Formerly | Fox Searchlight Pictures, Inc. (1994–2020) |
---|---|
Company type | Subsidiary |
Industry | Film |
Founded | April 29, 1994 |
Founder | Tom Rothman [1] |
Headquarters | 10201 West Pico Boulevard, , |
Area served | Worldwide |
Key people |
|
Products | Motion pictures |
Number of employees | 100+ |
Parent | Fox Entertainment Group (1994–2019) Walt Disney Studios (2019–present) |
Divisions | Searchlight Television |
Website | searchlightpictures.com [lower-alpha 1] |
Searchlight Pictures, Inc. [2] is an American film production and distribution arm of Walt Disney Studios, a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company's Disney Entertainment division. Founded in 1994 as Fox Searchlight Pictures for 20th Century Fox (later 20th Century Studios), the studio focuses primarily on producing, distributing, and acquiring specialty films.
Searchlight is known for distributing the films Slumdog Millionaire , 12 Years a Slave , Birdman , The Shape of Water , and Nomadland , all of which have won an Academy Award for Best Picture. The studio has grossed over $5.3 billion worldwide and amassed 51 Academy Awards, 30 Golden Globe Awards, and 56 BAFTA awards. Slumdog Millionaire is the studio's largest commercial success, with over $377 million (US) of box office receipts, against a production budget of only $15 million. [3]
Searchlight Pictures was one of the 21st Century Fox film production companies that was acquired by Disney in 2019. The studio's current name was adopted in order to avoid confusion with Fox Corporation. Compared to 20th Century Studios, whose distribution operations have folded into Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, Searchlight retains its autonomous distribution unit. [4]
Prior to the creation of Searchlight, 20th Century Fox was active in the specialty film market, releasing independent and specialty films under the banner of 20th Century-Fox International Classics, later renamed 20th Century-Fox Specialized Film Division, then TLC Films. The most notable of the releases under these banners include Suspiria , Bill Cosby: Himself , Eating Raoul , The Gods Must Be Crazy , Reuben, Reuben , and Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars . [5]
In the early 1990s, 20th Century Fox executives decided to emulate the commercial success of Disney's newly acquired Miramax studio. In 1994, 20th announced the formation of a subsidiary that would drive their entry into the specialty film market, and in July that year, they brought in Thomas Rothman, then president of production at The Samuel Goldwyn Company, to head up the new subsidiary. It was soon given the name "Fox Searchlight Pictures", with Rothman as its founding president. [6] [1] The new company inherited the familiar branding elements associated with 20th Century Fox; Fox Searchlight films opened with a production logo consisting of the "Fox Searchlight Pictures" name presented as a large monolith, illuminated by the eponymous searchlights and accompanied by the 20th Century Fox fanfare composed by Alfred Newman. [7] [8]
From its first release, The Brothers McMullen (1995), Fox Searchlight went to distribute a series of independent films such as Girl 6 , Stealing Beauty , and She's the One (all 1996). [9] While critically well received, these early releases were not commercially very successful; Fox Searchlight's first real commercial breakthrough came with The Full Monty (1997), garnering the studio's first awards. [10]
In 2006, a companion label, Fox Atomic, was created to produce and/or distribute genre films. [11] Fox Atomic closed down in 2009. [12]
On June 28, 2012, Rupert Murdoch announced that Fox Searchlight's owner News Corporation would be split into two publishing and media oriented companies: the second News Corporation, which takes on the publishing and Australian broadcasting assets, and 21st Century Fox, which operated Fox Searchlight parent Fox Entertainment Group. Murdoch states that the 21CF name was a way to maintain 20th Century Fox's heritage. [13] [14]
Fox Stage Productions was formed in June 2013. [15] The creation of 21st Century Fox was completed on June 28, 2013. [16] In August 2013, 20CF started a theatrical joint venture with a trio of producers, both film and theater, Kevin McCollum, John Davis and Tom McGrath. [17]
On December 14, 2017, The Walt Disney Company agreed to acquire most assets from 21st Century Fox, including Fox Searchlight, for $52.4 billion. [18] After a bid from Comcast (parent company of NBCUniversal) for $65 billion, Disney counterbid with $71.3 billion. [19] On July 19, 2018, Comcast dropped out of the bid for 21st Century Fox in favor of Sky plc and Sky UK. Eight days later, Disney and 21CF shareholders approved the merger between the two companies. [20] On March 12, 2019, Disney announced it has set to close the Fox deal on March 20. [21] [22] On March 19, 2019, 21CF spun off the remaining assets – the Fox Broadcasting Company, Fox Television Stations, the Fox News Group (which includes the Fox News Channel), and the domestic operations of Fox Sports – to the new Fox Corporation in preparation for the completion of the sale, which occurred the following day. [23] [24] [25] The following day it was announced that Fox Searchlight Pictures would be situated under The Walt Disney Studios banner and several high profile layoffs occurred. [26]
As of November 2019, FX Networks and Fox Searchlight were assigned to supply Hulu with content. [27] On January 17, 2020, it was announced that the "Fox" name would be dropped from several of the Fox assets that were acquired by Disney, shortening the company's name to "Searchlight Pictures", in order to avoid brand confusion with Fox Corporation. [28] [7]
More recently, Nancy Utley has officially left Searchlight Pictures after six months, to launch Lake Ellyn Entertainment, and struck a first look deal with Chernin Entertainment. [29] Disney elevated David Greenbaum and Matthew Greenfield, the then-current heads of production.
Since 1994, Searchlight Pictures has accumulated 187 Academy Award nominations with 51 wins (including five Best Picture winners since 2009), [30] 117 Golden Globe nominations with 30 wins, [31] 190 BAFTA nominations with 56 wins, [32] 68 Screen Actors Guild Award nominations with 12 wins, [33] 215 Critics Choice Award nominations with 55 wins, [34] and 137 Independent Spirit Awards nominations with 54 wins. [35]
Searchlight Television is the television production division of Searchlight Pictures. Launched in April 2018, Searchlight Television broadens the variety of projects produced under the Searchlight banner. It is headed by David Greenbaum and Matthew Greenfield. [36] [37]
Both original material and adaptations of Searchlight's existing film library will be produced for cable, streaming and broadcast television, in the form of documentaries, scripted series, limited series and more. In April 2019, the Hulu streaming service ordered The Dropout , starring Amanda Seyfried from Searchlight Television and 20th Television. [38] The studio is also developing an adaptation of the City of Ghosts novel with ABC Signature and an adaptation of N. K. Jemisin's Inheritance Trilogy with Westbrook Studios. [39] [40] In October 2021, Hulu ordered a sequel series to the Mel Brooks film History of the World, Part I from Searchlight Television and 20th Television. [41]
In March 2019, the studio launched Searchlight Shorts, a collection of short films that the studio would acquire from upper-tier festivals and release on their YouTube channel. The first two films to be acquired by the studio for this collection were Shelly Lauman's Birdie and Guy Nattiv's Skin , the latter of which won the 2018 Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film. Other acquisitions for the collection included A. V. Rockwell's Feathers, Matthew Puccini's Lavender , Freddy Macdonald's Sew Torn, Savanah Leaf and Taylor Russell's The Heart Still Hums and Julia Baylis and Sam Guest's Wiggle Room. [42] [43] [44]
20th Century Studios, Inc. is an American film studio owned by the Walt Disney Studios, a division of Disney Entertainment, in turn a division of The Walt Disney Company. It is headquartered at the Fox Studio Lot in the Century City area of Los Angeles, leased from Fox Corporation. Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures distributes and markets the films produced by 20th Century Studios in theatrical markets.
The Walt Disney Studios is a major division of the Disney Entertainment business segment of The Walt Disney Company best known for housing its multifaceted film studio divisions. Founded on October 16, 1923, and based mainly at the namesake studio lot in Burbank, California, it is the seventh-oldest global film studio and the fifth-oldest in the United States, a member of the Motion Picture Association (MPA) and one of the "Big Five" major film studios.
Hulu is an American subscription streaming media and content hub within the Disney+ streaming service owned by The Walt Disney Company. It was launched on October 29, 2007.
ABC Inc., doing business as Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, is an American film distributor within the Disney Entertainment division of the Walt Disney Company. It handles theatrical and occasional digital distribution, marketing and promotion for films produced and released by the Walt Disney Studios, including Walt Disney Pictures, Walt Disney Animation Studios, Pixar, Marvel Studios, Lucasfilm, and 20th Century Studios; the Searchlight Pictures label operates its own autonomous theatrical distribution and marketing unit.
20th Century 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.
Fox 2000 Pictures was an American film production company within The Walt Disney Studios. It was a sister studio of the larger film studios 20th Century Fox and Fox Searchlight Pictures, specializing in producing independent films in mid-range releases that largely targeted underserved groups. The company dissolved on May 14, 2021, following the release of The Woman in the Window on Netflix, and the acquisition of 21st Century Fox by The Walt Disney Company on March 20, 2019.
20th Century Animation, Inc. is an American animation studio located in Century City, Los Angeles. Formed in 1994, it is organized as a division and label of 20th Century Studios, a subsidiary of the Walt Disney Studios, and is tasked with producing animated feature-length films. At one point, 20th Century Animation had two subsidiaries: Fox Animation Studios, which was shut down on June 26, 2000, and Blue Sky Studios, which was closed on April 10, 2021. Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment distributes the films produced by 20th Century Animation in home media under the 20th Century Home Entertainment banner.
Regency Enterprises is an American entertainment company formed by Arnon Milchan. It was founded in 1982 as the successor to Regency International Pictures.
FX Networks, LLC is a company consisting of a network of cable channels plus a production company and a subsidiary of the Disney Entertainment business division of The Walt Disney Company. Originally a part of 21st Century Fox, the company was acquired by The Walt Disney Company on March 20, 2019. Consequently, FX Networks was integrated into the newly renamed Walt Disney Television unit.
Disney Platform Distribution, Inc. is a business unit within Disney Entertainment that manages all third-party media sales efforts for distribution, affiliate marketing and affiliate-related business operations for all of the company's direct-to-consumer services and linear media networks; content sales agreements for Disney Entertainment and ESPN.
Scott Free Productions is a British-American independent film and television production company founded in 1970 by filmmakers and brothers Ridley Scott and Tony Scott. They formed the feature film development company Percy Main Productions in 1980, naming the company after the English village Percy Main, where their father grew up. The company was renamed Scott Free Productions in 1995. Scott Free has produced films ranging from the 2000 Hollywood blockbuster Gladiator (2000) to "smaller pictures" like Cracks (2009). Between the productions of White Squall (1996) and G.I. Jane (1997), Ridley Scott reorganised the company.
Twenty-First Century Fox, Inc., which did business as 21st Century Fox (21CF), also known simply as Fox, was an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate based in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It was one of the two companies formed on June 28, 2013, following a spin-off of the publishing assets of the old News Corporation as News Corp.
20th Digital Studio was an American web series and web films production company of 20th Century Studios. Founded in 2008 as a digital media, it was a subsidiary of 20th Century Studios, a subsidiary of Disney Entertainment, which is itself a division of The Walt Disney Company. Their focus evolved to funding and producing short-form genre content by new filmmakers from the digital and film festival worlds.
20th Television Animation is an American animation studio that creates, develops and produces primarily adult animated television series and specials. It is a unit of Disney Television Studios, a subsidiary of Disney Entertainment, which is a division of The Walt Disney Company.
The acquisition of 21st Century Fox by The Walt Disney Company was announced on December 14, 2017, and was completed on March 20, 2019. Among other key assets, the acquisition included the 20th Century Fox film and television studios, U.S. cable channels such as FX, Fox Networks Group, a 73% stake in National Geographic Partners, Indian television broadcaster Star India, and a 30% stake in Hulu. Immediately after the acqusition, the holding company of the Fox Broadcasting Company, Fox Television Stations, Fox News Channel, Fox Business, Fox Sports 1 and 2, Fox Deportes, and the Big Ten Network was renamed Fox Corporation. Other 21st Century Fox assets such as the Fox Sports Networks and Sky were divested and sold off to Sinclair and Comcast, respectively.
The Fox Entertainment Group (FEG) was an American entertainment company specialized in filmed entertainment owned by 21st Century Fox. Following the acquisition of 21st Century Fox by Disney, the group's assets were dispersed to various Disney units. The film studios 20th Century Fox, Fox Searchlight Pictures and Blue Sky Studios were transferred to Walt Disney Studios, while Fox Star Studios transferred to Walt Disney Direct-to-Consumer & International.
Searchlight Television, LLC is an American television production company that is a division of Searchlight Pictures, part of The Walt Disney Company. Founded in April 2018, broadening the variety of projects produced under the namesake Searchlight Pictures film banner. It is headed by David Greenbaum and Matthew Greenfield.
Star is a content hub within the Disney+ streaming service that launched on February 23, 2021. The hub is available in a subset of countries where Disney+ is operated. In Latin America, a separate streaming service, Star+, was launched on August 31, 2021.
Citations
Post-merger, Fox Searchlight, now re-branded Searchlight Pictures, enjoys a lot of autonomy in the Disney empire, greenlighting pics they know and operating their own distribution, publicity and marketing teams. 20th Century Studios (which recently dropped the Fox) was melded into the bigger Disney fold, fusing all its operations.
Fox Animation (including Blue Sky Studios) will continue to be led by Co-Presidents Andrea Miloro and Robert Baird.
Sources