By Matthew Nguyen, Sports Editor
With Walt Disney Co.’s recent acquisition of 20th Century Fox assets for $71.3 billion (yes, you read that correctly. 71.3 BILLION dollars. Just to put it into perspective, you could buy 80,681,818,182 twinkies for that price.) being made official as of Mar. 30, their already unsurmountable empire grows even larger. This historic deal could have unprecedented repercussions on the entertainment industry at large. Their stranglehold is tightening to the point that the only thing left standing will be three simple circles that roughly resemble that renowned rodent.
Many people do not understand the gravity that this deal will mean for the film, television and streaming industry as a whole. With this purchase, Disney will now own 40% of box office shares and increase it’s daunting arsenal of intellectual properties (IP) to ridiculous heights.
Let me put it to you like this, the top five highest grossing films of all time (as of June 17) are Avatar, Avengers: Endgame, Titanic, Star Wars: The Force Awakens and Avengers: Infinity War. With the acquisition of Fox, Disney now owns all five of these properties as well as their entire franchises. They also add the likes of fellow movie behemoths such as the X-Men or Home Alone franchises as well as long-running television series such as Modern Family and The Simpsons. Imagine going into the theater preparing yourself to watch the new Avatar sequel, only to see Homer Simpson fly in riding the Millennium Falcon being chased down by Indiana Jones and the cast of the Avengers. It’s pandemonium, and yet, it’s also now entirely possible.
The ramifications of this transaction will be felt starting as early as next year, as Fox has already announced that they will be cutting down the amount of movies they produce by half. That means smaller, indie films that don’t feature some iteration of a Jedi or superhero may be cut in favor of more established IPs. The days of small-budget classics such as Pulp Fiction and Momento could be behind us, in favor of big market juggernauts such as Indiana Jones and X-Men.
Now you may be asking yourself at this point, “Hey, it’s 2019, I don’t even talk to people in person anymore, let alone go to the movie theaters, how does this affect me?” This is a fair question. However, the effects of this transaction can be felt much further than just on the big screen. Disney’s new streaming platform Disney+ has been announced to launch Nov. 12 this year, and with the acquisition of Fox, its already plentiful stockpile of blockbusters, TV shows and shorts keep expanding. This also means that Disney will begin pulling their properties from their streaming competition such as Netflix and Amazon.
The process has actually already begun, as Marvel announced that their Netflix original series’ Daredevil, Punisher, Iron Fist, Jessica Jones and Luke Cage have all been cancelled in favor of starting production on the new Disney+ exclusive shows such as Loki, Falcon and the Winter Soldier and Hawkeye. That means your days of catching up on your latest marvel movies or binging through every season of Grey’s Anatomy on Netflix are over. Disney’s going to force viewers to pay for another streaming service or even switch over completely in order to for them to view their favorite shows or movies.
Disney has also recently bought out Hulu completely from Comcast. The business acquisition of Fox already gave them a majority share in the company, but it has officially claimed the asset for itself. This purchase does not mean that Hulu will be taken off the market, but it will most likely be run in conjunction with Disney+ and be used as an alternative platform for them to have their more mature and R-rated television shows/movies. I would expect Disney to capitalize on this opportunity and bundle the two streaming services together.
Disney’s domination seems like it will continue on for the foreseeable future as it expands its empire brick by brick, billion-dollar acquisition by billion-dollar acquisition. Its influence will now extend past the big screen, through our television sets, and directly into our phones as it now shifts its focus onto streaming.
Some people may be happy for this change. With less competition in the market we could see more Disney live-action remakes (And while I loved Beauty and the Beast and believe Aladin to be a good film, I really could have done without Dumbo) or Star Wars spinoffs in the future, which would naturally excite a large number of viewers. Based on the box office numbers for these films, there is obviously a large following for these titles. But while I have to admit that they do make for entertaining blockbusters, my fear is that it will come at the expense of smaller, more meaningful films. The likes of The Lion King and Spider Man: Far From Home have already begun to sap attention away from movies such as Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood or Elton John’s biopic Rocketman, and it’ll only be a matter of time before the little attention they receive is consumed completely by those Disney films.
Will it eventually lead to the complete extinction of the indie genre? I hope not, but if we continue on this trajectory, all that will be left will be three black circles arranged conveniently to appear like an innocent-looking rodent.
