Cedars, Spring 2021

Spring 2021 4 By Hunter Johnson W hen Disney bought Pixar, fans had nothing but excitement. When they bought Marvel, fans were cautiously optimistic. When they bought Lucasfilm, that optimism turned to concern. When they bought 20th Century Fox, one of their biggest competitors in the movie-making industry, fans came to an agreement that Disney’s growth had become downright terrifying. Now Disney seems to own everything. They sneakily bought the majority shares of ABC and ESPN back in the ’90s and then, just two years ago, did the same thing with Hulu. They own 20th Century Fox and its subsidiary companies (Searchlight Pictures, FX, now-defunct Blue Sky Studios, etc), and on top of all that, even National Geographic now belongs to the conglomerate. To what extent should we be worried? The answer to that question depends on how much you like their content. They are certainly proving themselves capable of handling their properties well. As a massive fan of both Star Wars and Marvel, I personally am hyped for the 20 upcoming movies and TV shows they announced back in November. They’re clearly not slowing down their production of content any time soon. They’re also not slowing down their revenue, and that begs the question: Which competitor will be overthrown next? Is any studio safe? What happens when one of Disney’s biggest competitors, Warner Bros, inevitably gets bought out as well? Besides the fact that it would be so weird for Marvel and DC to be owned by the same company, we also would find ourselves in a world where Disney essentially has no competitors left. What happens when they buy out the whole entertainment industry? Would they find a way to compete in other areas? They are already heavyweight competitors in the world of theme parks and consumer products; will they move beyond even that? What happens when our real estate is sold by the House of Mouse? Or even stranger, what if we find ourselves depositing checks at the Walt Disney National Bank? These scenarios may sound far-fetched, but the idea of Disney buying another film studio for $71 billion would have been unthinkable just five years ago. Until 2019, the biggest acquisitions Disney had ever made were Pixar, Marvel, and Lucasfilm, and none of those had cost more than $7 billion. But then, news hit the circuits of the biggest studio merger of all time. Fox was out. The reign of Disney had officially begun. Now, amid all this ominous e x p a n s i o n , many still say “better Disney than someone worse.” That’s not a terrible a r g u m e n t . Disney has consistently put out fairly wholesome (or, at worst, innocuous) content. Alongside that, Disney donated $338.2 million to various charities and non-profits in 2019. And on top of all that, the company has been under the leadership of the notably humble and kind-hearted Bob Iger for the last 15 years. Iger oversaw the Pixar, Marvel, Lucasfilm, and Fox deals, and his crowning achievement was Is Disney Getting Too Powerful?