May 10, 2023. That was the day everything changed.
Disney CEO Bob Iger announced plans to merge Disney+ and Hulu, essentially blurring the lines between family-friendly content typically reserved for the Mouse House and the adult-oriented properties that were kept hidden away on the latter platform.
Iger projected the two streamers would be unified in March 2024, giving parents plenty of time to set their parental controls. Hopefully those changes were made because the extremely R-rated Poor Things is now available to stream on Disney+ in the UK.
Now, here's a little background. Disney officially acquired Fox in 2019 for $71.3 billion. 20th Century Fox and Fox Searchlight Pictures were part of the deal, but their names have since been changed to 20th Century Studios and Searchlight Pictures. A majority stake in Hulu was also included in the acquisition.
According to Variety, Disney and WarnerMedia worked out a deal in 2021 that extended the window for Fox films to appear on HBO Max, now simply Max, for one more year.
When the agreement came to an end in 2023, all Fox titles would appear exclusively on Disney+ and/or Hulu. Disney purchased the remaining 33 percent stake in Hulu from Comcast in November 2023, giving them full ownership and paving the way for a merger between the two platforms.
Poor Things was distributed by Searchlight Pictures, a subsidiary of Disney. Since titles will appear on both platforms going forward due to the merger, the adult-oriented content that used to solely live on Hulu is now also available on Disney+.
With 11 Oscar nominations (including Emma Stone for Best Actress), two Golden Globe wins (Best Picture, Musical or Comedy; Best Actress in a Musical or Comedy for Stone), and a Rotten Tomatoes score of 92 percent, the latest film from Yorgos Lanthimos is exceptional. It's just not for kids. Hell, it's not even for adults with their parents in the same room.
Poor Things, Bluey, and Moana, all on the same platform. Just as Iger envisioned. See some of the best X reactions to this bold choice in content-placement below.
