Remember when Disney bought Fox? Ever wonder what it was going to do with that brand name? Now we know.
According to Variety, Disney has officially rebranded its 21st Century Fox brands 20th Century Fox and Fox Searchlight Pictures as “20th Century Studios” and “Searchlight Pictures” as the company shifts into a new, post-acquisition era. Aside from branding, nothing all that much is changing in terms of the current slate of films that are being released. But the news highlights how tectonic a shift in the landscape Disney’s acquisition of Fox truly is.
As Disney grows stronger by absorbing its competition and buffing out its portfolio of ridiculously valuable IP, the industry continues to grow smaller. There simply aren’t as many studios out there that have the ability to put out movies with the kinds of massive marketing budgets that are often crucial to box office success.
In a very literal sense, one of the biggest studios responsible for shaping Hollywood as an industry is straight-up gone. Not just subsumed by a larger entity, but dissolved in the sense that it doesn’t exist anymore. There’s no question that Disney’s going to treat the valuable IP that it purchased well, but at the same time, it’s difficult not to see this as a symbolic bow placed ever so carefully atop a well-wrapped present of Monopoly.