Analysis Task 1A

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By Luca Munro

• Unit 1 Analysis

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Task 1A Ownership

• X-Men Days of Future Past was made by 20th
  Century Fox in partnership with Marvel Studios.
  Fox is, as of 2013, owned by 21st Century Fox,
  which was founded by Rupert Murdoch and is a
  public sales company. This means it offers its
  specific products and securities (stock/shares,
  bonds/loans, etc.) for sale to the general
  public.
• 20th Century Fox is a worldwide production
  company based primarily in their main HQ in Los
  Angeles, California, with 21st Century Fox being
  based in New York City.

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Operating model
The big five conglomerates of multimedia include
Time Warner (Warner Bros., Time Magazine), The
Walt Disney Company (Walt Disney Studios, Pixar
Studios, ESPN, Marvel Studios), Viacom (Paramount
Pictures, Showtime), News Corporation (20th
Century Fox, BSkyB) and Bertelsmann (RTL
Group). 21st Century Fox was what remained of
News Corporation after the division of the
company in 2013, and it primarily consists of
media outlets such as 20th Century Fox sticking
with them. The other half became New News Corp,
which mainly dealt with publishing and Australian
broadcasting. At the time of the split, News
Corp had in their holding such products as The
Times and The Sun, big newspaper branches here in
the UK. 21st Century Foxs other owned divisions
include Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, DreamWorks, Blue Sky
Studios, 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment,
20th Century Fox Television, Cinema Center Films,
Don Bluth Entertainment, DreamWorks Animation,
DreamWorks Home Entertainment, DreamWorks
Television, Fox Animation Studios, Fox
Searchlight Pictures, Gracie Films, Marvel
Studios (More on that later), Paws Inc., Regency
Enterprises and Walden Media.
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Vertical Integration

• Involves having different companies at different
  stages of the production process and this makes
  production quicker, more efficient and more
  flexible. They can also back each other up.
• This means that whatever you want to buy there is
  an example of it by this company that you can
  rely on!
• A good example is Sony or Time Warner who have a
  hand in lots of industries.

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Horizontal Integration

• The way that one company becomes a specialist in
  a particular area so that they create things that
  compete or complement each other. In this way,
  they are able to create more products than
  vertical integration but the company as a whole
  is less efficient.
• Whatever your taste is, this company can provide
  it but only in this area!
• A good example is Dennis Publishing who have a
  large and varied portfolio of magazines.

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Products

• Foxs products in both film and TV include
  Avatar, the first two Star Wars trilogies, Ice
  Age, X-Men, Die Hard, Planet of the Apes, Night
  at the Museum, Fantastic Four, Alien, Predator,
  Alvin and the Chipmunks, The Simpsons, MASH,
  The X-Files, Bones, House, Buffy the Vampire
  Slayer, Futurama, How I Met Your Mother, Glee,
  Modern Family, New Girl and 24.
• One of the newer releases by Fox is the highly
  popular book-to-film adaptation of John Greens
  novel, The Fault in Our Stars, starring Shailene
  Woodley and Ansel Elgort (Both Divergent) as the
  lead roles.

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Products
X-Men is a branch of Marvel that were sold to Fox
in the late 1990s so that Fox could make the
X-Men films, along with other Marvel franchises
such as the Fantastic Four, and the short-lived
Daredevil. Marvel after selling the rights of
those franchises along with Spiderman to Sony,
and with its parent company The Walt Disney
Company and Marvel Entertainment, started panning
out an eleven plus year plan called the Marvel
Cinematic Universe. The plan was to have an
entirely interconnecting universe for all of
these films and characters to co-exist, kicking
off in 2008 with Iron Man, before such films
introducing characters such as The Incredible
Hulk, Thor and Captain America before that first
phase ended with Avengers Assemble. Their
cinematic universe expands to much more until at
the very least 2019 ending phase three, with that
being ended with Avengers Infinity War Part
2. They also have TV shows interconnected with
the universe, with a select few such as Agents of
S.H.I.E.L.D. and Agent Carter, based around the
beloved character brought to life in Captain
America The First Avenger by Hayley Atwell,
chronologically set after that said film.
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Products
20th Century Fox does not specialise in one
particular type of product in the way Marvel
Studios does with its superhero comic book
adaptations to the big or small screen. 20th
Century Fox instead has a lot more variety,
ranging from all types of genre, corners of media
and etc. 21st Century Fox owners of 20th
Century Fox hold such products of their owned
assets are branches within other countries, to
name a few like 20th Century Fox Español, Fox
Studios Australia, Sky Italia and Sky
Deutschland. As for 20th Century Fox itself, it
is the parent company of such assets like Fox
2000 Pictures, Fox International Productions, Fox
Searchlight Pictures, 20th Century Fox Animation
and Blue Sky Studios. Sky Italia and Deutschland
are the ones who distribute their countrys
respective rights to Formula One broadcasting,
and Blue Sky Studios are responsible for such
animated film successes that include the box
office success, the Ice Age franchise. So to
round off, the products developed by 21st Century
Fox do not stick to one type of product they
range from many different assets.
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World market
Fox, when promoting X-Men Days of Future Past
around the world, went to promote the film in
eastern Asia including countries such as
Singapore. They sent Hugh Jackman who reprises
his breakout role of Wolverine in the film, Peter
Dinklage who portrays the films main antagonist
Bolivar Trask and is best known for his role in
Game of Thrones, and the very well known Chinese
actress Fan Bingbing whose minor role as the
portal creating mutant Blink, was enough for the
high demand in one of Hollywoods primary markets
coming off the success of many of the other X-Men
films that came before. China being one major
market for Hollywood, Fan was brought in to play
a minor role in Marvel Studios Iron Man 3 in the
Chinese release of the film but not anywhere
else. Fan is a big tabloid star in China, and
looks set to appear in four more Fox X-Men films
as Blink due to her character becoming a fan
favourite not only in China but among many of the
films fans around the world. Another example of
how China is a key market again referring to Fox
and X-Men, high demand for an R-Rated Deadpool
character standalone film was answered but only
as a Rated PG-13, which commercially made more
sense as to ensure a higher audience and also a
place on Chinese big screens, as China have a
major policy on R-Rated films. Among other
reasons, another few tens of millions of dollars
in box office revenue by showing the film in
China contributed to the film going from R (Which
famously was seen as having the best way of
making a Deadpool film) to a PG-13. However
because the film is made in America, Hollywood is
being used to stay ahead of the rest of the world
in terms of market and culture, which in previous
years back when the American film industry began,
was used to express typical American traits. The
old Truth, justice, the American way , which
more often now is something that people do not
like being forced down their throats so much so
that when Marvel Studios released Captain
America in 2011, it was marketed and renamed for
the rest of the world as Captain America The
First Avenger.
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Competitors
20th Century Foxs rivals include Disney and
Warner Bros, and when it comes to box office
blockbusters, Foxs best monetary product is
Avatar by James Cameron, at 2,787,965,087 which
makes it near as makes no difference, profitable
by 10 times its original budget. In fact that
makes it the highest grossing film of all time,
in front of another Fox and James Cameron
product, Titanic. Disneys biggest guns weigh in
at third (Though be it a Marvel film), The
Avengers, and the animated film Frozen at fifth
(Though that could still change at any point, as
Frozen is still present in theatres around the
world as of the week commencing December 12th
2014). In-between The Avengers and Frozen are a
Warner Bros final chapter film, Harry Potter and
the Deathly Hallows Part 2, so immediately it
indicates that Foxs main rivals are Disney and
Warner Bros. When coming to making comic book
films, Fox, Disney and Warner Bros all fall into
that category. Fox as you know by now develop
X-Men and the Fantastic Four, Disney own all of
Marvels cinematic properties such as The
Avengers, Guardians of the Galaxy, Iron Man,
Captain America etc., and Warner Bros are
responsible for great films such as Christopher
Nolans Dark Knight trilogy and also DCs
upcoming cinematic universe which began with Man
of Steel.