He was a big fan of the books and the games. He wanted some creative control because the writers were going off source material. I don’t blame him for leaving. His reputation was on the line as he was the main character.

The only other franchise he was in was the Witcher. Both the Witcher and Superman failed due to bad writing not the acting.

Sounds like these “grassroots backers” work for Warner Brothers to me.

Sure they got a lot of stuff in the Fox archive I’m just not sure it was 70 billion worth. Amazon bought MGM for much less. Disney also sold their Mirimax catalog years ago for less than a billion. Having a big back catalog is nice but not if it comes with an insane amount of debt. They could have made a deal with Fox for their catalog and their IPs for less money but they bought all their studios too and then fired a bunch of people. Only movie Searchlight put out this year was a flaming hot Cheeto movie.

I think MS buying Activision is also a losing play but MS is in a better position to spend that kind of money compared to Disney.

If the strategy was to kill Hulu then why keep it around? Just axe it or sell it and put all your stuff on one app. I also don’t get the Paramount+ and Showtime strategy. If you are trying to beat Netflix by having better content why split it into 2 apps?

Streaming could be a whole other post really. All these companies have bought into having their own app and they are all losing big time. Might be time to reevaluate streaming in general.

I don’t think I have a chip in my shoulder at all lol. I don’t have any beef with Disney or fox. I’m just thinking it was a bad investment. Look at it with their past purchases on mind. They bought Star Wars for 4 billion made quick use of it too. Same with Marvel and Pixar. All of these were great deals for Disney. They made their money back in no time. 70 billion is a lot more than 4 billion. It will take a very long time to recoup the money and from my perspective I don’t think it was the right move.

You could put out 5 Avengers movies that make Endgame level money and still not even get close to paying that back. It will take a decade or more to pay that off. It’s been 4 years and they don’t have much to show for it.

I know it takes a long time to make a movie but they haven’t even hinted at an X-Men film. They have a Fantastic 4 movie in the works so it’s not out of the question to have an X-Men movie.

That lame cameo in Wandavision that was a dick joke and Patrick Stewart showing up in Multiverses of Madness is not what I’d call story telling. They could of had a more significant role for quicksilver or have something like Spider-Man was in Civil War. I figured they would pivot off the success of the Fox films and start putting them in their movies but it seems like they want to completely start over. But then why have cameos from the Fox movies that don’t really mean anything?

It seems to me like they bought Fox because it was on sale rather than having a real plan for it.

Fair point but Star Wars was already huge in merchandising before the purchase and Disney has arguably hurt the toy sales with their recent movies and over exposure.

Sure things take time but look how quickly they moved on Star Wars and Marvel. They made a deal with Sony for Spider-Man and then he’s immediately in Civil War. I just don’t understand the hold up. Also I don’t think Deadpool is going to bridge the gap between Marvel and Fox X-Men. I don’t think Disney world use a R rated comedy for that. I think a lot of people expected Multiverse of madness to bring the X-Men in and when it didn’t happen they were disappointed. Marvel seems to be running out of steam if I were them I’d shove in as many X-Men as I could.

Well explain yourself because Disney has never cared about their more adult movies. They sold their Mirimax catalog back in 2010. Why go spend 70 billion on the Fox catalog? For Hulu? So they can have more studios? It can’t be for just X-Men. When they had the rights to Spder-Man they used him immediately they haven’t even announced or hinted an X-Men movie.

They still have significant competition from other streamers and a lot of their Fox properties are on Hulu rather than Disney Plus. They are bleeding subscribers and they can’t afford to raise prices too much. I know they are going to raise prices soon but it’s a careful balancing act they can’t afford to make it too pricey.

True about the parks, but besides Avatar none of Fox’s properties really fit the Disney parks.

I think Disney Plus is in a lot of trouble. It’s costing Disney a lot of money and hurting their cable channels and box office returns. I wouldn’t call it a failure yet but it’s far from a success.

I feel like both the Simpsons and family guy had their day in the sun but aren’t the cultural phenomenons they used to be. They would need to sell a lot of bart plushies to make 70 billion and do kids even care about the Simpsons anymore? It’s been over a decade since its heyday.

Maybe eventually but it went from an X-Men a year to maybe one in a few years after the current slate of marvel movies.

Disney does have different brands but they aren’t going to put them on Disney Plus so it doesn’t make sense from a strategy perspective. If their goal was to kill Netflix they failed big time.

Perhaps but there has always been the Big 5 major studios. Right now there is Universal Pictures, Paramount Pictures, Warner Bros., Walt Disney Studios, and Sony Pictures. Used to Sony wouldn’t be counted or they would say big 6 but there has normally been 5 major studios. One dies another takes it’s place.

RKO and MGM used to be part of the big 5 back in the day now gone but replaced. I think the same will happen here. Someone will fill the gap. Apple is spending big money for Scorsese and Ridley Scott. Amazon and Netflix are also trying to be players. I don’t think Disney made the dent in competition that they thought they were going to make.

Both without any real marketing and I’m pretty sure same day streaming. Felt like Disney didn’t care too much about them.

Very sad he was one of the best. The Exorcist is incredible. I still need to watch Sorcerer.

I’ve met people from California who now live in Texas and are right leaning and typically they are very right wing. More so than your average Texan. Most older people in Texas don’t like change and are Christian conservatives. The right wingers from California feel different to me. I’ll use the term neo reactionary to describe them, but they are the no regulations, meritocracy, pro eugenics types. You can’t use the old school stuff like “what would Jesus do” which would occasionally work on getting the most stubborn conservative Texan on a neo reactionary as they typically don’t believe in God.

I’ll be honest I’ve heard some of their ideas and they frighten me. They imagine a antidemocratic world controlled by AI and tech executives. It’s very different from the conservative Texan ideas I’m used to seeing. The classic Texan conservative wants prayer in school and the freedom to not wear a seatbelt. They can be stubborn and annoying at times but I’m used to it and I think they mean well. I don’t feel the same way about neo reactionaries.

For better or worse California is a forward thinking place but also an exclusive one. It’s also very expensive to live there. The price to live in Austin has gotten crazy high and now there is a much larger homeless population. Austin’s solution to this now mimics San Francisco which is to pretend it’s not happening.

Also California loves regulations for some but not others. For every smart regulation they have some “futuristic” new thing that annoys people. Silicon Valley is basically exempt from regulation at all.

For a recent example the Waymo driverless taxis that break down in the road and cause traffic jams. They are only in 4 cities; LA and San Francisco of course, but now because of the influx of tech workers they are in Austin and Phoenix. Used to be that only San Francisco would be a guinea pig for tech and social experiments but now it’s spreading to where they moved to.