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The $ 71-billion Disney-Fox deal was officially closed on Wednesday, further strengthening Disney's dominance of Hollywood and the entertainment industry. Disney now owns Fox's film studio, numerous television assets, its participation in Hulu and its popular film franchises such as "Avatar", "X-Men", "Alien" and "Deadpool".
It is guaranteed that Disney will be the box office champion for years to come. He was already at the top with Marvel Cinematic Universe, the franchise "Star Wars" and Pixar animation movies. Now he has tightened his grip on the audience. In addition to the merger, Disney is also embarking on the streaming war and will launch its own service by the end of the year to compete with Netflix.
To sum up, Disney is everywhere and impossible to escape. So what can consumers expect?
Disney already has the largest film franchises in the world
The MCU is the most profitable film franchise of all time. Since Disney bought Lucasfilm, three of its four "Star Wars" movies since 2015 have grossed more than a billion dollars. And Pixar's "Incredibles 2" did the same thing last year. Now, Disney has "Avatar", the most profitable film in the world of all time for which the director James Cameron develops suites.
He also holds movie rights on Marvel's X-Men, Fantastic Four and Deadpool characters, which means that Marvel Studios is free to integrate them in the future in the MCU. It's unclear what Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige has planned for the characters, if any. But after Aprils: "Avengers: Endgame", the franchise will evolve in a new direction and will need new blood to maintain itself.
Disney launches Disney + this year
It's unclear how much the platform will cost per month, but potential subscribers can expect most of the Disney library, with some caveats.
The old "Star Wars" movies might not be included in the service, as negotiations between Disney and Turner Broadcasting, which owns the television rights, was apparently stalled last year, according to Bloomberg.
Disney is developing original content for the service, including "Star Wars" and Marvel broadcasts, as well as a "Monster's Inc.". animated series and a series "High School Musical". Disney has ended a licensing deal with Netflix this year and all theatrical releases, starting with "Captain Marvel", will end up on Disney + instead of Netflix.
Disney will hold the majority of Hulu and will likely continue its full ownership
Disney already owned 30% of Hulu and now owns 60% after the merger with Fox.
It is safe to assume that Disney could sue the rest of Hulu, of which Comcast holds 30% and WarnerMedia the remaining 10%. Last month, Variety announced that Disney was in active talks with WarnerMedia to acquire its 10% stake. And if Disney had the entire property of Hulu, it is likely that he would consider associating it with Disney +.
Iger touched on this issue last year and said that the Disney, Hulu and ESPN + streaming services were all aimed at different audiences, but that if a consumer wants all three, the potential is there to regroup them.
"If a consumer wants all three, we finally see an opportunity to pack them from a tariff point of view," Iger said. "But it may be that a consumer just wants to play sports, a family or just offer Hulu, and we want to be able to offer that kind of flexibility to consumers."
The fact that Disney + and Hulu are designed for different audiences is one of the reasons why Fox's more user-friendly assets for adults could end up on Hulu. Iger said that Disney + would be family friendly, but that it was open to documentation after the merger, such as Fox's "Deadpool" franchise, provided it is properly identified to avoid confusion with the public.
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