Disney and Universal are two household names when it comes to theme parks and movies.
The quality of their films and the fact that Universal has Marvel characters in its theme park may make some think that Disney owns Universal.
Disney had been buying up a lot of properties and studios lately, like FX and Fox.
It’s easy to believe that House of Mouse might have bought Universal at some point, too.
Here’s what you need to know about whether Disney bought Universal.
Is Universal Owned by Disney?
No, Universal is not owned by Disney.
Universal is one of the oldest film studios still active today.
In the United States, it’s the oldest film studio that still produces movies.
That said, Universal has had several owners in the past.
None of them has ever been Disney.
Instead, Universal is currently owned by NBCUniversal and Comcast.
Although Universal might have some Marvel characters and other Disney properties in its parks, it’s not because Disney owns it.
Who Owns Universal?
NBC Universal and Comcast currently own Universal, but the story of how they came to acquire the studio is a long one.
Originally, Universal started with a few men looking to get into the movie business.
The main founder of Universal was Carl Laemmle.
He had several partners who also contributed and invested in the studio.
They included William Swanson, Adam Kessel, Mark Dintenfass, Robert H. Cochrane, Charles O. Baumann, Pat Powers, Jules Brulatour, and David Horsley.
Laemmle became the president of Universal on April 30th, 1912.
The studio was then called Universal Film Manufacturing Company.
Several film studios merged to form Universal.
Those studios included:
- Independent Moving Pictures
- Rex Motion Picture Manufacturing Company
- Champion Film Company
- New York Motion Picture Company
Laemmle wanted to be cautious with his business model.
In the early days of filmmaking, studios were collapsing left and right when their stars no longer attracted audiences or they didn’t know how to get audiences in their theaters.
As such, he had the studio focus on film production, distribution, and exhibition at locations and venues.
Laemmle did not follow the strategy that other studios were using at the time.
The strategy was to own a chain of theaters across the country that would show their films.
The attendance at the theaters would then earn them money.
He also chose not to take on loans to produce films.
Instead, he kept costs low and funded his films independently to stay out of debt.
This meant that Universal didn’t have the greatest high-production films at the time.
That said, they did have some major successes like The Hunchback of Notre Dame, which they released in 1923, and The Phantom of the Opera in 1925.
Much of the early success came from Laemmle’s secretary, Irving Thalberg.
Unfortunately, MGM would eventually snatch up Thalberg, and the studio would go on as a second-tier film studio.
The First Acquisition
The control of the studio would eventually fall to Laemmle’s son, Carl Jr.
The younger Laemmle wanted to correct some of the mistakes that his father had made.
As a 21st birthday gift, he became the head of the studio in 1928.
One of the first things that Carl Jr. did was to establish a chain of theaters.
He also brought in sound as “talkies” were starting to make their emergence around this time.
He also focused on high-production films, particularly in the horror genre.
It was throughout the 1930s and 1940s that Universal became synonymous with the horror genre.
Unfortunately, he lacked some of his father’s restraint and tended to overspend on the production of the studio’s films.
Eventually, it needed to borrow money.
It did so by borrowing money from Standard Capital Corporation.
When they ended up going $300,000 over budget, Standard Capital removed Carl Jr. and his father from the studio.
Standard Capital Corporation took over the studio on April 2, 1936.
The new president of the studio was J. Cheever Cowdin.
At that time, C. M. Woolf and J. Arthur Rank, both British entrepreneurs, bought stakes in the studio.
The new version of the studio focused on low-budget films.
Because they wanted to save on costs, Universal was the last remaining studio to have a contract with Technicolor.
Other studios had left Technicolor behind to invest in more expensive technologies.
Forming Of Universal-International And Second Acquisition
J. Arthur Rank was part of a merger with Universal and International Pictures.
The result of that merger was United World Pictures.
It ultimately failed, but Rank wanted to try again.
They negotiated another merger on June 30th, 1946 with the two founders of International, William Goetz and Leo Spitz, becoming co-heads of the newly formed Universal-International Pictures studio.
This studio was a subsidiary of Universal Pictures Company.
Rank used this new studio to distribute his British films.
He also used it to buy stakes in home-movie dealer, Castle.
Later, Rank become that company’s sole owner.
Despite the expansion of Universal, it still struggled to produce films that attracted audiences.
As a result, both Goetz and Spitz left the company.
Milton Rackmil then entered the picture.
He was part of Decca Records.
It was Decca Records that completely took over the studio in 1952.
Decca held onto the studio for a decade before it merged with MCA.
As a result, MCA formed Universal City Studios in 1964.
Another subsidiary formed and Universal finally had the type of budget that would make it an A-list studio.
The Road To NBCUniversal
One of the goals of this new version of Universal was to expand into international waters.
They thought they had found an opportunity when Matsushita Electronic, which would later become Panasonic, acquired MCA.
The Japanese company paid $6 billion for the acquisition.
However, there were too many cultural differences, and Matsushita eventually withdrew from the acquisition and sold 80% of its stake.
They ended up selling Universal to Seagram, the Canadian drink distributor.
The company had an interest in expanding into the movie business.
Seagram went through a major buying spree.
Besides Universal, they also bought PolyGram and a number of other entertainment properties.
Seagram was eventually bought by another company, Vivendi.
Vivendi was a French utility company that also wanted to expand into the movie business.
It owned another studio called StudioCanal.
After the merger, Universal became Vivendi Universal.
In 2004, Vivendi found itself in financial trouble.
It ended up selling 80% of its stake to General Electric.
General Electric is the parent company of NBC.
As such, they rebranded it to NBCUniversal.
Universal Studios, however, retained its legal name and remained the primary part of the company devoted to the production of feature films.
General Electric would go on to buy the rest of Vivendi’s stakes in 2011.
The Final Acquisition
Also in 2011, another interested party started buying up stock in Universal.
Comcast bought 51% of Universal.
They eventually bought the remaining 43% in 2013.
It has since shifted its leadership as its acquired new subsidiaries.
While Comcast owns Universal today, it’s still Universal Studios that controls its film production.
That’s why you’ll see Universal Studios in the credits and not Comcast when watching one of their movies.
Although the studio started in the early 1900s, it has changed hands several times.
Despite its several different owners over the years, Universal has continued to produce great films like Jurassic Park, Jaws, and several movies in its horror genre.
One final acquisition worth mentioning is DreamWorks Animation.
Universal bought DreamWorks in 2016.
Why Does Universal’s Theme Park Have Disney Characters In It?
You might think that Disney owns Universal because of the Marvel characters floating around Universal’s theme parks.
In particular, Universal has many Marvel heroes in their Marvel Super Hero Island section of the park.
You can run into characters like Captain America, Wolverine, and even Spider-Man.
They even have rides named after Marvel characters like Doctor Doom’s Fearfall and the Incredible Hulk Coaster.
Universal has these Marvel-themed attractions because they made a contract with Marvel Comics in the 1990s.
At that time, Marvel wasn’t doing so well.
The comic studio didn’t have the same popularity that it does today.
While it had a loyal following, that following was small.
As such, Universal was able to make a contract with them that allowed them to make rides and have characters in their parks from the comics.
The idea was that it might give Marvel some popularity, too, since fans at the parks could potentially have their first introduction to the Marvel characters there.
One of the clauses in the contract that Universal made was that no other theme park could feature Marvel characters east of the Mississippi River.
That meant that Disney World couldn’t feature Marvel characters.
This didn’t bother Disney much until they bought Marvel in 2009 and started making a huge franchise out of it.
Even though Disney owns Marvel, Universal’s contract remains the law.
That’s why you’ll find Marvel characters at Universal Studios despite Disney owning them.
Will Disneyland Feature Marvel Characters?
While Universal may have blocked Disney from showing Marvel characters at its Orlando theme park, that isn’t the case for its California park.
Disneyland is not east of the Mississippi River and, as such, can feature the Marvel characters.
They already have an Avengers Campus which is set to open in 2022 or 2023.
The Campus will feature favorite heroes like Iron Man, Ant-Man, Doctor Strange, and more.
They also have several rides and attractions in store for this expansion.
While Disneyland may be able to show off its Marvel properties, Disney World isn’t as lucky.
That said, Disney does have a few loopholes that it’s using to bring some semblance of its Marvel property to Disney World.
Disney World will feature the Guardians of the Galaxy.
They have an attraction planned for the new area as well as the characters.
Although the details of the agreement between Disney and Universal Studios aren’t known, there’s some belief that Disney can’t show Marvel characters that Universal has already claimed at their theme park.
As such, it’s unlikely that Disney World will ever have Wolverine, Spider-Man, the Hulk, or Captain America walking around.
However, the agreement might mean that Disney can use new Marvel characters that Universal hasn’t introduced to their park yet.
As such, there’s a chance that Disney World might be able to do something with Black Panther, Moon Knight, and several other newcomers.
If Disney can’t show them off in Disney World, however, then you can expect that they will be in Disneyland.
Can Disney Have Marvel Characters On Their Cruises?
While Disney has incredible theme parks, they also have incredible cruises.
Disney has a few different experiences that they offer on each of their ships.
Some ships have a specific show that only performs on that specific ship.
Others have specific characters that only show on a specific ship.
You may wonder if Disney can bring its Marvel characters onto one of its cruise ships due to Universal’s claim on Marvel characters.
The good news is that Disney Cruise Lines can use the Marvel characters on its cruise ships.
The agreement that Universal has with Marvel seems to end at the coast of the United States.
As such, Disney can use its Marvel properties on its ships.
It’s not uncommon to find them featuring Avengers-themed or Marvel-themed cruises.
You’re able to meet Marvel characters and take part in some of the performances and shows that the ship offers.
That said, the Marvel characters aren’t on all of their ships.
If you want to meet some Marvel characters during a Disney cruise, then you’ll need to check in the cruise package to determine its theme.
Can Disney Paris And Disney Shanghai Feature Marvel Characters?
Disney has several theme parks throughout the world.
Although Disney World and Disneyland tend to get a lot of coverage, the company also has theme parks in other countries.
If you plan on visiting Disney Paris or Disney Shanghai, then you may wonder if you’ll run into any Marvel characters there.
The good news is that the Universal contract doesn’t impede Disney from using its Marvel properties in foreign theme parks.
As such, Disney may, in time, expand on those parks in the future to include some of its Marvel properties.
Who Owns Disney?
The Walt Disney Company owns Disney.
Disney has several different subsidiaries that perform different functions for the company as a whole.
For example, not every theme park has The Walt Disney Company as its primary owner.
One that does is Disneyland.
At the time of its creation, Walt Disney didn’t even own the entire park himself.
He only owned 16% of it.
The rest belonged to a few partners who had helped him finance the park and build it.
Eventually, the Walt Disney Company had enough money to buy out its partners.
They now have 100% ownership of the Disneyland theme park.
That said, Disney doesn’t technically own any of its Tokyo theme parks.
Instead, Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo DisneySea belong to Oriental Land Company.
That said, Disney is still heavily involved in the park.
In particular, they send their Disney Imagineers to Tokyo to design and build rides for them.
They also send some of their employees over to the park to ensure it operates at their standards.
Besides that, they don’t own the park.
Instead, the Oriental Land Company pays Disney a licensing fee to use their characters and themes.
Walt Disney World in Florida is also 100% owned by The Walt Disney Company.
This wasn’t the case originally, however.
While Disney owned part of the theme park, U.S. Steel owned the rest.
Roy Disney eventually bought out U.S. Steel in 1971 to bring the park entirely under Disney’s ownership.
Disneyland Paris also shared its ownership with Disney.
When it first opened, Disney only owned a portion of the park.
The other major owner was Kingdom Holding Company which had 23% ownership.
Eventually, The Walt Disney Company bought out the Kingdom Holding Company to give itself complete ownership over Disneyland Paris.
It’s now operated by Euro Disney S.C.A., a subsidiary of Disney.
A final theme park that Disney doesn’t completely own is Hong Kong Disneyland.
The Walt Disney Company shares ownership with the Hong Kong government.
Disney owns 47% of the park while the government owns 53%.
Who Are The Major Stakeholders In The Walt Disney Company?
While Walt Disney and his family may have started the company, it has since become a company made up of shareholders.
Since many companies cater to their shareholders rather than the public, it’s always a good idea to know who the shareholders are in any major company.
The biggest shareholder is Vanguard Group Inc.
They have 137.8 million shares in the company.
Vanguard is an investment firm and management company.
They specialize in ETFs and long-term investing.
Before Vanguard, however, another company held the most shares in the company.
That was Laurene Powell Jobs Trust.
Laurene Powell inherited 138 million shares from her husband, Steve Jobs, after he passed away.
Steve had gained that number of shares after he sold his company, Pixar, to Disney.
Eventually, Laurene decided to sell her shares, which allowed Vanguard to rise to the top.
BlackRock and State Street Corp. also own large stakes in Disney.
Both are also investment firms.
The individual with the most shares in Disney is Bob Iger, the former President and CEO of Disney.
Conclusion
Although Disney doesn’t own Universal, Universal Studios has had its share of different owners in the past.
The two are also closely linked due to their shared ownership of Marvel characters and properties.
As long as Universal continues to pay its licensing fee to Disney to use its characters, they will be able to keep Disney from using its Marvel properties at Disney World.
