The company is counting on the combined library of Disney and Fox films to draw subscribers to its upcoming streaming service Disney+, which launches in November. There’s a clear business rationale for Disney to create scarcity. Disney, for example, is known for releasing its classic animated titles such as “Beauty and the Beast” from the famed “Disney vault” for a limited time on home video. The firm is famously protective of its intellectual property, which it leverages across multiple businesses including television and theme parks. That Burbank-based Disney would tighten access to the Fox movies is not necessarily a surprise. The Times inquired with the studio about the Disney policy on Thursday.Ī spokesman for Disney declined to comment. On Friday, a studio representative contacted the Little Theatre to apologize, saying there had been a misunderstanding about whether the cinema qualified as a commercial theater, Reis said. The policy shift for Fox films has caused confusion among some exhibitors. Repertory theaters - those that specialize in screenings of old titles - will still have normal access to Fox movies, sources said. The exception, these people said, is “The Rocky Horror Picture Show,” a mainstay of midnight audience-participation screenings and Halloween parties. That policy now will apply to Fox’s vast catalog, according to exhibition sources who were not authorized to comment. Disney’s long-standing policy is to not allow first-run theaters or commercial discount cinemas to screen movies from its library, whether it’s an animated classic such as “Lady and the Tramp” or a more adult-oriented film such as “The Sixth Sense.” Fox, and the movies in its storied library of motion pictures, is now part of Walt Disney Co., which has long placed tight restrictions on when and how cinemas can screen its older titles.
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