All The Fox Film Franchises Disney Now Owns
This was always about way more than just Marvel.
It's official: The Walt Disney Company just finalised a deal to purchase the film and television interests of 21st Century Fox, and as you might very well expect, it's one of the largest such deals in Hollywood history. Variety reports price tag the whole shebang as $66.1 billion, leaving it second only to the $103.5 billion merger of AOL and Time Warner in 2001.
The long-term ramifications of this deal are, of course, gargantuan. Given Disney already owns such media powerhouses as Marvel, Pixar, The Jim Henson Company and Lucasfilm, there are serious questions to be asked about media monopolies. The move must also leave a great many Fox employees uncertain about the security of their jobs, as well as casting doubt over the future of the entire Fox brand, and that of its often controversial (former) parent company News Corp.
Still, for those of us whose understanding of economics and business are dwarfed by our fervour for film, there is considerable excitement over what Disney may be able to do with all their new properties at their disposal. After all, the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the revived Star Wars franchise have gone from strength to strength since being ushered into the House of Mouse.
But while a large, vocal portion of fandom is most excited about what the deal means for Marvel, there are a great many more Fox film franchises about to come into Disney's control.
19. Home Alone
What's the betting the bigwigs at Disney are currently greeting each other around the office with "Merry Christmas, ya filthy animal?"
Okay, so there hasn't been a theatrically released Home Alone movie since 1997's Home Alone 3 (which in the eyes of many isn't even a true sequel, given it doesn't feature the characters from the first two films). The trilogy was still a major cash cow for Fox, earning upwards of $900 million at the box office.
Two TV movie sequels have followed - the most recent of which, 2012's Home Alone 5, was produced and screened by Disney-owned network ABC.
The fun, festive, frighteningly violent series remains popular viewing around Christmas time, so it's not hard to envisage Disney dusting it off for another run at the big screen.