The Mouse House is on a roll this year. It felt like forever when rumors of Disney negotiating With 20th Century Fox first came into being. With major production houses like Comcast also in the race to acquire the rights to Fox’s super valuable assets, everyone believed Disney will lose the race. People were proven almost right when negotiations between Disney and Fox supposedly stalled. Almost. A fresh round of talks started earlier this month and the results of that were ground shattering. Disney outran major players like Comcast and MGM to acquire 20th Century Fox. Fox has essentially sold its properties to Disney Studios.
Disney already has too much in its bag. After acquiring Marvel, it even had its own superhero franchise to milk movies out of. But Marvel’s flagship superheroes – the X-Men and the Fantastic Four were Fox property. Marvel had sold off their rights to Fox a long ago. Something that always eluded Disney during the creation and expansion of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Even the distribution rights to Star Wars, Disney’s other poster child, lied with 20th Century Fox.
After the signing of the Landmark deal called the “media deal of the century”, two major production houses have joined hands. An event like this is unprecedented in world history. Disney will not only get the rights to the X-Men and the Fantastic Four, they have managed to get their hands on an even sweeter deal. Fox’s flagship properties like the Simpsons, Aliens, Predators, Planet of the Apes, Kingsman and Die Hard now come under the Disney banner. Fox’s TV and movie rights now belong to the Mouse House. But Disney did not have it easy. Fox made sure Disney paid well for the prize they seek to have. The Mouse House had to shell out a hefty sum of $ 52.4 Billion USD.
Now after all is said and done with the Disney-Fox deal, one Question still remains – How will the movie world be affected?
20th Century Fox is known for the amount of colossal gamble they are willing to participate in just for the sake of making a good movie. Avatar, Alien, Predator, Die Hard and Titanic did not just win the Box Office, they won people’s hearts as well. With Fox Searchlight, the awards and accolades that adorn the Fox Logo are incredibly huge. 12 Years a Slave, Birdman, Slumdog Millionaire are just to name a few that have made it to the Oscars. Disney has a severely deficient amount of awards and nominations under its belt, not in small part due to the fact that it relies on a kid-friendly approach and baby formula type spoon fed story telling. Disney is afraid of taking risks and that is why it has trouble being acknowledged
A solid testament to the above-stated fact would be that Fox had 27 Nominations at this year’s Golden Globes Awards for a variety of movie. Disney had only 2. Now that’s saying something.
With 20th Century Fox now under the Mouse Company, maybe some Awards will come Disney’s way as well. Walt Disney Studios – consisting of Lucas Films, Pixar Animation, Marvel Studios and Fox Entertainment Group – consisting of 20th Century Fox, Fox Searchlight, Fox 2000, when combined under the merger will constitute about 27 percent of the entire movie industry.
According to the same Formula, Warner Bros. – Newline Cinema and Dc Films owns 15.36 percent; Sony Pictures – Columbia Pictures, Tri-Star, Screen Gems owns 12. 22 percent; Universal Pictures – Focus Features, Dream Works owns 11.49 percent; and Paramount Pictures – Nickelodeon, Paramount Animation owns 10.89 percent of the movie industry. The rest of the share is owned by minor production houses scattered all around the World.
The Big Six have been reduced to the Big Five. 20th Century Fox is out of the race. With Disney now owning a majority share in the movie industry, some are questioning whether creativity and innovation will take a hit under Disney’s increasing monopoly.
Disney recently tried to force their absurd rules on smaller theater chains across the USA during the release of Star Wars: The Last Jedi. With too much power in their hands, they could become more and more liable for strong-arming smaller groups for their own bidding. That is how a dictatorship starts.
Don’t Miss: X-Men, Fantastic Four And Deadpool Confirmed For MCU
