NewsCorp/21st Century – Fox

Aside

 

by Lina Ortega

21st Century Fox

Image courtesy of: http://new.pentagram.com/2013/05/new-work-21st-century-fox/

 

[Image courtesy of: new.pentagram.com]

www.21cf.com

 Contact information

                                                         21st Century Fox                                                                                                         1211 Avenue of the Americas                                                                                                              44th floor                                                                 New York, NY 10036-8701

Key Executives

Rupert Murdoch

                              Rupert Murdoch: Chairman & Chief Executive Officer                               [Image courtesy of: thenation.com]

President and Chief Operating Officer

                              Chase Carrey: President and Chief Operating Officer                              [Image Courtesy of: stockspinoffs.com]

James Murdoch: Co-Chief Operating Officer

                                    James Murdoch: Co-Chief Operating Officer                                     [Image Courtesy of: mikeangryman.com]

About 21st Century Fox

What was once News Corporation since 1953 [I], is now comprised by “News Corp” and “21st Century Fox.” News Corp consists of a publishing group that includes several newspapers like Wall Street Journal, New York Post and Times of London. 21st Century Fox is a broadcasting and film company that includes the “Fox News channel”, “20th Century movie and television studios”, “Fox sports”, “FX”, “National Geographic” and “FOX broadcast network”. [II] This separation was intended to ensure that both companies were conducted under more a centered management, which makes both companies more valuable.

21st Century Fox is a global media company and was founded in June 28, 2013 [III]. It acquires market from four principal operating segments: 1- Cable network programming, which it’s mostly production and licensing content through cable, telecommunications providers, and broadcast satellite. 2- Television, which operates the company’s 28 full-power broadcast stations. 3- Film Entertainment, the operator of the company’s numerous film and television production studios. 4- Direct Broadcast Satellite Television, which provides programming to international markets. The company also holds a 39% of BSkyB, the British entertainment and communications provider. 21st Century Fox makes its revenue principally on affiliate subscriptions, broadcast  and advertising fees, content licensing and retransmission revenues to maintain the top line [IV]. Fox Broadcasting Company ended the year 2012 at number one in the key adult demographic for the eight consecutive year in America [V].

Financials

The Cable Network Programming segment surpassed $12 billion in revenue for the first time in its history, up 13% over their prior year.                                                             2014 21st Century Fox Annual Report:2014 21st Century Fox Annual Report

What’s Happening Now?

In cable programming, FX Networks has currently 25 successful shows on air [VI].

Photo courtesy of: The Christian Post

Image courtesy of: The Christian Post

American Horror Story is now on the 7th episode of its 4th season “Freak Show” and it is one of the most watched TV series of the FX Networks. The show presents an anthology of different narratives for each new season [VII]. With an 8.4 out of 10 by IMDB, the show went from 2.82 million viewers on its first season to 4.00 million viewers now [VIII].


 

In television, FOX has a great variety of very recognized shows that can range mostly in animation, comedy, and thriller.

Photo courtesy of: forbes.com

Image courtesy of: forbes.com

One of the FOX newest TV shows premiered recently on September 22, 2014 with 8.21 million viewers [IX]. Gotham explores the beginning tales of Commissioner Gordon.  While in the show he is still a detective, he has yet to meet Batman and the villains who made Gotham City so popular [X]. Gotham received two nominations in the TV divisions for the “American Society of Cinematographers 29th annual Outstanding Achievement Awards” . Additionally, the pilot was recognized in the category for a TV movie, miniseries or pilot [XI].


20th Century Fox is one of the most recognized film industries in the world. This year 2014, Fox released 13 feature films with a result of $1,539,266,539 in total gross [XII]. This includes: X-Men: Days of Future Past, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, How to Train your Dragon 2, Gone Girl and Rio 2, as in order of total ranking.

Photo courtesy of: msmagazine.com

Image courtesy of: msmagazine.com

Gone Girl was released in October 3, 2014 and it has a domestic total of $160,757,000 as of today November 30th, plus a $173,400,000 of foreign totals while the production budget was only 61 million. Currently in its 5th week, it is ranked number 8 [XIII]. Gone Girl has received many awards including  the “Hollywood Film Award” at the 2014 Hollywood Film Festival [XIV].

Penguins of Madagascar is an animated comedy distributed by 20th Century Fox and is its newest film on the market, released on November 26, 2014. This film takes the peculiar penguin characters of the previous Madagascar movies, whom must stop a villain doctor from destroying the world [XV]. As of its first weekend it is currently number two with a total gross of $36 million [XVI].

This has been one of the best years for Fox and they are not planning on backing down. On December 5, 2014 The Pyramid will be released. The Pyramid is about an archaeological team ventures to unlock the mysteries of a lost pyramid and instead find themselves hunted by an insidious creature [XVII].


As Europe’s leading entertainment company, Sky has 20 million consumers across five countries: Italy, Germany, Austria, the UK, and Ireland [XVIII].

Photo courtesy of: denofgeek.com

Image courtesy of: denofgeek.com

Penny Dreadful is a psychological thriller that brings together literature’s most terrifying classical characters, like Dr. Frankenstein and Dorian Gray [XIX]. It aired on May 11, 2014, and it won “Most Exciting New Series” at the Critics Choice Television Awards [XX]. Penny Dreadful is coming back with its new season for a 2015 debut on the channel [XXI].


In Other News

Photo courtesy of: The Independent

Image courtesy of: The Independent

Exodus: Gods and Kings has received criticism due to its lack of ethnic diversity, to which Rupert Murdoch decided to respond by tweeting the following: “Moses film attacked on Twitter for all white cast. Since when are Egyptians not white? All I know are.” [XXII]. Murdoch has not received too many good responses about this issue.

Photo courtesy of: realscreen.com

Image courtesy of: realscreen.com

On October 10, 2014, 21st Century Fox and Apollo made an agreement to create a leading company multi-platform content provider each of them owning 50 percent. Now Endemol, Shine Group, and Core Media will be a sole group in over 30 markets including digital, gaming and distribution operations [XXIII].


Up until 2018, Fox has 48 movies, including many sequels as well as prequels that are yet to come [XXIV].


[I] News Corporation Limited History     From 2002. Retrieved November 27, 2014             [II] NewsCorp Divides Into Two Companies     From June 28, 2013. Retrieved November 17, 2014                                                                                                                              [III] 21st Century Fox Company Details     Retrieved November 27, 2014                         [IV] 21st Century Fox Analysis     From November 24, 2014. Retrieved November 27, 2014.                                                                                                                                   [V] Fox Broadcasting Company     Retrieved November 29, 2014.                                        [VI] 21st Century Fox     Retrieved November 27, 2014.                                                       [VII] American Horror Story     Retrieved November 29, 2014                                               [VIII] American Horror Story Numbers     From October 13, 2014. Retrieved November 29, 2014                                                                                                                                   [IX] Monday Final Ratings     From September 23, 2014. Retrieved November 29, 2014     [X] Gotham TV Show     From September 22, 2014. Retrieved November 30, 2014           [XI] ASC Nominations for TV Cinematography     From November 19, 2014. Retrieved November 30, 2014.                                                                                                           [XII] 20th Century Fox Box Office Mojo     From November 23, 2014. Retrieved November 30, 2014.                                                                                                                             [XIII] Box Office Mojo     Retrieved November 30, 2014.                                                       [XIV] Gone Girl Tops Hollywood Film Awards     From November 14, 2014. Retrieved November 30, 2014.                                                                                                           [XV] The Penguins of Madagascar     Retrieved December 1, 2014                                 [XVI] Penguins of Madagascar Box Office Mojo     Retrieved December 1, 2014.               [XVII] The Pyramid     Retrieved November 30, 2014.                                                           [XVIII] Sky     Retrieved November 29, 2014.                                                                         [XIX] Penny Dreadful TV Series     Retrieved November 30, 2014.                                       [XX] Penny Dreadful Awards       Retrieved November 30, 2014.                                    [XXI] Penny Dreadful First Look     From November 21, 2014. Retrieved November 30, 2014.                                                                                                                                   [XXII] Rupert Murdoch’s Response     From November 30, 2014. Retrieved November 30, 2014.                                                                                                                                   [XXIII] 21st Century Fox and Apollo     From October 10, 2014. Retrieved November 29, 2014.                                                                                                                                   [XXIV] New Movie Releases     Retrieved November 30, 2014.

DreamWorks Animation

by Devon Parker
1_dreamworks_animation_logo

[1] The Dreamworks Animation Company Logo

 History

Dreamworks SKG is a motion picture company that was originally founded in 1994 by Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen. However it was not until the fall of 2004 that Dreamworks Animation SKG got its start as a publicly traded company. Katzenberg then moved to become the Chief Executive Officer of Dreamworks Animation. It is now considered a separate company than Dreamworks SKG, producing exclusively high-end animated feature films [2].

Key Executives

CEO

[3] Jeffrey Katzenberg: CEO. Photo Courtesy of Dreamworks Animation

President

[4] Ann Daly: President. Photo Courtesy of Dreamworks animation

VP

[5] Lew Coleman: CFO & Vice Chairmen. Photo Courtesy of Dreamworks Animation

 

Financials 

As the third quarter financial results were finalized and publicly shared at the end of October the company acknowledged their successes. The company reported total revenue for the quarter of $180.9 million, which in comparison to the 2013 third quarter report of $154.5 million was a big accomplishment. “The third quarter of 2014 was strong for DreamWorks Animation, with both quarterly revenue and earnings per share up 17% in a year-over-year comparison,” shared Katzenberg. The CEO attributed this success to the overwhelming success that How to Train Your Dragon 2 brought the company. At the worldwide box office How to Train your Dragon 2 earned over $615 million at the worldwide box office making it the highest-grossing film of 2014. The 2014 fourth quarter results when finalized are expected to be determined by the most recent release of Penguins of Madagascar, which premiered in theaters on November 26, 2014, and the at home release of How to Train your Dragon 2 [6].

In Theaters 

penguins

[7] Courtesy of Dreamworks Animation

Dreamworks Animation’s most recent and only release over the past three months was this past Wednesday, November 26th. Penguins of Madagascar, a spin off of the Madagascar franchise that released in 2005. The group of witty penguins, voiced by Benedict CumberbatchKen Jeong, John Malkovich, and Peter Stormare are on a spy mission in which they must join forces in order to prevent an evil villain from taking over the world [7]. The goal of this animation feature was to draw in the past fans of the franchise as well as attract the family holiday audience around the Thanksgiving release. The animation feature had an okay opening week finishing off second in the box office behind The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1The weekend Box Office Mojo shows its success over just the holiday weekend grossing $25.6 million. [8]. The box office also shows its success over the course of the first five days, with a domestic gross of $36 million and a foreign gross of $65 million, giving the worldwide total of $98.6 million. Unfortunately the gross income of Penguins of Madagascar’s opening did not compare to that of Madagascar‘s opening three day weekend of $60 million, therefore falling short of Dreamworks Animation’s ultimate expectations [9].

Recent Success

[10] How to Train Your Dragon 2 Trailer

How to Train Your Dragon 2 made its last surge in theaters both domestically and globally over Labor Day weekend of 2014. Hiccup, voiced by Jay Baruchel and Toothless’ journey continues. In their adventure to an ice cave that leads to their discovery of new wild dragons the two find themselves trying to keep the peace [11]. It officially crossed the $600,000,000 million mark, “A record-breaking opening in China coupled with phenomenal success in territories around the world have catapulted Dragon 2 to become the highest grossing animated film of the year and one of the top ten grossing films of the year in any genre.” On top of the first two movies success Dreamworks Animation publicly announced that there will a third How to Train Your Dragon 3 to be released in June of 2017. The film will have the same writer, director and producer Dean DeBlois and Bonnie Arnold. As well as some of the same cast, including Jay Baruchel, America Ferrera as Astrid and Cate Blanchett as Valka. [12]

The How to Train Your Dragon franchise has contributed tremendously to the success of the company in the past few years. How to Train Your Dragon 2, single handedly contributed to the majority of success for Dreamworks Animation’s financial third quarter of 2014. “Films generated sales of $142.4 million and segment gross profit of $64.3 million to the third quarter, with “How to Train Your Dragon 2″ contributing $74.2 million in revenue as it continues to play worldwide. [13]” As the year comes to an end Dreamworks Animation can still expect financial benefits from the DVD release around the holidays.

Upcoming Releases

Home Pic

[14] Courtesy of News.Mic

Dreamworks Animation Studios will be releasing a new animation feature currently set for March 27, 2015. A story about an alien race Boov, that invades Earth, while relocating the humans one very “resourceful” girl by the name of Tip teams up with a Boov alien. The two take on the adventure of intergalactic battle and learning what’s really at stake. Tip will be voiced by Rihanna, while her new alien acquaintance Oh will be voiced by Jim Parsons and the leader of Boov, Captain Smek will be voiced by Steve Martin  [15].

The anticipated feature film is one different from any other. Tip, the heroine of Home, marks one of the first black female 3D animated character that any Hollywood studio has ever had. [16] The film was originally to be released during the Thanksgiving holiday slot however it was strategically switched with the release of Penguins of Madagascar. It was thought by the management of Dreamworks Animation that the Madagascar franchise would fare better during the holiday competition while Home would be more successful on its own. “We will continue to be as flexible as necessary when it comes to our release dates,” said Dawn Taubin, chief marketing officer at DreamWorks Animation also adding, “We’re confident that this date switch gives both of our upcoming releases the largest opportunity for success…” [17].

[18] Home trailer

Additions to Netflix

Dreamworks Animation new Netflix series All Hail King Julien will premiere five twenty-two minute episodes on December 19, 2014. The story line takes place before Madagascar however still star the well known cast of Julien, Mort and Maurice, voiced by Danny Jacobs, Andy Ritcher, and Kevin Richardson as well as a new line up characters. All Hail King Julien will have the lemurs taking on the adventures of Madagascar in a very comedic way drawing in a wide viewer audience [19].

All Hail Pic

[20] Courtesy of Dreamworks Animation

The new show joins Dreamworks Turbo FAST, as the studios television line up continues to grow. It is their hope the by the end of 2016 there will be another 10 new animated series on Netflix. Margie Cohn, the head of television for DreamWorks Animation explains that “All Hail King Julien is really a showcase for our talented artists to bring the Netflix audience the great storytelling, compelling characters and fantastic design that is the hallmark of DreamWorks Animation.” [21]

Sources

[1] Dreamworks Animation Logo, auocoms.com/dreamworks-animation-logo, RT: 11/15/14

[2] “Our History”, www.dreamworksstudios.com, RT: 11/15/14

[3] Jeffrey Katzenbergwww.dreamworksanimation.com, RT: 11/12/14

[4] Ann Dalywww.dreamworksanimation.com RT: 11/12/14

[5] Lew Colemanwww.forbes.com, RT: 11/12/14

[6] Dreamworks Finance, ir.dreamworksanimation.com/investor-relations/financial-information/default.aspx, RT: 11/30/14

[7] Penguins of Madagascar, www.dreamworksanimation.com, RT: 11/15/14

[8] Boxoffice Weekend Resultsboxofficemojo.com, RT: 12/1/14

[9] Boxoffice Mojo Weekend Report, boxofficemojo.com, RT: 12/1/14

[10] How to Train Your Dragon 2 Traileryoutube.com, RT: 11/15/14

[11] How to Train Your Dragon 2 SummaryIMDB.com, RT: 11/18/14

[12] “How to Train Your Dragon 2 Crosses $600,000,000″PRNewswire.com, RT: 9/17/14

[13] “‘How to Train Your Dragon 2’ Lifts Dreamworks Animation Earning”Variety.com, RT: 11/20/14

[14] Home PictureNews.mic.com, RT: 11/29/14

[15] Home SummaryIMDB.com, RT: 11/29/14

[16] “Dreamworks Latest Movie…”News.mic.com, RT: 11/29/14

[17] “‘Home,’ ‘Penguins of Madagascar’ Swap Release DatesVariety.com, RT: 11/28/14

[18] Home Trailer, Youtube.com, RT: 11/29/14

[19] “All Hail King Julien”IMDB.com, 11/30/14

[20] “‘All Hail King Julien’ picture”madagascar.dreamworks.com, RT: 11/30/14

[21] “The Wildest Party Ever Hits the Jungle when the Netflix Original Series  ‘All Hail King Julien’ Debuts Dec. 19″, dreamworksanimation.com, RT: 11/30/14