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Can the cinematic world have too many (super)heroes?

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With Walt Disney Co.’s buying Marvel Entertainment, inquiring minds at today’s Goldman Sachs Communacopia XVIII Conference in New York wanted to know if there will be a glut of superhero films.

‘You can never have too many heroes,’ Tom Staggs, Disney’s chief financial officer, deadpanned.

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Asked, and answered, puny mortals.

Staggs said once the $4-billion cash and stock deal closes, there would be an immediate impact on Disney’s consumer products division.That’s probably code for Marvel’s 5,000 characters appearing on backpacks, bedding and action figures.

Over time, the Marvel characters will present new video game opportunities -- both for those games published by Disney’s group, as well as by third parties.

There will also be cost savings down the road once Marvel’s five-film distribution deal with Paramount Pictures ends, Staggs said.

One thing Disney has no plans to do is to mess with what’s working at Marvel.’There’s an appreciation of the characters and the stories that we have to respect and, frankly, we’d be silly not to respect,’ Staggs said.

So, don’t expect Alice in Wonderland to be mixing it up with the Marvel assassin Deadpool anytime soon.

--Dawn C. Chmielewski

PHOTO: Tom Staggs for a morning session during the recent Allen & Co. Media and Technology Conference in Sun Valley, Idaho. Credit: Matthew Staver / Bloomberg News

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