We're officially in the throes of the holiday season at the movies right now, which means there is a lot to talk about the big screen. There's Star Wars: The Last Jedi, there are holiday awards contenders and there are plenty of crazy box office numbers going on. However, one topic has often superseded what is going on in theaters over the past few weeks, and that is the potential merger of some of Fox's properties with Disney. Recently, Logan director James Mangold talked about his career with Fox and explained there could be one potential downside to a merger: If there were to be fewer movies made each year. He said:
If they're actually changing their mandate, if what they're supposed to do alters, that would be sad to me because it just means less movies. I just hope what we end up with is going to be a positive in terms of movies.
Look, there's a lot of ifs in that statement. The statement above assumes first and foremost that the Disney and Fox deal is going to happen, which isn't necessarily fact, although recent reports indicate we could hear a deal announced by this Thursday. Then, it assumes that what Disney is going to do with the Fox property is cherry pick the stuff that works and cut out the rest, which is not necessarily true, either. Still, let's break apart what James Mangold is telling Deadline.
It's unclear if he's specifically talking about X-Men projects versus other MCU projects getting made, as he is the person responsible for The Wolverine and Logan and has more of a vested interest in that universe. In general, with many of Fox's assets, Disney could still continue to produce the same number of Disney and Fox films each year, but that may not be the case. Since Fox owns a lot of properties outside of big upcoming superhero movies like Deadpool 2 and X-Men: Dark Phoenix, including the Avatar movies set on Pandora, you would think all of those flicks would continue to get made at a rapid pace. However, if Disney chooses to put some of the other Marvel characters into the MCU, we could get fewer superhero movies each year, etc.
In addition, Disney might also opt to cut back on some of the smaller Fox movies, which would mean fewer flicks hitting theaters overall. Again, this is all up in the air at this point, but James Mangold is very clear this could be a downside to the deal.
There's been a lot of talk about how a merger would be the end of an era in Hollywood. There have been six big studios, and this would push the movie-making business down to five. There's no doubt this would mean changes in the industry, but how widespread and monumental those changes could be have not ironed out yet. We'll let you know if a deal between the two major studios does go through in the weeks to come. In the meantime, you can see what movies are already slated for 2018 with our full movies schedule.
