What if Apple buys Pixar?

We all know that Steve Jobs bought Pixar in 1986 from Lucasfilm. In 1997, he returned to Apple, since the latter bought NeXT (another company owned by Jobs), but for some reason they did not buy Pixar. In 2006, Jobs sold Pixar to Disney for $ 7 billion. But what if back in 1997 Apple decided to buy Pixar along with NeXT, thus entering the film industry?

First, you need to answer: how would Disney change without Pixar?

Before Disney bought Pixar, Disney was in crisis. Their own cartoons rarely paid off, and the company itself was a mess. It was so terrible that Disney CEO Michael Eisner was forced out of the company and replaced by Bob Iger. As Disney's new CEO, the Pixar acquisition was Iger's first big move. The success of the Disney-Pixar acquisition helped a lot in later acquisitions: Marvel, Lucasfilm and 21st Century Fox. In addition, when Disney acquired Pixar, Pixar CEO John Lasseter became CEO of Walt Disney Animation Studios (that is, at the same time as Pixar CEO). Lasseter not only continued Pixar's winning streak, but also ushered in a period of Disney renaissance, with Disney creating CGI-animated hits such as Frozen, Zootopia & Wreck-it Ralph. Without the Disney-Pixar acquisition, we probably wouldn't have had the Disney we know today. Disney wouldn't buy Marvel, Lucasfilm and Fox. The company still has Disney studio itself (and all its divisions), ABC and the Muppets. Most likely, Marvel would have bought Sony, and Lucasfilm, perhaps George Lucas would have also sold Apple, since, firstly, they had big finances at that time (and in this reality, even more than now), and secondly, he would like to reunite his studio with the former division. Fox would have retained its independence. Hulu would not buy Disney, and the service would be owned jointly by 21st Century Fox and Comcast. Disney + would exist, but there would be less content at launch than in reality. We would not have seen remakes, and those remakes that can be called sequels rather than completely carbon copies of the original (for example, Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland or 2014's Malificent) would have come out, but in the form of cartoons. Touchstone Pictures would still be around today. The studio will continue to make more original cartoons than they actually do. Overall, Disney would be in a worse shape than reality. Pixar helped them move to the next level, reviving their leadership among the animation studios in Hollywood.

How would Pixar have changed under Apple?

Pixar was in a great position prior to the Disney-Pixar acquisition. It pioneered the fashion for CGI-animated hits and outstripped its biggest rival Dreamworks. Each Hollywood studio wanted its own CGI animation division, and one of them would probably buy or partner with Pixar. In this reality, it is Apple. The Pixar acquisition was not only great for Disney because it brought Hollywood's most successful and famous animation studio to the House of Mouse forever, but also because it gave John Lasseter and Ed Catmull control of feature-length animation at Disney as well as Pixar. In this reality, all this would not exist. Since Disney has spent much of the decade since its 2006 acquisition making Pixar sequels, there may be more original Pixar cartoons out there in 2018 than there actually are. Newt would not have been canceled, but Inside Out would have been released anyway. Epic would have come from Pixar, not Blue Sky Studios. The most important thing that happened as a result of the Disney Pixar acquisition, however, was not the subsequent Pixar films, but the use of that company's talent in non-Pixar Disney animated films. Franchises such as Frozen, Wreck-It Ralph, Tangled, and many others have been made with filmmakers affiliated with Pixar. This might not have happened if Pixar was not owned by Disney, but by Apple.

John Lasseter might not have been fired as a Pixar CEO and would have stayed at Pixar. Therefore, Skydance Animation does not exist and all of their cartoons would have been created by Pixar. Pete Docter would still be working at the studio, so the actual Pixar projects from 2022 (with the exception of Lightyear, because this project was created because of Disney) would have been born.

Apple TV+ would be in a better position than in reality, thanks to Pixar and Lucasfilm, as well as Apple Studios, which appeared after the launch of streaming and became a distribution studio for Pixar and Lucasfilm projects. Apple Studios would be on the list of major movie studios in Hollywood and the youngest of the list.

How would other studios change?

This alternate history also affects other studios.

First of all, this will hurt Disney, as he will suffer the most in this story. Disney won't be Hollywood's main money machine because they won't have Pixar and Lucasfilm (Apple), Marvel (Sony) and 20th Century Fox (independent). Disney may even be sold during the COVID-19 pandemic, and most likely, Disney will triple the merger with Discovery, thus Warner Bros will not be merged with Discovery and we will have "Walt Disney Discovery". The company itself will be similar to what comes with Warner Bros Discovery.

Another studio that suffers in this story is Paramount. They handled the distribution of Marvel Studios films during the studio's early years. Since the films will be released by Sony and not by Paramount, Paramount will lose several billion dollars in rentals. But the loss will not affect the studio much, unlike Disney.

The biggest beneficiary of Sony's deal. They'll have Marvel Studios and they'll be able to make Sony a bunch of billions of dollars in movie rentals, just like Disney. Plus, the Spider-Man movies will be from Marvel Studios, and Big Hero 6 (like the Spider-verse) will be from Marvel Studios/Sony Pictures Animation. Playstation games will be created based on Marvel Studios films. Playstation is already leading the way compared to xbox, and in this story, the playstation will be in an even better position than Microsoft with xbox.

Universal will also win. Despite the fact that they do not appear much in this story, they will still have the Hulk, thus, they will release films based on the Hulk.

It will be the same with 20th century Fox, who are independent and will remain with the rights to the X-Men and Deadpool. Plus, consider that they own Avatar, so Disney will be in even worse shape in 2022, which is the reality, as they won't have a few successful 2022 movies out of all the movies.

Netflix will also win in this story, because they will have the Marvel series that they released.