DISNEY EMPIRE?

On March 20, 2019, 21st Century Fox became a part of the Disney Universe, bought for 17.3 billion dollars. This is not the only franchise that has been bought out by Disney. Lucas Films Star Wars franchise and Marvel Studios are now owned by Disney. What does this mean for the future of online streaming services?

Fox owned the rights to many movie franchises, such as the X-Men. They also owned a 30% stake in Hulu, an online streaming service. Disney, who already owned a substantial amount of Hulu, now holds the power over Hulu and other shareholders. They plan to bring great changes to the service, and possibly even get rid of it altogether. Disney already has plans for its own streaming service

Todd VanDerWerff of Vox states that “The big fish are eating each other, and soon there may only be one left.” We live in a day in age where media consolidation is a big threat to companies and movie timelines across the world.

Not all of Disney’s intentions are bad. Fox had an idea about Titanic 2, a sequel to the first Titanic movie that they owned the rights to. Now that Disney owns Fox, they plan to get the ball rolling on this project. It is confusing to me, however, how they plan to make a sequel of a movie based on a historical event that actually happened. But hey, whatever. You do you, Disney.

What most people are concerned about is the relations between the Marvel franchise and X-Men. With Avengers: Endgame sparking the end of a long-running Marvel timeline, many are starting to wonder if the X-Men will be brought into the picture. This wouldn’t happen anytime soon, with Marvel having many movies lined up to be made throughout the next couple years, and the X-Men’s Dark Phoenix coming to theaters this year.

Disney also has many other movies in the works. Toy Story 4 comes out this year and a live-action Aladdin is in the works. Also, Star Wars Episode IX is in the future, along with a rumored Indiana Jones 5.

Is Disney trying to take over modern media as we know it? It started off simply as a man with a dream. That man is long gone, and his business has grown into a billion-dollar movie making industry that grows by the minute. What will be the future of cinema? Who will they buy out next?

If Disney’s power is not checked, this industry will grow into a business-eating monopoly and quite possibly control the future of modern cinema.