The story
20th Century-Fox Video (1981–1982)
From 1976 to 1981, the video distribution arm had been under a deal with a home entertainment company called Magnetic Video, a small independent home video distributor founded by Andre Blay and Leon Nicholson that was based in Farmington Hills, Michigan, after a previous relationship with the company. In March 1979, 20th Century-Fox acquired Magnetic Video. In late 1981, Fox renamed Magnetic Video Corporation to 20th Century-Fox Video and continued to be headquartered in Farmington Hills, Michigan. However, Blay was forced out at the time, with Telecommunications division president and CEO Steve Roberts taking charge of TCF Video.
During this time, 20th Century-Fox Video released a few titles for rental only, including Eye of the Needle, Caveman, Death Hunt, Dr. No, A Fistful of Dollars, Rocky, Taps, For Your Eyes Only, Omen III: The Final Conflict, Chu Chu and the Philly Flash (aka Chu Chu and the Philadelphia Flash), La Cage aux Folles II, and Star Wars. While sale tapes were in big boxes that were later used by CBS/Fox in its early years (dubbed "Fox Boxes" by VHS collectors), Video Rental Library tapes were packaged in black clamshell cases. Similar approaches were taken by other companies; however, none lasted long.
CBS/Fox Video/Fox Video (1982–2000)
In June 1982, 20th Century Fox entered into a joint venture with CBS to form CBS/Fox Video; Roberts remained head of the joint-venture, but was replaced as president in January 1983 by a former Columbia Pictures executive, Larry Hilford. Hilford had been a verbal critic of the video rental business, but with the situation out of their control, he attempted to make the situation work for them. CBS/Fox and other home video units increased prices of the cassettes by around 67% to maximize income. They also moved to encourage customer purchasing instead of renting. As a part of that, CBS/Fox looked to existing retail chains for direct sales. Toys "R" Us and Child World signed the first direct deals in July 1985 with CBS/Fox. Walt Disney Home Video soon followed with a direct deal with Toys "R" Us.
During this period, two sub-labels of the company were created. The first was Key Video, launched in April 1984, structured as a separate company but utilizing the CBS/Fox sales and marketing arms; Key's remit was to exploit catalog titles (from both CBS and Fox as well as other companies whose catalogs CBS/Fox had access to at the time, including Lorimar, ITC and United Artists) targeted towards collectors and longer shelf life than other titles (later expanded to include acquired titles and non-theatrical programming from outside CBS/Fox, primarily B-movies). Key's offerings were often, though not always, priced for sale at cheaper rates than mainstream CBS/Fox titles. The other was Playhouse Video, launched in February 1985 (replacing the short-lived CBS/Fox Children's Video label) and run in a similar fashion to Key Video, with an emphasis on children's and family titles, including those of The Muppets, Planet of the Apes original pentalogy, Shirley Temple movies and content from CBS (including the Dr. Seuss specials owned by the network and Peanuts movies and specials). Both of these labels were rendered inactive by 1991; under Fox, the Key Video name (later renamed to Key DVD) made a brief comeback in the 2000s.
In March 1991, a reorganization of the company was made, which would give Fox greater control of the joint venture. All of CBS/Fox's distribution functions were transferred to the newly formed Fox Video, which would also take over exclusive distribution of all 20th Century Fox products. CBS began releasing their products under the "CBS Video" name (which had been sparingly used since the 1970s), with CBS/Fox handling marketing and Fox Video handling distribution. CBS/Fox would retain the license to non-theatrical products from third parties, including those from BBC Video and the NBA.
Fox Video was run by president Bob DeLellis, a 1984 hire at CBS/Fox who had risen to group vice president and president by 1991. With expected repeat viewing, FoxVideo dropped prices on family films starting in June 1991 with Home Alone at a suggested list price of $24.98, to encourage purchasing over rental.
Bill Mechanic's arrival in 1993 from Walt Disney Home Video, as the new head of Fox Filmed Entertainment, saw new plans to move Fox forward, including Fox Video. However, DeLellis was initially left alone, as Mechanic was occupied setting up multiple creative divisions within Fox. Mechanic had been the one to install the "Vault" moratorium strategy at Disney. Mrs. Doubtfire was released soon after Mechanic's arrival with a sell through price, and surpassed sale projections at 10 million tapes. In 1995, FoxVideo launched a line, Fox Kids Video, in order to release various titles that was aired on the Fox Kids Network, such as Bobby's World, The Tick, Eek! the Cat and Where on Earth Is Carmen Sandiego?, although the name was previously used a year earlier on the three volumes of the Bobby's World show.
20th Century Fox Home Entertainment (1995–2020)
The company was renamed Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment on March 16, 1995, after Fox Entertainment Group acquired CBS's interest in CBS/Fox. The reorganization also created additional distribution operations (Fox Kids Video, CBS Video, and CBS/Fox Video) and two new media units, Fox Interactive and Magnet Interactive Studios. Total revenue for the expanded business unit would have been over $800 million, with FoxVideo providing the bulk at $650 million. Mechanic kept DeLellis as president of the expanded unit's North American operation, with Jeff Yap as international president. By May 1995, Fox had Magnet under a worldwide label deal for 10 to 12 titles through 1996. TCFHE would also be responsible for DVD when they hit the market. Mechanic had Fox Home Entertainment institute the moratorium strategy with the August 1995 release of the three original Star Wars movies giving them a sales window before going off the market forever; four months for New Hope, and until the fall of 1997 for The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. Sales topped 30 million copies over expectations. The company's 1996 release of Independence Day sold 18 million units, making it the industry's bestselling live-action home video release.
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With the May 1997 departure of DeLellis, a quick rotation of presidents led Fox Home Entertainment: Yapp for four months before he left to lead Hollywood Video, then an interim president—Pat Wyatt, head of 20th Century Fox Licensing & Merchandising, who assumed the post in September 1997. With DVD being a Warner Home Video property, the company did not initially issue DVDs; instead, Fox advocated for digital VHS tapes (which eventually emerged as the obscure D-Theater), then the disposable DIVX. DIVX was a DVD variant that had limited viewing time, launched by the Circuit City consumer electronics chain in June 1998. With DVD's low cost at $20 and DIVX at $4.50, and the desirability for consumers to own DVDs, the DVD format won quickly out over DIVX. News Corporation chief Rupert Murdoch wanted a deal with Time Warner Cable, as to secure a lower channel position for the then-new Fox Family Channel, so Mechanic adopted the DVD format to smooth the deal.
By 1998, Wyatt became permanent president of 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment. Wyatt then became head of Fox Consumer Products, which put together the video and licensing unit. Wyatt had to drop the licensing half eventually, as the home video unit boomed. DVD sales were so strong during this period that they factored into green-lighting theatrical films. Wyatt reorganized Fox Home Entertainment, and forged a partnership with replicator Cinram. Being ahead of the other studios, TCFHE began picking up additional outside labels as distribution clients, with their fees covering the company's overhead. Fox Home Entertainment won multiple Vendor of the Year awards. Wyatt's system was a great edge for years. The TV-on-DVD business was initiated by Wyatt through the release of whole seasons of The Simpsons, The X-Files, 24, Prison Break, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, and Family Guy, among other television shows, which started the binge-watching concept. However, the videocassette rental business was declining such that video rental chains signed revenue-sharing deals with the studios, so additional copies of hits could be brought in for a lower price, and share sales for more customer satisfaction.
Mechanic left Fox in June 2000, while Wyatt resigned in December 2002. Jim Gianopulos replaced Mechanic, while executive vice president of domestic marketing and sales, Mike Dunn, took over from Wyatt. Wyatt left to start a direct-to-video film production and financing company for Japanese-style animated programming.
In 2004, 20th Century Fox passed on theatrical distribution, but picked up domestic home video rights to The Passion of the Christ. Passion sold 15 million DVDs. TCFHE continued obtaining additional Christian films' domestic home video rights for movies like Mother Teresa and the Beyond the Gates of Splendor documentary. After a 2005 test with a Fox Faith website, in 2006, 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment launched its own film production banner for religious films using the same name.
Effective October 1, 2005, 20th Century Fox Scandinavia was split into two, 20th Century Fox Theatrical Sweden and 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment Scandinavia. For the Home Entertainment Scandinavia division, Peter Paumgardhen was appointed managing director and would report to senior vice president of 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment Europe Gary Ferguson.
By 2005, DVD was on the decline and the rise of HDTVs required a new, high-resolution format; Fox and half the studios backed Blu-ray, while the other half backed HD DVD, and some planned to issue releases in both formats. In late 2006, the company began releasing its titles on Blu-ray. Blu-ray won the format war in 2008, but with streaming services picking up in popularity and the Great Recession, the expected rebound in disc sales never happened.
With Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) moving its home video distribution to TCFHE in 2006, by this time the company had moved into second place behind Warner Bros. and ahead of Walt Disney, and had its best year yet. In October, Fox Home Entertainment issued the first to include a digital copy along on a disc with the special-edition DVD of Live Free or Die Hard. The 2010 Blu-ray release of Avatar was the year's top-selling title and the top Blu-ray Disc seller, with 5 million units sold. In 2011, Fox released on Blu-ray Disc the full Star Wars double trilogy on 9 discs, a premium set selling 1 million units its first week in stores, generating $84 million in gross sales.
In response to Warner Bros., Sony and MGM issuing manufactured-on-demand lines of no-frills DVD-R editions of older films in May 2012, TCFHE began its Cinema Archives series. By November 2012, the archive series had released 100 movies. Fox Home Entertainment also started the early window policy, where the digital version is released through digital retailers two or three weeks before the discs, and was launched with Prometheus in September 2012. This also started Fox's Digital HD program where customers could download or stream 600 Fox films on connected devices at less than $15/film through multiple major platforms. However, Digital HD was soon dropped as 4K, or Ultra HD, was introduced in 2012. In 2014, a high-tech think tank, Fox Innovation Lab, was formed under 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment.
In September 2015, the first Ultra HD Blu-ray player was introduced, leading TCFHE to have future movies released the same day in Ultra HD Blu-ray as regular Blu-ray and DVD. The first Ultra HD Blu-ray films were released in March 2016, with Fox being one of four studios involved; Fox had had the most titles with 10.
Dunn added another title in December 2016: president of product strategy and consumer business development. Dunn turned over TCFHE in March 2017 to Keith Feldman taking over his older title, president of worldwide home entertainment. Feldman was previously president of worldwide home entertainment distribution, and, before that, president of international.
20th Century Home Entertainment (2020–present)
In December 2017, the acquisition of 21st Century Fox by The Walt Disney Company was proposed. Disney acquired most of 21st Century Fox's entertainment assets on March 20, 2019, including 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment. On January 17, 2020, Disney retired the "Fox" name from several of the acquired 21st Century Fox assets (to avoid confusion with Fox Corporation), including the renaming of 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment as 20th Century Home Entertainment. Disney also folded 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment into their existing Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment division to be used solely as a brand label for films and television series by 20th Century Studios, Searchlight Pictures, 20th Television, Blue Sky Studios, 20th Century Animation, Searchlight Television, 20th Television Animation, and FX Productions. Additionally, the 20th Century Studios logo now serves as the all-encompassing logo for 20th Century Home Entertainment.
As a result of Disney's acquisition of 21st Century Fox, MGM's home media deal with 20th Century expired and transferred to Warner Bros. Home Entertainment on June 30, 2020.
Following the launch of Disney+ in 2019 and its international expansion in the following years, Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment (which had been distributing 20th Century and Searchlight titles since 2020) has begun to discontinue physical distribution entirely in certain regions such as Latin America, Australia, New Zealand, Russia, Greece, India, the Middle East, Portugal, Asia (except for Japan), Hungary and Romania, or to let other companies distribute in certain international markets like the United Kingdom (Elevation Sales), Poland (Galapagos), Czech Republic (Magic Box), Spain (Divisa Films), Italy (Eagle Pictures), Scandinavia (SF Studios), France and Benelux (ESC Distribution), Germany, Austria and Switzerland (Leonine Studios) and Japan (Happinet). The new agreement negotiated by Bob Iger CEO, Luke Kang VP, Gohn Gelke AVP and Gerard Devan Group Executive is an amendment to the original agreement between 20th Century Fox and HBO that Disney inherited after its acquisition of Fox in 2019, and as such, is not expected to be renewed. Following the end of the 20th Century-HBO deal, Disney plans to retain the 20th Century films on their own streaming platforms going forward after 2022.
In February 2024, Disney entered into a home video distribution agreement with Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, in which Sony would handle all physical media production and distribution for Disney's home entertainment assets in the United States and Canada. The first 20th Century Studios film to be released by Sony was the home media release of The First Omen on July 30, 2024.
From Wikipedia’s article on 20th Century Home Entertainment, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4