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Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse in their original versions would cease to belong to Disney and would enter the public domain in 2024.
The Mickey Mouse character was created in 1928 and has represented the face of the company ever since.
The company’s profitability is largely attributed to consumer products based on Mickey and his franchise, with operating income of $564 million in 2021.
Mickey Mouse will no longer belong to Disney from 2024, as reported by specialized media. This would generate a negative impact for the Disney company that could represent millionaire losses for the company.
In fact, specialized studies They point out that the value of the company, taking into account the Mikey Mouse franchise and everything that has been built around it, would exceed 180 billion.
This Mickey Mouse will no longer belong to Disney
According to US media, it has been confirmed that the Mickey Mouse character will become public domain as of 2024. This is because the Copyright Law in the United States states that after 95 years of its creation, all original works becomes public domain. For this reason, any studio or production house can use the character. However, they cannot use all versions, but only a specific one.
The character as we know him was created in 1928. The introduction of Mickey and Minnie Mouse managed to mark a before and after in the entertainment industry. Today, almost 100 years later, this impact is still valid.
The mouse company even maintains much of Mickey’s image as a banner, and while the character’s popularity could be argued today, it’s true that he remains an icon of popular culture.
For this reason, this fact could represent a major problem for Disney. The Walt Disney Company, according to media such as Guardian either Daily Mail, you will have to face the exclusivity of your most important character. This happened despite the company appealing to retain its rights until at least 2028. The character will be part of the public domain at the end of 2023, exactly 95 years after the premiere of ‘Steamboat Willie’.
Despite this, reports indicate that The Walt Disney Company he will not let this battle be lost so easily and will seek to appeal. Playing all your weapons at this time could be paramount, because although it is an inevitable process, it is expected to rescue something of the much that will be lost once this happens.
Something similar happened about a month ago, when the character winnie the pooh became public domain. At that time it was mentioned that the character would be free to be adapted by any studio.
Then it was that the release of the movie ‘Winnie The Pooh: Blood and Honey’ was announced. This film will be brought by the English independent studio Jagged Edge Productions. However, in the same way as with Mickey Mouse, the character can be used considering only the original version of him.
In the same way, characters and stories such as ‘Alice in Wonderland’, ‘Peter Pan’, ‘Robin Hood’ and ‘Pinocchio’ can be adapted by different studios and different audiovisual media.
But what is the real impact of this? In the same way as with Winnie The Pooh, although the new adaptations do not really have a direct impact on economic issues, the constant use of a character on screen can change the perception that people have of him. Although Mickey Mouse is a character very well identified by people and associated with Disney, this could change in the blink of an eye.
Even going further, platforms of streaming What HBO Max and Amazon Prime Video they could take advantage of this to develop their own adaptations. Something unthinkable for many would be to see studios like Universal or Warner Bros. making films about the face of the company.
Finally, we should consider the impact that the loss of such an important character can cause for a multi-million dollar company like Disney in terms of merchandise and participation in theme parks.
As reportedIn the third quarter of 2021 alone, parks, experiences and products accounted for 25.5 percent of the company’s revenue. This means that revenues in the Disney parks, experiences and products segment increased by 307.6 percent to $4.3 billion, up from $1.60 million during the same period of the previous year.
This indicates that much of the performance is largely attributable to consumer products, whose operating income reached 564 million dollars, 290 percent more than in the same period last year. During the quarter, Disney saw higher revenue from merchandise based primarily on Mickey and Minnie, Star Wars, Disney princesses and Spider-Man.
For all of the above, Disney will have to find a way to extend the rights to the character by all means, at least until it finds a way to mitigate the commercial impact of its loss.
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