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Walt Disney and OpenAI have struck a landmark three-year licensing agreement that will allow fans to generate short AI-created videos featuring some of the entertainment giant’s most famous characters.
In a major shift for Hollywood, Disney has for the first time opened access to its closely guarded catalogue — including Mickey Mouse, characters from Marvel and Pixar, and figures from the Star Wars universe — for use in generative AI content on OpenAI’s Sora video tool and ChatGPT.
The partnership marks a significant turnaround for an industry that has spent the past year battling AI developers in court.
Disney, alongside other major studios and publishers, previously accused firms such as OpenAI, Anthropic and Perplexity of unlawfully training their models on copyrighted material.
The deal also lands at a crucial moment for OpenAI, which is under mounting scrutiny over the long-term viability of its business, with operating costs climbing far more quickly than revenues even as the platform approaches one billion daily users.
Under the arrangement, fans will be able to produce and share AI-generated clips featuring more than 200 characters across Disney’s franchises.
The agreement includes a $1 billion Disney equity investment in OpenAI, as well as warrants allowing the media company to purchase additional shares in the future.
Disney’s share price rose by around two per cent following the announcement.
Disney chief executive Bob Iger described the rapid emergence of AI as a pivotal moment for the entertainment sector, saying the collaboration would “thoughtfully and responsibly extend the reach of our storytelling”.
Characters available for use will include Mickey and Minnie Mouse, Frozen’s Elsa, Marvel figures like Iron Man and Captain America, and Star Wars favourites such as Darth Vader and Yoda. The deal notably excludes actors’ likenesses and voices.
Beyond the character licensing, Disney plans to integrate OpenAI’s technology into new features on its streaming service Disney+ and will roll out ChatGPT for internal use by staff.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said Disney represented “the global gold standard for storytelling”, adding that the agreement demonstrated how the creative industries and AI developers could collaborate responsibly.
Both companies stressed that guardrails would be in place to ensure age-appropriate, lawful content generation and protection of creator rights.
