The AVATAR and PLANET OF THE APES Franchises Will Be a Priority for Disney

Disney Studios recently reported a $170 million operating loss during its fiscal third quarter due to the Fox acquisition, and a lot of the blame landed on the box office failure of X-Men: Dark Phoenix.

Disney doesn’t like loosing money, so they have put a plan into action, and that plan is to unsurprisingly focus on established properties that they know will bring in money. It was specifically mentioned that they will be putting a focus on James Cameron’s Avatar sequels and the Planet of the Apes franchise. They’ve also previously said that new Alien and Maze Runner movies are on the way.

This is the first time that Disney CEO Bob Iger said that the Planet of the Apes franchise will live on after the previous trilogy closed out. We don’t know what these new Planet of the Apes movies will entail, but Disney will bring on a creative team to find a way to make it happen. I imagine it’ll be some kind of reboot.

Iger went on to say that Disney will now take Fox "in a new direction, with an all new development slate that will focus on a select group of properties." This is in addition to the recently announced reboots of the Home Alone, Cheaper by the Dozen, Night at the Museum, and Diary of a Wimpy Kid franchises for Disney+.

I imagine this means a lot of the other smaller non-franchise movies that were being developed by Fox will continue to be scrapped by the studio. That’s a shame, but Disney isn’t really in the business of taking risks anymore with original content. They are all about playing it safe.