Disney and Marvel: A match made in Heaven?

As many people are now aware, on August 31st, The Walt Disney Company acquired Marvel Entertainment in a $4 Billion dollar deal. This news hit fans on both sides like a ton of bricks. Not very many people, if any, saw this deal coming and it came as quite a shock. Some of the first ideas that came to my mind included "Where do the superheroes fit into Disney?" "Why would Disney spend so much money on this?" and "What does Universal (Who have an entire section of their Orlando park devoted to Marvel Characters) think about all this?"

The likely motive for such a buyout seems to be to target the teenage and young adult male audiences. Disney does not have much in the way of this target audience, besides their heroes of course, so having this now covers this demographic quite well. I have a feeling that this is not the only motive though. I wonder myself what exactly the Disney Company has in store for these over 5000 characters they have now acquired. A theme park area of their own? The movies that are going to be made about the characters?

Many were surprised also with this multi-billion dollar buyout because of the recent financial troubles noticed around Disney, including the extension of the Free Dining Plan, the "Buy 4 night get 3 free" deal, the minimized hours of Fantasmic, the surprising price hikes and the cast member job cuts.

USA Today has an excellent, in depth article about the buyout and what both sides of the coin seem to be thinking. It also talks about what to expect in the near future.

For this USA Today article, click here.

I am interested in hearing everyone's opinion and any questions you have on this buyout. How do you feel about this? Did Iger do a good thing for the company with this buyout? Feel free to comment on this post or to send me an email at lady_aurora_yensid@hotmail.com