Early this week, news broked that Disney and Fox were in initial discussions for Disney to purchase a majority stake of Fox. However, other reports have since broke claiming that talks are “dead.” This purchase certainly could have made for some interesting developments. Then again, there are some serious unintended consequences that may have come into play.
What Was Disney Trying to Buy?
The Mouse was reportedly looking to purchase Fox’s entertainment assets, most notably its film, TV, and international holdings. If Disney wanted to purchase anymore of Fox, such as Fox Sports or Fox News, it would undoubtedly have broken antitrust laws since Disney already owns ESPN/ABC and local affiliate stations.
For all you comic book fans out there, this would have meant that the rights of X-Men, Fantastic Four, and any other Marvel property at Fox would go back to Disney. You could have seen that MCU-Fantasitc Four movie that you’ve been clamoring for.
Alas, talks are done for the time being. So, you’ll have to deal with everything being separate for now.
So Where Does Disney Go From Here?
It’s no secret that Disney is attempting to go head-to-head with Netflix in the ever-souring relationship between the two companies. In recent months, it has been announced that Marvel and other Disney properties will leave Netflix soon as the company gears up to release its own streaming service in 2019. Purchasing Fox clearly would have made this service very powerful given the wide array of properties that Fox owns that could make for appealing content.
Who knows, talks may occur again some time in the future. After all, Disney stills wants to make their streaming service as potent as possible. They might move towards buying out other companies of their stakes in Hulu to further grow their online platform. Or, they might even take a second look at buying Twitter as a means to improve online power.
Disney is looking to change the game when it releases its streaming service, so you can be sure that it’ll make some serious moves over the next year or so, whether or not Fox is involved.
What Does This Mean for Audiences?
Judging by the title of the article itself, you can guess the way I lean on this topic. But, the conversation may not be as black and white as you think.
For fans of superheroes, this means no X-Men of Fantasic Four in the MCU for now. Also, Fox still owns the original Star Wars (the entire deal deserves its own article), making box sets and releases of the original, unaltered version very, very tricky.
This also rules out the possibility of a Planet of the Apes and Beauty and the Beast crossover that I’m sure all of you want.
Creative Freedom May be Safe…for Now
Then, there’s the entire discussion of creative freedom and diversification.
Whether it was by design or not, Fox has taken some serious risks with their high-profile properties in recent years. The film and entertainment division of Fox switched leadership back in 2016, causing the company to change course in how it approaches some of its films. The company is changing up general genre conventions, especially with its superheroes films. These chances were somewhat born out of shaky financial position for the film sector of Fox, but these gutsy moves have paid off nicely.
They say that competition breeds ingenuity, and that might be lost if Disney pulled off the deal. That’s not to say that Disney wouldn’t do a great job; they aren’t as successful as they are because they are merely adequate. But, Disney does have an established, family-friendly brand that it has used to build its empire. As currently constructed, Disney wouldn’t consider R-rated films or something that is seriously off the beaten path. Disney isn’t necessarily bland, but they certainly don’t produce the most inventive, far-out films on the market. For there not to be a noticeable difference in film quality, Disney would have to make a serious, fundamental change to its core values.
Creative, Niche Content is What Hollywood Needs
Along with Fox’s more well known content is their more prestige-focused divisions, most notably Fox Searchlight. The division has been responsible for a plethora of Oscars in recent years, while Disney’s Oscars have been predominantly for their animated films. Since 2004, here are the renowned films that Fox Searchlight has had a part in producing:
Garden State
Sideways
Little Miss Sunshine
Fast Food Nation
The Darjeeling Limited
Juno
Slumdog Millionaire
The Wrestler
(500) Days of Summer
Crazy Heart
127 Hours
Black Swan
The Descendants
The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
12 Years a Slave
Birdman
Wild
Me and Earl and the Dying Girl
Brooklyn
Battle of the Sexes
On top of that, the division is behind Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri and The Shape of Water, two of this year’s Best Picture hopefuls. Disney has focused more on wide-ranging, crowd-pleasers for most of its existence. Again, that’s not a bad thing at its surface, but Disney would still need to change its calculus to an alarming degree to help facilitate more prestige films. This notion doesn’t even consider Fox’s niche TV content that would need an entirely different article to discuss.
Final Thoughts
The purpose of this article is not to badmouth Disney. I’m sure they would do just fine with new sectors of the company. But, there are certainly some unintended consequences of such a big merger. Writers and other employees have already complained that such a deal would hamper their ability to make a living with less competition for their work. There are certainly glamorous sides of Hollywood, but there are also people just trying to make a living.
Some deal like this one will occur in the future. At this point, it’s inevitable. Let’s just make sure that the film industry can handle such a drastic change.
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4 comments
Surely the elephant in the room here is what happens now to Fox? This wasn’t predatory Disney looking to pick over the carcass of a fallen rival, this was Fox deciding it wants to hive off its entertainment division to focus on news and sports. Just because Disney didn’t seal the deal doesn’t mean other predators won’t come sniffing around Fox now, ones with tighter purse strings and even less concern for artistic integrity, like a venture capitalist firm. Disney have been widely made out to be the villains here but they didn’t create this situation and whatever happens to Fox now will be Fox’s fault, not theirs. The Hollywood people seem to have suddenly lionised is by no means safe and may, in fact, be more in jeopardy than ever before.
I think Fox might be okay for the foreseeable future. They’ve had a decent year in terms of returns for their films. I think what might sink them is if the new Avatar films fail. They’re pouring a ton of money into them
I don’t think I’ve explained my point clearly enough. Fox aren’t looking to get rid of their entertainment division because it’s lost money recently or underperformed generally, they want to cleave it off because it doesn’t fit with their strategic business goals anymore. They want to focus on sports and news as their core business and the movie and tv production business is now surplus to requirements. Whether it’s profitable or not will really only have a short term impact on the sale price of the assets and IPs. If not Disney then *someone* is going to end up owning 20th Century Fox as a tv/movie studio because Fox corporation doesn’t want it anymore.
I️ don’t know about that. If it’s still profitable it wouldn’t make sense for them to get rid of it unless someone blows them away with an offer. I️ don’t know how much room for expansion there is in sports/broadcasting, especially with the continuing amount of chord cutters out there. They may still do it, but it’s probably not smart