The huge footprint Disney currently has on the movie industry is hard to understate. The company has two of the biggest film franchise brands under its roof with Marvel and Lucasfilm, they are a leading company when it comes to animation thanks to Pixar and Walt Disney Animation Studios, and let’s not forget their own ongoing and very successful live-action reboots of catalog titles. The company has money to burn, and indeed, they’re now plotting their next move.
While speculation has been tossed around that Disney might buy Netflix, they’ve set their sights on something bigger. CNBC reports Disney is in talks to buy 21st Century Fox — yes, the movie studio. It’s easy to see why Disney is keen on the deal. Not only would they bring the original “Star Wars” trilogy and the prequel films under their roof, but also other lucrative franchises like “Avatar” (which they’re already building a theme park for) and “Alien.” Not only that, a potential sale would finally bring X-Men into the same home as Marvel. Disney would essentially own every major franchise you can think of. Not to mention, they’d have a prestige arm in Fox Searchlight.
All that being said, talks have been going on for weeks, and who knows if it’ll shake out. Fox would essentially get out of the movie business and focus on news and sports. It would certainly make Disney a monstrous company, and one wonders if the Federal Trade Commission might want to take a look at potential monopoly issues. For what it’s worth, since Disney already owns ABC and ESPN, it’s against the law to own two broadcast networks, so they won’t be taking Fox Television or Fox Sports.
This will certainly make other studios tiny by comparison and increase Disney’s already massive media presence. So, ever dream of Wolverine fighting Jabba The Hut? Well, now it could happen.
