Twentieth Century Fox

Origins

The origin of the company goes back to 1904, when William Fox, an immigrant to the United States from Hungary, started a chain of nickelodeon theaters (movie houses that charged a nickel for admission) in New York City. Fox began producing motion pictures in 1912, and three years later he founded the Fox Film Corporation to produce, distribute and exhibit films. The company moved to California in 1917. Early film stars who acted in Fox motion pictures included Theda Bara, Will Rogers and Tom Mix. During the 1920s, notable directors such as John Ford, Frank Borzage and F.W. Murnau worked for Fox. From 1925 to 1928, the Fox Film Corporation pioneered technology for recording and playing back sound on film. Beginning in October 1927, Fox used what it called the Movietone sound system, to bring sound to newsreels that it played in cinemas before presentation of the company's feature films. In 1928, Fox began making feature sound films that used the Movietone system, and soon other major studios began converting to this technology.

Merger

Twentieth Century Films began in 1933 when Darryl F. Zanuck and Joseph M. Schenck left their executive positions at United Artists, to create a new company. Zanuck and Schenck merged their company with Fox two years later. In 1940 and 1941, Twentieth Century Fox produced films that won consecutive Academy Awards for best picture: "The Grapes of Wrath" and "How Green Was My Valley." The studio's other hits during the 1940s included "Gentleman's Agreement" (1947) and "The Snake Pit" (1948). But during the late 1950s and early 1960s, Twentieth Century Fox nearly went bankrupt after it produced a string of financial failures, including the wildly expensive film "Cleopatra" (1963). In 1964, the studio became financially stable once again following the success of "The Sound of Music."

During the 1960s, Twentieth Century Fox became a leading producer of television shows with popular programs such as "Peyton Place" (1964-1969), "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea" (1964-1968), "Batman" (1965-1968), and "Lost in Space" (1965-1968). The film studio had a string of successful films in the 1970s, including "The Poseidon Adventure" (1972), "Young Frankenstein" (1974), and "The Towering Inferno" (1974). In 1977, Twentieth Century Fox released "Star Wars," a film that several other studios had chosen not to produce. The film grossed nearly $200 million on its first release, breaking box-office records and supplying the studio with revenue to make acquisitions outside of the film industry. These acquisitions included resorts in Aspen, Colorado, and Monterey, California.

Acquisitions

In 1981, oil industry executive Marvin Davis borrowed heavily to engineer a takeover of Twentieth Century Fox for $722 million. The company suffered financially for the next several years because of poor management and the release of commercially unsuccessful films.

The News Corporation, under the direction of Australian-born media mogul Rupert Murdoch, bought Twentieth Century Fox in 1985. After the purchase, Fox produced several box office hits, including "Wall Street" (1987), "Broadcast News," "Die Hard" (1988), and "Big" (1988). In 1996, the studio scored a blockbuster with "Independence Day," which grossed more than $800 million worldwide.