When I heard that Disney had bought out Marvel I was beyond furious. Don’t get me wrong, I love Disney and lived off of their movies as a child but serious, Marvel? Why? What did they want with Marvel? What were they going to do to some of my favorite superheroes of all time? Over 5000 Marvel characters were turned over to Disney. They paid over $4 billion for Marvel. Disney now benefits from any movie or game based on Marvel characters like X-Men, Spiderman and Iron Man. Is their going to be Fantastic Four featuring Mickey Mouse rides at Disney World now? As much as I love Disney I was far from fond of the idea of them owning Marvel. This got me thinking though. What else does Disney own?
No wonder Miley Cyrus is so famous! Disney owns a lot more than I thought they did. It seriously feels like they own most of the world. I had no idea they owned ABC Network, ESPN, Lifetime Network, A&E and The History Channel. That last one nearly made me fall out of my chair. They also have a cruise line, several resorts and theme parks, hundreds of stores and theatre productions, Disney on Ice and clothing lines, food and beauty products, stationary, internet groups and Baby Einstein. It actually scared me to think about how much Disney has rule over. Disney owned my childhood with its cute movies about princesses, and now it owns me adult years with A&E and Marvel. Cross media ownership is terrifying.
By buying shares in all of these companies Disney has gradually come to own half of television, let alone the radio programming, magazines and other things they own. Whenever you listen to ABC Radio or buy a CD under Lyric Street records or buy a Marvel video game, comic or action figure, you are feeding money into Disney, allowing them the capabilities of owning more stock and further developing their cross ownership. While Disney still gets most of its revenue from the United States, it is working on global domination, so to say. Disney, like a lot of other of the world largest media firms own pieces of stock in interlocking boards, giving Disney more access to ownership and less competition. It also increases the chances of profit. World domination for Disney? I can see it.
Works Cited
McChesney, Robert W. “It’s a Small World of Big Conglomerates” The New Global Media 11 Nov. 1999: 1-3. Web.
Schroeder, Stan. “Disney to Buy Marvel for $4 Billion” Mashable. Word Press, 2009. Web. 11 Nov. 2009.
Unknown Author. “Who Owns What: Disney” Columbia Journalism Review. Columbia Journalism Review, 2008. Web. 11 Nov. 2009.
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