If all goes well in the days ahead, pretty soon Hollywood will be Disney, and then everybody else.
The studio, which is currently enjoying its third straight year crossing $5 billion at the worldwide box office, looks close to sealing the deal for buying Fox. Or at least its most important parts. According to CNBC, Disney is almost ready to fork over some probably very big stacks of cash for Fox‘s movie studio and television production assets. What does this mean? For starters, it would bring “Avatar” and “Alien” into the mouse house, but perhaps most intriguingly X-Men. Suddenly, Marvel would have storytelling possibilities beyond their wildest dreams. You can practically hear Kevin Feige drooling.
Meanwhile, there’s also “Star Wars,” and the originally trilogy which is currently controlled by Fox, would finally return to the Lucasfilm fold. Box sets of each trilogy? One massive one? Maybe even — finally — those original trilogy theatrical cuts? Dare to dream.
However, let’s not forget that Disney is planning to launch their own streaming service in 2019. The purchase of Fox gives them an incredible amount of programming right out of the gate, movies and TV shows that they can pull from Netflix, who are likely watching this all unfold with great interest.
Needless to say, if it all goes, it will be one of the biggest industry moves in decades. It will bring the run of one of Hollywood’s most enduring studios to an end (Fox has decided they’ll be focusing on news and sports). Comcast could still swoop in and make a deal of their own, but right now, Disney is said to be in the pole position. An announcement is expected next week, and Hollywood will never be the same again.
