Here Are All the Beloved Franchises Disney Now Owns

Over the course of the final 20 years, The Walt Disney Firm has made a number of main acquisitions, making the proverbial Home of Mouse residence to a few of the greatest franchises and IPs on the planet. In fact, followers already learn about Marvel, Star Wars, and Indiana Jones, however what about a few of the different franchises that Disney has acquired? Contemplating Disney’s leisure acquisitions of twenty first Century Fox which started in 2019, Disney now owns all the favored movie and tv franchises that have been as soon as a part of the FOX Company. It’s time to check out all of the notable franchises that Disney now owns apart from all of the popularly acknowledged Disney IP that falls beneath the Disney banner.

Disney Acquires The Muppets, Pixar, and Marvel within the 2000s

Notably in 2004, Disney acquired The Muppets from The Jim Henson Firm, consisting of a lot of The Muppets movie and tv library. Nonetheless, the acquisition didn’t embrace Sesame Avenue. Sesame Avenue possession nonetheless presently falls beneath the Sesame Workshop, previously the Youngsters’s Tv Workshop (CTW). Beneath the acquisition, Disney now owns the time period “Muppet” and in addition shaped The Muppets Studio to handle the Muppet franchise, IP, and characters. Curiously, one other one in every of Jim Henson’s creations, Fraggle Rock, was not a part of the Muppet acquisition within the 2000s.

In 2006, Disney accomplished the acquisition of Pixar, merging the 2 firms. Disney technically already owned a few of the franchises that Pixar produced, corresponding to Toy Story. Nonetheless, Ratatouille was initially set as much as be a completely owned Pixar franchise when it appeared the 2 firms have been going to separate, regardless that it was nonetheless being launched by Disney. However with Disney’s $7.4 billion acquisition of Pixar in 2006, Disney turned the proprietor and rights-holder for all of the Pixar franchises and properties, together with Ratatouille. The beloved animated movie was later launched in 2007, incomes $623 million worldwide and a Greatest Animated Function Academy Award for filmmaker Brad Hen on the 2008 Oscars.

Most notable in 2009 was Disney’s acquisition of Marvel Leisure. The acquisition of Marvel by Disney in 2009 gave Disney possession of Marvel Comics, Marvel Studios, and all the Marvel library, sans the movie and distribution rights that have been beneath the management of various firms on the time, corresponding to twentieth Century Fox, Sony Footage, and Common. Disney bought the Marvel Universe for $4 billion. To place issues into perspective, the Marvel Cinematic Universe continues to be presently the top-grossing movie franchise in cinematic historical past, grossing a mixed $29 billion worldwide. And that’s solely by means of field workplace receipts, not counting income from tv, streaming, VOD, residence video gross sales, merchandise, and theme park attendance, as Disney has now made Marvel a fixture of Disney Parks as nicely. It doesn’t matter what anybody says, Disney purchased Marvel at a cut price worth, which has greater than paid off for the dad or mum firm.

Disney Acquires Lucasfilm (Star Wars, Indiana Jones, & Extra) in 2012

In October 2012, Disney introduced the acquisition of Lucasfilm for $4.05 billion. The acquisition of Lucasfilm from founder George Lucas didn’t simply grant Disney possession of Star Wars, however different Lucasfilm IPs as nicely, corresponding to Indiana Jones and Willow. It’s additionally price mentioning that the acquisition additionally included the assorted online game IP created and launched by Lucasfilm’s online game division, LucasArts, which sadly was shuttered in 2013. However that implies that Disney additionally owns the IP for such video games as Grim Fandango, Day of the Tentacle, and Monkey Island. Indiana Jones lastly acquired its first movie because the acquisition by Disney with Indiana Jones and the Dial of Future in the summertime of 2023. Willow acquired a TV sequence sequel that debuted on Disney+ in November 2022, which sadly fell sufferer to Disney+’s content material purge following its cancelation after one season. Star Wars continues to be a significant franchise at Lucasfilm beneath Disney’s possession, with a number of tv spinoffs presently airing and within the works, and a number of new movies in improvement, plus video video games, comics, and theme park sights.

Disney Buys twentieth Century Fox in 2019

With Disney’s acquisition of the leisure belongings of the FOX Company in 2019, Disney turned the proprietor of all of FOX’s portfolio within the movie and tv realm. That acquisition grants Disney possession of notable movie franchises corresponding to Die Onerous, Alien, Predator, Residence Alone, The Omen, Planet of the Apes, and James Cameron’s Avatar. Moreover, Disney regained management of the movie and distribution rights of all of the Marvel content material that was beforehand beneath Fox’s management, corresponding to X-Males, Implausible 4, and Silver Surfer. Whereas Disney technically owned the IP of these characters, The FOX Company managed the leisure movie rights for these characters. Following the Disney acquisition, twentieth Century Fox was renamed twentieth Century Studios.

Whereas little motion initially occurred with Planet of the Apes after the acquisition by Disney, a sequel to the 2017 Struggle of the Planet of the Apes is lastly virtually right here. The movie, which is titled Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, is due out for a Might 10, 2024 launch. twentieth Century Studios additionally revived the Predator movie franchise in 2022, with the discharge of the prequel Prey, on to the Hulu streaming service. Submit-Disney acquisition, there was improvement on the Alien franchise, with each a brand new theatrical function and a brand new live-action episodic tv sequence within the works.

The primary of a number of Avatar sequels, Avatar: The Method of Water, was launched in December 2022. The movie has since grossed $2.3 billion, making it the No. 3 highest-grossing movie of all time. So Disney now owns three of the highest 5 highest-grossing movies ever: Avatar, Avengers: Endgame, and Avatar: The Method of Water. Seven of the Prime 10 highest-grossing movies ever are Disney franchises or IP with Star Wars: The Drive Awakens at No. 5, Avengers: Infinity Struggle at No. 6; The Lion King 2019 remake at No. 9; and Avengers: Age of Ultron at No. 10.

The Fox acquisition by Disney additionally included the now-defunct animation studio, Blue Sky, a Fox subsidiary. Whereas Blue Sky is now shuttered, Disney nonetheless owns the rights to the animated movie franchise Ice Age and its varied spinoffs. Blue Sky was by no means as massive of a studio as Pixar, Disney Animation, or DreamWorks Animation, however they produced many hits over time.

The twentieth Century TV Franchises Disney Owns, From ‘The Simpsons’ to ‘It is At all times Sunny’

The Disney acquisition of FOX’s leisure portfolio additionally included twentieth Century Fox TV, Fox Tv Animation, and the cable networks FX and FXX. All the tv properties and franchises produced by twentieth Century Fox Tv and FOX Tv Animation, which have been renamed twentieth Century Tv and twentieth Tv Animation, now fall beneath Disney’s possession. That grants Disney the possession of such main powerhouse franchises as The Simpsons, Household Man, Bob’s Burgers, It’s At all times Sunny in Philadelphia, American Horror Story, and American Crime Story. Disney additionally owns such fashionable animated exhibits as Futurama (which returned with one other season in 2023) and King of the Hill, which is about to be rebooted someday this 12 months.

In January 2023, FOX Leisure and twentieth Tv Animation introduced multi-season renewals of The Simpsons, Bob’s Burgers, and Household Man. At 34 seasons and 746 episodes, plus one big-screen theatrical function, The Simpsons is the longest-running scripted sequence in tv historical past. The most recent renewal for The Simpsons will take the present nicely over 800 episodes, so it’s a moderately prestigious sequence for Disney’s portfolio. There’s all the time the prospect one other Simpsons film may get made. The 2007 theatrical function did find yourself grossing $536 million worldwide, so it was a field workplace success. There’s been discuss of one other film for years, so it stays to be seen if Disney and twentieth Century Studios ever push it ahead.

Different notable Fox TV franchises that Disney now owns additionally embrace The X-Recordsdata, which had a big-screen duology of its personal, Justified, Rescue Me, The Defend, Sons of Anarchy, its spinoff Mayans M.C., and What We Do within the Shadows. And yeah, there’s additionally the Buffyverse. Beforehand, twentieth Century Fox produced the unique 1992 film, Buffy the Vampire Slayer. twentieth Century Fox Tv later produced the enduring Buffy the Vampire Slayer tv sequence and its later 1999 spinoff, Angel. In 2018, information surfaced {that a} reboot of the favored tv franchise was within the works, however after a while in improvement, the reboot is now reportedly on maintain.

The Huge Library of Disney Franchises

It’s fascinating to look again on the varied, eclectic mixture of IPs that Disney has acquired over the course of the final 15–20 years, from extra family-oriented IPs just like the animated movies of Pixar together with Toy Story and Monsters Inc. to edgier, extra grownup fare corresponding to American Horror Story. It is ironic that Disney now owns franchises corresponding to The Simpsons and Household Man, contemplating how each exhibits have poked enjoyable at The Walt Disney Firm, Disney theme parks, and its founder, Walt Disney. Amusingly, The Simpsons actually joked that twentieth Century Fox was a “Division of Walt Disney Co.” again in 1998 within the Season 10 episode, “When You Dish Upon a Star.” Over 20 years later, that joke turned a actuality.

Disney films and TV exhibits can be found to stream on Disney+.

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