By Disney has three major tentpole films this Summer based on IP they scored in the acquisition of 20th Century Fox. Those three? “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes,” “Deadpool & Wolverine” and “Alien: Romulus”.
In today’s quarterly earnings call, Disney CEO Bob Iger says don’t expect this current glut of Fox product to be an indicator of an increasing trend in the near future:
“We continue to look at the [Fox] library to see what can be mined. I don’t think we’re necessarily going to lean into the library but we’re going to look opportunistically at it.”
Fox released an average of around sixteen films annually last decade, whereas Disney hasn’t had more than five 20th Century Studios theatrical releases in a single year since acquiring it.
Iger also says Disney is looking to license content out beyond the distribution network is currently has in place:
“We’re already doing some licensing with Netflix, and we’re looking selectively at other possibilities. I don’t want to declare that it’s a direction we’ll go more aggressively or not. But we certainly are taking a look at it and being expansive in our thinking about it.”
Iger also confirms Disney plans to add an ESPN tile to the Disney+ service as it prepares to launch its new standalone ESPN streaming service.
The tile will be added by end of calendar year and will feature “select live games” as well as studio programming to watch within the Disney+ app.
The feature will be available for all U.S. subscribers and is said to be the first step to bring ESPN to Disney+ viewers ahead of the enhanced standalone ESPN streaming service launching in Fall 2025.
The inclusion of ESPN within the app comes after the launch of Hulu on Disney+ in March with Iger saying they are “encouraged by early results” of that inclusion.
Source: The Wrap
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