21st Century Fox Studio Sold To Disney! Sale Finalized See Post #368 (1 Viewer)

[PMF]

[...]Disney seems to be the big dog in a rapidly decreasing in size dog house.

And if their world becomes too small, they can always go back to Pluto.

 

[jcroy]

For one thing, I would hate to see the end of one of Hollywood's great movie houses. 20th Century Fox has a long, proud history, and if it was absorbed into Disney, that leaves three? four studios? (Disney, Warner, Universal and Sony - I stopped counting Paramount a long time ago.)

Ironically around a year ago, Les Moonves met with Sony's executives in Japan to talk about CBS possibly buying up Sony Pictures' assets. Though so far nothing said since.

https://nypost.com/2016/12/18/cbs-boss-jets-to-japan-in-possible-bid-for-sony-pictures/
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/ne...s-will-sony-double-down-hollywood-sell-964455

 

[Stephen_J_H]

Can someone confirm that the information I have, namely that Lucas granted 20th Century Fox rights to distribute the prequel trilogy in return, for among other things, all the rights to the first Star Wars movie. So he owned those rights to Star Wars when he sold Lucasfilm to Disney. I heard that back in 1999 or so.

Is there a credible source I can see that proves what I heard was incorrect? Thanks.

I don't think this is right. When the Star Wars movies came out on digital, the other five movies were Disney Movies Anywhere but the original Star Wars was Ultraviolet. That would strongly imply that Fox still controls the rights to Star Wars.

This is incorrect. Fox holds the theatrical distribution rights to Star Wars [1977] in perpetuity by virtue of the deal made between Lucasfilm and Fox in 1977 whereby Fox got theatrical distribution in perpetuity, but LFL retained the merchandising rights.

 

[PMF]

Why would Disney want to purchase and acquire the catalog titles of other studios, yet not want them distributed or seen?
Will this become another variation of how MGM and Gary Barber refuses anyone access beyond the gates?
At its very least, is it known if Disney will preserve and protect said acquisitions with the same care as their own history?
Or, without speculations, is it just too early in the game to know anything, at this given time?

 

[Stephen_J_H]

It depends. One of the assets in question would be Fox's current archival and film preservation divisions, which could be very valuable if retained in their current form. If Disney takes the same quasi-hands off approach to the Fox assets as they have with LFL and Marvel [quasi in the sense that Disney does exhibit some control over distribution, etc.], I don't see a problem.

The ideal would be if Disney allows the Fox film preservation division to do some work on their ABC titles, which appear to need some TLC, if the KL Studio Classics discs are a proper indicator.

 

[TravisR]

For one thing, I would hate to see the end of one of Hollywood's great movie houses. 20th Century Fox has a long, proud history, and if it was absorbed into Disney, that leaves three? four studios?

Yeah, if this deal happens, 20th Century Fox will go the way of MGM, Columbia, United Artists and RKO where it'll basically be forgotten by everyone but movie fans.

 

[B-ROLL]

And if their world becomes too small, they can always go back to Pluto.

 

[Atari]

I think these discussions show that Disney is serious about competing with Netflix. When they announced their own service I wasn't interested because I already buy the movies they make that I like. If they buy other content and pull it from Netflix, I may have no choice but to move with it. Netflix may end up with just their original programming and they could still rent discs.

I don't really like this trend of everyone starting their own service to try and get a bigger profit. It's just bringing cable prices to the internet.

 

[skylark68]

According to today's WSJ, the proposed deal has cooled off, apparently 21 Century Fox didn't like some of the terms that Disney brought to the table (undisclosed). It's still not out of the realm of possibilities though. Disney really wants those broadcasting assets. I don't think it cares as much about the film studio.

 

[PMF]

I think these discussions show that Disney is serious about competing with Netflix. [...]

Yah, but they're such a Mickey Mouse organization.

 

[MatthewA]

The idea of Valley of the Dolls and The Rocky Horror Picture Show actually being owned by Disney:

Ironically around a year ago, Les Moonves met with Sony's executives in Japan to talk about CBS possibly buying up Sony Pictures' assets. Though so far nothing said since.

https://nypost.com/2016/12/18/cbs-boss-jets-to-japan-in-possible-bid-for-sony-pictures/
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/ne...s-will-sony-double-down-hollywood-sell-964455

That would actually make more sense because that would bring the Columbia Broadcasting System, Columbia Pictures, and Columbia Records under the same corporate home. The first two have been part of Sony for almost 30 years even though the latter actually used to be part of CBS!

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

This is incorrect. Fox holds the theatrical distribution rights to Star Wars [1977] in perpetuity by virtue of the deal made between Lucasfilm and Fox in 1977 whereby Fox got theatrical distribution in perpetuity, but LFL retained the merchandising rights.

Isn't that what I said? Fox still distributes Star Wars, but Lucasfilm/Disney distributes all of the other films and controls all of the larger franchise rights.

 

[Carabimero]

Tom Pollack, LFL attorney at the time said, "We tried to get the first deal back so he would own Star Wars, but Fox refused to sell it and rightfully so and they have it to this day."

So what I read 18 years ago was that they were trying to do it, but couldn't. However, if Lucas hadn't made the deal for Empire that he did, he never could have sold LFL to Disney in the manner he did.

http://deadline.com/2015/12/star-wa...-historic-rights-deal-tom-pollock-1201669419/

 

[Stephen_J_H]

Isn't that what I said? Fox still distributes Star Wars, but Lucasfilm/Disney distributes all of the other films and controls all of the larger franchise rights.

Fox still holds physical media and theatrical distribution rights on Empire, Jedi and the prequels until 2020; hence, why Fox is still distributing those films on DVD and BD. I quoted your post for some perspective and was clarifying the timing of the deal for Caribimero.

 

[Sean Bryan]

https://www.cnbc.com/2017/11/10/pencils-arent-down-on-disney-21st-century-fox-deal.html

David Faber of CNBC, who broke the original story about this possible sale, is saying today:

"Pencils aren't down," he said, citing sources.

On Friday, Faber said that although the two companies have not been engaged in conversations "it does appear at the very least that they have not abandoned the idea of that combination."

 

[Malcolm R]

These types of mergers are frequently on-again-off-again before they finally work out the final details. Sometimes they're announced as "dead" just before an agreement is reached.

 

[Edwin-S]

If they come to an agreement, it should be stopped by the government. Di$ney has too much market power in the entertainment field as it is. You can see how they are already able to affect competition by the conditions they are imposing on theatres when it comes to playing Star Wars episode VIII.

People may not care who produces their entertainment now, but they will when the octopus is the only game left in town imposing whatever price they feel like for access to their content.

 

[Sean Bryan]

Well, IF Fox wants to unload their film studio content and focus on broadcasting news and sports they certainly have the right to do so.

Frankly, for those hoping to see the Marvel properties back where they belong it may not really matter who Fox sells to because I believe those rights are non-transferable and could only be sold back to Marvel.

But this is only relevant if the rumor about Fox wanting to streamline their focus is true.

 

[MattBradley]

You can see how they are already able to affect competition by the conditions they are imposing on theatres when it comes to playing Star Wars episode VIII.

George Lucas was already doing that with the prequels. It's not something new from Disney.

 

[Edwin-S]

George Lucas was already doing that with the prequels. It's not something new from Disney.

So does it make sense to give them even more power by allowing them to control an ever greater proportion of production capacity, existing content and IPs?
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