Pamela McClintock & Paul Bond with Lacey Rose at The Hollywood Reporter:
“The result: The number of major studios is about to go from six to five. And as the closing date nears (one longtime employee calls it “D-Day,” as in Disney), any exec sighting or piece of gossip increases the tension: When Iger and Lachlan Murdoch took a stroll through the lot several weeks ago, staff emails and texts chronicled their every move. When Rupert Murdoch lunched by himself at his usual table in the corner of the commissary, employees tried to pick up clues from body language. Many also describe a feeling of emptiness on the 53-acre lot, with parking garages clearing out well before traditional quitting time. Some executive parking spaces stay empty all day.”
People focusing on the Marvel characters that will now be able to punch Thanos in the face could care less about what the Disney-Fox Studios merger means for the broad landscape of media production. It goes beyond "but think of the 4000 Fox employees", so it doesn't even rely entirely on the audience having a minimum of compassion. Sure, Netflix replaced Fox as the sixth MPAA signatory, but what is more dire is that there is one less major buyer/maker of movies and TV. The "six majors" were Disney, Universal, Fox, Warner, and to a smaller extent Paramount and Columbia/Sony. Most of Fox's executive talent, the buyers and dealmakers, have already ditched for Netflix.
“When the dust settles, the iconic 20th Century Fox movie logo (and that audio fanfare) will remain only as a label within the Disney stable guided by Emma Watts, now vice chairman and president of 20th Century Fox Film. She and her production team are expected to make as many as four to five films a year for theatrical release, far fewer than the typical 12 to 14 titles that Fox has been turning out annually. Disney also is bringing aboard specialty division Fox Searchlight, headed by longtime chiefs Steve Gilula and Nancy Utley. And Elizabeth Gabler’s Fox 2000 unit has received an invitation to join Disney as well. All four will report to Walt Disney Pictures chairman Alan Horn.”
It was widely assumed that Disney would keep a version of the Fox studio brands around since so much of the library they've just purchased is distinctly Not Disney Friendly (Die Hard, Alien, Planet of the Apes). They could have cobbled all the Fox stuff across existing off-Disney brands Hollywood Pictures, Buena Vista, and Touchstone.
I wonder about the long-term branding involving the word "Fox", since it's not going to be scrubbed off of Fox News, the Fox broadcast network, and the other couple chunks that the Murdoch family held onto. My money is on Disney rebranding to "Searchlight" and "20th Century" (or "21st Century"), possibly using the latter for a renaming of the Hollywood Studios (which was Disney-MGM Studios for 20 years) section of Walt Disney World, which will be home to the Star Wars Galaxy's Edge theme park. 20th Century Fox started as Twentieth Century Pictures, and Disney is big on the story and history of their panoply of brands.
“Numerous Fox film folks have already bolted, including top production exec Kira Goldberg, who left in December for Netflix. One insider estimates that a dozen or so execs from the film side have landed at the streamer in the past two months alone. “This is all unprecedented,” says a top entertainment lawyer. “Nobody knows who will have a job. They all know they are being downsized. Once Disney finally owns it, they will figure it all out.””
Disney knew they'd lose a lot of Fox's top in-studio talent from the jump. This was always about bulk IP acquisition in the ongoing arms race of content stockpiling. The only similar-scale acquisition they could have made would have been Warner. Imagine all the things that would've been missed amid people shitting themselves over whether Captain Marvel or Shazam (formerly "Captain Marvel") would win in a fight.
To be honest, I think it's only a matter of time before Disney buys Warner, either as a result of "the experiment" not working and AT&T spinning them off, or Disney buying all of AT&T.
I know. The idea terrifies me, too.