Disney/Pixar In General

The thing is that WB already is roughly the seize Disney will reach by acquiring Fox. You can hardly then say "yeah, but you can't be as large as this other film studio which already exists".

For references, in terms of movies, WB released 31 movies last year. Disney only 9...I think I might have forgotten one. Disney gets so much from the box office because it offers the better product (Between Beauty and the Beast, Got G Vol 2 and Thor Ragnarok, which all overperformed, and the upcoming Star Wars movie they are already pretty much set before you even count in the money from Coco and Cars 3), not because it releases to many movies more.

Honestly, Disney has less of a monopoly (in terms of movies) now than back in the 1950s, when they were pretty much the only company creating high quality animated movies.

Yet WB only commands, say, twenty-something percent of the box office compared to the 40% or so Disney will have if this deal goes through.

There were way more movies besides animated ones in the 50s, though.

Reportedly Fox released 25 films this year, over Disney’s 8.

Because Disney knows its films are guaranteed to make profits.

Well they hate uncertainty and are very risk adverse because they don't have that kind of confidence

Sure some of their films are successful just because it's part of the disney branding,but they know that a bad film hurts their brand image overall

edited 14th Dec '17 10:49:55 AM by Ultimatum

OTOH, Fox, much like the honey badger, just don't give a fuck.

edited 14th Dec '17 11:45:24 AM by M84

But that is my point...Fox and Disney together will roughly release the same number of movies WB does. And those three together are still facing competition from Paramount, Sony, Bloomhouse, Universal, and over a dozen other movie studios. And that is just in Hollywood.

To be frank, I would be more concerned about the distribution channels than the studios themselves.

That Disney bags so much of the box office though, well, that's because we go and see those movies. Can you blame Disney for delivering a popular product? That is like blaming Picasso that he actually managed to live of his art while most painters don't.

Does this mean Anastasia is a Disney movie now?

Not officially,it's still a fox film and Disney happens to own fox,if Disney produced the film it would be,but otherwise no

Are there any estimates on how long it'd take for things to pass legal hurdles (assuming they do) and for things to start happening?

A deal like this can take years to properly sort out and finalise,no one wants to rush it and make job of it so they'll take their time

Roughly 18 months. Those time would be rough for any movies that are being planned to be released from Fox as they will have to face uncertainty to appeal to either the old Fox executives or the now Disney executives.

18 months is not coincidentally around the time Disney solidifies its own streaming service.

edited 14th Dec '17 9:00:33 PM by kyun

So I was wondering, since Disney now has Fox's movie and TV show divisions, what would become of Fox's more edgier shows and movies? Will Disney seriously make them more kid friendly like everyone has been discussing about or will they create another unit that would house in their more mature shows, like how they did with Touchstone Pictures and Miramax?

The whole point of this was to get content which Disney is currently missing in its library. It would make no sense to buy the source of said content and then tell said source to stop producing it.

I have the feeling that there will be a lot of rebranding going on, but as far as the successful production companies of Fox goes, there won't be much of a change. The actual shake-up will happen in distribution, HR and the whole administrative level, because there will be a lot of overlapping competences.

I think I keep repeating myself, but the one production company which is in this package which might be really screwed is Blue Sky. Unless Disney decides to resell, that company will most likely just vanish. Don't forget that Disney already has three animation companies (Disney Animation studios, Pixar and this entity with the ever changing name I tend to simply call Toon Disney which is responsible for the animated TV shows and direct to video productions), they really have no use whatsoever for Blue Sky.

I wonder if Disney will try to move the shows Fox produced for other networks (like This Is Us) to ABC.

Fox has a broadcasting deal for those shows. They have first dips, at least until the contract is fulfilled.

Look, TV rights are way more complicated than Movie rights. There are broadcasting deals, syndication deals, distribution deals and then the whole thing again for different countries. It will take years to sort all that out.

Disney is very respectful to the faithfulness of the stuff they acquire from outside companies once they get them. Star Wars stayed dark. Marvel stayed suspenseful- some of the CW shows are even darker. I'm sure the FOX animated shows will stay crude and irreverent.

I'd feel worse about this deal if not for the fact that a) Fox wanted to sell, meaning some conglomerate was going to get bigger no matter what, and b) it's, well, Disney. Not exactly the face of pure corporate evil.

I’d prefer a vertical merger like Verizon, though.

That's because that's what they want you to think.

Fox was beforehand owned by the Murdoch group, a corporation which actively campaigned for Brexit and Trump and does its best to spread racism through the world. Disney is more know for stuff like putting pressure on the state of Atlanta to not pass an anti-gay bill.

Look, I am not saying that Disney doesn't indulge in shady business practices...they are trying to get the best deal possible and they are not above of copyrighting whatever they get their hands on. But if you look at the alternatives this could be so much worse.

Fox is getting $50 billion (or whatever the amount is) out of the deal. Can’t get much worse than that.

Fox will still be able to do that when the deal's done, and with some of the things I've been hearing they might be able to do so even more.

Disney, however, is going to get even more powerful as a result of this. No one company should have that much power at the box office. They know you enjoy their animated films and summer blockbusters. They know you'll go see them no matter the quality.

How many of you have heard of the conditions Disney's setting out for theaters to show the new Star Wars film? Expect more of that in the future.

How much have you heard of Lucas Film putting pressure on the theatres long before Disney even bought the damned franchise? This is nothing new. People just pay attention this time around because it is Disney.

Hell, the reason why Hollywood even exist was to escape another monopoly. The whole history of the entertainment industry is full stories like this. I would even argue that the entertainment industry has never been less a monopoly than now, because the barrier to produce a movie (or content in general) and monetize it has never been lower.

Plus, in a world in which Nestle holds a monopoly over water and net neutrality is about to become a thing of the past while the whole US telephone network is controlled by three companies, the entertainment industry would really be my last worry. There the solution is easy: If you think a company got too greedy, stop watching their content.