"Power Rangers" sold to Hasbro for $522 million...did Peter get a bad deal with Nick?

[Andrew NDB]

I know this is being talked about in the Power Rangers thread, but I think it deserves its own thread as it's... if not infuriating, then a bit puzzling. At least, to me.



https://newsroom.hasbro.com/news-rel...gers-and-other

How in the world does "Power Rangers" get sold en masse for $522 million... when all rights to TMNT gets sold en masse for $63 million... even in 2009? Does nobody else see the madness in this?

Is "Power Rangers" really worth over 8 times what TMNT is?

[CylonsKlingonsDaleksOhMy]

Power Rangers definitely isn't worth as much... except it turns out that it was.

I dunno, I always figured Laird wanted out and lost the TMNT fire in the belly, somebody offered him money allowing him to live in comfort the rest of his life, why haggle, BOOM. The man exited, stage right.

[d_osborn]

Sounds like the deal is for all Saban IPs and their entire content library. The TMNT library wasn't controlled by Mirage-- the movie, the old cartoons, etc. weren't part of the Nick deal. Nick only bought the IP to produce new content. I'm guessing that plays a huge part in the higher cost.

[newfan]

Hasbro seemed to think so. Shocking difference. Maybe it being sold during a successful? revival gave more weight? otherwise I don't know, I wouldn't have the thought turtles could be worth so much less but I don't know enough about what's involved, I've never cared about PR.

[oldmanwinters]

Maybe Viacom also assumed a number of debts on Mirage or 4Kids? Back in 2009, I thought $63 million seemed like a steal, but I obviously don't know all the details of the contract.

[Candy Kappa]

Power Rangers is bigger then Ninja Turtles in sheer scope, iterations and just amount of material considering Power Rangers more or less gets to mine their IP from already existing Sentai stuff, that's 40+ years of material right there to mine from a franchise that's technically just 25 years old.

Plus, they also bought My Pet Monster, Julius Junior, Tree House detective and ****ing Popples!

[Andrew NDB]

Originally Posted by oldmanwinters

Maybe Viacom also assumed a number of debts on Mirage or 4Kids?

Why would they have any debts?

[Krutch]

Think of how much more it would have gone for if the movie was a big success.

[oldmanwinters]

Originally Posted by Andrew NDB

Why would they have any debts?

Didn't Laird basically pay a chunk of his own money to bring the last season of the 4Kids show to completion?

And, of course, it was widely assumed (maybe even confirmed in the letter columns) that Mirage published Volume 4 comics at a loss.

Or maybe the 25th Anniversary tour ended up costing more than the reported budget of 1 million?

[Andrew NDB]

Originally Posted by oldmanwinters

Didn't Laird basically pay a chunk of his own money to bring the last season of the 4Kids show to completion?

Not that I know of. But even if he did, and he paid out of pocket for that... how would it be a debt?

And, of course, it was widely assumed (maybe even confirmed in the letter columns) that Mirage published Volume 4 comics at a loss.

Probably. As in Peter was paying the artists and printing the books and not seeing a profit towards the end. But again, this isn't a debt.

Or maybe the 25th Anniversary tour ended up costing more than the reported budget of 1 million?

Maybe. But still not a debt. Who would money still be owed to that wasn't paid?

[oldmanwinters]

Originally Posted by Andrew NDB

Not that I know of. But even if he did, and he paid out of pocket for that... how would it be a debt?



Probably. As in Peter was paying the artists and printing the books and not seeing a profit towards the end. But again, this isn't a debt.



Maybe. But still not a debt. Who would money still be owed to that wasn't paid?

I dunno. *shrugs*

[Panda_Kahn_fan]

Yes, Power Rangers is just that valuable. Power rangers is the equivalent/adaptation for the Japanese Super Sentai series for the rest of the world outside of East Asia. As someone who works in retail, I can tell you Power Rangers has a larger merchandising and licensing revenue stream now, than TMNT did before the Nickelodeon buyout. Power Rangers is an evergreen property that turns over every year or two, with new toys, new characters, and a whole new genre theme built into each season; basically, each season is like a brand new super hero team with anew set of villains, and the merchandise has to be bought all over again. TMNT, while personally I think a more interesting property, doesn't self -renew for the kiddies the way PR does every year or so.

In short, TMNT's artisitc value may or may not outweigh power rangers, but Power Rangers is monetarily the more valuable brand. Or rather, Power rangers is more valuable now, than TMNT was at the time of laird's sale. Also, as others have said, Hasbro is gettign all the past Power Ranger media and content, along other brands owned by saban, in the sale.

[neatoman]

Maybe I'll sound like an asshole for saying this, but how is a license contract and a trademark worth 522 million dollars?

Power Rangers isn't really an IP itself, it's more like a license to distribute/produce Super Sentai material outside of Japan. The exclusive rights to hack a Japanese kids' show to pieces and splice in footage of New Zealanders pretending to be American, that's really all they're getting in addition to the name Power Rangers. It can't be worth 522 million dollars. "Owning" Power Rangers is basically meaningless unless you also own Super Sentai. Otherwise Toei might not renew the license and someone else might "create" a "new" show under a different name, like Saban did in the first place.

[LeotheLateBloomer]

Originally Posted by Krutch

Think of how much more it would have gone for if the movie was a big success.

What are the chances of a sequel to the 2017 movie? Would Hasbro continue it as a film series?

[Andrew NDB]

Originally Posted by LeotheLateBloomer

What are the chances of a sequel to the 2017 movie? Would Hasbro continue it as a film series?

0. The first one lost a lot of money.

[The Deadman]

Originally Posted by LeotheLateBloomer

What are the chances of a sequel to the 2017 movie? Would Hasbro continue it as a film series?

Yes, considering Hasbro wants to turn all of the properties they own into films. Would it be a direct sequel? Dont know, but if they're wanting more Transformers films to hit the market, why cant Power Rangers.

[Andrew NDB]

Originally Posted by The Deadman

Yes, considering Hasbro wants to turn all of the properties they own into films. Would it be a direct sequel? Dont know, but if they're wanting more Transformers films to hit the market, why cant Power Rangers.

Yeah, pretty good odds they try to do a reboot at some point.

[FredWolfLeonardo]

Is it finally time for Hasbro to buy tmnt now?

(You know what I mean Indigoearth )

[Krutch]

The movie wasn't bad for what it was. I would have liked to see a sequel but I'm not exactly heartbroken over not getting one either.

[Panda_Kahn_fan]

Originally Posted by neatoman

Maybe I'll sound like an asshole for saying this, but how is a license contract and a trademark worth 522 million dollars?

Power Rangers isn't really an IP itself, it's more like a license to distribute/produce Super Sentai material outside of Japan. The exclusive rights to hack a Japanese kids' show to pieces and splice in footage of New Zealanders pretending to be American, that's really all they're getting in addition to the name Power Rangers. It can't be worth 522 million dollars. "Owning" Power Rangers is basically meaningless unless you also own Super Sentai. Otherwise Toei might not renew the license and someone else might "create" a "new" show under a different name, like Saban did in the first place.

Actually, the Power Rangers IP also includes the American-exclusive rangers (titanium, the spirit rangers), villains (lord Zedd, Ransik, Dviatox), characters (zordon, Alpha) the American civilian identities and names (Tommy, Jason, Kimberly, trini, etc.), and the American exclusive names and story elements.

Say Hasbro were to buy out Toei's stake in the PR IP, and separate it from super sentai. MMPR could easily be remade, with redesign of the Zords and monsters (minus Zedd and the tengas, who could remain unchanged) and removing all Sentai visual elements. Rita Repulsa, goldar, scorpina, and the others could still be there, just after a radical redesign.