18 ms·
Disney to Acquire Twenty-First Century Fox
- randomerr 9y agoIt's mostly was they can control over the animated titles the Marvel franchises. Next is Sony studios.
- empath75 9y agoI suspect that’s part of it but you don’t spend billions of dollars just to make a few X-men movies.
- vwcx 9y agoDisney owns ESPN. Combining Fox Sports and ESPN is big in its own right.
- no1youknowz 9y agoYes you do. According to wired, [0] Disney paid Lucas Arts $4.5B, which half was cash. In 2016, [1] The Force Awakens made $1.54B globally. Maybe it's more now. Lets say that the last Jedi manages the same success? Well, they made their money back and the new rumored trilogy. That's profit. When you can put Spiderman and the X-men in the same universe as the Avengers and do the next 20 or 30 super hero movies where one, two, three, four, etc characters from the universe makes an appearance? I'm pretty sure fans of whatever franchise will line up to throw money in seeing the movies. This really sounds like a no brainer to me. [0]: https://www.wired.com/2015/12/disney-star-wars-return-on-investment/ https://www.wired.com/2015/12/disney-star-wars-return-on-inv... [1]: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/box-office-star-wars-force-852198 https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/box-office-star-wars-...
- empath75 9y agoThey spent 52 billion on the merger.
- camiller 9y agoin stock
- SyneRyder 9y agoAlso worth noting that Fox still owned the rights to the first Star Wars movie. It didn't come with the Lucasfilm acquisition: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/tangled-rights-could-tie-up-384541 https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/tangled-rights-could-...
- jchw 9y agoBut wait. $1.54B at the box office doesn't equal $1.54B in profit. Right?
- Spooky23 9y agoIt’s indicative of how big a hit the movie is. They get a chunk of every toy, birthday hat, blanket, clothing item, etc that has Star Wars stamped on it.
- bovermyer 9y agoRight, but a large majority of it is. The film cost $445 million to make, including actors' salaries and marketing. That's over a billion in profit.
- Cthulhu_ 9y agoThe X-Men franchise is the 7th highest grossing movie franchise of all time, bringing in almost 5 billion USD: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_highest-grossing_films https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_highest-grossing_films. Add that to the 13.5 billion for the Marvel Cinematic Universe and you can see how valuable this can be.
- randomerr 9y agoAdmittedly Marvel was just a fraction of the equation. There's the Blue Sky Studios (Ice Age, Peanuts, Dr. Seuss, and soon Ferdinand) and the distribution rights to other tons of other films. I've been hearing report that Fox is keeping the rights to specific classic films and all music rights. But the music will be licensed out to Disney for practically nothing.
- callesgg 9y ago"There Can Be Only One"
- dovdovdov 9y ago- Capitalism, errr, wait no....
- mattbgates 9y agoDisney: Buying childhood, the teenage years, and soon.. adulthood.
- jjoonathan 9y agoMarket freedom leads to competition, doncha know?
- Cthulhu_ 9y agoIt's not a hostile takeover right? Totally voluntary. Can't force competition, right? (actually they can and some takeovers esp. in europe are blocked to avoid monopolies)
- bovermyer 9y agoMarket freedom leads to consolidation which leads to the exact opposite of competition. This is why the United States, contrary to popular opinion, is not a purely capitalist nation; it is instead a hybrid between socialism and capitalism. Reasonable regulation protects the free market.
- emodendroket 9y agoYou seem to have "socialism" confused with some completely different system.
- nickik 9y agoIts simply false that market freedom always leads to consolidation. There is a very complex interplay between transaction cost, information problems, scaling economics and so on. You are just throwing out populist phrases because they sound good. The solution is not to declare some kind of neo-progressive trust busting but locking at individual industries and figuring out why they are consolidating and if it will be bad. In this case Disney can only do what they do because massive help from government protecting their intellectual property. Intellectual property, both patent and copyright, need reform. This is the relevant practical problem here.
- chatwinra 9y agohttps://youtu.be/PXBJIZ1NXFU https://youtu.be/PXBJIZ1NXFU (Epic Rap Battles of History, Stan Lee vs Jim Henson) Whole video is good imo, but skip to around 2:06 onwards for the relevant bit. Sums up the feeling nicely I think.
- dingo_bat 9y agoAwesome episode this one. It looked to be ending at a nice amicable juncture and then the epic sinister twist. It's mind blowing how many properties Disney owns.
- logfromblammo 9y agoWhen I heard the news, all I could think of was this Lee vs. Henson ERB, and the South Park episode where the mouse becomes a rampaging daikaiju.
- jsmthrowaway 9y agoWow, Disney didn’t ask them to divest FX, which means they’re knowingly acquiring It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia among other content they’d normally not find palatable. They even call out that they’re bringing in The Americans and Deadpool. That’s kind of strange for Disney, given that historically they’re careful about what they’re associated with. I really hope they leave their new portfolio alone, but that’s not their MO with content that they find controversial.
- empath75 9y agoYou know Disney released Pulp Fiction and Scream right?
- jsmthrowaway 9y agoI do, yes. Disney took incredible heat and a number of shareholders bailed as a result of Miramax releasing Pulp Fiction, and Weinstein had to fight for it, if I recall my film history. Disney also refused to allow Miramax to release Dogma, which is history that is guiding my surprise. That studio is part of the reason they started being more careful, and they finally divested Miramax in 2010. It’ll be interesting to see how they handle their portfolio going forward.
- upvotinglurker 9y ago1999 (Dogma), not to mention 1994 (Pulp Fiction), was a long time ago, and things do change. Since then I remember Disney being one of the first big companies to get in the national news for offering same-sex partner benefits; they didn't seem to care how many people that offended.
- werdnapk 9y agoSo along with Disney pulling all their titles from Netflix for their own streaming service, I guess the FX content will be next to go from Netflix.
- ascagnel_ 9y agoMost of the FX Networks-owned content has been gone from Netflix for a while; it's been on Hulu or Prime Video.
- dorfsmay 9y agoSadly Hulu is only available in the U.S., although I find that I can rent/buy from google a lot of content that isn't available on Netflix.
- levesque 9y agoAt one point you start wondering why you pay for Netflix.
- banderman 9y agoThey have a lot of great original content. In particular they're the leader in stand up comedy.
- astura 9y agoThis is exactly why Netflix is banking on original content going forward.
- lotsofpulp 9y agoI just feel like supporting the company that gave us an alternative to media riddled with commercial breaks and having to deal with TV providers.
- heartbreak 9y agoQuite a bit of FX content (including IASIP) left Netflix this month due to expiring contracts. Convenient timing for the Disney deal.
- Shivetya 9y agowhich means less content for netflix I would assume. not worried to much about the R rated content they got, they are staunch anti gambling not exactly staunch anti R except under the original brand
- ra1n85 9y agoMy knee jerk reaction here was "ugh, more consolidation of the media by US mega corporations." But then I noted that Fox is owned by News Corp, which owns the Wall Street Journal and New York Post.
- coldcode 9y agoFox continues to own News and Sports. However rumors are that Murdoch may also be shopping other parts of what remains. Disney gets Movies including Avatar and XMen, etc, 300 other channels, production studios, controlling stake in Hulu and for some bizarre historical reason, now own the rights to Star Wars IV, A New Hope.
- pinebox 9y ago> and for some bizarre historical reason, now own the rights to Star Wars IV, A New Hope These were distribution rights, some of which were going to expire in 2020 anyway.[1] So now we may finally get some official unspecialized Star Wars. [1]: http://www.slashfilm.com/20th-century-fox-still-owns-rights-to-first-six-star-wars-films-making-original-box-set-difficult/ http://www.slashfilm.com/20th-century-fox-still-owns-rights-...
- basch 9y agono, Fox OWNED A New Hope, and it says so in the article you posted
- yesenadam 9y agoand Dow Jones, HarperCollins, realtor.com etc. In the UK, 20 radio stations and The Times, The Sun and The Sunday Times. In Australia, The Australian, The Daily Telegraph, The Sunday Telegraph and a hundred others.
- jakozaur 9y agoSane antitrust regulations should kill this deal. It is bad for everybody other than shareholders of those two companies. In particular bad for customers, other companies and employees: https://www.economist.com/news/finance-and-economics/21725552-new-research-suggests-too-little-competition-deters-investment-americas https://www.economist.com/news/finance-and-economics/2172555... https://www.economist.com/news/briefing/21695385-profits-are-too-high-america-needs-giant-dose-competition-too-much-good-thing https://www.economist.com/news/briefing/21695385-profits-are...
- bovermyer 9y agoAs long as Disney can take Star Wars: ANH and X-Men licensing rights away from Fox, then fine.
- bighi 9y agoYes, nobody wants good movies like Logan! Know what we need more? Mediocre movies like the ones Marvel have been making. Know what's better than a good movie? A shallow movie full of forced jokes. Now we can see the Fantastic Four facing space pirates that sleep with pacifiers in their mouths, maybe hugging teddy bears to. That would be a good movie!
- upvotinglurker 9y agoThe argument that seems to be espoused in this comment, and varous others[0], is that Disney only wants to make "dumbed down" traditional US-style children's / "family" movies and therefore will turn any company they buy to that purpose. Several of the hosts on pop culture/entertainment industry podcasts I listen to have said the same thing. However, it seems to me (and at least Peter Sciretta at SlashFilm Daily has expressed a similar sentiment) that this would not necessarily be Disney's strategy for Fox. As was recently pointed out on the SlashFilm podcast, Disney already has so many subsidiaries making family-friendly movies (Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, etc.) that they can hardly find enough sufficiently spaced-out weekends on the calendar to release them all. Movies like Logan, and shows like those on FX and FXX, have been critically acclaimed and financially successful. Would it make more sense for Disney to turn Fox into yet another family-friendly content company to compete with all their other family-friendly content companies that are already potentially cannibalizing each other, or use it to expand into a new adult-oriented niche with existing critically acclaimed and financially successful content? [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15922177 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15922177 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15922087 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15922087 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15923597 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15923597 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15922605 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15922605 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15922925 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15922925
- jamiethompson 9y agoSo what you're saying is that Disney will own The Simpsons? https://i.redd.it/cx2j4c9aufwz.jpg https://i.redd.it/cx2j4c9aufwz.jpg (predicted in 1998)
- ekianjo 9y agoThat's visionary. Actually the Simpsons got lucky with several of their goofy predictions, it's always amusing after the fact.
- amelius 9y agoCan we have a list of mispredictions?
- greesil 9y ago"Smell you later" replacing "goodbye"
- emodendroket 9y agoYou aren't using that one?
- jamiethompson 9y agoI know I am
- emodendroket 9y agoI genuinely do, occasionally. Which reminds me, I went through this goofy dictionary.com slideshow of "great slang from the '90s we should bring back!" and quite a few of them I did not recognize as the least bit dated. Kind of an alienating experience.
- LeoNatan25 9y agoWith global warming, it's not far off.
- matt_s 9y agoMaybe there will be a consolidation and some crappy repetitive movies will go away? I think these businesses are overvalued. What happens when consumers get sick of the super hero genre? EDIT: for whoever down-voted - that wasn't a sarcastic question. Honest question of what happens when the main products lose popularity? If there is a downturn in interest in that, will they get their $50B back?
- JustSomeNobody 9y agoThey'll make westerns.
- emodendroket 9y agoIt'd be an improvement.
- matt-attack 9y agoWrestling pictures!
- emodendroket 9y agoI don't think a greater concentration than ever of movie studios is going to lead to creative flourishing, no.
- donatj 9y agoI feel like it could lead to more independent studios popping up, but I’m an optimist.
- emodendroket 9y agoI'd think the independent studios would be less able to gain a foothold in this scenario.
- donatj 9y ago
- muterad_murilax 9y agoSo, will the Fox fanfare return to all Star Wars films, past and present, from now on?
- rjohnk 9y agoThe Uber Nerd in me says the purchase was to secure rights to Star Wars: ANH and the fanfare. This will also open up the doors for a complete unedited despecialized edition of the original trilogy, not some bad laserdisc scan.
- OtterCoder 9y agoOh good. Surrendering the entire mythos of the English speaking world to a single, domineering company opposed to freedom of speech and information is totally worth a cleaner copy of Star Wars.
- e12e 9y agoAw, come now. All those public domain fairytales and legends were struggling to gain an audience in the contemporary media landscape without a company willing to take the risk of developing a new presentation and monetizing distribution - with the mere caveat of trapping all those dusty ideas in permanent copyright. We're lucky that our new shared stories will never be I in danger of fading into unpopularity due to copyright not being able to guarantee a framework for for-profit distribution.
- upvotinglurker 9y agoSerious question: why do people want this so badly? Just nostalgia? (Too young to have see the OT movies in theaters, so I don't have that) For me, sticking the cheesy fox logo and fanfare at the beginning of the movies would make them worse, not better.
- azemetre 9y agoPeople want a re-release of the unaltered OT.
- paulus_magnus2 9y agoWhy not go all the way and merge all companies into 1 big one. Being born on the wrong side of the iron curtain I already saw economy based on monopolies. Communism failed because prices were centrally set. We knew how to build useful things (that don't break 1 day after warranty) but not which ones to build and how many. (wiki) A price signal is information conveyed to consumers and producers, via the price charged for a product or service, which provides a signal to increase or decrease supply or demand. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Price_signal https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Price_signal
- henrik_w 9y agoRelevant story from The Onion (almost 20 years ago): "Just Six Corporations Remain" https://www.theonion.com/just-six-corporations-remain-1819564741 https://www.theonion.com/just-six-corporations-remain-181956...
- _Codemonkeyism 9y ago"Bill Clinton, chief executive of U.S. Government, a division of MCI-WorldCom, praised Monday's merger as 'an excellent move.'"
- bluthru 9y ago"Proud to be one of America's 8 companies." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFKoGtgg6Mo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFKoGtgg6Mo
- bighi 9y agoThat's what I've been saying for a long time. Some people say "it's just capitalism working as intended", but that's not exactly true. A lot of the mechanisms of capitalism depend on competition. Capitalism without competition is no different from Communism or any other system in which one party rules supreme.
- vidarh 9y agoIncidentally Marx argument for why he believed a revolution would eventually become inevitable also depends entirely on competition: He argued that it is the ongoing effectivisation of capitalism through competition that will eventually trigger revolutions by making too many people unemployed and/or destitute.
- systems 9y agoSo now we can finally get X-Men characters in MVCI (Marvel vs Capcom Infinite)
- frik 9y agoWhat will happen to the Nakatomi Plaza / Fox Plaza (skyscraper in LA). Would like to see a remake with little CGI, like the original Die Hard 1/2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fox_Plaza_(Los_Angeles) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fox_Plaza_(Los_Angeles)
- matt-attack 9y agoFirstly, Fox doesn't own that building. It's owned by The Irvine Company. The 50 acre Fox Lot next door however is stated to not be part of the Disney deal [1]. Meaning, Rupert would retain ownership of the land (valued at $1.8 Billion). [1] https://deadline.com/2017/12/fox-studios-lot-future-disney-merger-1202225435/ https://deadline.com/2017/12/fox-studios-lot-future-disney-m...
- PatientTrader 9y agoHopefully this deal is killed. Its really bad for consumers, content creators, and actors. Monopoly on too much media all under one roof is bad all around...
- bighi 9y agoMonopoly in any market is bad.
- thrillgore 9y agoDisney is now officially too big to fail. This deal needs to be stopped right away.
- roryisok 9y agofingers crossed for firefly season 2
- jandrese 9y agoThis is a monkey paw thing where you get it, but it's the bland by-the-numbers Disney version carefully built by committee to avoid offending the largest number of people and just revisits all of the same ideas from the first season.
- Spivak 9y agoI really don't get why people are upset about this. A company trying to make money by going for mass appeal. For shame. Until someone shows that an unsafe movie can be popular it's going to continue just how it's been since Gilgamesh.
- roryisok 9y agoLogan, guardians of the galaxy and Deadpool fairly soundly proved that unsafe movies can be popular. But at Disney it's about maximizing profits. If you can get all of the family to go see a movie rather than just anyone over 16, you're making more money.
- roryisok 9y agoI don't think so. Firefly is no more offensive than Guardians of the Galaxy, that's a Disney property
- WorldMaker 9y agoIIRC, Fox sold Firefly to Universal for Serenity.
- qwerty456127 9y agohttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTk6m3U54po https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTk6m3U54po
- bobcallme 9y agoIt's a media-opoly! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nh6Hf5_ZYPI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nh6Hf5_ZYPI
- jccalhoun 9y agoI'm kind of torn on whether this is the same as other media mergers like Comcast-Universal or the upcoming Sinclair-Tribune mergers. I think mergers of news and broadcast outlets are generally bad but the bulk of what Disney is buying is intellectual property. Can owning tons of trademarks and copyrights ever be considered a monopoly? I am uncomfortable with one company owning Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, Aliens, Predator, and all the other things. But if they make crappy movies then people will just watch something else.
- Spivak 9y agoMedia properties are natural monopolies thanks to copyright anyway so, sans quality, it really doesn't matter who owns them. On the other hand it's definitely possible to have a monopoly on distribution but good luck arguing that it's possible to have a monopoly on art.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- metallah 9y agoWhat does this mean for the Star Wars Franchise?
- Dirlewanger 9y agoThe same that it's been since they bought it in 2012: will be subject to decades of safe, mediocre, corporate focus group-mediated content
- randomness123 9y agoThe deal might be quite good for my country. Fox operates as Star Channels in India. They are major entertainment and sports provider. They also have a streaming service 'Hotstar'. Hopefully will see more content on the streaming service.
- nottorp 9y agoSo what are the next movie franchises to get Disney-ized, like they did to Star Wars? All the super hero stuff, I get, but that's not the only thing that 21st Century makes is it?
- santaclaus 9y ago> So what are the next movie franchises to get Disney-ized, like they did to Star Wars? The Simpsons Cinematic Universe
- soopsmojo 9y agoAvatar
- infogulch 9y agoFox owns a bunch of production rights that they haven't been using, especially Marvel. E.g Hulk, X-Men etc.
- cromwellian 9y agoDisney missed an opportunity to improve the world by shutting down Fox News or changing its editorial viewpoint to be more in line with their own and retiring th Murdoch’s completely from the news propaganda game.
- kylehotchkiss 9y agoI was feeling the same
- ralmidani 9y agoAs an American, I've always found it mind-boggling how average Americans cheer these types of M/As. The argument is that consolidation leads to more "efficiency" and "synergy", but those benefits are usually not passed down to consumers (actually, market domination allows a company like Disney to price-gouge even more on movies and merchandise).
- guntars 9y agoThis is basically just entertainment (Fox News included) so they can do whatever they want. If this was healthcare, for example, it would require a bit more scrutiny IMO.
- ralmidani 9y agoAs noted in this thread, the entertainment industry is almost single-handedly responsible for the draconian Copyright laws in the US. So the harm caused by consolidation can extend beyond entertainment (think software). Also, there is almost no alarm being raised by consolidation in healthcare, such as the CVS/Aetna deal.
- crisdux 9y agoIt's wrong to take a hard line either way. It depends on a variety of factors such as the form of consolidation and the industry.
- 40acres 9y agoGenerally what does huge mergers in industry mean for disruption (in the more traditional Clay Christensen model). For example, if the #1 and #4 player in a specific industry does that mean there is more space for an upstart to grow since #4 has left the party? Or does the new #1 suck up all the air and put such a choke hold on industry that new players cannot flourish?
- pchristensen 9y ago(Christensen model) Disruption is about business models, not competition. New technologies that help existing companies improve their products are "sustaining innovations" (e.g. 2.5" hard drives let laptop companies make smaller, better laptops). But if they don't help existing companies and allow the development of a "worse" alternative, it's a disruptive innovation (e.g. SSD drives were too expensive and low capacity for laptops, but they were perfect for iPods and smartphones, which have now surpassed laptops in sales, use, etc).
- shmerl 9y agoAs if media consolidation is bringing any benefits, rather than harm.
- Tiktaalik 9y agoI hope everyone likes the Fantastic Four, because we're probably going to get a few years of Fantastic Four Marvel Cinematic Universe movies out of this deal.
- frooxie 9y agoI really like the original Lee/Kirby comics (and Byrne's run in a similar style), and I'd love to see movies that were true to the best parts of those comics. The only good FF movie we've gotten so far was called The Incredibles, but there's no reason why the real FF movies couldn't be at least as good and successful.
- megy 9y agoWe were more likely to get them before Fox was sold, since they had to make new ones or lose the license.
- riffic 9y agoAwesome, two large media companies becoming one giant media company. This should concern everyone.
- longerthoughts 9y agoI have a hard time believing this will be approved. Given how much regulatory scrutiny the AT&T/Time Warner merger is under as a vertical merger, it would be wildly inconsistent to then approve a horizontal merger of this size, even if the AT&T/Time Warner merger ultimately goes through.
- jacksmith21006 9y agoPredicted by Matt Groening https://goo.gl/images/pPPy6o https://goo.gl/images/pPPy6o
- johnthom612 9y agoHi, I recently found out that my ex-girlfriend who used to love me was put under a love spell by an old married man. They considered themselves as bf/gf. It really broke me. I was really worried about her as to what could happen to her. I still loved her. We were in a ldr and I couldn't see her… We still communicated from time to time but she made sure she doesn’t get found out by the man. It got frustrating as how she cannot see past the spell! I really wanted her back and also to be safe first and foremost and be away from that man. I also met Dr. Akim online and he helped me break the blackmagic on her and in 40 hours she called me and begged me to take her back. Akim's email is uniquelovespellcenter@yahoo.com will be much appreciated if you contact him for marriage and relationship problems cos i promised to talk about him all over the internet :)
- toblender 9y agoGreat! Now they can fit even more superheroes into one movie...
- scarface74 9y agoThe new thing that worries me about the deal is what might happen to Hulu? Now Disney owns 66% and Comcast owns 33%. Will Comcast take its content off of Hulu once the consent decree expires?
- freeflight 9y agoI, for one, welcome our new mouse-eared overlords. /s At this rate, I wouldn't be too surprised if Disney ends up buying WB and a rather awkward Marvel/DC crossover is gonna happen on the big screen.
- paulus_magnus2 9y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oligopsony https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oligopsony In U.S. publishing, five publishers known as the Big Five account for about two-thirds of books published.[1] ... Thus authors have fewer truly independent outlets for their work. This simultaneously depresses advances paid to authors and creates pressure for authors to cater to the tastes of the publishers in order to ensure publication, reducing viewpoint diversity.
- gremlinsinc 9y agoAny chance Disney could bring back firefly?