Remember when Disney bullied Quentin Tarantino's film out of the ArcLight movie theatre in order to have Star Wars screen longer for the holiday season? Now I'm not the biggest Tarantino fan, I loved his early work, but it's hard for me to forgive him for Death Proof. However, one of the exceptional values of Tarantino is that he is a man of cinema scruples and is a devout purist of the form. Apparently Disney can now force movie projects out of theaters even by directors as popular as Tarantino whenever they like, if that's not scary then I don't know what is.
Remember just recently when Disney forced movie theaters to give up 65% of ticket sales to screen The Last Jedi and then forced them to screen it for four weeks or else pay the an extra 5% penalty?
Remember when the Los Angeles Times did a story about how Disneyland is "squeezing" subsidies, incentives, rebates and tax protections from the city while trying to pay off their politicians as well? And then Disney went ahead and banned Los Angeles Times from reviewing their movies? Yes, they actually banned a news paper from reviewing their movies because they didn't like them revealing how they one-sidedly profit off of the city of Anaheim. This is Disney. Luckily critics started boycotting the new Disney movies and this lead to a backlash against them. Disney eventually changed their tune and lifted the ban. Regardless of the outcome, the fact that Disney even feels comfortable banning giant newspaper companies and critics from reviewing their movies is a frightening omen to what may come in the future if this giant keeps growing.
Now, let's talk about the specifics of Disney buying out Fox movie studios and other assets. As briefly mentioned in Part 1 of this post, Disney have now bought the rights and assets of Rupert Murdoch's Fox movie studios and television programs. As any lefty such as myself would be thinking "maybe the good part of this is that Disney will own that brainwashing rightwing news factory knows as Fox News and get rid of it!" right? ..Right? Nope, now after this deal Murdoch has decided that he will spend his 52 billion new dollars to focus on his passion known as Fox News and take it global. The one good thing that could have happened from this deal... did not happen. Fox News will still thrive and now with even more money added with even more focus. Also, Murdoch will now "own 5 percent of Disney and will hold seats on the Company's board of directors." as pointed out in this insightful article about why the Disney-Fox deal should scare you. So basically for now on when you buy that ticket for that Disney movie you will be in some fractional way giving money to Fox News and Rupert Murdoch.
But I know, it's all worth it just to see a better Fantastic Four movie right? ....Right?
Last Word
Lastly I would like to remind everybody of a time no so long ago before Disney owned Marvel, Star Wars or Fox. A time when Disney actually banned "grieving parents from putting Winnie the Pooh on their stillborn baby's headstone." That time was around 2006, before Disney was even half as powerful as they are now. It was only after the news went public that Disney rejected the family that they decided to grant permission. Now that was over ten years ago, now imagine what Disney will do if they get their way when copyright protection laws go further international. Or now that they may own Avatar and The Simpsons. It may only be a matter of time. For now, I cherish the smaller movies in life. I still haven't seen The Last Jedi, and you know what? For some reason I feel good about it.
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