Is music licensing really the only reason Fox/Disney vaulted Less Than Zero (1987), or is this classic "Brand Protection" copyright suppression?
We all know the standard line on why 80s catalog titles disappear from streaming: music clearance rights for multi-label soundtracks (Rick Rubin, Def Jam, Slayer, The Bangles). But Less Than Zero presents a much darker corporate overlap.
Disney owns the 20th Century Fox library. Disney also pays Robert Downey Jr. astronomical sums to anchor their tentpole franchises. Less Than Zero features a raw, harrowing performance by RDJ playing a young man spiraling into crack addiction and debt—a role RDJ famously called "the ghost of Christmas future" regarding his own 90s struggles, to the point where he literally buried his movie wardrobe in his backyard to distance himself from it.
In modern IP management, how much of the "Orphan Works" problem is actually legal music gridlock, and how much is soft corporate suppression to protect the public image of high-value talent? Does the copyright owner have a financial incentive not to resolve the rights?