Legendary Pictures, Universal’s Savior???

Currently Universal Studios is a company that has undergone many different phases of management and ownership. In 2004 being bought out by General Electric and merged with parent company NBC, forming NBC Universal. Then in 2011 sold 51% of shares to Comcast; and in March of this year Comcast bought the remaining 49% for $16.7 Billion. Whew…apparently Universal is being tossed around like a hot potato for the last decade. Now the name of the company is NBC Universal. Universal still do release movies solely under their Universal Studios moniker.

Although they do release films, Universal is a company that has struggled on their entertainment side as of late. They just don’t have enough big budget; tent pole films release to sustain individual production. The only two franchises that Universal has that are highly popular are Despicable Me and Fast and Furious. Those two films alone can’t keep Universal afloat by themselves. For the last couple years Universal has done a lot of co-financing of their films with outside production companies with very few done in house. Universal had a multi-year financing deal with Elliot Management that expired in March 2013. In July it was announced that Universal will be entering in to a partner ship with Legendary Pictures.

                                   

Legendary Pictures is a production company owned by Thomas Tull, who used money from Wall Street to finance his films. They have had a deal with Warner Bros for co-financing since 2004. Out of that arrangement came some of the biggest movies of the last 10 years, including the Batman Trilogy, The Hangover Trilogy, and recently the Man of Steel. By partnering with Legendary Pictures, Universal has put itself in a great position to gain back a lot of their market share lost to its competitors. It will allow them to release films that generate tons of revenue and bring them back to the glory they once had. One of the first films slated to come out of the Universal/Legendary deal is Gareth Edward’s Godzilla. This film has a lot of potential to really help Universal solve a couple of their problems. 

                                     

Universal Studios theme parks, specifically the one here in Florida is currently hemorrhaging money due to the recent acquisition of Marvel properties by Disney. Currently the Islands of Adventure theme park has an entire section of Marvel characters, essentially meaning that a percentage of every ticket sold is kicked back to Disney and its competing theme park also in Florida Walt Disney World. Godzilla could give Universal the leverage it needs to be able to kill their dependence of Marvel for its parks and introduce a new big boy on the block that could make King Kong cringe. I believe this partnership is one that can push Universal to the top of the entertainment industry and reign supreme. The added bonus of that…who wouldn’t want to see a 50 story Godzilla ride at Universal Theme Parks, I know I would!!