Saw the last Star Wars movie last night at the privately-owned little theater in Edmonds, WA. I liked the film, but I liked the original trilogy and the final three just fine... they are a good time at the movies with some fun moments. But before every film at this theater, the owner gets up on stage and talks to the audience a bit about community theater, and what "throwback" films people want him to get for thee Throwback Thursdays shows. Last night was different. Disney, with the acquisition of all of 20th Century Fox catalog, and the release of Disney+, will no longer work with private/independent theaters any more. If an independent wants to EVER show a Disney-owned film again, they need to consume and market the ENTIRE superhero catalog, sell Disney's merch and partner's food, and not show any more independent films. It is EXACTLY the dick-move that everyone was expecting Disney to pull, and they did. Tron. Dead Poet's Society. Pretty Woman. Noises Off. The Nightmare Before Christmas. Ed Wood. Grosse Pointe Blank. The Sixth Sense. High Fidelity. Pirates of the Caribbean (all of them). Up. All Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Alien, Avatar, Deadpool, Die Hard, X-Men films. Grapes of Wrath. Miracle on 34th Street. The Sound of Music. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. MASH. Home Alone. The Martian. (20Th Century Fox's catalog goes back to 1914's "Gertie the Dinosaur", and includes some of the earliest films ever screened.) All the Three Stooges films. Thee King and I. South Pacific. Hello Dolly! Patton. All That Jazz. All of "The Omen" horror films. The Cannonball Run. The Gods Must Be Crazy. The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai. Brazil. The Name of the Rose. The Princess Bride. All TMNT products. The Exorcist. All the Predator films. Naked Lunch. Speed. Office Space. Fight Club. Etc.
That was illegal from 1948 until three weeks ago.“We have determined that the decrees, as they are, no longer serve the public interest, because the horizontal conspiracy — the original violation animating the decrees — has been stopped,” said Delrahim.
I had to look this up, cause you had me in a bit of a panic in this one, because TMNT is split between quite a few companies right now (like Paramount and Hasbro), depending on the media, and I was worried that Disney went on a secret buying spree. Looks like the ownership rights are still all over the place. But man, I tell you, Disney is like The Blob at this point. Eating more things and getting bigger and bigger and I think we're at the point there's really no stopping them. I was actually pretty upset that they bought Fox because at this rate, they have way more corporate control over American Pop Culture than anyone should and they're not exactly graceful with their properties. So now I don't buy their products, which is fine with me, because I wanna focus more on street level art anyway. The only thing that frustrates me is that their acquisition of Fox put a real dent in my Blu-Ray Library building, because as you wonderfully pointed out, Fox has a pretty expansive back catalog. At this point in my life, the only way Disney is getting any of my money is through National Geographic, but seeing as there are many other wonderful organizations out there that fill similar niches, I can even cut that out without much loss. The only thing I can't avoid is that iNaturalist partners with National Geographic and that site is just too wonderful for me at the moment and I think they do genuine good.All TMNT products