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Source: Variety
When the Walt Disney Company, whose film assets include Walt Disney Pictures, Pixar, and Marvel Studios among others, completed its acquisition of major film studio 20th Century Fox (soon renamed 20th Century Studios), many had anticipated that the films released under this new ownership would soon become available to stream on one of the streaming platforms that Disney owned, be it Disney+ or Hulu. However, as of yet, films like “The Call of the Wild” and “Free Guy” are not exclusively available on any of these services. The reason for this: the streaming rights for these films are currently owned by a completely different company. As a result of an agreement made well before Disney’s acquisition of Fox, most films released under the 20th Century or Searchlight labels are available to watch on HBO, specifically any of the HBO channels or the streaming service HBO Max. Unsurprisingly, this arrangement has not been the most convenient for Disney, which had hoped to use its newly acquired Fox assets to promote its own services, and has since been making a significant effort to get those streaming rights for themselves. Fortunately for the company, those efforts may soon start to pay off, even if HBO remained attached for a little bit longer.
On Monday, November 22nd, it was announced that Disney and WarnerMedia (the company that owns HBO) had reached an agreement that would allow for the Fox films currently being streamed by HBO to slowly but surely transition over to the streaming services owned by Disney. While HBO will still be allowed to stream these films up until the end of 2022, these films will also be available for streaming on Disney+ and/or Hulu at the same time, giving viewers the option to see a given film on a platform owned by either of these companies. This will be the last time HBO will have access to these films and any others made by 20th Century Studios or Searchlight Pictures; a renewal of the current contract is not expected to happen, and after 2022, Disney will have full ownership of the Fox library.
According to the terms of the agreement, HBO will keep the exclusive rights to the pay-one TV window for approximately half of the upcoming 20th Century and Searchlight films up until the end of next year, allowing the company to air the films on the HBO cable television channel and its multiple variations, and also make them available for one-time viewing via premium video on demand, up until then. Disney has even agreed to let HBO start to air these films even earlier than was previously allowed, arranging a schedule to do so that still manages to comply with the current terms regarding the theatrical windows for these films. One minor catch: Disney has the right to place ads on certain Fox films, meaning that after an ad-free window has past for these films, Disney will be allowed to place advertisements on them when they are streamed on any of the ad-supported versions of HBO Max and Hulu.
The first film to be streamed on both Disney+ and HBO Max as part of this new agreement is “Ron’s Gone Wrong”, which was released in theaters earlier last month. The animated family film, revolving around a young boy and his smart-device-like robot companion, will premiere on both streaming platforms on December 15th, just in time for the holiday season. It is on this day that the film will also be made available on Blu-Ray and in digital stores (such as Vudu, Amazon Prime Video, and so forth), making the film accessible in just about every non-theatrical format. At the moment, no other titles have been announced under this new agreement, but it is expected that those that are will be released under a similar strategy that is currently being utilized for “Ron’s Gone Wrong”.
It will be interesting to see which films end up being included in this deal, especially considering the line-up of 20th Century Studios and Searchlight Pictures films that are anticipated to be released throughout the end of 2021 and the following year. Closing out the year for 20th Century Studios are “West Side Story”, Steven Spielberg’s lavish musical adaptation/potential awards contender, and “The King’s Man”, the latest in Matthew Vaughn’s popular action spy franchise. 2022 will then see 20th Century Studios release such highly anticipated cinematic works as “Death on the Nile”, Kenneth Branagh’s sequel to his 2017 hit “Murder on the Orient Express”, “The Bob’s Burgers Movie”, a film adaptation of the acclaimed animated television show, and “Avatar 2”, the long-awaited science fantasy follow-up to the film that currently holds the title of highest grossing film worldwide. Searchlight Pictures, meanwhile, will showcase a selection of smaller, but nonetheless equally attention-worthy films. Among the selection are “Nightmare Alley”, the Guillermo del Toro-directed psychological thriller set for release before the end of 2021, “Next Goal Wins”, a sports comedy-drama from writer/director Taika Waititi (whose previous Searchlight-released film, “Jojo Rabbit”, earned the filmmaker his first Academy Award), and “See How They Run”, an upcoming mystery film starring Saorsie Ronan, Sam Rockwell, and other well-known names.
Any one of these films (as well as those not previously mentioned) could be among those included in the deal between Disney and WarnerMedia. Although one could easily see either studio being more protective of the higher-budget and likely more financially profitable features, there’s no guarantee that even the biggest of these features will be kept exclusively by one side or the other, meaning that something like “Avatar 2” could easily wind up being available for viewing simultaneously on Disney+ and HBO Max. The arrangement might appear confusing to the average consumer, but given the circumstances, it’s most likely the best possible scenario. Between Disney’s eagerness to make the most of what it has acquired and HBO’s determination to hold on to what it still has for as long as possible, it’s rare for two rivals of such immense size to come to a mutual agreement like this without undergoing major conflict. Of course, none of this will matter once 2022 ends and Disney has full ownership of the Fox library, but until then, one can only speculate which titles will find their way onto two different services at once.
