Posted in: Movies, News | Tagged: 20th century fox, 20th century studios, alien, avatar, die hard, disney, Disney FOX, fox searchlight, Home Alone, sar wars, searchlight pictures, titanic

Disney Rebrands 20th Century Fox and Fox Searchlight, Fox Now Gone

Disney is pressing forward, and man is it weird to see. The company has rebranded Fox, which it purchased last year for $71 billion. 20th Century Fox will now be known as 20th Century Studios, while Fox Searchlight will change to Searchlight Pictures. The first 20th Century Studios branded release will be the new Call of the Wild starring Harrison Ford in a few weeks, while the first Searchlight Pictures release will be the new Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Will Ferrell film Downhill.  Disney may have changed the names, but the logos will mostly stay the same, just with the word 'Fox' removed.

There is no word yet about if they will change the name of the television studios as well, and you can bet that Fox News, which was not part of the sale, won;t be going anywhere.

Insiders characterize the change as rather inevitable. Disney's $71.3 billion acquisition of 21st Century Fox last March included the 20th Century Fox film and TV studios, but not the Fox broadcast network or Fox News, which remained part of Fox Corp. under CEO Lachlan Murdoch. That automatically injected a level of brand confusion at odds with the highly differentiated divisions within Disney's ranks, and Fox Corp. has no reason to change its name.

As one insider puts it, "I think the Fox name means Murdoch, and that is toxic."

20th Century Fox was formed when Twentieth Century Pictures and Fox Film Corporation merged in 1935. Arguably the most familiar studio title card in history, mostly because of the Fox Fanfare, the studio released iconic films like the first six Star Wars films, Die Hard, the Alien franchise, Titanic, Avatar, and Home Alone. The fanfare was part of everyone's lives, and that logo card meant something special was coming. Kinda like the Disney Castle. This will take some getting used to for film fans for sure.

First seen on Variety

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