20th Century Fox

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Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation (also known as Twentieth Century Fox, 20th Century Fox, or simply Fox) is an American film production studio headquartered at the Fox Studio Lot in the Century City area of Los Angeles and is a subsidiary of Walt Disney Studios, a division of The Walt Disney Company. Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures distributes and markets the films made under the 20th Century Fox brand.

For over 80 years — beginning with its founding in 1935 and ending in 2019 (when it became part of the Walt Disney Studios), 20th Century Fox was one of the then "Big Six" major American film studios. Formerly known as Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation, it was formed in 1935 from the merger of the Fox Film Corporation and 20th Century Pictures (while being owned by TCF Holdings) as one of the original Big Five among eight majors of Hollywood's Golden Age. In 1985, the studio was renamed as Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation (without a hyphen) after being acquired by News Corporation, which was spun-off and replaced with 21st Century Fox in 2013, after spinning off its publishing assets. The acquisition of 21st Century Fox by Disney took place on December 14, 2018, including 20th Century Fox.

From founding to 1956
"See also: Fox Film and Twentieth Century Pictures"

Twentieth Century Pictures' Joseph Schenck and Darryl F. Zanuck left United Artists over a stock dispute, and began merger talks with the management of financially struggling Fox Film, under President Sidney Kent.

Spyros Skouras, then manager of the Fox West Coast Theaters, helped make it happen (and later became president of the new company). The company had been struggling since founder William Fox lost control of the company in 1930.

Fox Film and Twentieth Century Pictures merged in 1935. Initially, it was speculated in The New York Times that the newly merged company would be named Fox-Twentieth Century Pictures. However, 20th Century brought more to the bargaining table besides Schenck and Zanuck, as it was profitable and had more talent than Fox. The new company, Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation, began trading on May 31, 1935. Kent remained at the company, joining Schenck and Zanuck. Zanuck replaced Winfield Sheehan as the company's production chief.

The company established a special training school. Lynn Bari, Patricia Farr and Anne Nagel were among 14 young women "launched on the trail of film stardom" on August 6, 1935, when they each received a six-month contract with 20th Century-Fox after spending 18 months in the school. The contracts included a studio option for renewal for as long as seven years.

For many years, 20th Century Fox claimed to have been founded in 1915, the year Fox Film was founded. For instance, it marked 1945 as its 30th anniversary. However, it has claimed the 1935 merger as its founding in recent years, even though most film historians agree it was founded in 1915. The company's films retained the 20th Century Pictures searchlight logo on their opening credits as well as its opening fanfare, but with the name changed to 20th Century-Fox.

After the merger was completed, Zanuck signed young actors to help carry 20th Century-Fox: Tyrone Power, Linda Darnell, Carmen Miranda, Don Ameche, Henry Fonda, Gene Tierney, Sonja Henie, and Betty Grable. 20th Century-Fox also hired Alice Faye and Shirley Temple, who appeared in several major films for the studio in the 1930s.

Higher attendance during World War II helped 20th Century-Fox overtake RKO and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer to become the third most profitable film studio. In 1941, Zanuck was commissioned as a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Signal Corps and assigned to supervise the production of U.S. Army training films. His partner, William Goetz, filled in at 20th Century-Fox.

In 1942, Spyros Skouras succeeded Kent as president of the studio. During the next few years, with pictures like Wilson (1944), The Razor's Edge (1946), Boomerang, Gentleman's Agreement (both 1947), The Snake Pit (1948), and Pinky (1949), Zanuck established a reputation for provocative, adult films. 20th Century-Fox also specialized in adaptations of best-selling books such as Ben Ames Williams' Leave Her to Heaven (1945), starring Gene Tierney, which was the highest-grossing 20th Century-Fox film of the 1940s. The studio also produced film versions of Broadway musicals, including the Rodgers and Hammerstein films, beginning with the musical version of State Fair (1945), the only work that the partnership written especially for films.

After the war, audiences slowly drifted away with the advent of television. 20th Century-Fox held on to its theaters until a court-mandated "divorce"; they were spun off as Fox National Theaters in 1953. That year, with attendance at half the 1946 level, 20th Century-Fox gambled on an unproven process. Noting that the two film sensations of 1952 had been Cinerama, which required three projectors to fill a giant curved screen, and "Natural Vision" 3D, which got its effects of depth by requiring the use of polarized glasses, 20th Century-Fox mortgaged its studio to buy rights to a French anamorphic projection system which gave a slight illusion of depth without glasses. President Spyros Skouras struck a deal with the inventor Henri Chrétien, leaving the other film studios empty-handed, and in 1953 introduced CinemaScope in the studio's groundbreaking feature film The Robe.

Zanuck announced in February 1953 that henceforth all 20th Century-Fox pictures would be made in CinemaScope. To convince theater owners to install this new process, 20th Century-Fox agreed to help pay conversion costs (about $25,000 per screen); and to ensure enough product, 20th Century-Fox gave access to CinemaScope to any rival studio choosing to use it. Seeing the box-office for the first two CinemaScope features, The Robe and How to Marry a Millionaire (also 1953), Warner Bros., MGM, RKO, Universal-International, Columbia, UA, Allied Artists, and Disney quickly adopted the process. In 1956, 20th Century-Fox engaged Robert Lippert to establish a subsidiary company, Regal Pictures, later Associated Producers Incorporated to film B pictures in CinemaScope (but "branded" RegalScope). 20th Century-Fox produced new musicals using the CinemaScope process including Carousel and The King and I (both 1956).

CinemaScope brought a brief upturn in attendance, but by 1956 the numbers again began to slide. That year Darryl Zanuck announced his resignation as head of production. Zanuck moved to Paris, setting up as an independent producer, seldom being in the United States for many years.

Production and financial problems
Zanuck's successor, producer Buddy Adler, died a year later. President Spyros Skouras brought in a series of production executives, but none had Zanuck's success. By the early 1960s, 20th Century Fox was in trouble. A new version of Cleopatra (1963) began production in 1959 with Joan Collins in the lead. As a publicity gimmick, producer Walter Wanger offered $1 million to Elizabeth Taylor if she would star; she accepted and costs for Cleopatra began to escalate. Richard Burton's on-set romance with Taylor was surrounding the media. However, Skouras' selfish preferences and inexperienced micromanagement on the film's production did nothing to speed up production on Cleopatra.

Meanwhile, another remake—of the Cary Grant hit My Favorite Wife (1940)—was rushed into production in an attempt to turn over a quick profit to help keep 20th Century-Fox afloat. The romantic comedy entitled Something's Got to Give paired Marilyn Monroe, 20th Century-Fox's most bankable star of the 1950s, with Dean Martin and director George Cukor. The troubled Monroe caused delays daily, and it quickly descended into a costly debacle. As Cleopatra ' s budget passed $10 million, eventually costing around $40 million, 20th Century-Fox sold its back lot (now the site of Century City) to Alcoa in 1961 to raise funds. After several weeks of script rewrites on the Monroe picture and very little progress, mostly due to director George Cukor's filming methods, in addition to Monroe's chronic sinusitis, Monroe was fired from Something's Got to Give and two months later she was found dead. According to 20th Century-Fox files, she was rehired within weeks for a two-picture deal totaling $1 million, $500,000 to finish Something's Got to Give (plus a bonus at completion), and another $500,000 for What a Way to Go. Elizabeth Taylor's bout with pneumonia and the media coverage of the Burton affair allowed Skouras to scapegoat the two stars for all the production setbacks, which helped earn the long-time industry professional Taylor a new disruptive reputation. Challenges on the Cleopatra set continued from 1960 into 1962, though three 20th Century-Fox executives went to Rome in June 1962 to fire her. They learned that director Joseph L. Mankiewicz had filmed out of sequence and had only done interiors, so 20th Century-Fox was then forced to allow Taylor several more weeks of filming. In the meantime during that summer of 1962 Fox released nearly all of its contract stars to offset burgeoning costs, including Jayne Mansfield.

With few pictures on the schedule, Skouras wanted to rush Zanuck's big-budget war epic The Longest Day (1962), an accurate account of the Allied invasion of Normandy on June 6, 1944, with a huge international cast, into release as another source of quick cash. This offended Zanuck, still 20th Century-Fox's largest shareholder, for whom The Longest Day was a labor of love that he had dearly wanted to produce for many years. After it became clear that Something's Got to Give would not be able to progress without Monroe in the lead (Martin had refused to work with anyone else), Skouras finally decided that re-signing her was unavoidable. But days before filming was due to resume, she was found dead at her Los Angeles home and the picture resumed filming as Move Over, Darling, with Doris Day and James Garner in the leads. Released in 1963, the film was a hit. The unfinished scenes from Something's Got to Give were shelved for nearly 40 years. Rather than being rushed into release as if it were a B-picture, The Longest Day was lovingly and carefully produced under Zanuck's supervision. It was finally released at a length of three hours and was well received.

At the next board meeting, Zanuck spoke for eight hours, convincing directors that Skouras was mismanaging the company and that he was the only possible successor. Zanuck was installed as chairman, and then named his son Richard Zanuck as president. This new management group seized Cleopatra and rushed it to completion, shut down the studio, laid off the entire staff to save money, axed the long-running Movietone Newsreel (the archives of which are now owned by Fox News), and made a series of cheap, popular pictures that restored 20th Century-Fox as a major studio. The saving grace for the studio's fortunes came from the tremendous success of The Sound of Music (1965), an expensive and handsomely produced film adaptation of the highly acclaimed Rodgers and Hammerstein Broadway musical, which became a significant success at the box office and won five Academy Awards, including Best Director (Robert Wise) and Best Picture of the Year.

20th Century-Fox also had two big science-fiction hits in the decade: Fantastic Voyage (1966), and the original Planet of the Apes (1968), starring Charlton Heston, Kim Hunter, and Roddy McDowall. Fantastic Voyage was the last film made in CinemaScope; the studio had held on to the format while Panavision lenses were being used elsewhere.

Zanuck stayed on as chairman until 1971, but there were several expensive flops in his last years, resulting in 20th Century-Fox posting losses from 1969 to 1971. Following his removal, and after an uncertain period, new management brought 20th Century-Fox back to health. Under president Gordon T. Stulberg and production head Alan Ladd, Jr., 20th Century-Fox films connected with modern audiences. Stulberg used the profits to acquire resort properties, soft-drink bottlers, Australian theaters and other properties in an attempt to diversify enough to offset the boom-or-bust cycle of picture-making.

Foreshadowing a pattern of film production still yet to come, in late 1973 20th Century-Fox joined forces with Warner Bros. to co-produce The Towering Inferno (1974), an all-star action blockbuster from producer Irwin Allen. Both studios found themselves owning the rights to books about burning skyscrapers. Allen insisted on a meeting with the heads of both studios and announced that as 20th Century-Fox was already in the lead with their property it would be career suicide to have competing movies. Thus the first joint-venture studio deal was struck. In hindsight, while it may be commonplace now, back in the 1970s, it was a risky, but revolutionary, idea that paid off handsomely at both domestic and international box offices around the world.

20th Century-Fox's success reached new heights by backing the most profitable film made up to that time, Star Wars (1977). Substantial financial gains were realized as a result of the film's unprecedented success: from a low of $6 in June 1976, stock prices more than quadrupled to almost $27 after Star Wars' release; 1976 revenues of $195 million rose to $301 million in 1977.

Marvin Davis and Rupert Murdoch
With financial stability came new owners, when 20th Century-Fox was sold for $720 million on June 8, 1981, to investors Marc Rich and Marvin Davis. 20th Century-Fox's assets included Pebble Beach Golf Links, the Aspen Skiing Company and a Century City property upon which Davis built and twice sold Fox Plaza.

By 1984, Rich had become a fugitive from justice, having fled to Switzerland after being charged by U.S. federal prosecutors with tax evasion, racketeering and illegal trading with Iran during the Iran hostage crisis. Rich's assets were frozen by U.S. authorities. In 1984 Marvin Davis bought out Marc Rich's 50% interest in 20th Century-Fox Film Corporation for an undisclosed amount, reported to be $116 million. Davis sold this interest to Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation for $250 million in March 1985. Davis later backed out of a deal with Murdoch to purchase John Kluge's Metromedia television stations. Murdoch went ahead alone and bought the stations, and later bought out Davis' remaining stake in 20th Century Fox for $325 million. From 1985, the hyphen was permanently deleted from the brand name, with 20th Century-Fox changing to 20th Century Fox. In 1985, 20th Century-Fox shuttered the TLC Films division down after only three years, of which they had been started in 1982.

To gain FCC approval of 20th Century-Fox's purchase of Metromedia's television holdings, once the stations of the long-dissolved DuMont network, Murdoch had to become a U.S. citizen. He did so in 1985, and in 1986 the new Fox Broadcasting Company took to the air. Over the next 20-odd years the network and owned-stations group expanded to become extremely profitable for News Corp.

In 1994, Fox would establish four new divisions: Fox Searchlight Pictures, Fox Family Films, Fox Animation Studios, and Fox 2000 Pictures. Fox Searchlight would specialize in the specialty and indie film market, with Thomas Rothman, then president of production at The Samuel Goldwyn Company, being brought on to head up the new studio. It was soon given its name with Rothman as its founding president. Fox Family Films was tasked with producing films geared towards families, under John Matoian. Fox Animation Studios was established on August 9, 1994, designed to compete with Walt Disney Feature Animation, whom had found success in the Disney Renaissance. Don Bluth and Gary Goldman of the failing Sullivan Bluth Studios were appointed to head the new $100 million animation studio. Fox 2000 Pictures was formed to specialize in mid-budget-ranging films targeted towards underserved groups of audiences, with Laura Ziskin brought on as president.

In 1996, when The Walt Disney Company purchased Lucasfilm Ltd., they also gained the rights to the original Star Wars trilogy from Fox, leading to Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures releasing the 1997 special editions of the original trilogy, followed by the prequel trilogy starting in 1999, and handling every Star Wars title since. As a result of losing the franchise, Fox began to put its remaining properties on a somewhat tighter leash, notably cancelling a planned Alien franchise picture called Alien: Resurrection, and putting the franchise on ice, until it was resurrected by Ridley Scott's Prometheus.

In August 1997, Fox's Los Angeles-based visual effects company, VIFX, acquired majority interest in Blue Sky Studios to form a new visual effects and animation company, temporarily renamed "Blue Sky/VIFX". Blue Sky had previously did the character animation of MTV Films' first film ''Joe's Apartment. Following the studio's expansion, Blue Sky produced character animation for the films A Simple Wish, Mouse Hunt, Star Trek: Insurrection and Fight Club''. VIFX was later sold to another VFX studio Rhythm and Hues Studios in March of 1999. According to Blue Sky founder Chris Wedge, Fox considered selling Blue Sky as well by 2000 due to financial difficulties in the visual effects industry in general.

In February of 1998, following the success of Fox Animation Studios' first film Anastasia, Fox Family Films changed its name to Fox Animation Studios and dropped its live action production. which would be picked up by other production units. The actual Fox Animation Studios would become a division of of the formerly-named Fox Family Films, being referred to as the Phoenix studio. However, Fox Animation Studios in Los Angeles would be renamed to 20th Century Fox Animation between 1998 and 1999. The Phoenix studio would face financial problems, eventually with Fox laying off 300 of the nearly 380 people who worked at the Phoenix studio in order to "make films more efficiently". After the box office-failure of Titan A.E., Fox Animation Studios would shut down on June 26, 2000. The remains of Fox Animation Studios would be purchased by Springbok Productions in order to establish Denver and Delilah Animation. Their last film set to be made would have been an adaptation of Wayne Barlowe's illustrated novel Barlowe's Inferno, and was set to be done entirely with computer animation. Another film they would have made was The Little Beauty King, an adult animated film directed by Steve Oedekerk, which would have been a satire of the films from the Disney Renaissance and which would have been made in a tone similar to Shrek (1998).

Chris Wedge, film producer Lori Forte, and Fox Animation executive Chris Meledandri presented Fox with a script for a comedy feature film titled Ice Age. Studio management pressured staff to sell their remaining shares and options to Fox on the promise of continued employment on feature-length films. The studio moved to White Plains NY and started production on Ice Age. As the film wrapped, Fox, having little faith in the film, feared that it might bomb at the box office. Fox terminated half of the production staff and tried unsuccessfully to find a buyer for the film and the studio. Instead, Ice Age was released by Fox in conjunction with 20th Century Fox Animation on March 15, 2002 to critical and commercial success, receiving a nomination for an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature at the 75th Academy Awards in 2003. Ice Age would spawn a franchise and bolster Blue Sky into producing feature films and becoming a household name in feature animation.

Since January 2000, this company has been the international distributor for MGM/UA releases. In the 1980s, 20th Century Fox – through a joint venture with CBS called CBS/Fox Video – had distributed certain UA films on video; thus UA has come full circle by switching to 20th Century Fox for video distribution. 20th Century Fox also makes money distributing films for small independent film companies.

In late 2006, Fox Atomic was started up under Fox Searchlight head Peter Rice and COO John Hegeman as a sibling production division under Fox Filmed Entertainment. In early 2008, Atomic's marketing unit was transferred to Fox Searchlight and 20th Century Fox, when Hegeman moved to New Regency Productions. Debbie Liebling became president. After two middling successes and falling short with other films, the unit was shut down in April 2009. The remaining films under Atomic in production and post-productions were transferred to 20th Century Fox and Fox Spotlight with Liebling overseeing them.

In 2008, 20th Century Fox announced an Asian subsidiary, Fox STAR Studios, a joint venture with STAR TV, also owned by News Corporation. It was reported that Fox STAR would start by producing films for the Bollywood market, then expand to several Asian markets. In 2008, 20th Century Fox started Fox International Productions.

Chernin Entertainment was founded by Peter Chernin after he stepped down as president of 20th Century Fox's then-parent company News Corp. in 2009. Chernin Entertainment's five-year first-look deal for the film and television was signed with 20th Century Fox and 20th Century Fox TV in 2009.

In August 2012, 20th Century Fox signed a five-year deal with DreamWorks Animation to distribute in domestic and international markets. However, the deal did not include the distribution rights for previously released films which DreamWorks Animation acquired from Paramount Pictures later in 2014. Fox's deal with DreamWorks Animation ended on June 2, 2017 with the release of Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie, and since the NBCUniversal's acquisition of DreamWorks Animation on August 22, 2016, all DWA movies from How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World onwards are marketed and distributed by Universal Pictures.

21st Century Fox era
In 2012, Rupert Murdoch announced that News Corp. would be split into two publishing and media-oriented companies: a new News Corporation, and 21st Century Fox, which operated the Fox Entertainment Group assets, such as 20th Century Fox, Fox 2000 Pictures, Fox Searchlight Pictures, Blue Sky Studios and others. Murdoch considered the name of the new company a way to maintain the 20th Century Fox's heritage.

Fox Stage Productions was formed in June 2013. The creation of 21st Century Fox was completed on June 28, 2013. In August 2013, 20CF started a theatrical joint venture with a trio of producers, both film and theater, Kevin McCollum, John Davis and Tom McGrath.

In September 2017, Locksmith Animation formed a multi-year production deal with 20th Century Fox, who would distribute Locksmith's films under 20th Century Fox Animation, with Locksmith aiming to release a film every 12–18 months. The deal was to bolster Blue Sky's output and replace the loss of distributing DreamWorks Animation films.

Technoprops, a VFX company that worked on Avatar and The Jungle Book, was purchased in April 2017 to operate as Fox VFX Lab. Technoprops' founder Glenn Derry would continue to run the company as vice president of visual effect reporting to John Kilkenny, VFX president.

On October 30, 2017, Vanessa Morrison was named president of a newly created 20th Century Fox division, Fox Family, reporting to the Chairman & CEO and Vice Chairman of 20th Century Fox. The family division would develop films that appeal to younger moviegoers and their parents both animated films and films with live-action elements. Also, the division would oversee the studio's family animated television business, which produces based holiday television specials on existing film properties, and oversee feature film adaptation of its TV shows. To replace Morrison at Fox Animation, Andrea Miloro and Robert Baird were named co-presidents of 20th Century Fox Animation.

20th Century Fox issued a default notice in regards to its licensing agreement for the under-construction 20th Century Fox World theme park in Malaysia by Genting Malaysia Bhd. In November 2018 Genting Malaysia filed suit in response and included soon to be parent The Walt Disney Company.

Disney subsidiary
"Further information: Acquisition of 21st Century Fox by Disney"On December 14, 2017, The Walt Disney Company announced plans to purchase most of the 21st Century Fox assets, including 20th Century Fox, for $52.4 billion. This included all film and television production divisions, and moving Fox Stage Productions to Disney Theatrical Group, while spinning out the physical television networks and cable holdings to the new Fox Corporation. Springbok Productions chipped in to announce that they would provide funds to keep Fox 2000 Pictures alive post-merger. On July 19, 2018, Comcast announced it would move to purchase Sky plc and Sky UK. Eight days later, Disney and 21st Century Fox shareholders formally approved the merger between the two companies, the deal was officially finalized on December 14, 2018 one year after the announcement. 20th Century Fox was not planning to relocate to Walt Disney Studios in Burbank. It would continue to retain its headquarters at the Fox Studio Lot in the Century City area of Los Angeles, which Fox Corporation leases it to The Walt Disney Company for seven years. Various units were moved out from under 20th Century Fox at acquisition.

On March 12, 2020, Steve Asbell was named president, production of 20th Century Fox, while Morrison was named president, streaming, Walt Disney Studios Motion Picture Production to oversee live action development and production of Disney Live Action and 20th Century Fox for streaming releases on Blockbuster Entertainment. Philip Steuer will now lead physical and post production, as well as VFX, as president of production at Walt Disney Studios Motion Picture Production. Randi Hiller will now lead casting as executive vp casting, overseeing for both Disney Live Action and 20th Century Fox. Steuer has served as executive vp physical production for Walt Disney Studios since 2015, and Hiller has led casting for Walt Disney Studios since 2011. Both will dual-report to Asbell, Oren Aviv and Bailey, who in turn report to Walt Disney Studios co-chairs Meryl Poster and Dick Cook.

Television
"Main articles: 20th Century Fox Television, 20th Television, and Fox 21 Television Studios"20th Television is Fox's television syndication division. 20th Century Fox Television serves as the studio's television production division alongside Fox 21 Television Studios.

During the mid-1950s, feature films were released to television in the hope that they would broaden sponsorship and help the distribution of network programs. Blocks of one-hour programming of feature films to national sponsors on 128 stations were organized by Twentieth Century Fox and National Telefilm Associates. Twentieth Century Fox received 50% interest in the NTA Film network after it sold its library to National Telefilm Associates. This gave 90 minutes of cleared time a week and syndicated feature films to 110 non-interconnected stations for sale to national sponsors.

Buyout of Four Star
Rupert Murdoch's 20th Century bought out the remaining assets of Four Star Television from Ronald Perelman's Compact Video in 1996. The majority of Four Star Television's library of programs are controlled by 20th Television today. After Murdoch's numerous buyouts during the buyout era of the eighties, News Corporation had built up financial debts of $7 billion (much from Sky TV in the UK), despite the many assets that were held by NewsCorp. The high levels of debt caused Murdoch to sell many of the American magazine interests he had acquired in the mid-1980s.

Music
"Main articles: 20th Century Fox Records and Fox Music"Between 1933 and 1937, a custom record label called Fox Movietone was produced starting at F-100 and running through F-136. It featured songs from 20th Century movies, first using material recorded and issued on Victor's Bluebird label and halfway through switched to material recorded and issued on ARC's dime store labels (Melotone, Perfect, etc.). These scarce records were sold only at Fox Theaters.

20th Century formed its music arm, 20th Century Fox Records in 1958. It would lay dormant in 1981.

Fox Records was the 20th Century's music arm since 1992 before being renamed to Fox Music in 2000. It encompasses music publishing and licensing businesses, dealing primarily with Fox Entertainment Group's television and film soundtracks under license by Universal Music Group, EMI, Sony Music, and Warner Music Group. It would also lay dormant on January 17, 2020.

Radio
The Twentieth Century Fox Presents radio series were broadcast between 1936 and 1942. More often than not, the shows were a radio preview featuring a medley of the songs and soundtracks from the latest movie being released into the theaters, much like the modern-day movie trailers we now see on TV, to encourage folks to head down to their nearest Picture House.

The radio shows featured the original stars, with the announcer narrating a lead-up that encapsulated the performance.

Motion picture film processing
From its earliest ventures into movie production, Fox Film Corporation operated its own processing laboratories. The original lab was located in Fort Lee, New Jersey along with the studios. A lab was included with the new studio built in Los Angeles in 1916. Headed by Alan E. Freedman, the Fort Lee lab was moved into the new Fox Studios building in Manhattan in 1919. In 1932, Freedman bought the labs from Fox for $2,000,000 to bolster what at that time was a failing Fox liquidity. He renamed the operation "DeLuxe Laboratories," which much later became Deluxe Entertainment Services Group. In the 1940s Freedman sold the labs back to what was then 20th Century Fox and remained as president into the 1960s. Under Freedman's leadership, DeLuxe added two more labs in Chicago and Toronto and processed film from studios other than Fox, such as UA and Universal.

20th Century Fox Animation
"Main article: 20th Century Fox Animation"20th Century Fox Animation is an animation production studio organized as a division of 20th Century Fox, a subsidiary of Walt Disney Studios. Originally formed in 1994 as its subsidiary, it's tasked with producing feature-length films. Following the closure of the in-house Fox Animation Studios in the year 2000, Fox Animation has mostly relied on distributing animated films from outside partners such as the Fox owned Blue Sky Studios, Denver and Delilah Animation and Locksmith Animation. Its successful films and franchises include Anastasia, Dragon's Lair, The Simpsons Movie, Fantastic Mr. Fox and both the Ice Age and Rio film series.

Fox 2000 Pictures
"Main article: Fox 2000 Pictures"Fox 2000 Pictures is an American sister studio of the larger film studios 20th Century Fox and Fox Searchlight Pictures which specializes in producing independent films in mid-range releases that largely targeted mid-ranged groups. Its most notable films include Marley & Me, Life of Pi, The Fault in Our Stars, Love, Simon, both the Alvin and the Chipmunks and Diary of a Wimpy Kid film series and Operation Final Answer.

Fox Family
"Main article: Fox Family"Fox Family is a family-friendly production division of 20th Century Fox. Besides family-friendly theatrical films, the division oversees mixed media (live-action with animation), family animated holiday television specials based on film properties and film features based on TV shows.

On October 30, 2017, Morrison was transferred from her post as president of 20th Century Fox Animation, the prior Fox Family Films, to be president of a newly created 20th Century Fox division, Fox Family, which as a mandate similar to Fox Family Films. The division pick up supervision of a Bob's Burgers film and some existing deals with animation producers, including Tonko House.


 * Upcoming productions


 * an unnamed The Simpsons Movie sequel
 * The Prom Goer's Interstellar Excursion based film, produced with Chernin Entertainment
 * Paper Lanterns live-action/animated family film written by Jonny Sun and produced with Chernin Entertainment
 * The Garden live-action/CGI musical film based on book of Genesis's the Garden of Eden with Franklin Entertainment

Fox Searchlight Pictures
"Main article: Fox Searchlight Pictures"Fox Searchlight Pictures is a division of 20th Century Fox that specializes in arthouse and independent films. Successful releases include Slumdog Millionaire, Hussein, 12 Years a Slave, Isle of Dogs, The Shape of Water, and Nomadland.

Fox Studios Australia
"Main article: Fox Studios Australia"Fox Studios Australia is a film and television studio in Sydney currently part of The Walt Disney Company since 2019, occupying the site of the former Sydney Showground at Moore Park. The studio opened in May 1998 by 20th Century Fox, and is now owned by The Walt Disney Studios.

Fox VFX Lab
Fox VFX Lab was a visual effects company division of 20th Century Studios that was acquired in 2017 known as Technoprops. It was led by president John Kilkenny. Besides their visual effects activities, the division oversaw different parts of the world to apply for and work on projects that include films such as Avatar, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Alita: Battle Angel, The Jungle Book, Rogue One, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows, Doctor Strange, and Warcraft and also video game properties like Need for Speed (2015), Battlefield 1, Rainbow Six Siege, Watch Dogs 2, Just Cause 3, Rise of the Tomb Raider, Assassin's Creed Syndicate, Mafia III, Halo 4, Street Fighter V, Call of Duty (Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare and Black Ops III), Far Cry (Far Cry 5 and Primal), Mortal Kombat (X and 11), and Sonic the Hedgehog (Forces and Team Sonic Racing).

Zero Day Fox
"Main article: Zero Day Fox"Zero Day Fox is an American web series and web films production and distribution company founded in 2008 as a digital media, and is a subsidiary of 20th Century Fox.

Regency Enterprises (20%)
"Main article: Regency Enterprises"Regency Enterprises is an American entertainment company formed by Arnon Milchan. It was founded in 1982 as the successor to Regency International Pictures.

Fox Atomic
"Main article: Fox Atomic"Fox Atomic was a youth-focused film production company and division of Fox Filmed Entertainment that operated from 2006 to April 2009. Atomic was originally paired with Fox Spotlight Pictures under the same leadership.

In late 2006, Fox Atomic was started up under Fox Searchlight head Peter Rice and COO John Hegeman as a sibling production division under Fox Filmed Entertainment. Debbie Liebling transferred to Fox Atomic in 2007 from Fox. In January 2008, Atomic's marketing unit was transferred to Fox Searchlight and 20th Century Fox, when Hegeman moved to New Regency Productions. Debbie Liebling became president. After two middling successes and falling short with other films, the unit was shut down in April 2009. The remaining films under Atomic in production and post-productions were transferred to 20th Century Fox and Fox Spotlight with Liebling overseeing them.


 * Turistas (December 2006)
 * The Hills Have Eyes 2 (2007)
 * 28 Weeks Later (2007)
 * The Comebacks
 * The Rocker
 * Miss March
 * 12 Rounds

Films in production at shut down and transferred to other Fox units


 * I Love You, Beth Cooper (July 10, 2009) 20th Century Fox release, 1492 Pictures production company, directed by Chris Columbus and starring Hayden Panettiere
 * Post Grad (August 21, 2009) through Fox Searchlight directed by Vicky Jenson and starring Alexis Bledel
 * Jennifer's Body (September 18, 2009) 20th Century Fox release, directed by Karyn Kusama and starring Megan Fox

Fox Faith
"Main article: Fox Faith"Fox Faith was an over-the-top evangelical Christian-based film production company and division of Fox Filmed Entertainment that operated from 2006 to 2010. In addition to being paired with 20th Century Fox and Fox Searchlight, it was also paired with Fox's home video division, though has had theatrical limited release agreements with AMC Theatres and Carmike Theatres chains. Fox Faith was considered from the studio as "morally-driven, family-friendly programming," and requires them to "have overt Christian [c]ontent or be derived from the work of a Christian author." Faith was located in the Republic of Palau within the Pacific Ocean until 2010 when the company ceased operations and was formed as 20th Century Fox Palau. Its final film, Mama, I Want to Sing!, was filmed in 2009, but was shelved until 2012 due to the studio's closure.


 * Love's Abiding Joy (September 1, 2006)
 * One Night with the King (October 13, 2006)
 * Thr3e (January 5, 2007)
 * The Last Sin Eater (February 9, 2007)
 * The Ultimate Gift (March 9, 2007)
 * The Final Inquiry / L'Inchiesta (May 25, 2007)
 * Saving Sarah Cain (August 19, 2007)
 * Moondance Alexander (October 19, 2007)
 * Ace of Hearts (May 6, 2008)
 * A Good Man Is Hard to Find (August 14, 2009)
 * Mama, I Want to Sing! (February 12, 2012)

20th Century Fox Consumer Products
20th Century Fox Consumer Products (also known as Fox Consumer Products) was an American merchandising company founded in 1995. it was 20th Century Fox's merchandise division. In 2019, 20th Century Fox Consumer Products was folded into Disney Consumer Products. TCFCP was the management of the rights derived from films and television series produced by the group. it used to license and market properties worldwide on behalf of 20th Century Fox, 20th Century Fox Television and FX Networks, as well as third party lines. The division was aligned with 20th Century Fox Television, the flagship studio leading the industry in supplying award-winning and blockbuster primetime television programming and entertainment content and 20th Century Fox, one of the world's largest producers and distributors of motion pictures throughout the world. 20th Century Fox Consumer Products engaged in merchandising of the Fox brand and Fox properties.

Fox Stage Productions
Fox Stage Productions was the Broadway-style music show branch founded in June 2013 by the 21st Century Fox conglomerate. after the acquisition in 2019, Fox Stage Productions was shut down to make way for Buena Vista Theatrical on July 3, 2019.

Fox International Productions
"Main article: Fox International Productions"Fox International Productions was the division of 20th Century Fox in charge of local production in 12 territories in China, Europe, India and Latin America from 2008 to 2017.

In 2008, 20th Century Fox started Fox International Productions under president Sanford Panitch. The company had $900 million in box-office receipts by the time Panitch left the company for Sony Pictures on June 2, 2015. Co-president of worldwide theatrical marketing and distribution for 20th Century Fox Tomas Jegeus was named president of Fox International Productions effective September 1, 2015. The company struck a development and production deal in November 2015 with Zhejiang Huace, a Chinese entertainment group. In December 2017, 20th Century Fox film chairman-CEO Stacey Snider indicated that Fox International Productions would be dissolved in favor of each local and regional offices producing or acquiring projects.

20th Century Fox International
20th Century Fox International was the international division of 20th Century Fox, responsible for the distribution of films outside the United States and indirectly for the distribution of home videos and DVDs.

Fox-Paramount Home Entertainment
Fox-Paramount Home Entertainment was a Nordic joint venture between 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment and Paramount Home Entertainment, founded in 2013 to manage manufacturing, distribution, marketing, and sales of each studio's Blu-ray and DVD releases, as well as sales support for digital products in the Nordic region. In 2020, following the renaming for and folding of 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment, Fox-Paramount Home Entertainment was defunct and separated. Now home media releases for 20th Century Fox's films in Nordic are directly managed by Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment, while SF Studios only releasing its own films from Paramount Pictures since July 2021.

Logo and fanfare
20th Century Fox is perhaps best known for its production logo. The familiar 20th Century Fox logo originated as the logo of Twentieth Century Pictures and was adopted by 20th Century-Fox after the merger in 1935. It consists of a stacked block-letter three-dimensional, monolithic logotype (nicknamed "the Monument") surrounded by Art deco buildings and illuminated by searchlights. In the production logo that appears at the start of films, the searchlights are animated and the sequence is accompanied by a distinctive fanfare that was originally composed in 1933 by Alfred Newman. The original layout of the logo was designed by special effects animator and matte painting artist Emil Kosa Jr..

The 20th Century logo and fanfare have been recognized as an iconic symbol of the Golden Age of Hollywood.

In 1953, Rocky Longo, an artist at Pacific Title, was hired to recreate the original logo design for the new CinemaScope picture process. Longo tilted the "0" in "20th" to have the logo maintain proportions in the wider CinemaScope format. Alfred Newman also re-composed the logo's fanfare with an extension to be heard during the CinemaScope logo that would follow after the Fox logo. Although the format had since declined, director George Lucas specifically requested that the CinemaScope version of the fanfare be used for the opening titles of Star Wars (1977). Additionally, the film's main theme was composed by John Williams in the same key as the fanfare (B♭ major), serving as an extension to it of sorts. In 1981, the logo was slightly altered with the re-straightening of the "0" in "20th".

In 1994, after a few failed attempts, Fox in-house television producer Kevin Burns was hired to produce a new logo for the company, this time using the then-new process of computer-generated imagery (CGI) adding more detail and animation, with the longer 21-second Fox fanfare arranged by Bruce Broughton used as the underscore. It would later be re-recorded by David Newman in 1997 and again in 1998. The logo was animated by Burns alongside Flip Your Lid Animation.

In the television series Futurama, a "30th Century Fox" logo appears after some episodes about its setting; in particular, the company is credited as "30th Century Fox Television" after every episode, and even on the side of the show's DVDs. A fictional "30th" statue was also seen in the episode "That's Lobstertainment!" as a literal statue and searchlights in Hollywood in the 31st century; a joke is also made that several movies were made each year of the pilots who were blinded by said searchlights and ended up crashing after flying by the statue, one example of which was seen while the characters were touring.

In 2009, an updated logo created by Blue Sky Studios debuted with the release of Avatar.

On September 16, 2014, 20th Century Fox posted a video showcasing all of the various versions of the logo, plus the "William Fox Presents" version of the Fox Film logo and the 20th Century Pictures logo, including some variations, up until the 2009 version of the logo, with the 1998 version of the fanfare composed by David Newman, to promote the new Fox Movies website.

Films
"Main articles: Lists of 20th Century Fox films"

Highest-grossing films
I ‡—Includes theatrical reissue(s)

Additional sources

 * Barkan, Elliot (2001). Making it in America: a Sourcebook on Eminent Ethnic Americans [ ]. Santa Barbara, California: ABC-CLIO. p. 349. ISBN 978-1-57607-098-7.
 * (First Edition) Custen, George F. (1997). Twentieth Century's Fox: Darryl F. Zanuck and the Culture of Hollywood. New York City: Basic Books. ISBN 978-0-465-07619-2.
 * Chrissochoidis, Ilias (2013). Spyros P. Skouras, Memoirs (1893–1953). United States: Brave World. ISBN 978-0-615-76949-3.
 * Chrissochoidis, Ilias (2013). CinemaScope: Selected Documents from the Spyros P. Skouras Archive. United States: Brave World. ISBN 978-0-615-89880-3.
 * Chrissochoidis, Ilias (2013). The Cleopatra Files: Selected Documents from the Spyros P. Skouras Archive. United States: Brave World. ISBN 978-0-615-82919-7.

Archival sources

 * Finding aid to the Earl I. Sponable papers, 1928-1968, at Columbia University. Rare Book & Manuscript Library. [ ]