TomH1138
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So you've probably all heard about this by now, but I didn't see a thread for it, so even though this news story is about a month old, I still think it's worth discussing.
Unsurprisingly, when the news broke, the first thing that most people focused on was an obvious positive: that the X-Men and the Fantastic Four could finally be brought into the MCU. But most people talked about seeing Hugh Jackman as Wolverine standing alongside Cap and Iron Man, but that was never gonna happen. 1) Just as with Spider-Man, I'm certain that Marvel is going to reboot the franchise. 2) Hugh Jackman has confirmed that he's still retired from the role after Logan. (And honestly, Logan was a huge critical and financial hit. How many actors get to go out on top like that?)
Anyway, only about half the X-Men movies are good, and there hasn't been a truly amazing FF film. The quality level should go up when they're Feige-produced.
The other positive is that Disney would be able to fully own all the Star Wars movies. Five of those films -- from Empire to Revenge of the Sith -- were going to be owned by the Mouse House after 2020 anyway, but the original 1977 movie was always going to be owned by Fox. Mainly this is a positive for Disney itself; for the average moviegoer, this is more of an interesting legal footnote.
Anyway, if Disney were just buying a few characters and some films, I think the story would end here. But I've seen very few articles or online talk about the fact that Disney isn't just buying a few properties; they're buying an entire studio. There are some interesting and weird repercussions for that.
--For years, many people have mistakenly thought that Anastasia was a Disney princess, because the Fox-produced Don Bluth film was made very much in the same style as the movies coming out from Disney at that point. Animation fans have spent years correcting that error; now it might actually come true. Whether or not we’ll see her at the parks standing alongside Cinderella and Mulan is up for debate, but it would technically be possible.
I expect that the Fox-owned Blue Sky animation studio will probably shutter its doors, although I can see Disney using the lucrative Ice Age franchise to their benefit.
--Disney already owns a quarter of the characters at the Universal theme park in Florida, since their licensing arrangement to use Marvel characters predates the sale to Disney. If the Fox sale goes through, then Universal’s new Simpsons-themed area will also feature characters licensed from Disney. At that point, roughly half the park will be Disney-licensed.
And even though it must bother Universal on some level to support Disney, they aren’t going to tear up a brand-new expensive area to the park. Indeed, after the Marvel sale, Universal doubled down and refurbished some of the rides, as if to taunt Disney for being unable to use those characters in their own park.
--People seem to think that we’re going to see just as many X-Men films as we currently do; they’re just going to be of better quality. I don’t. Fox has a reason to keep making movies as a standalone studio, but Disney would just be competing against itself if it releases too many films in a year. Not only do I think we’re about to get half the amount of Marvel-related movies that we’re currently getting, but I think that most movies released under the Fox banner will go away, period.
--The Fox Network, as well as the news and sports divisions, will continue to operate as a separate entity. That raises a question I’ve not heard asked by anyone else: Who gets the logo?
If the networks get to retain the logo, then Disney gets a vast library of films that they can’t distribute under their family-friendly branding, such as the Alien and Predator films and the Die Hard movies. A possible solution is to have all of these films rebranded under the Touchstone logo. Touchstone has already become a husk of its former self, mainly serving as a distribution house for DreamWorks live-action films over the last few years (and DreamWorks moves over to Universal this year).
If Disney gets the Fox logo, then there will probably be at least one noticeable positive change: Star Wars Ep. IX could debut with the Fox Fanfare finally back in place.
--I read somewhere that the FCC (?) is investigating this sale and whether or not it violates antitrust laws. That’s a good thing. While this wouldn’t be a monopoly, our entertainment industry is getting close to an oligopoly, where just a few companies own everything. Disney-Fox would own a third of the entire entertainment industry. But competition is a healthy thing economically, and we need room for independent voices in the media.
So the deal may not go through after all. However, I read one article that said this would be “the sixth largest media merger ever”—meaning that there are five other larger mergers that already got approved.
Anyway, those are my ramblings on the subject. What does everyone else think?
Unsurprisingly, when the news broke, the first thing that most people focused on was an obvious positive: that the X-Men and the Fantastic Four could finally be brought into the MCU. But most people talked about seeing Hugh Jackman as Wolverine standing alongside Cap and Iron Man, but that was never gonna happen. 1) Just as with Spider-Man, I'm certain that Marvel is going to reboot the franchise. 2) Hugh Jackman has confirmed that he's still retired from the role after Logan. (And honestly, Logan was a huge critical and financial hit. How many actors get to go out on top like that?)
Anyway, only about half the X-Men movies are good, and there hasn't been a truly amazing FF film. The quality level should go up when they're Feige-produced.
The other positive is that Disney would be able to fully own all the Star Wars movies. Five of those films -- from Empire to Revenge of the Sith -- were going to be owned by the Mouse House after 2020 anyway, but the original 1977 movie was always going to be owned by Fox. Mainly this is a positive for Disney itself; for the average moviegoer, this is more of an interesting legal footnote.
Anyway, if Disney were just buying a few characters and some films, I think the story would end here. But I've seen very few articles or online talk about the fact that Disney isn't just buying a few properties; they're buying an entire studio. There are some interesting and weird repercussions for that.
--For years, many people have mistakenly thought that Anastasia was a Disney princess, because the Fox-produced Don Bluth film was made very much in the same style as the movies coming out from Disney at that point. Animation fans have spent years correcting that error; now it might actually come true. Whether or not we’ll see her at the parks standing alongside Cinderella and Mulan is up for debate, but it would technically be possible.
I expect that the Fox-owned Blue Sky animation studio will probably shutter its doors, although I can see Disney using the lucrative Ice Age franchise to their benefit.
--Disney already owns a quarter of the characters at the Universal theme park in Florida, since their licensing arrangement to use Marvel characters predates the sale to Disney. If the Fox sale goes through, then Universal’s new Simpsons-themed area will also feature characters licensed from Disney. At that point, roughly half the park will be Disney-licensed.
And even though it must bother Universal on some level to support Disney, they aren’t going to tear up a brand-new expensive area to the park. Indeed, after the Marvel sale, Universal doubled down and refurbished some of the rides, as if to taunt Disney for being unable to use those characters in their own park.
--People seem to think that we’re going to see just as many X-Men films as we currently do; they’re just going to be of better quality. I don’t. Fox has a reason to keep making movies as a standalone studio, but Disney would just be competing against itself if it releases too many films in a year. Not only do I think we’re about to get half the amount of Marvel-related movies that we’re currently getting, but I think that most movies released under the Fox banner will go away, period.
--The Fox Network, as well as the news and sports divisions, will continue to operate as a separate entity. That raises a question I’ve not heard asked by anyone else: Who gets the logo?
If the networks get to retain the logo, then Disney gets a vast library of films that they can’t distribute under their family-friendly branding, such as the Alien and Predator films and the Die Hard movies. A possible solution is to have all of these films rebranded under the Touchstone logo. Touchstone has already become a husk of its former self, mainly serving as a distribution house for DreamWorks live-action films over the last few years (and DreamWorks moves over to Universal this year).
If Disney gets the Fox logo, then there will probably be at least one noticeable positive change: Star Wars Ep. IX could debut with the Fox Fanfare finally back in place.
--I read somewhere that the FCC (?) is investigating this sale and whether or not it violates antitrust laws. That’s a good thing. While this wouldn’t be a monopoly, our entertainment industry is getting close to an oligopoly, where just a few companies own everything. Disney-Fox would own a third of the entire entertainment industry. But competition is a healthy thing economically, and we need room for independent voices in the media.
So the deal may not go through after all. However, I read one article that said this would be “the sixth largest media merger ever”—meaning that there are five other larger mergers that already got approved.
Anyway, those are my ramblings on the subject. What does everyone else think?