Fox Home Entertainment Popular Books

Fox Home Entertainment Biography & Facts

20th Century Home Entertainment (previously known as 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment) is a home video brand label of Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment that distributes films produced by 20th Century Studios, Searchlight Pictures, and 20th Century Animation, and television series by 20th Television, Searchlight Television, 20th Television Animation, and FX Productions in home entertainment formats. Established in 1982, it served as its own distinct home video distribution arm of Fox Entertainment Group. On March 20, 2019, The Walt Disney Company acquired 21st Century Fox, and as a result, 20th Century Home Entertainment's operations were folded into Disney's own home entertainment division. It now operates as a brand label of Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment and also releases titles from other third-party studios it has prior distribution deals with. Prior to 1982, from 1976 to 1982, the video distribution arm had been under a deal with a home entertainment company called Magnetic Video. Disregarding the dissolution of Magnetic Video into 20th Century-Fox Video, the video distribution arm had been in the videocassette business in North America from 1976 to 2005, and have been in the videodisc business since 1981, when Magnetic Video Corporation began releasing their titles to the newly discovered LaserDisc format. 20th Century Fox was not the only film company under the Magnetic Video deal, but other companies such as Paramount Pictures, United Artists and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (Which 20th Century would handle from 1999-2020) had been serving in the business under their parent distribution companies, United Artists and Viacom International. Magnetic also had been releasing titles from ABC Pictures International and Avco-Embassy, as well as older films with the Estate of Charles Chaplin. United Artists had also released their library of films released by Warner Bros. Pictures during the 1920s-1940s, through Magnetic Video. History 20th Century-Fox Video (1982) In March 1979, 20th Century-Fox acquired Magnetic Video Corporation, 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 1982, 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 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/FoxVideo (1982-2001) 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 am emphasis on children's and family titles, including those of The Muppets 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 FoxVideo, 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 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment on March 16, 1995, after Fox Entertainment Group acquired CBS's in.... Discover the Fox Home Entertainment popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Fox Home Entertainment books.