When Lucasfilm's version of Marvel's Howard the Duck failed at the box office, executives at The Walt Disney Company took notice. They had invested millions in the upcoming Who Framed Roger Rabbit and they were afraid that audiences would shun their film. When Who Framed Roger Rabbit became a phenomenon, Disney executives breathed a sigh of relief. Howard the Duck had not affected their film at all and wouldn't affect the company as well. Or would it?
The failure of Howard the Duck hit Lucasfilm hard. To make matters worse, George Lucas was going through a messy divorce and needed cash. He turned to his friend Steve Jobs, who had been forced out at Apple. Would Steve Jobs be interested in buying Lucasfilm's in house software division? At the time, the software group was producing animation software for various studios. George thought it could cheer Steve Jobs up after the messy split at Apple. Steve agreed and purchased the company. It wouldn't set the world on fire, but once they began using their own software to make films, the company's fate would skyrocket. The company's name? Pixar.
Meanwhile, Marvel was looking at the failure of Howard the Duck as a sign that it should try controlling its own destiny in the film world. Unfortunately, by the time it was ready to start making its own films, the rights to its biggest franchises had already been signed away to others. It decided to rely on its lower tier characters to see if maybe there would be some audience interest. Its first film with a "lower tier" character was Iron Man, which took the world by storm. Learning its lesson from Howard the Duck, it created its own mega-franchise from a character that the industry saw as an also-ran.
Nowadays Lucasfilm, Marvel and Pixar are all owned by The Walt Disney Company in a strange twist of fate. The film that Disney Studios had thought might affect the studio negatively would set into motion a series of events that would positively change the studio years later. It's just another strange "only in Hollywood" tale.
