When Disney acquired 20th Century Fox in 2019 in one of the biggest media takeovers of all time, the House of Mouse absorbed its film slate — and promptly had to slog through an endless series of commercial duds.

Movies like “X-Men” spinoffs “Dark Phoenix” and “New Mutants,” Brad Pitt’s astronaut drama “Ad Astra,” buddy comedy “Stuber,” Harrison Ford-led canine adventure “The Call of the Wild” and animated pigeon comedy “Spies in Disguise” were rejected by audiences and sputtered at the box office. Worse, they didn’t exactly instill confidence in the film assets that resulted from the $71.3 billion mega-merger.

“Those Fox titles that were part of the deal but weren’t made by Disney seemed like they were orphaned,” says senior Comscore analyst Paul Dergarabedian. “With any merger, there are going to be growing pains. And this is a slow-moving business.”

So it’s an encouraging development that former...