The Walt Disney Company (NYSE:DIS) needs to look over its shoulder. For that matter, Lions Gate Entertainment Corp. (NYSE:LGF) may want to do the same. There's a little company called Independent Film Development Corporation (OTCMKTS:IFLM) that could become a big threat to both of those major players soon, now that a nagging monkey is officially off its back.
What could a relatively unknown independent film and television outfit like Independent Film Development Corporation do that was a real threat to a name like The Walt Disney Company, or even the lesser-established Lions Gate Entertainment Corp.? Answer: You might be surprised. Remember, when Walt Disney got the ball rolling back in the late 30's, life didn't get easy - nor did the money start to flow in earnest - until the 50's. Prior to that, Disney was largely just another company being held together by sheer willpower. As for Lions Gate Entertainment, prior to huge success as the brains and marketing firepower behind the Twilight movie franchise and a stroke of luck with television's MadMen, Lions Gate wasn't exactly a name that stopped people in their tracks either. Point being, never say never. One good show or movie could literally change everything, the way Cinderella did for The Walt Disney Company in 1950.
But is Independent Film Development Corporation - aka IndyFilmCorp - going to attack on the television and film front, or the theme park front (where none have yet to dethrone Disney)? Despite the moniker, it's the theme park industry that makes IFLM such an interesting stock right now.
Just for the record, Independent Film Development Corporation really is an independent film company. Though it doesn't have the library that a name like Lions Gate Entertainment has - at least not yet - it's got a decent library, and has proven its chops in the arena. It's the producer of the Autograph celebrity biography series, and it owns the rights to the perennially popular Three Stooges shorts, just to drop a few names. It's not film and television that's apt to put IFLM on the map, however. No, the reason The Walt Disney Company needs to be particularly worried is because IndyFilmCorp is planning a new kind of theme park that could make DisneyLand and DisneyWorld look like a schoolyard playground.
Times are changing. So are tastes. Technology has a lot to do with that, whether you're talking about the realism seen on the big and small screen, or the telecommunications technologies that keep all of us connected to, well, everything, all the time. Most consumers have seen, heard, and done it all, if not in real life, then at least digitally. That's what makes it tough for Disney's theme parks to "wow' guests year in and year out. Independent Film Development Corporation has a plan, however, to actually get the adrenaline pumping for theme park guests again. It's going to immerse visitors in an experience that combines special effects with state-of-the-art film technologies that don't just show an amusement park patron something interesting, but lets them live it.... perhaps wondering if what they're seeing may well be real, and not some stage-show.
In other words, IndyFilmCorp is planning to build a theme park that crosses the "cute" line that Disney wouldn't (and won't) cross to enter the place in people's minds where "holy @#$%" will be a common response. Some of the planned attractions at the park being planned for the 500-acre property in the Catskills, New York, are a water flume ride that feels like a journey through the River Styx (with a narrow, splash-filled escape from Hades), a haunted house with ghosts rendered as holograms rather than just a light shining through cardboard cutouts, and instead of lovable cartoon characters walking around the park passing out hugs, guests at the IndyFilmCorp amusement park will catch a glimpse of Bigfoot lurking around the park's tree-laden areas.
Intense? Yes, but that's the point. Consumers want more intensity, and they want help suspending their beliefs of what they know to be real... something most theme parks like Disney can't quite do, as they lack the visual, movie-caliber special effects that Independent Film Development Corporation plans to make a part of the park.
So what, pray tell, is such a big deal all of a sudden? Per this morning's press release, IFLM was victorious in a key court case against a former partner. The end result of that courtroom victory is the cancellation of what would have been a disadvantageous funding deal, plus an award of a little more than $200,000 in cash. The real benefit of the court case, however, is that the company can now focus on the development of the first of what could be many such theme parks rather than worry about arguing things out in a court room. From here, investors and observers can probably expect to see more frequent progress updates on the theme park front. That's always helpful for the underlying stock.
For more information on the theme park concept, here's the company's letter to shareholders unveiling the idea.
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