Disney buying DC Comics 2021. Last week, reports surfaced that Warner Bros., DC Comics and DC Brand are officially being sold. CNBC first reported that the merger of WarnerMedia and Discovery, is the trojan horse to have the deal completed.
The new company, WarnerDiscovery, has given flexibility for a sell of both entities to Walt Disney Company. The move could have both DC Comics and the DC brand under Disney and Marvel.
Apple, Amazon and Netflix are also inquiring about the sale, but the Disney move looks to be legit. Here’s the explanation of how the move is going to get done, with no interruptions. Now, AT&T, parent company of WarnerMedia, is looking to get completely out of entertainment.
With AT&T is expected to retain majority shares in the WarnerDiscovery merger, the former NBC Universal executive is expected to play a major name. Current CEO of Discovery, David Zaslav, would include NBC, Peacock Streaming and other factions within the company sold in the WarnerDiscovery deal.
Now, this comes off the heels of the controversial report last year; that Marvel was looking to take over DC, in this now confirmed major sale. Kevin Feige, who runs the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe, could assist in the development of the DC Universe.
Imagine seeing Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and the Justice League teaming up with Spider-Man, the Incredible Hulk, the X-Men, the Fantastic Four and the Avengers. Why are we posting this days later? Simply, because a friend at AT&T confirmed this deal is actually in the works.
Disney and Marvel vs Warner Bros and DC Comics - A case study on the competitive advantage of using an Agile Outcome based approach.[]
Chris Chamberlain
Chris Chamberlain[]
Chief Architect | Head of Data | Strategic Leader[]
Published Apr 20, 2020
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Disney and Marvel vs Warner Bros and DC Comics - A case study on the competitive advantage of using an Agile Outcome based approach.
In the film industry Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman films and television series led the way for superhero’s, with an occasional hit from Hulk, Spider-Man and X-Men. Beyond those four characters the mass market didn’t really know of other superheroes.
Warner Bros had a good relationship with DC Comics and had secured the film licences to several of their characters.
Disney didn’t really do “superhero” films at the time, focusing mainly on animation and films targeted at the younger audience.
That was all to change. Disney acquired Marvel, whilst Warner Bros continued with a licencing model for DC Comics characters.
Both franchises have many things in common. Both are widely read comic books, both have a vast array of diverse characters, both have superhero’s and super villains. So, why are the financial fortunes and critical reviews of the films so different? What has an outcome approach got anything to do with films? Can you make a film franchise using Agile principles?
2009 – The year the finances started to change.
Warner Bros had finished filming the last of the Harry Potter books, to be released in 2011 and had a good pipeline of recognised character films in production, including Sherlock Holmes and The Dark Knight Rises (part 2 of the Batman re-vamp) and did not see a reason to change their franchise licencing model.
Disney had started to realise the benefits of acquiring strong brands to develop into films and merchandising opportunities rather than use a licensing model; they had purchased Pixar outright in 2005 after a successful licensing agreement and in 2009 had just finished production of Toy Story 3.
Disney’s CEO, Bob Iger, saw an opportunity to consolidate all the Marvel characters and fully acquire the company, not just license the characters.
Disney bought Marvel outright in 2009, for a staggering $4.2bn (USD) and over the course of 10 years spent $4.5bn (USD) producing 23 films. Those films generated c.$22.4bn (USD) at the box office alone.
That’s a return on investment (RoI) of c.260% - generating roughly $2.60 for every $1 spent. To put that into contrast, the average RoI of the stock exchange between 1923 and 2016 was just over 112% and the average in the film industry for films with a budget of $100m (USD) or more was c.104%.
Warner Bros reacted to Disney’s success and used their relationship with DC comics to licence the rights to all their characters and stories in 2013 for around $4bn (USD). Up to 2019 they produced and released 7 films at a cost of c.$1.4bn, generating box office revenues of c.$5.3bn (USD). This generated a loss with a RoI of 98%.
What has an outcome approach got to do with anything?
When Disney acquired Marvel, they had a plan. They had a vision of how to develop the franchise at a low financial risk without having to commit to long term contracts with actors.
They used an Agile Outcome based approach.
Marvel films are set out in “Phases” over around 5 years in duration which lead to a finale “Avengers” film, the first two phases had 6 and 7 films, phase 3 had 11 films in total, with the two part “Avengers – End game” being the most successful of all the Marvel films to date.
The plots of the films in each phase are interconnected, some in obvious ways, others in more subtle ways.
How is this Agile? It’s Agile, in that each film is a standalone minimal viable product. At any point after each film, Disney could have stopped and had a film and plot work in isolation. Each of the phases they developed were MVP too. They could have stopped after each of the “Avengers” films, which signalled the completion of each phase / story arc.
The Outcome approach comes into play when you consider the phases and the “Target State” of the “Avenger” films, all of which are where the plots of the films align and join together. Knowing the plot, or Target State, of the final film then enabled the required Outcomes from the other plots to be identified and developed.
To oversimplify it; they defined the Outcome they wanted, created a roadmap of outcomes to reach it and set out minimal viable products (MVP) or films to reach it.
I doubt Disney used this terminology when creating their plans, but the results do align to the approaches and have been successful in any way you can measure it.
Why couldn’t Warner Bros copy Disney’s success?
Warner Bros originally tried to mimic the Disney approach and create interconnected films which then lead to a join up film “Justice League”. DC's Superman, Batman and Justice League meets Marvel's Spider-Man, X-Men, Fantastic Four and Avengers.
Warner Bros, however, were too keen to get to a “Justice League” that they didn’t consider the Outcome. They rushed the plots of the other films, which didn’t connect into the final “Justice League” film to try and catch up with Disney’s “Avenger” films. At best, all they did was to introduce the characters to us ahead of the final film. The original director, Zack Snyder, had planned to make at least three "Justice league" films, but was replaced by Josh Weddon before the first one had been completed, incorporating some of the story lines from the other two as he did so.
It just didn’t work. It wasn’t connected, the Outcomes weren’t defined, the alignment of plots was absent.
Warner Bros did not have the vision, the end state, that Disney had. They used a product-based approach, individually each film was ok, and some were good. The sum of the parts did not add up to be greater than the whole. They were too fixed on delivering a product, that the quality was low and the audiences (the customers) saw this.
Warner Bros in 2019, acknowledged that approach hasn’t worked for them and have switched back to individual character plots.
My reflections
This is my view of the situation, and I’m sure there will be other complexities hidden behind the scenes.
However, from the publicly available information and my own experiences, this is a great example of success using Agile and Outcomes, even if it wasn’t created using the terminology/methodology by design.
For me, it shows that in any industry using the principles of Agile combined with an Outcome approach can outperform similar organisations with similar resources to reach the same customers.
Look for this to gain heavy steam in the coming months.
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Anonymous 7 months ago Man that's some serious clickbait.
Anonymous 7 months ago It just won’t make sense for Disney to buy DC cause they already got Marvel but it would be cool if they crossover by a movie or something but I think it might ruined the entire superhero universe if this happens.
Anonymous 9 months ago On 9/4/2021, DC Chief Creative Officer Jim Lee has confirmed that WarnerMedia (Warner Bros. Discovery) will continue to publish DC Comics as it heads forward into the future, that means Disney would never buy DC from Warner Bros.
Anonymous 9 months ago dc is already trash, disney will just spice it up.
Anonymous 10 months ago Warner Bros just needs to work better with DC. Please WB don't give up!
Anonymous 10 months ago Please don't sell out dc.. Disney will ruin it.
Anonymous 11 months ago Bad Idea
Anonymous 32550286 year ago Wrong, On 9/4/2021, DC Chief Creative Officer Jim Lee has confirmed that WarnerMedia (Warner Bros. Discovery) will continue to publish DC Comics as it heads forward into the future, That means Disney would never buy DC from Warner Bros. In 2016, Disney Tried to buy TimeWarner, But this never happened. If Warner Bros. Discovery merged with Disney, then WarnerDisney Enterprises LLC. was formed.
Anonymous 33018221 year ago This would be almost the best thing Disney would have ever done. Because Disney is one of the biggest monopolies in the world right now. That being said it. Would be even easier for Disney to buy dreamworks and universal studios (if they are trying to do so). In short Disney is becoming the biggest monopoly company in the world. I wouldn’t be surprised if in the future Disney owns all animation studios on the face of the planet. Hope I will live to see a day like that.
Anonymous 33269056 year ago If anything happened, it would be like the proposed deal Warner Bros almost made with Marvel in the 80s to license DC Comics publishing to Marvel while still holding onto the live action, animated, and video gaming rights to DC characters. Its a Mickey Mouse and Superman come from? Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Mickey Mouse, Winnie the Pooh and Snow White is from? it makes sense why Discovery would spend billions to by WB then throw away the DC IP and its multimedia potential.
Anonymous 34747870 year ago Omg if this happens, Arrowverse would be a lot better. Because of the zero involvement of the CW network. Now if this happens Disney has Star Wars, Marvel, and DC. Cool!
Anonymous 35410025 year ago I completely want this to happen even for the slightest change, because we all know how WB has been treating DC. If Disney has both Marvel and DC, Needlessly to say, there would be numerous advantages and positives, outnumbering the negatives. Think, More Movies, Shows, Merch, Games, DC in Disney Parks (We got barely any Disney World-Level DC Theme Parks in America, most are abroad like in Abu Dhabi. We mostly get Roller Coasters here in U.S.A.) Whether it is fake news or not, I want this so bad
Anonymous 36055856 year ago Just picture Superman with Mickey ears spreading.
Anonymous 37592893 year ago Hopefully Disney buys dc, Warner bros are horrible at handling dc
Anonymous 38290085 year ago US Anti-trust laws do not apply because there are dozens of comic book companies.
Anonymous 38947805 year ago Am I right?
Anonymous 38947840 year ago I can't wait for this to happen! I always wanted to see what would it be like to see Disney too make DC movies . Disney + Pixar + Marvel + Star Wars + DC + Warner Bros. + Hanna-Barbera + Fox + MGM + Paramount + Nickelodeon + Nick Jr. + The Hive + ABC + ESPN + Muppets. Disney's acquisitions of Marvel, Lucasfilm and Fox Would be so cool on Disney +. The Justice League and Avengers team up would be cool too see on the big screen.
Anonymous 39886710 year ago this is a huge mistake marvel now blows because of Disney
Anonymous 39901356 year ago Bullshit
Anonymous 40373711 year ago Someone's smoking crack rock, Disney spent all their money on the Fox acquisition, 85 billion? Plus hemorrhaging cash with all their parks closed the last year due to the pandemic. If anything Universal should buy DC.
Anonymous 40460108 year ago Noooik
Anonymous 40469616 year ago Do you guy always let homophobic idiots comment?
Anonymous 40548660 year ago sup mel
Anonymous 40552273 year ago yall gay
Anonymous 40576718 year ago guy commenting above me is a nerd! 🤓
Anonymous 40576806 year ago k t n b o t p. N!
Anonymous 40576839 year ago disney
Anonymous 40595169 year ago Bullshit
Anonymous 40618437 year ago I can tell the Marvel comics nerds are going to be mad
Anonymous 40622678 year ago The Takeover
Anonymous 40652650 year ago Y'all are some edgy motherfuckers lmao
Anonymous 40658848 year ago F----- alert Below
Anonymous 40659033 year ago Kill yourself
Anonymous 40659164 year ago The guy commenting below is a little f-----
Anonymous 40659691 year ago You're dumb ,this isn't happening. Fake news.
Anonymous 40660316 year ago Youtube poop
Anonymous 40664003 year ago You guys need to fix your comment section, this is nuts.
Anonymous 40664094 year ago wow
Anonymous 40665661 year ago What happened to Antitrust laws or monopoly laws?
Anonymous 40666710 year ago they gon' fuc shyt up. watch.