The Disney mega-deal for 21st Century Fox’s entertainment assets has happened. This includes all the Marvel properties the comic company gave up to Fox to stave off bankruptcy including the Fantastic Four and X-Men characters in the cinematic universe in the 1990s.
Disney’s 4 billion dollar deal to buy Marvel in 2009 has paid many dividends by forging the highest-grossing film franchise of all time with over $13 billion. They hope that the Fox deal will have the same effect on their bottom line and make them an even bigger and more dominate movie franchise maker.
Walt Disney Company is acquiring a huge part of Twentieth Century Fox – including its core TV and film assets – for $52.4-billion. This will shake up not only Hollywood but every entertainment media outlet there is. The Star Wars properties will be housed with the X-Men, the xenomorphs at the heart of the Alien franchise, the Fantastic Four, the Avengers, any and all Pixar cuties, Homer Simpson, the blue-skinned Na’vi who inhabit the Avatar universe, the suave spies from the Kingsman films, Caesar and his talking-ape buddies, those lovable Ice Age critters, Deadpool and FBI agents Mulder and Scully. Oh, and Jack Sparrow, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Fry and Bender from Futurama, Kermit the Frog, Peter Griffin and his crude cartoon family, Die Hard’s John McClane, Bob Belcher and his burger-serving clan, Alvin and the Chipmunks, the extraterrestrial fighters from Independence Day and, of course, Mickey Mouse and all the Disney princesses.
If that was not enough it means that Marvel fanboys and fangirls will see adamantium-clawed mutant Wolverine on the same screen with Captain America or the Incredible Hulk. It seems like a union made in fantasy and superhero heaven. The buy out gives more reason for the Disney’s streaming service to dominate all streaming services in a few short years.
The G-rated Marvel studio goal may change to give room for movies like Fox’s R-rated and widely successful “Deadpool” release in 2016, Disney Chief Executive Bob Iger said on Thursday, “There might be an opportunity for a Marvel R-rated brand — as long as we let audiences know that it’s coming.” Owning such a conglomerate of movie and TV ventures will give the Disney corp many options and dull the competition of the remaining studio’s it does not own. Sony, Warner Bros., Paramount, and Universal will have to double down on their franchise efforts in order to compete with the Disney behemoth.
The already talented group of Disney movie professionals will be joined by other talents that will want to be part of the true rising opportunities at Disney. Kevin Feige has just been given more tools to build a successful next phase after the Avenger movies. Imagine what the minds at Marvel Studios could do with the Fantastic Four and the X-Men as part of their universe.
During the next year Fox will release for the last time three X-Men films set for release in 2018: “The New Mutants” in April, “Deadpool 2” in June and “X-Men: Dark Phoenix” in November. Marvel Studios releases in 2018 will be Black Panther, February 16th, Avengers: Infinity War, May 4th, and Ant-Man and the Wasp July 6th. DC Films will release Aquaman on December 21, 2018. That is a six to one margin of superhero movie franchise movies that shows the dominance that Marvel (Disney) has over DC Films (Warner Bros.)
The superhero franchise of movies now has a Marvel rich future if they can still produce the quality of movies they have in the past. While the other studios struggle with the clear advantage of entertainment material Disney Pictures and Marvel Studios has to work with and the barring any antitrust objections from the U.S. government, what is your opinion of the purchase and what does it mean to the movie industry?
Stay tuned for more on the entertainment stories and news as they unfold right here at Comics Talk. 🙂 Walt
Kevin Feige said once that it was very unlikely that Marvel Studios would have the X-Men crossover with the Avengers but he would never say never. What’s next Superman and Batman fighting the Hulk and Deadpool?