According to Variety, Disney is “unimpressed” with Fox’s upcoming horror-themed X-Men spinoff New Mutants, which they believe has limited box office potential. On top of that, the studio is not happy with the run of recent Fox flops that they were contractually obligated to release, most notably Dark Phoenix, considered to be the worst in the X-Men franchise. Only one film that Disney released under the Fox banner has turned a profit. , was profitable. The faith-based movie Breakthrough, which was released in April, grossed $50 million worldwide on a $14 million budget. That film was produced by DeVon Franklin, whose overall production deal at Fox ironically dissolved in the merger.
Disney has already dropped a number of Fox films that were in development. According to a Reddit post, Disney has already scrapped Magic: The Gathering, a Sims movie, a McDonald’s Monopoly true-story crime-thriller from Ben Affleck, a Chronicle sequel and Sandlot prequel, Pink Panther and League of Extraordinary Gentlemen reboots, a Flash Gordon reboot from Taika Waititi, two movies starring Sacha Baron Cohen and Jim Carrey, two projects by Matt Reeves, two by Drew Goddard, and films by Tim Miller, David Ayer, Jason Segel, Cary Fukunaga, Shawn Levy and Paul Feig.
It will be interesting if Disney goes ahead with the release of New Mutants or waits for a Disney + release.