I don’t think that Marvel can sustain the success they’ve had at the box office for too much longer. Oh it’s not going to be a precipitous drop – just a slow and steady drop off after the Avengers peak. Which means that Disney might have paid too much for the franchise.
But if I know the mouse, they are thinking of other money making ventures with the property. They have money to retain lawyers so I am expecting lawsuits in the future. But where exactly?
I think they were pleased to have purchased Iron Man, because of the potential lawsuits over the name. You know, with those iron man competitions that they hold all over the world. Where you have to swim, bicycle and run large distances. Disney will want a cut.
And to a lesser extent, Disney will want a cut of Iron Man royalties from Black Sabbath’s famous song.
Also, Disney is waiting for missteps from the DC franchise, Shazam. That superhero was originally called Captain Marvel before DC sued the creators into non existence for Captain Marvel being too much like Superman.
While the Captain Marvel imprint was dead, Marvel Comics took the name and started their own Captain Marvel.
A few years later, DC paid for the rights of the original Captain Marvel and entitled it Shazam for the magic word that Billy Batson says to change into Captain Marvel. Like it or not, there are now two Captain Marvels. Disney lawyers are likely salivating at the chance to sue DC for the rights of naming someone Captain Marvel.
But isn’t the mouse a source for good in the world and would never file frivolous lawsuits? Apparently you haven’t heard of Disney trying to back out of paying copyright to certain science fiction authors for their original treatments of Star Wars books. They reason that they never agreed to the original licencing terms that George Lucas did so they own the property but don’t have to pay copyrights to the authors. You could say the mouse has become evil. How would it be if we denied Disney’s copyrights? Suddenly copyright rules would be important again.
