Over the last couple of days, news has come to light about the oversight of three significant entertainment franchises changing or expected to change hands. The three situations, each of which is unique in its specifics, involve merchandising as well as other rights, and the goal, at least in part, is to refresh and rejuvenate these classics:
- The Saul Zaentz Company put its rights to The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, and other J.R.R. Tolkien entertainment properties up for sale, according to a Variety exclusive, hiring ACF Investment Bank to handle the process. The price is expected to be $2 billion or more. The Zaentz Company holds rights for films, gaming, film-based merchandising, theme parks, and live events, while the Tolkien Estate retains publishing and related rights. Warner Bros. and its New Line Cinema division, which released the movies, hold some rights as well. Variety theorized that Amazon, which is launching a big-budget TV series based on the franchise this fall—under a deal with the estate itself, due to some gaps in Zaentz’ authority—would be a likely contender.
- Wildbrain announced a partnership with Jay Ward Productions that would add all 788 episodes of Ward’s content to Wildbrain’s distribution library and allow the two companies to collaborate on new content based on the classic characters in the portfolio. Licensing of both new and classic content is also included in the deal. Jay Ward Productions retains ownership of the IP, which includes Rocky & Bullwinkle, George of the Jungle, Mr. Peabody & Sherman, Dudley Do-Right, and Super Chicken.
- Fox Entertainment bought the rights to the Gumby franchise from the estate of Joseph Clokey, son of creator Art Clokey. The sale gives Fox all rights to Gumby, Pokey, and other Clay-mation characters from the franchise for entertainment productions, publishing, licensing, NFTs, and other business opportunities. The deal encompasses the full archive of content, going back to the property’s 1955 debut, as well as the right to create new extensions of the classic characters. Some of the existing episodes are already available on Fox’s Tubi streaming platform.
These three deals, coming in the space of two days, put an exclamation point on a recent trend of entertainment companies buying or partnering with owners of evergreen entertainment portfolios; Netflix purchased the Roald Dahl Story Company in 2021, for example. Typically the seller or IP owner-partner (often an estate) is looking to get out of the day-to-day management of the business, while making sure the property is in good hands and not forgotten. And the purchaser or acquiring partner wants to fill its never-ending need for streaming content and gain the ability to create fresh-but-still-familiar new properties that appeal to today’s viewer and consumer. Stay tuned for more examples likely to come.
Raugust Communications’ monthly e-newsletter comes out next Tuesday, February 15, 2022. The Licensing Topic of the Month will focus on recent M&A activity and its impact on the licensing business. The Datapoint research spotlight will analyze the relative frequency of three key licensing approaches: brand extension, lifestyle, and fan-based licensing. Not a subscriber yet? Sign up here.
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