Back at last months Investor’s Day event, a number of classic Fox movies and series were announced to be coming to Disney+ in the future, including titles such as Avatar, The Sound Of Music and Home Alone 3 (not sure why they picked that one!).

At the time, Disney had only just finalized the deal on purchasing 21st Century Fox, but during today’s quarterly financial results call, Disney CEO Bob Iger confirmed that they are looking to utilize 20th Century Fox brands for Disney+ and for theatrical releases.

As it relates to Fox, there are a number of different opportunities.

 

 

Clearly, our library titles that were never going to be made as sequels or as remakes for theatrical distribution that we’re going to look at for a possible production inclusion in Disney+, but there’s also sort of richness of development and storytelling for theatrical release using the Fox brand.

 

 

And Emma Watts is reporting to Alan Bergman and Alan Horn. As we’re working to develop those, we inherited a slate of films that are being made.

 

 

We’re bringing them to the system, and we’re now working with her to help — to basically determine the slate beyond what’s been announced, and I’m guessing that it’ll be somewhere in the neighborhood of 5 or 6 films a year.

 

 

But we’re not locking ourselves into that, from that end. And of course, we have Searchlight, which is going to continue their business as is.

With many different family friendly franchises within 20th Century Fox, such as Ice Age, Rio, Night at the Museum, The Greatest Showman and others, it makes sense for Disney to use this content for Disney+.  And with new family friendly movies such as Blue Sky Studios Spies In Disguise and Avatar sequels coming soon, those movies would be suited to Disney+.

And the comment about making sequels and reboots of existing Fox brands is interesting, we’re already aware that they are developing new versions of the Sandlot and Diary of the Whimpy Kid.  It also opens the door for other franchises, such as Ice Age.

It was also revealed during the conference call that FX is looking to expand its production capacity to help support Disney’s direct-to-consumer efforts, which could be more suited towards Hulu’s adult themed content, but the comment seemed more open.

There are many reasons Disney purchased 21st Century Fox including its library, its staff and production facilities, which will all funnel into their direct to consumer platforms, Disney+ and Hulu.  Bob Iger said:

Rupert and I first started engaging in conversation about the possibility of buying 21st Century Fox assets, so that when we began analyzing their value, it was all through the lens of the launch of direct-to-consumer platforms

What Fox franchises would you like to see on Disney+?

Roger Palmer

Roger has been a Disney fan since he was a kid and this interest has grown over the years. He has visited Disney Parks around the globe and has a vast collection of Disney movies and collectibles. He is the owner of What's On Disney Plus & DisKingdom. Email: Roger@WhatsOnDisneyPlus.com Twitter: Twitter.com/RogPalmerUK Facebook: Facebook.com/rogpalmeruk

View all posts