The rebranding comes a year after Disney acquired the 20th Century Fox film studio along with other media operations in a $71bn deal.
The Walt Disney Company is dropping the name “Fox” from the 20th Century Fox assets it acquired last March. Now, the 20th Century Fox film studio will be called 20th Century Studios, and Fox Searchlight Pictures will become simply Searchlight Pictures.
Disney has already begun phasing out the Fox name from company email addresses and several posters for upcoming features, Variety reported.
The new branding will first be seen on Searchlight Pictures’ Downhill, a drama/comedy which hits theatres on February 14. The Call of the Wild, an adventure film starring Harrison Ford, will be the first film with the 20th Century Studios name, when it hits theatres on February 21.
The 20th Century Fox was born in 1935 as a merger between 20th Century Pictures and Fox Films. The film studio is known for producing some of the biggest films of all time, including Avatar, Titanic, Home Alone, Die Hard, Alien, Star Wars: A New Hope, and Planet of the Apes.
While the word “Fox” has been removed from the logo marks, the signature elements — swirling klieg lights, monolith font and fanfare — will remain the same.
Disney also runs 20th Century Fox Television and Fox 21 Television Studios but changes to their names have not yet been announced.
