Senior Film and Media Reporter

When Disney acquired 20th Century Fox in 2019 in one of the biggest media acquisitions of all time, the House of Mouse took over the films it produced. The company then struggled through an endless string of commercial failures.

Films like the “X-Men” spinoffs “Dark Phoenix” and “New Mutants,” Brad Pitt’s astronaut drama “Ad Astra,” buddy comedy “Stuber,” Harrison Ford-led canine adventure “The Call of the Wild” and animated pigeon comedy “Spies in Disguise” were rejected by audiences and underperformed at box office. Worse, they didn’t exactly inspire confidence in the film assets that emerged from the $71.3 billion megamerger.

"Those Fox titles that were part of the deal but not made by Disney seemed to be orphaned," said senior Comscore analyst Paul Dergarabedian. "With any merger, there are growing pains. And this is a slow company."