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20th Century Studios to Reduce Output to 4 Films a Year
From a new piece discussing the departure of 20th Century Studios’ (formerly 20th Century Fox) head, Emma Watts, over at The Hollywood Reporter:
Under Disney, 20th will now release about four movies a year theatrically, down from as many as six or seven, and focus equally if not more so on making content for Disney+ and Hulu. Fox's Marvel movies, such as Deadpool, now fall under Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige's purview. For Watts — who worked closely with Ryan Reynolds in bringing the Deadpool series to the big screen and also was behind the larger X-Men franchise — this meant handing over some of her prized projects.
This is a heartbreaker.
I recognize that Disney is, in essence, splitting up the Fox name between 20th Century and Searchlight (and I assume that these four are not inclusive of the Searchlight brand), but to see one of the best motion picture studios of all time reduced to four token releases a year absolutely blows.
I wonder - and optimistically, though probably not realistically, hope - if / that a studio can come in and fill the void in general release theatrical releases and creative risk-taking. Looking at you, A24, maybe? Hopefully?
Tuesday February 4, 2020