On Nov. 6, CNBC reported that 20th Century Fox has been holding talks to sell most of its company off to Disney. This will include the feature film and television divisions. The announcement sparked lots of controversy over whether Disney should make this deal or not. Here are— in my opinion— the pros and cons of Disney purchasing 20th Century Fox’s film and television properties.
Pro: “X-Men”/”Fantastic Four”/”Deadpool” would join Marvel Studios
20th Century Fox is selling off their feature film rights. This will include the “X-Men,” “Deadpool,” and “Fantastic Four” characters. With the rights then under Disney, it would mean that the characters would then join Marvel Studios, and then lead to these characters to join into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Marvel fans would finally get to see some of their beloved characters― like Wolverine and Deadpool― finally interact with the Avengers and Spider-Man, now all under the same franchise and universe.
Pro: All “Star Wars” movies would finally be under Disney’s name
Even though Lucasfilm/Disney own the rights to the “Star Wars” franchise, 20th Century Fox still has rights to one of the “Star Wars” movies, “Star Wars: A New Hope”, also known as simply “Star Wars”. If the deal goes through, Disney will officially have all the rights to all of the “Star Wars” movies.
Pro: Fox shows would go to Disney’s upcoming streaming service
Back in August, Disney announced that it would end its exclusive movie deal with Netflix in 2019 and launch an ad-free, Disney-branded streaming service. According to Business Insider, Disney said it “will also make a significant investment in an annual slate of original movies, TV shows, short-form content and other Disney-branded exclusives for the service.” If this deal goes through, all Fox shows, including “The Simpsons” and “Family Guy,” would immediately transfer to the upcoming Disney streaming service when it launches in 2019.
Con: Fox Marvel characters being “dumbed down” for Disney
20th Century Fox’s X-Men franchise has been more recently producing R-Rated films rather than their standard PG-13 rating. Last year, the company produced the R-Rated superhero film “Deadpool,” which was then followed up this year with “Logan,” which also happened to be R-rated. Both films received big box office takes and great response from critics and moviegoers. Now, if the franchise goes into the hands of Disney, there is a high possibility of Disney bringing the franchise to a standard PG-13 rating, rather than embracing Fox’s more recent success with an R-Rating. While Disney does own some of the biggest franchises of all time, the company is not well-known for producing R-Rated content. However, this does not mean that the company can’t, or won’t produce R-rated films. According to Collider, Kevin Feige, head president of Marvel Studios, said back in June that the possibility of creating R-Rated films are “not out of the question, but not something we’re working on right now” . If Feige wants to embrace R-Rated content in the future and this deal goes through, he would then have his hands on the X-Men franchise, which could then pave a path to Marvel Studios. It all depends on how Disney handles this type of deal.
Con: What happens to the “Alien” franchise?
As I have already mentioned, Disney is not well-known for producing R-Rated content. While the X-Men franchise is capable of handling a PG-13 rating, Fox owns a franchise that is mostly R-Rated, “Alien.” There are some in the franchise that were PG-13, but the series, has generally been handled with an R-rating. However, the PG-13 films didn’t receive good box office take, or great reviews from critics and moviegoers. The series contains lots of violence, graphic imagery, and swearing. This then leads back to the question again: How will Disney handle this type of deal? If Disney needs to put limitations to certain franchises, then there is a big possibility for Disney to potentially not produce more Alien films because of how violent the series is.
Con: Too Much Power & Control = Less Competition
Disney is one of the biggest companies in the world. The company has acquired Marvel Studios, Lucasfilm, Miramax, and Touchstone in the past decay. If Disney ends up acquiring 20th Century Fox, the number of major studios would go down from six to five, which would decrease the number of competition. Without enough competition, companies can stagnate and potentially harm consumers in the process. In simpler terms, let’s say that you want to watch “Alien: Covenant” from On Demand. With Disney building their own streaming service and if they bought Fox, they could make all of Fox’s titles exclusives to the platform, which would then lead to you paying more to watch them.
This all boils down to the same question: How will Disney handle this? If Disney needs to put restrictions on certain properties that Fox owns, then the franchises could go one of two ways. They might be “bumped down” to Disney’s standards, or the franchises could potentially not be touched again after the deal goes through. Even though there are some great benefits from this deal, there are also some problems and issues that will need to be negotiated between the two companies before going through with it.