English Entertainment
Hutch Parker is 20th Century Fox’s president
MUMBAI: Media conglomerate News Corp has announced that Hutch Parker has been promoted as the president of its film studio Twentieth Century Fox (TCF).
With this, TCF will restructure to now bring all its moviemaking functions under Parker’s umbrella, effectively centralising the position for the first time in decades. He will now oversee the physical production, post production, visual effects and music departments for TCF films. TCF’s production, casting and story departments continue to report to him.
Fox has stated that its film division did well in 2004. The Day After Tomorrow, Dodgeball, Garfield, I Robot and Alien Vs. Predator grossed over $20 million each during their opening weekends. Three of these pictures also grossed over $200 million worldwide box office and the total receipts from TCF films exceeded $1 billion in worldwide box office in 2004.
Fox Filmed Entertainment chairmen Jim Gianopulos and Tom Rothman said, “This is a great day for Fox. Hutch is at the absolute top of his game, with an unrivaled success record, experience and expertise. With his new promotion and greater responsibilities, the company is assured of continuing the best, most stable, senior management in the film business.”
Parker said, “I have been fortunate over the last 10 years to work with a fantastic group of filmmakers and executives at the most dynamic media company in the world. Tom and Jim have led the film company to unprecedented success. I’m proud of what we’ve achieved, deeply grateful to my superb staff, and happy to call Fox my home. I’m extremely excited for the opportunity to play a more significant role in the future of 20th Century Fox.”
Fox’s new releases include the actioner Elektra with Jennifer Garner.
English Entertainment
Ellison takes his Paramount-Warner Bros case straight to theater owners
The Skydance chief goes to CinemaCon with promises and a skeptical crowd waiting
CALIFORNIA: David Ellison strode into a room packed with thousands of cinema owners and executives at CinemaCon in Las Vegas on Thursday and did something rather bold: he looked them in the eye and asked them to trust him.
The chief executive of Paramount Skydance vowed that his company would release a minimum of 30 films a year if regulators greenlight its proposed $110 billion acquisition of Warner Bros Discovery, a deal that has made theater owners deeply, and loudly, nervous.
“I wanted to look every single one of you in the eye and give you my word,” Ellison told the crowd. “Once we combine with Warner Bros, we are going to make a minimum of 30 films annually across both studios.”
It was a confident pitch. Whether it landed is another matter. Cinema operators have already called on regulators to block the deal, and scepticism in the room was hardly concealed.
Ellison pushed back by pointing to recent form. Paramount, born from the merger of Paramount Global and Skydance Media last August, plans to release 15 films this year, nearly double the eight it put out in 2025. Progress, he argued, was already underway.
He also threw theater owners a bone they have long been chasing: all films, he pledged, would run exclusively in cinemas for a minimum of 45 days, drawing applause from a crowd that has spent years fighting for exactly that commitment across the industry.
“People can speculate all they want,” Ellison said, “but I am standing here today telling you personally that you can count on our complete commitment. And we’ll show you we mean it.”
Fine words. The regulators, however, will have the last one.
