70 billion dollars and what really do they have to show for it?
The purchase gave them an insane amount of debt so they immediately laid off a lot of former fox employees and recently laid off 7000 employees to save them 5 billion.
They also haven't done much of anything with the Fox catalog.
Most of the new 20th century films were unceremoniously slapped onto Hulu streaming.
- Hellraiser 2022
- Prey
- New Mutants
- No Exit
- Barbarian
- Boston Strangler
- Crater
And more were all put on streaming and forgotten. Some of these movies were pretty good and could have made some money in theaters. I really liked Barbarian myself and Prey got a ton of praise.
What exactly did they get that was worth 70 billion? Avatar? The Simpsons? They could have just licensed those for Disney+ and saved a ton of money. Most of Fox's properties don't fit Disney. What are they even going to do with Alien, Predator, and Planet of the Apes? If Prey is any indication they aren't interested in putting them in theaters.
Before someone says X-Men what the hell have they even done with them? Some lame cameos. I'll never forgive them for the quicksilver gag in Wandavision. They got beat bad by Fox in the who has the cooler quicksilver so they make him a dick joke. Great.
They aren't going to do anything with the X-Men anytime soon. The 3rd Deadpool movie seems to be the only thing even cooking and that seems to be more because Ryan Reynolds is pushing it. If you're an X-Men fan you must be disappointed. Remember when we had an X-Men movie about every year? Say goodbye to those and Alien, Predator, Planet of the Apes.
FX seems to be doing alright but all to adult for Disney so to Hulu it goes. Why did they make a big deal out of Disney+ anyway? Wouldn't it make more sense to have one app? Put it all on Hulu. Why are their two apps with very different interfaces for one company?
Now that Disney is losing money in streaming and with recent flops I think this deal needs to be scrutinized more. Blame Capitalism or streaming mania but I have to say even from a business standpoint it makes no sense at all.
What do you think? Was this the beginning of the end for Disney's box office dominance? A bad play to kill Netflix? Or is Disney planning something that will take years to bear fruit?
It wasn't a waste of money to prevent another studio buying them up and using those properties against them. They decimated potential competition, that's very valuable.
That's why consolidation like this really needs more anti-trust scrutiny. If Fox was going to be sold, it should never have been Disney that was allowed to buy it. They eliminated a major competitor and took all its resources away from everyone else, only to cut jobs and leave those properties to languish in obscurity. Because no one is allowed to make money in Hollywood except them. That's not a healthy market.
Yeah, the famous free and unbiased market
Perhaps but there has always been the Big 5 major studios. Right now there is Universal Pictures, Paramount Pictures, Warner Bros., Walt Disney Studios, and Sony Pictures. Used to Sony wouldn't be counted or they would say big 6 but there has normally been 5 major studios. One dies another takes it's place.
RKO and MGM used to be part of the big 5 back in the day now gone but replaced. I think the same will happen here. Someone will fill the gap. Apple is spending big money for Scorsese and Ridley Scott. Amazon and Netflix are also trying to be players. I don't think Disney made the dent in competition that they thought they were going to make.