. DC Universe, the company’s streaming service has suffered numerous layoffs and is rumored to be on its last legs with all programming being moved to HBO’s new streaming service.

This is the darkest time in the industry. Not since the days of the collector market collapsing in the mid-1990s, where Marvel entered into chapter 11 bankruptcy, or the senate trials of the 1950s, which saw the industry come under fire and lead to the formation of the Comics Code have comics suffered such losses.

But like I said, admit it. We are all thinking the same thing when we heard this news. Is DC Comics in such bad shape that they might be open to a new owner? One with mouse ears perhaps?

Answer 2

No, Disney did not buy DC Comics. DC Comics is a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc., which is owned by WarnerMedia, a subsidiary of AT&T. Disney owns Marvel Comics, which is a separate comic book publisher and competitor to DC Comics.

Answer 3

Disney owns Marvel out right and all the characters. Disney bought out Marvel in 2009. Prior to this Marvel always struggled financially behind their biggest competitor DC comics. A solution to raise capital during the 1980's and 90's was to sell the film rights to their characters to various movie studios such as Sony, 20th Century Fox, Universal, Columbia, etc. When Marvel started producing their own movies beginning with Iron Man, which was released in 2008, these pre-existing contracts prevented Marvel from using some of their characters in their own movies. However there is a stipulation in the contracts that state if the studios do not produce a movie in a certain amount of time, the rights for those characters would revert back to Marvel. For example 20th Century Fox made a Daredevil move back in 2003 staring Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner. Later a spin off movie "Electra" was created in the same universe. As Fox was unable to get another sequal off the ground in time, the rights to Daredevil reverted back to Marvel in 2013 and Marvel was free to use the character in the MCU. Characters who the movie rights were previously owned by other studios and have reverted back to Marvel include. Captain America, Daredevil, Electra, Ghost Rider, Blade, Dr. Strange, Howard the Duck, The Punisher, Nick Fury, to name a few.

Sony still owns the rights to all Spiderman movies, and Fox still owns the X-Men and all The Fantastic Four as well as the related characters from those franchises, such as Venom and Dr. Doom. This is why we haven't seen these characters in the same movies with Iron man, Captain America, etc. Universal has a very complicated contract regarding the Hulk. They own the distribution rights to the character but Marvel owns the creative rights. Marvel can use the Hulk in the Avengers movies but any solo movie would be owned by Universal. The contract with Universal dates back to the 1970's with the original Hulk TV show with Bill Bixby, and has no expiration date so the Hulk will never completely revert back to Marvel. This means there will likely never be another independent Hulk movie. There are a few exceptions where Marvel shares the rights to certain characters, Quicksilver is one example, as long as their are differences in the way they are presented Marvel and Fox can use him. Spiderman recently appeared in Captain America Civil War. This was due to the most recent solo Spiderman movie that way under performed at the box office and resulted in an agreement with Sony pictures to use Spiderman in the MCU. Sony still owns creative control and the distribution of Spiderman movies for any future projects but it looks like for the time being they will be partnering with Marvel Studios to include him with the MCU. When Spiderman Homecoming comes out in 2017 it will have both the Marvel and Sony pictures logos attached to start of the movie.

As far as Cartoons, comics and Video Games not related to the movies Marvel can use any character any time they want to in any type of crossover.

So yes Disney owns Marvel, but Marvel doesn't fully own the rights to use all the characters in the movies.

Answer 4

No they did not purchase the rights to Marvel Comics. Disney purchased the rights to Marvel Entertainment which is a parent company to Marvel Comics but are not to be confused with each other.

Answer 5

Disney has not purchased Marvel yet, but they did state an intention to in 2009.

Answer 6

They didn't buy it yet.

Answer 7

no

Answer 8

No

Answer 9

Yes

Answer 10

no