Disney did the unthinkable earlier this year when they acquired 20th Century Fox, along with all their properties. While on the surface, it all just seems fun and exciting as the acquisition also means that the likes of X-Men and Fantastic Four will be rebooted and be part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, in reality, the purchase changes the media landscape in a huge way (monopoly is never a good thing).
Anyway, Disney CEO Bob Iger has been speaking pretty openly about the Disney-Fox acquisition. In a recent interview with The New York Times, Iger discussed the status of the Fox assets before the deal was sealed, even saying that Fox’s movies simply weren’t doing well at the box office.
“It wasn’t a slap-down. It was an admission that the movies that they had made failed. And I actually gave then a tremendous amount of cover by saying that when companies are bought, processes and decision making can come to a halt.”
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However, Iger said that he only saw this as a short-term problem.
“There were problems at that studio well before the deal was announced. But the reason I did not believe that it was something we should be concerned about is because it’s a short-term problem. And with the talent that we have at our studio, that are now supervising with some of their executives all the movies that they decide to make and how they are made, I’m convinced that the turnaround can happen. It’s not a snap your fingers, but it’s not 10 years of lost value. It’s a year and a half.”
This comment of his seems to slightly contradict what he said a couple of months ago, where he pretty much threw Fox under the bus while discussing Disney’s quarterly earnings. “the Fox studio performance … was well below where it had been and well below where we hoped it would be when we made the acquisition,” Iger said.
