Marvel, Pixar, Star Wars... the Mouse House’s empire keeps on expanding. But have recent developments shown the chinks in its armour?
So all-consuming and all-conquering has
Disney become, it even owns the rights to its analogies now. First Disney was Marvel supervillain Thanos, relentlessly acquiring pop culture’s Infinity Stones including Pixar, Lucasfilm and Marvel itself – all the better to obliterate half the
Hollywood universe. Having swallowed up its rival 21st Century Fox for a colossal $71bn, Disney became the Death Star – an empire so intimidatingly huge and hungry it reduced its rivals to the status of scattered rebels. Last year, Disney dominated the movies like no studio has before, taking more than 38% of the world’s box office. Now, with its streaming service Disney+ rolling out, Disney is like Simba in The Lion King: as Mufasa tells him, “everything the light touches is our kingdom”.
Maybe not quite everything, yet. But Disney’s gravitational pull is warping the very space-time continuum of the media landscape. You will have to work harder than ever to escape the Magic Kingdom’s reach. If it doesn’t get you with the Avengers, it will get you with The Simpsons, or National Geographic, or Wes Anderson. If it doesn’t get you with Elsa sticking plasters, it will get you with Baby Yoda memes.