Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation is a subsidiary
of Fox Inc., which is owned by media mogul Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation
Ltd. Throughout its long history, the company has enjoyed a reputation as a
major Hollywood motion picture studio. It produced some of the more prominent
box-office hits--such as The Sound of Music and Star Wars--and
has expanded into related areas of the entertainment industry through the
development of subsidiaries such as Fox Animation Inc. and Twentieth Century
Fox Home Entertainment.
William Fox and his Nickelodeons
In 1904 William Fox, a 25-year-old Hungarian immigrant,
bought his first nickelodeon, an early form of movie theater, in New York City.
Within a few years Fox and two partners, B.S. Moss and Sol Brill, had parlayed
their success into a chain of 25 nickelodeons.
The partners soon opened the Greater New York Film
Rental Company, and then in 1913, concerned that the demand for movies had
begun to outstrip supply, they organized the Box Office Attraction Company to begin
producing their own movies. In 1915 Fox founded the Fox Film Corporation to
produce, distribute, and exhibit movies and moved his operation to California,
where he believed the temperate climate would be better suited to film
production.
In 1925 Fox Films relocated to its fourth California
location when Fox purchased the 250 acres of land in Hollywood which was to
become the company's permanent home. In 1929 Fox Films bought 55 percent of
Loew's Inc., then the parent company of MGM, but was later forced by the
government to sell that interest.
After several years of steady growth, the company
experienced a series of shake-ups beginning in 1927, and in 1930 a group of
stockholders ousted William Fox. Fox was replaced by Sidney R. Kent in 1932,
and two years later Fox Film Corporation merged with Twentieth Century
Pictures.
The Rise of the Twentieth Century Company
In 1933 Darryl F. Zanuck, head of production at Warner
Brothers, had joined Joseph M. Schenck, head of United Artists, in forming the
Twentieth Century Company. With Schenck as the administrator and Zanuck head of
production, the Twentieth Century Company made 18 films in 18 months, including The House of
Rothschild, The Affairs of Cellini, and Les
Miserable. During
this time, Twentieth Century began tapping into current news events for subject
matter, with releases like the gangster films Little Caesar and Public
Enemy. When the
company merged with Fox Film Corporation in 1935, Zanuck became vice-president
in charge of production of the new Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation.
The company distinguished itself by producing two
Academy Award-winning films during this time, The Grapes of Wrath in 1940
and How Green Was My Valley in 1941. Zanuck served
as a lieutenant colonel during World War II, making training and combat
documentary films. He was awarded the Legion of Merit for his wartime services.
After the war, Twentieth Century Fox produced such hits
as The
Snows of Kilimanjaro, Winged Victory, Twelve O’clock High, The Razor's Edge, and All
About Eve. Zanuck also attacked controversial issues
in several financially successful movies, proving that audiences would not shy
away from such topics as mental illness, race relations, and anti-Semitism with The Snake Pit,
Pinky, and Gentleman's Agreement.
Management Shake-Ups in the 1990s
Roth left Twentieth Century Fox in 1992 to become an
independent producer for Walt Disney studios. The former president of the Fox
Entertainment Group, Peter Chernin, replaced Roth as president. As management
changed, confusion resulted regarding the responsibility for making key
decisions at the Twentieth Century Fox Film studios. Rupert Murdoch himself
suspended production of Steven Seagal's Man of Honor, the
actor's directorial debut. Actor Macaulay Culkin's father appeared to be making
production decisions on his son's thriller The Good Son. Even new
president Chernin stepped in to decline the Madonna film Angie, I Says when its producers would not comply with a
re-write request.
More management changes followed when Strauss Zelnick,
president and chief operating officer since 1989, resigned after accepting a
position as president and chief executive of an entertainment software company
in 1993. Bill Mechanic then moved from the Disney studios, where he served as
president of the home video division, to assume the presidency of Twentieth
Century Fox Film Corporation. As Zelnick's successor, Mechanic came to the
studio with an extensive video background. In his new position, Mechanic was
responsible not only for Fox's home video activities, but for production,
marketing, distribution, international theatrical activities, and pay TV as
well.
Exploring New Products and Positions
Unlike some major studios, Twentieth Century Fox Film
supported the development of pay-per-view (PPV) television in 1993, a service
through which customers could order new movies over the telephone for in-home
viewing on their televisions. Although the company was not considering
pay-per-view as a venue for new movie releases, the studio developed
promotional and marketing strategies for its pay-per-view releases. For
example, the company engineered retail tie-ins with the Improve, a comedy club,
for the pay-per-view showings of such comedies as Hot Shots! Part Deaux! and Robin
Hood: Men in Tights. In 1994, Twentieth Century-Fox
Film negotiated a pay-per-view distribution agreement with DirecTV.
Twentieth Century Fox Film also established an
"interactive division" that year. Fox's prior experience with video
games had met with mixed results, as earlier forays in the pre-Nintendo days
fell victim to the video game "crash" of the mid-1980s. Since then,
Fox had typically licensed its film properties to video developers. This
practice slowed, however, as the announcement of the new interactive division
grew closer. One of Twentieth Century Fox Film's first products in this arena
was based on its movie The Pagemaster, an animated adventure
set in a library. The Pagemaster game product was made
available for a variety of platforms, including Sega Genesis, Nintendo Super
Entertainment Systems, and Nintendo Game Boy. The company selected Al Ovadia,
president of licensing and merchandising for the studio, to lead the new
division.
Twentieth Century Fox Film launched another new
enterprise in 1994--an animation unit headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona. Called
Fox Animation Inc., the new unit expected to issue one animated feature every
18 months or so. The studio recruited exceptional talent to lead its animation
division, in particular Don Bluth and Gary Goldman, creators of such animated
hits as An
American Tail and Land before Time.
A year later, Twentieth Century Fox Film created yet
another new division, Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, to distribute
its video and interactive programming products. Bob DeLellis assumed the
presidency of Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment North America, and Jeff
Yapp served as president of the division's international operations.
In 1996 Twentieth Century Fox Film received the largest
film financing in history through Citicorp, a bank holding company. The studio
intended to use the capital for film production and acquisitions. "With
the help of Citicorp," explained Simon Bax, chief financial officer of Fox
Filmed Entertainment, "we were able to put together an innovative film
financing structure on attractive terms. As a major studio and as a part of the
News Corporation, we were able to put in place a mechanism for funding our full
production slate over the next three years, while providing investors with an
attractive return on their investment."
In 1997 Twentieth Century Fox Film's animation unit
released its first feature-length production, providing Disney studios with
stiff competition. Anastasia, the story of the Russian
tsarina thought to have survived the massacre of the Romanovs, received
promotion valued at about $200 million from a variety of sponsors. Pictures of
characters from Anastasia appeared on the packages of
products from Dole Foods, while Hershey manufactured Anastasia-themed
chocolate bars. Other products offered toy coupons or movie ticket orders. Anastasia even
had a float in the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade that year. Mechanic had great
faith in the success of the unit's first feature. "If you said to me I had
to put my job on the line for any movie, I would put it on this one," the
executive told Fortune. Anastasia made in excess of
$58 million at the box office.
Twentieth Century Fox Film distributed Anastasia through
pay-per-view television during the summer of 1998. Service providers were
pleased with the decision, since it attracted a new audience for them. "Anastasia could
be the building block for the distribution of more nontraditional PPV
programming in the future," Jamie McCabe, a vice-president of worldwide
PPV, told Multichannel
News.
In 1998 Twentieth Century Fox Film experienced one of
its greatest successes to date, producing the Oscar-winning disaster picture Titanic. Breaking
all box-office attendance records, the movie opened a merchandising treasure
chest for the studio, which licensed merchandise, such as costumes and life
jackets, to be sold through the catalog firm of J. Peterman. Other licensing
agreements for t-shirts and collectibles followed, as did some unauthorized
material. In fact, Twentieth Century Fox Film initiated litigation against
Suarez Corporation Industries, located in Ohio and doing business as Lindenwold
Fine Jewelers, for marketing a copy of a necklace featured in the movie.
A Hollywood institution, Twentieth Century Fox Film was
likely to produce its share of blockbusters in the future. As technologies
progressed, the company also planned to make its mark on other related areas of
the entertainment industry, including interactive video games and animation.
0 Comments