Have you watched Shrek before? Odds are your answer is “who hasn’t?” Disney knows this is the answer to that question. It’s such an iconic movie. That’s why there are 4 Shrek movies already, a Christmas special, a Shrek 4-D ride, a Puss in Boots spin off that just came out, and more. The big news of the day is Disney is acquiring the rights to the Shrek franchise for a massive $10 Billion!
Disney will be the proud owner of the rights to Shrek. Currently the Shrek franchise is owned by Dreamworks, which is a subsidiary of Universal Pictures. Universal Pictures is a subsidiary of NBCUniversal, which is owned by Comcast. So at the moment, Comcast owns Shrek, but the rights were just sold to The Walt Disney Company.
The rights for Shrek are not cheap. As mentioned earlier, Disney is acquiring Shrek for $10 Billion! That’s a massive price tag and a big bet. This isn’t new to Disney though. They were recently looking to buy Universal Studios, the theme parks in Florida, for $40 Billion. However, that deal is still up in the air. You can read our story on that here.
Why is Disney Buying Shrek?
Simple, the Shrek brand is a cash cow for Universal and Disney sees huge profit potential. In fact, Disney was already in the works to get the rights to Shrek 4-D and replace Mickey’s Philharmagic with it. We reported on that here. We also have insider information that Disney adding a Shrek themed land to Disney World. More details to come on that soon. Make sure you sign up for our mailing list at the bottom of the page so you don’t miss any news on that huge update. We expect to share more news on that in the next few days.
Disney is placing a huge bet on the Shrek franchise by acquiring it for $10 Billion. For reference, Disney acquired Pixar in 2006 for $7.4 Billion. However, in today’s dollars with inflation, the original Pixar deal is worth about $11 Billion. Pixar is now worth way more than that now. There is no official valuation on Pixar now, but we would estimate it to be in the $100 Billion range. That’s a 10X growth in under 20 years.
Clearly the Pixar acquisition paid off and Disney is hoping for the same success with Shrek. Apparently Disney is already planning to release Shrek 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10! These will come out over the next 20 years. Disney will also get the rights to the Puss in Boots movies as well. Puss in Boots: The Last Wish will come out as a Universal Movie, but any subsequent movies will be Disney owned.
Apparently Disney also plans to make more Shrek spin offs. They will make movies based on Donkey and Dragon, a princess movie focused on Fiona, a Lord Farquaad movie, and much more. Will Princess Fiona become a Disney Princess? The answer is yes. As they say in Big Hero 6, “The only limit is your imagination”. Disney is not limiting their imagination with Shrek and will Shrek the Halls with plenty more movies in the franchise.
We also expect Disney to launch a new line of Shrek toys. The market has not seen much for Shrek toys in years. It’s clearly a growing franchise. With the bet Disney is making, there will almost certainly be Shrek toys and games hitting the market in the next few years. Disney’s toy and game category and dominance is one of the strongest in the industry, so it just makes sense.
What do you think of Disney acquiring Shrek? Are you excited for the new movies to come out? Let us know in the comments below!
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That’s absolutely fake, don’t trust anything you see on the internet, kids.