New alliances have been forged out of desperation, none of them bigger than the $71.3 billion acquisition, which was set to close last month, that saw the Walt Disney Company absorb the once indomitable Fox.
With the deal closed, the Fox lot will soon become a rental space for Disney’s new film labels and the headquarters for New Fox, which will now include Fox Broadcasting, Fox News, and its TV stations.
Other, smaller films initially slated to be part of Fox’s theatrical-release calendar are likely to be shuttled to Disney’s new streaming service, which is set to launch in late 2019.
Fox Searchlight, the makers of such Oscar fare as The Favourite and Can You Ever Forgive Me? , will be getting a seat at the Disney table, as will Fox 2000, the home of book-to-film adaptations such as Love, Simon and The Hate U Give, and cable channels like FX Networks (The Americans, Atlanta) and Nat Geo, which just landed a best-documentary Oscar for Free Solo.