For film fans that grew up with a love of Disney films, the idea of the Disney Vault is a glorious, yet frustrating thing. Depending on your age, there were probably many times you eagerly ran to your parents, begging them to buy a copy of that coveted Disney film on VHS before it got locked away in the Vault forever. It’s a marketing ploy to ramp up the urgency in purchasing, but damn it, it works. Well, now it appears that the Vault is about to take another victim, the biggest one to date even — 20th Century Fox.
According to a new report from Vulture, it appears that repertory theaters all across the US are finding out that an unforeseen consequence of the blockbuster merger is the fact that the Mouse House’s Disney Vault idea is going to extend, in part, to the vast library of Fox. The report claims that, without warning or any real formal announcement, Disney has begun eliminating older Fox titles from being shown in theaters around the country.
There aren’t any real reasons given, but it appears the new rule is that only non-profit theaters, such as Film Forum in New York City, will be given access to the library of Fox titles to be shown on the big screen. That means repertory theaters, which thrive on the showing of classic, iconic films, as well as regional chains and other major for-profit theaters, will not be allowed to show Fox titles on the big-screen moving forward.
Some examples point out that theaters attempting to show “Fight Club” for a special anniversary showing and “Alien” alongside the recent making-of doc ‘Memory,’ are being banned from doing so from Disney. One theater even was told it wouldn’t be able to screen “Say Anything,” “The Princess Bride,” and “Moulin Rouge.”
Unfortunately, there’s no real rhyme or reason given as to why this is happening or for what films, exactly. It appears that the Fox library just finds itself under the same rules that govern Disney, which has been notoriously strict with when, where, and how past films are shown in theaters and home video, such as with the Vault. However, there appears to be one notable exception, which is sure to confuse many and please a ton of fans — “Rocky Horror Picture Show.” The musical has seemingly been exempt from this new rule.
Vulture says that Disney hasn’t officially commented on the policy or how it will enforce it. That means we don’t know if this is just Disney being Disney or if this is part of some larger plan to focus people’s attention to the streaming platforms that the company owns and/or is launching.
But what we do know for sure, if you want to watch “Avatar” in preparation for the upcoming sequels, you might be out of luck. And for those theaters that survive off of these types of films and screenings, it appears that Mickey Mouse has struck again.