Dark Phoenix’s failure leads Disney to scrap most Fox films in development

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

When Disney officially acquired 20th Century Fox earlier this year, they inherited a number of projects which were either already completed or in actively in development, but it now appears that we won't be seeing as many of those projects hit the big-screen as we anticipated. During Disney's quarterly earnings call to investors, Disney CEO Bob Iger revealed that the company would be scrapping most of the Fox projects currently in development and refocusing their approach.

The reason for this move is the $170 million operating loss which Fox experienced in Disney's latest fiscal quarter, much of what has been pinned on the failure of DARK PHOENIX. With a budget of around $200 million, DARK PHOENIX only managed to rake in $252 million worldwide; quite the disappointment for what was once one of Fox's biggest franchises. "One of the biggest issues was the Fox studio performance which was well below where it had been and well below where we hoped it would be when we made the acquisition," Iger said, adding that he's tasked Alan Horn and Alan Bergman to apply the same "discipline and creative standards" to the Fox division which exist under the Marvel, Lucasfilm, and Pixar banners. Iger also said that they will be tossing out the majority of projects in development as Fox as they take the label "in a new direction, with an all new development slate that will focus on a select group of properties." This will lead to a significant decrease in the amount of Fox releases in the near future as Iger estimated that it "will probably take a solid year, maybe two years, before we can have an impact on the films in production. We’re all confident we’re going to turn around the results of Fox live action."

Of course, this doesn't mean that all Fox projects in development have been scrapped, as Iger made sure to note that James Cameron's AVATAR sequels will be moving forward as well as a continuation of the PLANET OF THE APES franchise. Iger also said that Fox Searchlight will continue forward with business as usual and that they'll also make movies for Disney+. There are still a number of Fox films set for release over the next year however, including AD ASTRA, DEATH ON THE NILE, WEST SIDE STORY, THE WOMAN IN THE WINDOW, and more.