Disney has swung the ax hard when it comes to the Fox Film development slate.
Following heavier than expected losses in the third quarter – with some speculation that it comes heavily from X-Men: Dark Phoenix – Disney is reanalyzing all of the films on Fox’s schedule. Currently, the only things that are considered safe are the Avatar sequels and future installments in the Planet of the Apes series.
“One of the biggest issues was the Fox studio performance which was well below where it had been and well below where we hoped it would be when we made the acquisition,” said Disney CEO Bob Iger. “It will probably take a solid year, maybe two years, before we can have an impact on the films in production. We’re all confident we’re going to turn around the results of Fox live-action,” Iger added.
One of the quickest changes we’ll see is some of the Fox vault coming to Disney Plus as original series. Iger listed that we’ll be seeing TV versions of Home Alone, Night at the Museum, Cheaper by the Dozen, and Diary of a Wimpy Kid.
Clearly, Disney more concerned with the established brands for now while it tries to put Fox into turnaround. This will not be a quick process, and there is sure to be more pain coming in the future in the form of canceled projects and layoffs.
No one thought this merger would be clean and easy, and it’s definitely going that way.
