Disney wins the antitrust approval for the Fox buyout that could have mutant fans jumping for joy.
The U.S Justice Department has agreed to allow the purchase of most 21st Century Fox assets. Keyword most. Disney will not own fox regional sports network, as Disney will have to sell off 22 of those networks.
According to CNN the purchase does have one more final hurdle to jump, the federal judge must approve the settlement and Fox shareholders have to vote in favor of the deal. Fox did say they would be open to others bid, but appear to be happy with the current bid from Disney. The Assistant Attorney General Makan Delrahim of the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division did say, “ American consumers have benefitted from head-to-head competition between Disney and Fox’s cable sports programming that ultimately has prevented cable television subscription prices from rising even higher. Today’s settlement will ensure that sports programming competition is preserved in the local markets where Disney and Fox compete for cable and satellite distribution.”
This is huge news for X-Men and Marvel fans. Disney purchased Marvel in 2008. Before Disney purchased Marvel, Marvel Entertainment entered into several different partnerships. 20th Century Fox gained the rights to X-Men (Which includes Deadpool, Logan/Wolverine), and Fantastic Four Films. Sony has rights to Spider-Man Films. Over the years many fans noticed the difference in movies. In the age of crossover characters in movies together, noticeably no mutants were seen in Marvel Studio Films. Once the deal is finalized mutants could be seen in Marvel Studios Films. Who knows what X-Men character can be seen in an up-and-coming Avengers movie?
Out of 11 Fox movies, Deadpool grossed the highest at 363,070,709 the lowest of the franchise is The Wolverine that came in at 132,556,852. Marvel Studio Films are considered more successful with the highest grossing film Black Panther that grossed 699,773,357.
Many fans are hopeful that X-Men and Fantastic Four will get the Marvel Studio Treatment. At press time Fox has two remaining X-Men Movies to be released; X-Men Dark Phoenix which is set to be released on Valentines Day 02/14/2019 and New Mutants which is set to hit the theaters on 08/02/2019.
