Do you think Disney will one day buy DC?

[Castiel]

I honestly wouldn't be surprised given how they own just about everything now. I just don't know how I'd feel if it did buy DC one day I mean would that mean a merger for Marvel and DC or would they still exist as separate brands under Disney's banner? Personally I'd rather they exist as separate brands under Disney's banner but if they did merge I'd rather they do it under the pretense of some sort of Crisis style event where their two worlds and histories merge.

However I just don't see the two worlds meshing well I mean I doubt Galactus would be tolerated even if he is a necessary evil him destroying worlds would conflict with the Green Lanters a lot I imagine. Though I do think it would be interesting seeing Galactus make a herald out of a DC character. I can see Galactus creating a team of heralds after being inspired by the Green Lantern Corps but that'd cause more conflict.

[KangMiRae]

No, because DC is owned by Time Warner who is owned by AT&T and tech giants are far more powerful than Disney, but for some reason people don't realize this.

If Steve Jobs hadn't passed away Disney would've been purchased by Apple. Iger himself said this a while ago. That means Marvel would've been owned by Apple, and there's now talks of Apple making another move in 2020 similar to this.

Although I personlly think if Apple ever did make a purchase, it'd be into streaming or something related to that.

[Digifiend]

Disney bought 20th Century Fox last year, so I don't think they'd be allowed to buy Warner Brothers even if was up for sale. So the only way Disney could acquire DC is if AT&T decided they didn't want to be in the comics business... but why would they do that when it would damage WB, who use it as a source for cartoons and movies?

[Jim Kelly]

I read last summer that AT&T was considering selling off DC. Which seemed incredible to me, but stranger things have happened.

[kjn]

If Steve Jobs hadn't passed away Disney would've been purchased by Apple. Iger himself said this a while ago. That means Marvel would've been owned by Apple, and there's now talks of Apple making another move in 2020 similar to this.

Personally, I very much doubt those rumours. There are lots and lots of them around Apple doing big acquisitions, but their strategy has been clear and successful for a long time: buy small and perhaps medium-sized companies with interesting tech that they need. Arguably, the largest acquisition they've made is the one of Nextstep, and that was over 20 years ago.

[DrNewGod]

Disney acquiring DC is not impossible, but does not seem likely. If WB manages to make some money off the DC properties on a reliable basis, I can see AT&T concluding that they shouldn't let Disney just own all the most well-known superhero brands in the western world. Note: I do not even claim that the DC films have to be enormous smashes, simply do well enough.

Now, if a moment comes that looks like the superhero cinema era is ending (and sooner or later, it will), then AT&T may decide DC isn't worth owning, and may not care who picks it up.

[superduperman]

I read last summer that AT&T was considering selling off DC. Which seemed incredible to me, but stranger things have happened.

That wouldn't be good. Marvel could buy it up and just shut it down if they wanted. Or do like they did to Malibu and deliberately sabotage the characters. I find this hard to believe, honestly. While I don't think that AT&T has any real interest in publishing comics, the characters are a gold mine as an IP farmhouse for movies and TV shows.

[Vordan]

I read last summer that AT&T was considering selling off DC. Which seemed incredible to me, but stranger things have happened.

Utter nonsense. Why on Earth would they deprive HBO Max of all the content? If nothing else they sure as hell aren’t parting ways with Batman. What you read was pure fearmongering stupidity. Perhaps they might shut the comic side down, but they’re never parting ways with those profitable IPs.

[Frontier]

Yeah, I don't see Disney getting that big a monopoly anytime soon.

[Yohei72]

Yeah, I don't see Disney getting that big a monopoly anytime soon.

SOBs had 80% of the box office in 2019, according to a headline I glimpsed the other day. They're pretty close to a monopoly already.

But you're probably right all the same.

[Godlike13]

I read last summer that AT&T was considering selling off DC. Which seemed incredible to me, but stranger things have happened.

Don’t believe it. AT&T bought WB for its properties and content.

[Sutekh]

I hope not. I love me some Marvel movies, but I also like having multiple flavors to choose from, and all the superhero movies coming from the same company sounds like going in to Baskin-Robbins and finding out that they have 31 flavors... of chocolate.

[CrimsonEchidna]

Nope. With Warner and AT&T merging, they're trying to consolidate as many IPs as Disney has, so I doubt they'd ever get rid of something as profitable as the rights to DC.

[Frontier]

And to be honest, what would Disney even do with DC? They have enough Superhero properties to manage.

[Ascended]

I'm not worried about it at all. Tons of reasons that it'll never happen, from anti-trust laws to these IP's being profitable enough to keep.

And if it did happen I'm not sure if things would really change all that much. The big names are big enough to not be buried in limbo, so Clark and Bruce and Diana will still get books to play in, and odds are at least most of the other big names would too. No point in buying DC if you're not gonna use the IP's, this isn't Malibu Comics. The lesser knowns would only show up when a writer wanted to use them. Just like now. So not much changes. The quality isn't going to be much different since these two companies (as far as comic quality is concerned) are basically clones of each other.

The movies would get better. I'd gripe and moan and bitch about monopolies but I'd still buy a ticket to a Marvel Studios' Superman.