The Big Picture
Disney’s acquisitions include The Muppets, Pixar, Marvel, Lucasfilm, and 20th Century Fox, giving them ownership of major franchises like Toy Story and Star Wars.
Disney’s acquisition of Marvel for $4 billion has paid off, as the Marvel Cinematic Universe is the top-grossing film franchise in history.
In addition to film franchises, Disney now owns TV franchises like The Simpsons, Family Guy, and American Horror Story.
Over the course of the last 20 years, The Walt Disney Company has made multiple major acquisitions, making the proverbial House of Mouse home to some of the biggest franchises and IPs on the planet. Of course, fans already know about Marvel, Star Wars, and Indiana Jones, but what about some of the other franchises that Disney has acquired? Considering Disney’s entertainment acquisitions of 21st Century Fox which began in 2019, Disney now owns all the popular film and television franchises that were once part of the FOX Corporation. It’s time to take a look at all the notable franchises that Disney now owns besides all the popularly recognized Disney IP that falls under the Disney banner.
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Disney Acquires The Muppets, Pixar, and Marvel in the 2000s
Notably in 2004, Disney acquired The Muppets from The Jim Henson Company, consisting of much of The Muppets film and television library. However, the acquisition did not include Sesame Street. Sesame Street ownership still currently falls under the Sesame Workshop, formerly the Children’s Television Workshop (CTW). Under the acquisition, Disney now owns the term “Muppet” and also formed The Muppets Studio to manage the Muppet franchise, IP, and characters. Interestingly, another one of Jim Henson’s creations, Fraggle Rock, was not part of the Muppet acquisition in the 2000s.
In 2006, Disney completed the acquisition of Pixar, merging the two companies. Disney technically already owned some of the franchises that Pixar produced, such as Toy Story. However, Ratatouille was originally set up to be a wholly owned Pixar franchise when it appeared the two companies were going to split, even though it was still being released by Disney. But with Disney’s $7.4 billion acquisition of Pixar in 2006, Disney became the owner and rights-holder for all the Pixar franchises and properties, including Ratatouille. The beloved animated film was later released in 2007, earning $623 million worldwide and a Best Animated Feature Academy Award for filmmaker Brad Bird at the 2008 Oscars.
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Most notable in 2009 was Disney’s acquisition of Marvel Entertainment. The acquisition of Marvel by Disney in 2009 gave Disney ownership of Marvel Comics, Marvel Studios, and the entire Marvel library, sans the film and distribution rights that were under the control of different companies at the time, such as 20th Century Fox, Sony Pictures, and Universal. Disney purchased the Marvel Universe for $4 billion. To put things into perspective, the Marvel Cinematic Universe is still currently the top-grossing film franchise in cinematic history, grossing a combined $29 billion worldwide. And that’s only through box office receipts, not counting revenue from television, streaming, VOD, home video sales, merchandise, and theme park attendance, as Disney has now made Marvel a fixture of Disney Parks as well. No matter what anyone says, Disney bought Marvel at a bargain price, which has more than paid off for the parent company.
Disney Acquires Lucasfilm (Star Wars, Indiana Jones, & More) in 2012
In October 2012, Disney announced the acquisition of Lucasfilm for $4.05 billion. The acquisition of Lucasfilm from founder George Lucas did not just grant Disney ownership of Star Wars, but other Lucasfilm IPs as well, such as Indiana Jones and Willow. It’s also worth mentioning that the acquisition also included the various video game IP created and released by Lucasfilm’s video game division, LucasArts, which sadly was shuttered in 2013. But that means that Disney also owns the IP for such games as Grim Fandango, Day of the Tentacle, and Monkey Island. Indiana Jones finally received its first film since the acquisition by Disney with Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny in the summer of 2023. Willow received a TV series sequel that debuted on Disney+ in November 2022, which unfortunately fell victim to Disney+’s content purge following its cancelation after one season. Star Wars continues to be a major franchise at Lucasfilm under Disney’s ownership, with multiple television spinoffs currently airing and in the works, and multiple new films in development, plus video games, comics, and theme park attractions.
Disney Buys 20th Century Fox in 2019
With Disney’s acquisition of the entertainment assets of the FOX Corporation in 2019, Disney became the owner of all of FOX’s portfolio in the film and television realm. That acquisition grants Disney ownership of notable film franchises such as Die Hard, Alien, Predator, Home Alone, The Omen, Planet of the Apes, and James Cameron’s Avatar. Additionally, Disney regained control of the film and distribution rights of all the Marvel content that was previously under Fox’s control, such as X-Men, Fantastic Four, and Silver Surfer. While Disney technically owned the IP of those characters, The FOX Corporation controlled the entertainment film rights for those characters. Following the Disney acquisition, 20th Century Fox was renamed 20th Century Studios.
While little movement initially occurred with Planet of the Apes after the acquisition by Disney, a sequel to the 2017 War of the Planet of the Apes is finally almost here. The film, which is titled Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, is due out for a May 10, 2024 release. 20th Century Studios also revived the Predator film franchise in 2022, with the release of the prequel Prey, directly to the Hulu streaming service. Post-Disney acquisition, there has been development on the Alien franchise, with both a new theatrical feature and a new live-action episodic television series in the works.
The first of multiple Avatar sequels, Avatar: The Way of Water, was released in December 2022. The film has since grossed $2.3 billion, making it the No. 3 highest-grossing film of all time. So Disney now owns three of the top five highest-grossing films ever: Avatar, Avengers: Endgame, and Avatar: The Way of Water. Seven of the Top 10 highest-grossing films ever are Disney franchises or IP with Star Wars: The Force Awakens at No. 5, Avengers: Infinity War at No. 6; The Lion King 2019 remake at No. 9; and Avengers: Age of Ultron at No. 10.
The Fox acquisition by Disney also included the now-defunct animation studio, Blue Sky, a Fox subsidiary. While Blue Sky is now shuttered, Disney still owns the rights to the animated film franchise Ice Age and its various spinoffs. Blue Sky was never as big of a studio as Pixar, Disney Animation, or DreamWorks Animation, but they produced many hits over the years.
The 20th Century TV Franchises Disney Owns, From ‘The Simpsons’ to ‘It’s Always Sunny’
The Disney acquisition of FOX’s entertainment portfolio also included 20th Century Fox TV, Fox Television Animation, and the cable networks FX and FXX. All the television properties and franchises produced by 20th Century Fox Television and FOX Television Animation, which have been renamed 20th Century Television and 20th Television Animation, now fall under Disney’s ownership. That grants Disney the ownership of such major powerhouse franchises as The Simpsons, Family Guy, Bob’s Burgers, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, American Horror Story, and American Crime Story. Disney also owns such popular animated shows as Futurama (which returned with another season in 2023) and King of the Hill, which is set to be rebooted sometime this year.
In January 2023, FOX Entertainment and 20th Television Animation announced multi-season renewals of The Simpsons, Bob’s Burgers, and Family Guy. At 34 seasons and 746 episodes, plus one big-screen theatrical feature, The Simpsons is the longest-running scripted series in television history. The latest renewal for The Simpsons will take the show well over 800 episodes, so it’s a rather prestigious series for Disney’s portfolio. There is always the chance another Simpsons movie could get made. The 2007 theatrical feature did end up grossing $536 million worldwide, so it was a box office success. There’s been talk of another movie for years, so it remains to be seen if Disney and 20th Century Studios ever push it forward.
Other notable Fox TV franchises that Disney now owns also include The X-Files, which had a big-screen duology of its own, Justified, Rescue Me, The Shield, Sons of Anarchy, its spinoff Mayans M.C., and What We Do in the Shadows. And yeah, there’s also the Buffyverse. Previously, 20th Century Fox produced the original 1992 movie, Buffy the Vampire Slayer. 20th Century Fox Television later produced the iconic Buffy the Vampire Slayer television series and its later 1999 spinoff, Angel. In 2018, news surfaced that a reboot of the popular television franchise was in the works, but after some time in development, the reboot is now reportedly on hold.
The Vast Library of Disney Franchises
Image via Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
It’s fascinating to look back at the various, eclectic mix of IPs that Disney has acquired over the course of the last 15–20 years, from more family-oriented IPs like the animated films of Pixar including Toy Story and Monsters Inc. to edgier, more adult fare such as American Horror Story. It’s ironic that Disney now owns franchises such as The Simpsons and Family Guy, considering how both shows have poked fun at The Walt Disney Company, Disney theme parks, and its founder, Walt Disney. Amusingly, The Simpsons literally joked that 20th Century Fox was a “Division of Walt Disney Co.” back in 1998 in the Season 10 episode, “When You Dish Upon a Star.” Over 20 years later, that joke became a reality.
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