Disney CEO and chairman Robert Iger has spent 15 years trying to make Shanghai Disney a reality and now he’s only two years away from walking through its gates. He shared an image yesterday with 450 of the company’s stockholders of what the central 11 acres of the park will look like, including the park’s signature castle. This one, just to put a little exclamation point on things, will be taller than any of the castles in Disney’s five other parks, the Phoenix Business Journal reports.

What Iger didn’t get into is that the new park is close enough to serve as some competition to the one on Lantau Island, Hong Kong, that opened in 2005 and only just turned a profit last year, the L.A. Times reports. Close to half of the visitors to the park—which is 52 percent owned by the Hong Kong government and 48 percent owned by Disney—come from mainland China. Continue reading...

For readers of comic books, 2011 may go down as the year that big business figured out that it might be worth sticking its massive hand into an industry that’s been more aligned with outsiders than the mainstream.

Earlier this year we saw the introduction of big-brand product placement in comics when Nike’s logo appeared on a Marvel character’s T-shirt. Now Marvel has taken another step and struck a licensing deal with the University of Southern California to have its characters appear on gear alongside the university’s mascot and logo.Continue reading...

Though only the future knows the iPad's contribution to the workplace, the present seems to indicate that Apple's latest offering is an entertainment superstar – or, as one brand hopes, a superhero.

Like many traditional print publishers, Marvel is banking on the iPad as a delivery device for its brand of comic books. Marvel says its "landmark" app will make over 500 of the brand's greatest comic books available for iPad consumption. Marvel's app does more than just substitute an LCD for paper though. The Marvel app takes advantage of the iPad's interactivity and connectivity. Yet, the brand may also be missing a major opportunity. Continue reading...

Cisco is not yet in the top of the Brandcameo product placement leaderboard. But with recent efforts, it might be soon.

Cisco has appeared in 2009 blockbusters He's Just not That Into You, G.I. Joe and Transformers. The latter showing, product placement analytics firm Front Row estimated to be worth near $10 million. (Though accurate product placement valuation has long been questionable.) And earlier this year, Cisco's Webex technology could be seen in Marvel Comics titles.

But last night was Cisco's largest, most prominent, and maybe most successful Hollywood tie-in yet.Continue reading...

There was a time when Miramax equaled Oscar nomination. That day is long gone. So far gone, in fact that Disney, Miramax's parent, plans on practically mothballing the brand.

Someday an intrepid young filmmaker will tell the story of the Mirimax brand's rise and fall. It should be great. Filled with accomplishment, strong-arming, creativity, gambling and hubris.

Harvey and Bob Weinstein, the gregarious brothers who legendarily ran the studio as much like an organized crime operation as an entertainment one, built the brand by putting indie on the map. Superstar directors like Tarintino and Soderberg owe their current big-box-office careers to Miramax.

Disney had owned a chunk of the studio since 1993, and took over in full four years ago when the brothers left.Continue reading...