Over the past few weeks, Twentieth Century Fox has been quietly rearranging its release calendar, moving some of its high-profile projects almost a year back. This is most likely in light of the fast-approaching merger with Disney, which is expected to finalize as early as January 2019.

One of these changes include “Dark Phoenix,” the latest installment of the “X-Men” franchise. The film, which, along with Josh Boone’s “New Mutants,” will serve as Fox’s final “X-Men” film before merging with Disney and Marvel Studios, was pushed back from Feb. 14 to June 7. This announcement was made just two days after the first official trailer dropped online. Other films being pushed include “Alita: Battle Angel,” “Death on the Nile,” and “Ad Astra.” According to The Hollywood Reporter, if all goes according to schedule, Disney will fully acquire Fox within the first two quarters of 2019, and “Dark Phoenix” will be the first Fox film to be released under the Disney banner.

Marvel will officially be given the “go-ahead” to start using the remainder of its superhero characters in both films and other forms of entertainment, and for many fans is nothing short of a miracle and a dream come true. Back before Marvel was the biggest moneymaker in Hollywood, it was forced to sell the rights of their most popular characters, with Spider-Man going to Sony Entertainment and X-Men and Fantastic Four to Fox. Fast forward to today, however, and Marvel is now on top of the world with nearly 30 percent of the market share at the domestic box office, surpassing both Sony and Fox so much that it managed to negotiate a way to bring all of its beloved characters back under its umbrella.

Disney is also acquiring several other Fox properties that are proven box-office successes. One of the biggest acquisitions is James Cameron’s “Avatar” series, the first film being the highest grossing film of all time. Another key franchise is the “Kingsman” series, which is currently planning both a sequel and prequel. Disney is perfectly capable of sustaining Fox as an entity, as last year, Disney only released eight films, while Fox released 14. However, the question film fans should be asking is not “if” Disney can do it, but “should” they?

As previously stated, Disney makes up approximately 30 percent of the market share at the domestic box office. Fox makes up around nine percent. With these studios combined, Disney will make up about 40 percent of the box office market share. This is dangerously close to half of the box office, raising concerns as to whether Disney will become a monopoly-type corporation, hogging  a majority of the entertainment fans consume. Disney famously owns Marvel Studios and, if this upcoming merger does not blow apart, will soon own Fox and all of its film assets. Disney also owns Pixar Animation, Lucasfilm and, let us not forget, Disney animation.

To put into context, Disney owns “The Avengers,” “Star Wars,” “Toy Story,” all the Disney princess movies, like “Frozen” or “Beauty and the Beast,” and now, add “X-Men,” “Kingsman” and “Avatar” to that list. Basically, any major box-office hit is a Disney film, they have cornered the film market and film fans need to ask themselves whether they want just one studio making all these films.

When different studios own different properties, there is competition, not just to get butts in the seats, but also to make films so great that viewers can have choices as to what content they want to watch knowing it will be great. It is one of the reasons why television is so successful with rich, interesting stories right now. But, with Warner Bros. being the only other studio making major superhero movies outside of Marvel, and Dreamworks and Illumination Studios being the only major animation studios to stand up to Disney, have fans lost that sense of competition? And if so, what did fans gain? The answer is simple: Wolverine vs. Hulk.

Image from ABC News via YouTube