HBO closed down their kids streaming service a few months ago. To compensate they put almost everything onto Max. What wasn't there could be found on Tubi. There are several shows, movies, and other stuff to get everything to understand the Scoobster, so it has a weird feel to it. Fans collect the DVDs and VHS all the time.
I bring this up because suddenly Scooby has been pulled everywhere. I could watch it off several streaming services or buy some DVDs at Walmart. Now, it's all missing. There are a few shows still around, but the basic stuff, and even then it's limited to Tubi and HBO Max.
It's really weird and works with a weird rumour I keep hearing about WB being up for sale, or selling parts.
Movies and shows are not quite making the money they should. We have the Superman thread here as an example. Big pushes for movies to make Billions and only making hundreds of millions. What's keeping a lot of them alive is the theme parks dedicated to them. Avatar as a movie series is incredibly forgettable. The theme park area at Disney world is full. The Star Wars movies aren't doing great, while the shows are hit and miss, but the parks for them are why people visit Disney world. A joke among people at either Disney or Universal is someone asking where Harry Potter is at Disney, or Star Wars at Universal.
So the parks are making tons from this. The new How to Train your Dragon movie was released to promote the new park. Movies and TV shows are being used to promote parks as the real money makers.
Paramount was just sold for $8 Billion, and then gave the South Park guys $1.1 Billion for a show. Is that stupid? Yeah. However, Universal Hollywood had a Star Trek experience a few months ago for geeks. It also had a D&D experience. Imagine a haunted house but it's a geek experience instead. That made a lot of money and will likely be used for the other parks like Florida, Japan, China, Singapore ECT. I don't think Paramount paid a billion for a show, I think they paid for an IP for an experience. My wife was shocked to find out Casa Bonita was a real place, and wants to go entirely for the Cartman picture.
I think a lot of companies are pushing for IPs to be used as themed experiences. Scoobert has a mini put and escape room. Universal has some rights to it because they had a Hanna Barbera experience and still regularly have meet and greets. I wouldn't be shocked if WB sold the entire thing to Universal. Paramount and WB don't have the money or know how to create parks or experiences. They are likely going to rent out or sell IP to make money for experiences.
WB may be letting more IP loose or even go up for sale. My guess is Universal will buy it, entirely for the IP for the theme parks.
This isn't really a new idea. Most family friendly IPs from the 70s-90s existed just to sell toys, with the actual media itself being basically a commercial to get you hooked in.
The different part is that these theme parks really aren't for children. They are all way too expensive for a normal family to afford more than once, and even then the nickle and diming of the park will drain you down to basically riding one or two things before you have to go home, with disappointed kids. I remember going to Disney World as a kid, and it was a multi-year saving project for my middle class family and between the lines and the cost of each park it was basically 2-3 rides for the entire day with a lot of magic-ruining waiting in between. It was awful then and inflation has likely only made that worse.
No its entirely aimed at childless adults. The FUNKO buying kind we all know. The kind who can make "Disney Adult" an actual lifestyle and afford it. They are the ones going to get their full uniform and wand at the Harry Potter park, or going get pictures of themselves drinking in the Star Wars cantina. The social media clout to be found here is massive in their own circles.
I never thought about this before, but that business model is guaranteed to collapse because... they're childless.
Or even before then. Who knows if Disney adults have a multi-decade shelf life.
Gays proliferate by abusing the next crop of abusers. The people obsessed with Disney tend to be extremely gay, and I'm sure it's a total coincidence their obsession is something children are attracted to