Disney Wiki
Disney Wiki
The Wonderful World of Disney
54,936
pages
in: Companies, Walt Disney Company subsidiaries, Fox,
and 10 more
English

20th Century Studios

View source

20th Century Studios (formerly known as 20th Century Fox) is an American film production and distribution studio which is a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Studios, a division of The Walt Disney Company. The studio is located on its namesake studio lot in the Century City area of Los Angeles. For over 83 years, it was one of the "Big Six" major American film studios formed from the merger of the Fox Film Corporation and Twentieth Century Pictures in 1935, until its acquisition by Disney in 2019. It is most recognizable for its logo – a tower stacking the brand name surrounded by searchlights – and fanfare composed by Alfred Newman (don't confuse with Alfred E. Neuman from Mad magazine).

History

Pre-Disney acquisition (1935–2019)

The company began as two separate companies, Fox Film Corporation (founded on February 1, 1915, by William Fox) and Twentieth Century Pictures (founded in 1933 by Joseph M. Schenck and Darryl F. Zanuck). The two companies merged to form 20th Century Fox on May 31, 1935. Walt Disney had contacted 20th's previous incarnation, Fox Film Corporation, back in 1928 in an attempt to strike a distribution deal to use as leverage against Winkler Pictures head Charles Mintz - Winkler had contracted Disney to animate the Oswald the Lucky Rabbit cartoons, and the two had been in a dispute over payment.

In 1985, the studio was acquired by News Corporation. The studio was succeeded by 21st Century Fox on June 28, 2013, following the spin-off of its publishing assets.

Disney acquisition (2019–present)

Disney-fox-merger

Bob Iger (CEO of Disney) and Rupert Murdoch (then owner of Fox).

On December 14, 2017, The Walt Disney Company announced plans to purchase the entertainment assets of 21st Century Fox, which includes 20th Century Fox, for $52.4 billion. On May 23, 2018, it was reported that Comcast was planning to out-bid Disney with an all-cash offer for approximately $60 billion and on June 13, Comcast officially announced its $65 billion all-cash offer for Fox assets. One week later, Disney counterbid with a $71.3 billion offer. On July 19, 2018, Comcast officially announced that it was dropping its bid on the Fox assets. On July 27, 2018, Disney and Fox's shareholders approved the merger between the two companies. Although the deal was completed on March 20, 2019, 20th Century Fox will not relocate to the Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, but will instead continue to be headquartered on its studio lot in Century City, which is currently leased to Disney by the Fox Corporation, 21st Century Fox's successor, for seven years.

On January 17, 2020, it was announced that 20th Century Fox and Fox Searchlight Pictures would be renamed 20th Century Studios and Searchlight Pictures respectively. The renaming was done to avoid brand confusion and naming conflicts with the then-recently formed Fox Corporation, in 2022, Disney also did the same with Fox Star Studios.[1]

Films produced before Disney's acquisition

20th Century Studios has a gigantic library of films, but some of its biggest franchises are Avatar, The Simpsons, Futurama, X-Men, Fantastic Four, Kingsman, Alien, Ice Age, Rio, Planet of the Apes, its sequels, its remake, and reboot film series, Predator, The Sound of Music, Deadpool, The X-Files, Titanic, Anastasia, FernGully, Home Alone, Die Hard, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Alvin and the Chipmunks, Marley & Me, Dr. Dolittle, the non-musical comedy version starring Eddie Murphy (and its follow-up films), Jingle All the Way, Garfield (of which the franchise was acquired by Viacom a few months after), Star Wars (the first six films before Disney bought the entire franchise), Tooth Fairy, and Borat.

Additionally, the company co-distributed anime films in the Dragon Ball franchise with Toei Company from 2013 to 2018 (while Sony/Aniplex's owned Funimation have International distribution rights), including Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods, Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection 'F', and Dragon Ball Super: Broly.

When Walt Disney Pictures and Walden Media had a disagreement about the budget of The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, Walden Media took the film to 20th Century Fox.

Mosts of the films made before Disney's acquisition can be streamed on Disney+ (or its sub-hub Star in International markets), including Hello, Dolly! and The Sound of Music.

Disney now owns all rights to the library following its acquisition of the studio in 2019.

Films distributed by Disney under their ownership

Upcoming

Additionally, Disney also now owns the rights to 20th Century Fox’s pre-acquisition film library, with the exception of films originally released by Fox, but sold to other studios, including DreamWorks Animation's 2013-2017 library and the Terrytoons library, which are now owned by Universal Studios and Paramount Pictures, respectively.

Gallery

Notes

  • Despite not being co-produced nor co-branded with "Disney", all of the 20th Century Studios films (while itself continue to produce those) are distributed under the Walt Disney Pictures label (minus the Disney castle logo and the studio's credit itself) with Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures currently handling distribution.
  • Despite Disney owning the rights to 20th Century Fox's pre-acquisition library, not all of their films are on Disney+ and/or Hulu. As Disney still licenses them to premium platforms like HBO and Starz, and free platforms like Tubi and YouTube.
  • It is still unknown whenever all of the 20th Century Studios films has a credit reads "Distributed By WALT DISNEY STUDIOS MOTION PICTURES" at the end.
  • Spies in Disguise was released theatrically in December 2019, except Japan (which the film itself was released on Disney+ in the country in 2020 due to the Coronavirus pandemic).
  • In Deadpool & Wolverine, there is a buried statue of the "20th Century Fox" logo in the Void.
  • The print logo appears in the background on the brand-themed poster for the live-action remake of Lilo & Stitch, in which Stitch destroys various Disney-owned logos and merchandise.

References

  1. ↑ Disney Drops Fox Name, Will Rebrand as 20th Century Studios, Searchlight Pictures

External links


v - e - d
Motion Pictures Production
Walt Disney Animation Studios (1923) • Walt Disney Pictures (1983) • Pixar (2006) • Disneynature (2008) • Lucasfilm (2012) • Marvel Studios (2015) • 20th Century Studios (2019) • 20th Century Animation (2019) • Searchlight Pictures (2019) • Star Studios (2019; Indian Independence films)
Distribution Labels
Buena Vista International (1961; European Independence films) • Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures (2007) • Searchlight Pictures (United States only) • Star Distribution (Latin American Independence films)
Studio Lots
Walt Disney Studios Burbank Studio Lot • Golden Oak Ranch • The Prospect Studios • Disney Studios Australia
Former Studios
Laugh-O-Gram Studio (1921-1923) • Walt Disney Productions (1923-1986) • Touchstone Pictures (1984-2016) • Walt Disney Animation Japan (1984-2004) • Skellington Productions (1986-1996) • Walt Disney Animation France (1986-2003) • Walt Disney Animation Australia (1988-2006) • Disneytoon Studios (1988-2018) • Hollywood Pictures (1989-2007) • Walt Disney Animation Florida (1989-2004) • Caravan Pictures (1992-1999) • Dimension Films (1992-2005) • DIC Entertainment L.P. (Limited Partnership) (1993-2000) • Walt Disney Animation Canada (1996-2000) • Circle Seven Animation (2004-2006) • ImageMovers Digital (2007-2011) • Pixar Canada (2010-2013) • Blue Sky Studios (2019-2021) • Fox 2000 Pictures (2019-2021) • 20th Digital Studio (2019-2023)
Former Distribution Brands
Universal Studios (Partnership) (1923-1929) • Columbia Pictures (Partnership) (1929-1932) • United Artists (Partnership) (1932-1937) • RKO Radio Pictures (Partnership) (1937-1956) • Buena Vista Pictures Distribution (1956-2007) • UTV Motion Pictures (2013-2017, India) • Miramax Films (1993-2010) • 20th Century Fox (2019-2020)
Current Figures
Bob Iger • Jennifer Lee • Pete Docter • Kevin Feige • Kathleen Kennedy
Former Figures
Michael Eisner • Jeffrey Katzenberg • John Lasseter • Ed Catmull • Bob Chapek • Sean Bailey • Christine McCarthy
Português do Brasil
Community content is available under CC-BY-SA unless otherwise noted.
More Fandoms