Disney buys parts of Fox for $52.4 billion. Include X-Men, Fantastic Four. UPDATE: Iger: Deadpool to stay R-Rated

BBC Report.

Update: According to Hollywood Reporter, Disney CEO Bob Iger has told investors that Deadpool can stay R-Rated - with the right branding.

"It [Deadpool] clearly has been and will be Marvel branded. But we think there might be an opportunity for a Marvel-R brand for something like Deadpool," said Iger. "As long as we let the audiences know what's coming, we think we can manage that fine."

Basically, it will have Marvel branding as normal, but not Disney branding. Everything else will be the same. As I expected, nothing to worry about on that front.

@madrocketeer: Love the pic but mickey dose not own SpiderMan yet. A good fantastic 4 movie incoming. hope they don't mess with Deadpool and PG him

That's awesome news for Marvel movies. I also hope that they:

I know. It's just the best pic I could find on short notice.

I wouldn't worry about Deadpool. Disney have experience putting appropriate distance between their family-friendly core brand and their more mature-oriented peripheral brands. ESPN and The Punisher are prime examples. They'll probably just let the Deadpool folks do their thing and release the film under a different label or something. I heard Touchstone Pictures is a possibility.

You know what this means? Disney finally has the rights to "A New Hope" as well, which means that it's definitely possible that a release of the OT in its ORIGINAL form is possible. Maybe 4K transfer? Maybe.

I heard the rights were going to revert back to Disney in a few years anyway, but this just makes that happen faster.

52 billion seems cheap...

Does this include all FOX subsidiaries, or just 21st Century Fox, like for movies? Would be nice to see a shakeup at FOX News :P

*Ah nevermind, does not include the news stuff lol

Mr Murdoch will still retain control of News Corp, the news publishing group that split away from 21st Century Fox in 2013 and which owns the Times and the Sun newspapers.

It will be interesting to see what they do with Wolverine.

Now that this is done, I think we need a Cap/Deadpool odd couple buddy comedy. They can call it: CAPTAIN DEADPOOL! The best part is that even if Cap bites the dust in Infinity War, they can still set it before in a flashback style.

I'm also unusually excited about Disney getting control of NatGeo. There have been way too many "geography of x bible story" pieces since Fox took over.

Everyone is excited for the deal, and here I am thinking that Disney is growing too big.

**buys 21st Century Fox

Kind of an important caveat

I don't really see a big issue with having five major studios instead of six, I don't think it's going to shake up the movie biz all that much. I mean, I don't like all the stuff Disney is trying to push on theater chains, but sooner or later there's going to be a shakeup in movie distribution that will probably stop the strong-arming. The bigger deal is probably their 90-some percent share of Hulu. I mean, Disney wanted to make their own streaming platform anyway, but it still takes the hottest film studio and puts all their properties in one of the two biggest streaming services.

I just thought the title was already getting pretty bloody long.

Plus, to get a little more technical, the deal includes controlling share of Hulu, 40% of Sky UK, National Geographic Channel, and Fox regional sports. That would make the title really long.

Meh. I'm not so much excited as mildly fascinated. Acceptance comes easy to me.

just don't mess with Bob's burger disney

I'm interested to see how they'll tackle the X-Men movies in regards to the MCU. I wouldn't rule out the possibility of Hugh Jackman returning at least once for an Avengers type of movie.

@johnd13:

They might cop out and do a "they were there all along" deal, which I think would be extremely lame.

If Disney have any balls, they'll let the FoxMarvel universe run for a little while longer, then BAM! Multiverse merge. Ant-Man, Doctor Strange and Days of Future Past already set the stage for it. All that's needed is a film centered around the idea.

And Hugh Jackman returning for one last movie would be exciting, but I would personally expect Disney to prepare for the long term, and therefore recast.

Oh thank god. I was worried when this info first released that they'd screw up Deadpool.

I guess this means they'll still keep Fox alive as a brand, just like they did LucasFilm.

This makes me very happy for the future of the Marvel movies.

Less diversity... Give it some time and you are down to 4... Then 3...

This is a big deal.

O boy looks like a new X-Men movies without the classic actors.

This.

They don't own the Fantastic Four.

Anyway I don't like when big companies gobble up little ones.

I'm beginning to hate Disney more these days.

They have the distribution rights, and apparently the company that owns the production rights are in a bit of a pickle. They'll probably cut their losses and sell back to Disney.

They should just totally reboot Xmen imo.

Not a soft reboot with younglings, full on reboot.

@madrocketeer:

Damn they control The Simpsons now?

Yup. And Family Guy. Pretty much all of Fox's original TV production assets are now in Disney's hands.

Next up for Disney to buy Sony pictures.

The 52.4 billion is cash then Disney also assumed Fox's debt so the value is something like 66 billion

Now you will see Disney removing Fox's movies on Netflix and put them on their own streaming service.

Don't believe the deal mentioned anything about the planet of the apes franchise, alien, predator though

Don't forget, every Simpsons ever will be behind the Disney pay wall now.

They probably will, I didn't like how they turned Mystique into a hero for the current X-Men franchise because Jennifer Lawrence doesn't like to play a villain. Not to mention that Hugh Jackman stated to be retired from playing as Wolverine/Logan, unless he changes his mind if they cast him for Infinity War Part 2.

Yes, Jennifer Lawrence big star now, she must be the key to it all. Even though she's terrible in the role.

Rebecca Romijn was miles better.

Disney he's only a Deadpool just let him go

That could happen, but if it did I think it would result in an industry wide shift towards smaller studios, which could be better for diversity. I think the entire movie industry is in a bit of a rut right now. They don't know how to make typical Hollywood movies and still make as much money as they used to, so they start squeezing theater chains and moving more towards big budget action. I'd be fine with fewer big studios who do that if it meant more small studios making quality dramas and thrillers and finding ways to work with movie chains rather than just trying to squeeze profits out of them.

It's all about money, why would they not squeeze them for profits?

Because they're smaller and can't demand as much. The movie industry is due for a bit of a reorganization.

Won't happen if it is generally considered to generate less profits that way.

You can be lucky and hopefully some smaller studio pops up or some of the existing ones creates something that starts a shift. Personally I think you will be down 3, possibly even 2, before something happens.

At some point movie theaters are going to start realizing they need to work outside of Hollywood to make money and stay alive, and there will be some actors, directors, etc. who realize not only that there's a market for non-Hollywood movies but that there are tangible benefits to working outside of Hollywood. Right now, yeah, small studios can't get distribution without large ones, but once people start to work outside of the current paradigm the dynamics could start to change.