Disney Closing Down 20th Digital Studios
With the Walt Disney Company looking to make over $5 billion dollars worth of savings through cost-cutting, following the purchase of 20th Century Fox, the Pandemic and a shift in focusing from growth to profitability for its streaming services, it has been revealed that 20th Digital Studios is going to be dissolved.
Set up in 2008, 20th Digital Studio’s focus has evolved to funding and producing award-winning short-form genre content with up-and-coming filmmakers from the digital and film festival worlds.
20th Digital develops select shorts into longer-form content, packaging new voices with established producers, offering opportunities for growth and representation, always with a goal of creating innovative character narrative, voice-driven filmmaking with a social message, cultural impact and box-office or streaming success.
The studio is behind many direct-to-streaming films, including “Grimcutty” and “Matriarch”, which have been released on Hulu in the United States, Star+ in Latin America and Disney+ around the world. There are a number of upcoming film releases coming this year from the studio, including “Clock”, “Jagged Mind”, “Appendage”, and “The Mill”. The team is also behind Hulu-Ween.
According to Deadline, 20th Digital Studios EVP David Worthen Brooks will be transitioning into a first-look deal with Hulu as an independent producer.
This closure is a blow to Disney’s streaming services, as these low-cost horror films provide different content from the larger studios and no doubt reduce the amount of direct-to-streaming films, as Disney refocuses on theatrical releases, which are more profitable.
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