By Derrick Owens

Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation

10201 W Pico Blvd

Los Angeles, CA 90064

http://www.foxmovies.com/

---

Overview

Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation, commonly referred to as 20th Century Fox or Fox, is an international film production and distribution company headquartered in Los Angeles, California. 20th Century Fox is a subsidy of the 21st Century Fox Corporation, which also owns assets in television stations, television broadcast networks, and cable network programming. Fox is a part of the “Big Six” film studios, which includes Columbia, Warner Brothers, Disney, Universal, and Paramount. The “Big Six” serve as Fox’s main competition.  20th Century Fox owns the rights to a number of valuable franchises including, X-Men, Ice Age, Die Hard, and Planet of the Apes. Fox is also known for distributing the two highest grossing films of all-time, Avatar and Titanic, both of which were directed by James Cameron [2].    

Key Executives

 History

The origins of 20th Century Fox began in 1915 when film distributor William Fox established his own film production company after moving out to Los Angeles called Fox Films. In 1935, Twentieth Pictures’ Joseph Schenck and Darryl F. Zanuck left United Artists and merged with Fox Films to create the 20th Century Fox Film Corporation [6].

In 1981, the company was sold to investors Marc Rich and Marvin Davis. They subsequently sold the company to Rupert Murdoch, who merged the company into his own media conglomerate, News Corp, in 1985. News Corp was split into two companies in 2013. There is now the new News Corporation, which contained most of Murdoch’s print media assets, and 21st Century Fox, which specializes in filmed entertainment and is the current parent company of 20th Century Fox [7].

Finances

In the last fiscal year (June 30, 2014 – June 30, 2015), 20th Century Fox put out 25 films into general release domestically and they plan on releasing another 25 in fiscal 2016. Of those 25 planned films, Fox has already released six titles including Fantastic Four, The Martian, and The Peanuts Movie. Fox’s most anticipated movies yet to be released in 2016 include Deadpool, X-Men: Apocalypse, and Independence Day Resurgence [8].  

20th Century Fox produces and distributes its films through a number of internal units:

Twentieth Century Fox and Fox2000 handles films for mainstream audiences.

Fox Searchlight Pictures produces and releases smaller, independent films for specialized audiences.

Twentieth Century Fox Animation produces and distributes feature length-animated films 

Fox International Productions, Inc. co-produces and acquires local-language films for distribution worldwide.

Fox generates money from its films by distributing the films theatrically (domestically and internationally), through home media formats (such as digital distribution), on premium pay and SVOD, and on television and cable networks. Last year, the domestic home entertainment division for Fox released or re-released approximately 1,268 produced and acquired titles [10].

For fiscal 2015, revenues at the Filmed Entertainment segment decreased $154 million, or 2%, as compared to fiscal 2014. Increased production and marketing costs as well as a decrease in home entertainment sales led to the change. 20th Century Fox’s parent company, 21st Century Fox Corporation, has seen their stock dip in the last year. After reaching a high of $37.49 in December of 2014, the stock has fallen to its lower point since January 2012. In September it stood at only $25.41. Even with the drop of its stock prices, 21st Century Fox Corporation saw profit increase by 54% in 2015 compared to the previous year. Profits were at $8.306 billion in 2015 versus $4.514 billion in 2014 [11].   

In Theatres

The Martian 

Directed by Ridley Scott and starring Matt Damon, Jessica Chastain, Kristen Wiig, and Jeff Daniels, The Martian is a science-fiction adventure film produced and distributed by Fox. It was released on October 2, 2015 and posted the second highest October opening weekend of all time with a $54.3 million haul. It has gone on to be Fox’s most successful film of the year thus far bringing in over $217 million domestically and nearly $500 million worldwide. It’s production budget of $108 million means the film will be significantly profitable for the corporation. The film’s box office revenue has the possibility of growing even further as many Oscar analyst predict it will be in the running for best picture, best director, and best actor. The Martian is unique because it is a standalone, original film which has achieved worldwide success [12].

The Maze Runner: Scorched Trials

This sci-fi action-adventure film is a sequel to the 2014 hit Maze Runner. The film opened on nearly the same weekend as its predecessor and opened slightly under expectations. Scorched Trials brought in $30.3 million in its first weekend after opening on September 18, which was down from the 32.5 million opening of Maze Runner.        

The film, based off of the popular novel series, is directed by Wes Ball and stars Dylan O’Brien, Kaya Scodelario, and Thomas Brodie-Sangste. Even though it has only grossed $80.9 million domestically with a $61 million production budget, Scorched Trials has been saved by its international performance. It has grossed over $230 million overseas, which motivated Fox to greenlight the film’s sequel, Maze Runner: The Death Cure, due out in 2017 [13]. 

The Peanuts Movie 

This family animation film was released by Fox as part of their distribution deal with Blue Sky Studios. It was the first feature film in the Peanuts franchise in 35 years. It took over eight years to make, because the family of Charles Schultz, the creator of the comic, wanted the film to done with respect to his original work [14]. The film opened to $44.2 million on the weekend of November 6, playing as counter-programming to Spectre, Although there are still a few major international markets left to open, Peanuts has 92.6% of its revenue coming from domestic totals as of 11/29. The film has been a domestic hit with $116.7 million grossed so far, but international performance may need to increase before the $99 million production can be called profitable [15].

News and Developments

20th Century Fox has three films to be released before the end of 2015. The first film is Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip, which is due out December 18. Fox hopes to continue the success of the franchise, which has banked over $1.1 billion at the box office [16]. The other two films, The Revenant and Joy, are being distributed in limited release on December 25 before going wide in January. These two films are both expected to be major Oscar players and they star Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence respectively [17].

Fox signed an agreement with Oculus VR, making it the first major movie studio to invest in virtual reality as a way of showing their films. Over 100 films from Fox’s library will be released in the virtual reality cinema Oculus Video [18].

Fox International Productions entered into an exclusive first look deal with Paul Heth and Michael Schlicht for Russian-language films. The duo is known for their successes as they have overseen five of the ten highest grossing local language films in the modern Russian film era [19].

Fox announced plans to open its first Fox-branded resort in Dubai featuring rides based off of its most popular films including Titanic, Aliens, Predator, and Ice Age. It will open in 2018 and is planned to cost approximately $850 million [20].

Sources

[1] 20th Century Fox Logo. Fox Movies. Retrieved November 30, 2015

[2] About. Fox Movies. Retrieved November 30, 2015

[3] James N. Gianopulos. 21st Century Fox. Retrieved November 29, 2015

[4]. Stacey Snider. Variety. Retrieved November 30, 2015

[5] From the 1952 film Viva Zapata! Wikipedia. Retrieved November 30, 2015

[[6] About. Fox UK. Retrieved November 29, 2015

[7] Welch, Chris. May 9, 2013. The Verge. 21st Century Fox logo unveiled ahead of News Corp split. Retrieved November 30, 2015  

[8] 21st Century Fox Annual Report 2015. 21st Century Fox. Retrieved November 30, 2015 

[9] Fox Searchlight Logo. Fox Searchlight. Retrieved November 29, 2015

[10] 21st Century Fox Annual Report 2015. 21st Century Fox. Retrieved November 30, 2015 

[11] Twenty-First Century Fox, Inc. Yahoo Finances. Retrieved November 30, 2015

[12] Tartaglione, Nancy. November 24, 2015. Deadline Hollywood. ‘The Martian’ Closing In On $500M Global: How Fox Marketers Brought Ridley Scott’s Cool Science To The Masses. Retrieved November 29, 2015.

[13] Maze Runner: Scorched Trials. Box Office Mojo. Retrieved November 28, 2015.

[14] Smith, Chris. November 1, 2014. The Press Democrat. How the Schulz family made ‘The Peanuts Movie’ a reality. Retrieved November 30, 2015  

[15] The Peanuts Movie. Box Office Mojo. Retrieved November 28, 2015.

[16] Alvin and the Chipmunks. Box Office Mojo. Retrieved November 29, 2015

[17] Cunningham, Todd. September 8, 2015. The Wrap. Fox Fuels Yule Logjam With 3 Christmas Releases. Retrieved November 30, 2015.

[18] Geier, Thom. September 24, 2015. The Wrap. ‘Alien,’ ‘X-Men: Days of Future Past’ Among 100 Fox Movies Coming to Oculus Virtual-Reality Headsets. Retrieved November 29, 2015.

[19] Business Wire. November 18, 2015. Fox International Productions Strikes Strategic Alliance With Paul Heth and Michael Schlicht for Russian-Language Films. Retrieved November 29, 2015

[20] Lang, Brent. November 3, 2015. Variety. Fox Building Theme Park in Dubai With ‘Titanic,’ ‘Aliens’ Attractions. Retrieved November 30, 2015.

[21] Lang, Brent. November 3, 2015. Variety. Fox Building Theme Park in Dubai With ‘Titanic,’ ‘Aliens’ Attractions. Retrieved November 30, 2015.

[22] Oculus Cinema. Oculus VR. Retrieved November 30, 2015.