1. Film Company Case Study

2. The Fox Film Company
• Started in 1915 by William Fox
• He was born Vilmos Fried in Hungary
• He was a poor child immigrant to New
York
• He worked from the age of 8
• Started his first nickelodeon at 24

3. The move to Hollywood
• Set up a West Coast studio in 1917
• Early success with the cartoon Gertie the
Dinosaur

4. The Wall Street Crash
• William Fox lost most of his money and
ended up in jail
• Merger was the only solution
• 1935 merger / take over by 20th
Century
company
• The new company called 20th
Century-Fox

5. The Golden Age
• Daryl F Zanuck ran the studios
• Studio specialised in musicals and biopics
• Their biggest stars on contract were:
• Shirley Temple and Betty Grable

6. The Post War Decline
• Law forced the company to sell cinemas
• No more guaranteed block booking
• TV replacing cinema as most popular
entertainment

7. Classic Film Success
• 1965 The Sound of Music

8. Recent success
• Avatar
• Taken
• The Simpsons movie
• Titanic
• Alien
• Rocky
• Die hard
• They have made 3178 films

9. The Current Owner : Rupert
Murdoch
• One of the biggest media moguls in the
world
• Australian born now US citizen
• Started by buying newspapers in UK
• He owns Sky tv and myspace
• Owns The Sun and The Times
• Uses his media empire for cross-
promotion

10. The Current Owner : Rupert
Murdoch
• One of the biggest media moguls in the
world
• Australian born now US citizen
• Started by buying newspapers in UK
• He owns Sky tv and myspace
• Owns The Sun and The Times
• Uses his media empire for cross-
promotion