News Disney and Fox come to terms -- announcement soon; huge IP acquisition

[Lafayettecalboy]

I could see Ice Age moving to Pixar.

That could imply an unfortunate fate for Blue Sky.

 

[Darkprime]

Night of the Museum & Alvin and the Chipmunks could get new movies under Walt Disney Pictures.

 

[Darkprime]

That could imply an unfortunate fate for Blue Sky.

I mean for the most part they were only ever an Ice Age factory. I dont think they ever did anything beyond that franchise?

 

[FigmentJedi]

I mean for the most part they were only ever an Ice Age factory. I dont think they ever did anything beyond that franchise?

The Rio movies, Horton Hears a Who, The Peanuts Movie, and two William Joyce projects: Epic and Robots.

 

[Rodan75]

I mean for the most part they were only ever an Ice Age factory. I dont think they ever did anything beyond that franchise?

Epic, Rio, Robots, Charlie Brown...solid but not big hits. One film every two years pretty consistently.

 

[Magenta Panther]

The Rio movies, Horton Hears a Who, The Peanuts Movie, and two William Joyce projects: Epic and Robots.

The Peanuts movie was great! But I hope the characters stay at Knott's Berry Farm, and not wind up in DHS or wherever...

So anyway, and I can't remember if I brought this up before...I wonder if Disney will use the 20th Century Fox fanfare in front of any Fox-produced movies..? Because it would be a shame if that went away forever...

 

[Rodan75]

Night of the Museum & Alvin and the Chipmunks could get new movies under Walt Disney Pictures.

My understanding is that the Alvin rights are complicated.

 

[Crossfire]

Out of all the Studios Disney is getting(Searchlight, Fox 2000, 20CF), I think Blue Sky is the one I have most worries about it's future, I just don't see Disney keeping another Animation studio.

 

[Darkprime]

Unless Disney merge Pixar and Blue Sky? If thats even possible.

 

[Rodan75]

Out of all the Studios Disney is getting(Searchlight, Fox 2000, 20CF), I think Blue Sky is the one I have most worries about it's future, I just don't see Disney keeping another Animation studio.

Fox let this studio languish when they had distribution for DreamWorks. But I hope Disney keeps it and uses it to take some pressure off Pixar and WDAS to create original IPs for both D+ and Theatrical. DisneyToon never really had the freedom to create original IP.

 

[Twilight_Roxas]

The Peanuts movie was great! But I hope the characters stay at Knott's Berry Farm, and not wind up in DHS or wherever...

So anyway, and I can't remember if I brought this up before...I wonder if Disney will use the 20th Century Fox fanfare in front of any Fox-produced movies..? Because it would be a shame if that went away forever...

Disney would most likely use the Peanuts gang in WDSP in Paris.

 

[FigmentJedi]

Unless Disney merge Pixar and Blue Sky? If thats even possible.

Blue Sky is literally on the other side of the country from Pixar, being located in Connecticut just north of New York City.

 

[Twilight_Roxas]

It’s going to be awkward seeing the Blue Sky Studios intro with the Disney intro.

 

[MisterPenguin]

I started a thread to talk about integrating Fox into Disney.

The Integration of Fox into the Disney Corporate Family: Parks, Movies, IPs, Studios

Here's a catch-all thread for how the Disney - Fox merger is going and its implications. First thing to note is that Iger has said several times he's keeping all of the Fox studios and expects them to keep producing original content for their TV/Cable channels and for D+/Hulu. He's mentioned...

forums.wdwmagic.com

 

[𝐌𝖆𝖓 𝖎𝖓 𝐖𝖊𝖇]

I still see Blue Sky being sold off. But I guess they could be the animation house to provide content to Disney+ if need be. Or gobbled up and combined with Walt Disney Animation Studios.

 

[Rosso11]

Out of all the Studios Disney is getting(Searchlight, Fox 2000, 20CF), I think Blue Sky is the one I have most worries about it's future, I just don't see Disney keeping another Animation studio.

I have a lot of friends that work there and Disney executives have been spending a good amount of time at Blue Sky recently. Disney is telling them they want them to keep making theatrical movies but they all expect a decent amount of their work to shift to Disney+.

 

[Darkprime]

I get the feeling dark phoenix will be shelved but released at a later date. Once the combined company has its transition period post merger and Disney starts to look at all the stuff Fox had in development.

Inside Hollywood’s Disney-Fox Freakout

With the biggest entertainment merger in a lifetime about to close, anxiety is running high on the Fox lot and beyond.

www.vanityfair.com

The situation has had longtime employees on the Fox lot suffering a kind of prolonged trauma since the merger was announced, in December 2017. To hear them tell it, they are being issued mostly vague, Orwellian-lite guidance that outlines dress codes and explains key-card access, but they have been left wanting in terms of business directives. In the middle of February, Fox’s marketing and distribution departments gathered with the filmmakers of Dark Phoenix, the latest X-Men installment from producer-director Simon Kinberg, to lay out their plans for the film’s June release. It was a typical meeting. Ad buys were discussed, and the publicity tour for the film’s stars, including Sophie Turner, Jennifer Lawrence, and Jessica Chastain, was laid out. But it was still disconcerting, both because of all the new faces in the room—a handful of high-end consultants have been hired temporarily to fill the jobs recently vacated by long-term employees—and because of the ad hoc approach the Fox marketing team was taking toward the film’s release, four months away.

“We know when we are dropping a trailer, but we are nowhere near where we should be at this time,” said one marketing exec who was at the meeting. “It’s frightening. I would be mad if I were a filmmaker.”

 

[BrianLo]

I have a lot of friends that work there and Disney executives have been spending a good amount of time at Blue Sky recently. Disney is telling them they want them to keep making theatrical movies but they all expect a decent amount of their work to shift to Disney+.

This was my thought too.

Disney is essentially building a "third pillar" beyond television and theatrical films.

Some of the redundancies (like Blue Sky) seem most poised for Disney+ integration instead.

Pixar/WDAS are terribly expensive producers of animated content. As much as we'd all like it, I doubt they'd spend 100+ million on a Disney+ original. Really Pixar Vancouver would have been better suited and probably would have survived if Disney+ was on the docket years ago.

 

[bartholomr4]

It means Disney will be borrowing lots of cash.

After the final election results are determined, the allocation of the consideration in the Acquisition will be calculated using the formulas set forth in the Merger Agreement. Based on the preliminary election results and the proration and adjustment procedures set forth in the Merger Agreement, holders of 21CF shares that elected to receive cash for their 21CF shares are expected to receive a portion of their consideration in shares of New Disney common stock.

 

[capsshield]

As things exist today Disney's Pixar and animation studios compete with Blue Sky studios and each other. Thursday the competition between all three will be the same as the competition between Pixar and DAS. Today Disney releases a Pixar and 2 DAS film about every 2 years, or vis versa. By adding Blue Sky into the mix they can now release an additional movie and have a steady release of 1 animated feature every 4 - 6 months instead of every 6 - 8 months. This also takes a little pressure off of everyone if things in production are not working as well as they should.

With James Gunn returning to Guardians perhaps they might want to rethink bringing back Uncle John to help upgrade Blue Sky to a slate of pictures and schedule more suited to the Disney brand and IP creation houses.

This same plan also works well with the Marvel cinema universe. Use the extra capacity to go from 3 to 4 films a year and then create 2-3 projects for Disney plus with the same crews that would have made those extra Fox theatrical releases.

Disney could even decide to show movies on Disney plus first for a month and then release them in the theaters if they chose to do so with and ad for Disney plus in front of the release. "Watch this movie again and a thousand more anytime anywhere on Disney Plus"

I suspect that when things begin to settle down a lot of synchronicity will emerge and Disney will begin to offer packages of Hulu, Disney Plus, ESPN plus, Stars, all of their printed publications, Web sites, and Disney channels all watchable on any device anywhere. Buy two packages a month and add as many additional packages as you want for $5.00 each. This will bypass Comcast or any provider from cutting them out of the picture and allow them to pull away from any provider that doesn't play ball.

What we are seeing is the evolution of twenty-first century entertainment.
Every book, Magazine, video, cartoon, movie, song, web site, Tv channel, game, etc…, that Disney or any of it's subsidiaries ever produced available to stream if you want that service in your package. Eventually we will end up with 3-4 major players providing a similar package. Remember when it was CBS, NBC, and ABC well that is where it will go again but with a lot more choices. Under it all will be your internet service provider.

I think within 3 years the basics will be there ready to deliver. Within 5 years the connections will be solid and by ten years 50% of the population will be in the cue using the services.