Disney continues to make adjustments after acquiring assets from Fox early last year. The latest change regards the names of the two film studios, 20th Century Fox and Fox Searchlight. Disney has amended those names, removing the word “Fox,” according to Variety.
- 20th Century Fox will now simply be called 20th Century Studios while Fox Searchlight will now be referred to a Searchlight Pictures.
- No changes have been announced yet regarding the television studios 20th Century Fox Television and Fox 21 Television Studios, but discussions regarding potential name changes are underway.
- The name change has already taken effect. The poster for Downhill, Searchlight’s next film, starts off its credits with “Searchlight Pictures Presents.”
- Downhill, which it set to premiere February 14, will be the first film to debut with the new Searchlight Pictures logo.
- Meanwhile, Call of the Wild, which will hit theaters on February 21, will be the first film to debut on the 20th Century Studios banner.
- While the names will be different, the logos will be largely unchanged (as seen in the Searchlight Pictures logo above) and the iconic Fox fanfare will still be present at the start of these films.
- This move comes as no surprise as the remaining existence of the Fox broadcast network has caused some brand confusion and this simple name change for the Disney-owned assets could remove that problem altogether.