20th Century Studios, also known as Twentieth Century Studios and previously called 20th Century Fox, is an American motion picture production business located in the southern part of California. This studio played a role in the creation of the Star Wars Original trilogy, and later it handled the distribution of the prequel trilogy. Situated in the Century City area of Los Angeles, which is just to the west of Beverly Hills, the studio is currently a subsidiary company of The Walt Disney Company. News emerged in January of 2020 that Disney would change the company's name to 20th Century Studios to prevent any potential confusion with Fox Corporation, the entity that owns the former news and sports properties of 21st Century Fox.
The initial agreement between George Lucas and Fox granted certain merchandising and copyright privileges to the latter. The copyright for Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope was initially held by Fox, and the merchandising rights were divided between Fox and Lucas with a 60/40 split. Fox's Star Wars intellectual property and licensing rights, with the exception of the copyright for A New Hope, were returned to Lucasfilm on September 1, 1981. Lucasfilm eventually secured the copyright for A New Hope on January 18, 1997.
Even after The Walt Disney Company's 2012 acquisition of Lucasfilm Ltd. and the rights to release all future Star Wars movies, Fox was slated to maintain permanent original distribution rights to A New Hope across all media formats worldwide. Fox was also set to retain global rights for theatrical, nontheatrical, and home video distribution for the five subsequent films in the franchise, which Lucasfilm independently produced and financed, until May 2020, at which point ownership would transfer to Disney. This intricate arrangement between Disney and Fox, particularly concerning Fox's enduring rights to Episode IV, was expected to pose a challenge for any future complete boxed set encompassing all nine films.
In December of 2017, The Walt Disney Company started talks with 21st Century Fox to take ownership of its film and television assets, which included 20th Century Fox. Although Disney initially planned to buy Fox for US$52.4 billion, Comcast submitted a competing offer in June of 2018, leading Disney to increase their bid to US$71.3 billion. After drawn-out bidding, negotiations, and approvals from regulatory organizations, Disney completed the acquisition of 21st Century Fox's film and television assets, including 20th Century Fox, on March 20, 2019. As a result of the acquisition, Disney also gained the rights to the Original trilogy and the Prequel trilogy. Furthermore, Disney also acquired the The Simpsons, Futurama, Star Wars, X-Men, Fantastic Four, Avatar, Planet of the Apes, Ice Age, Rio, and Anastasia franchises. Fox's news and sports divisions were separated into a distinct entity called the Fox Corporation.
It was announced on January 17, 2020, that Disney intended to change the company's name to 20th Century Studios to prevent confusion with the Fox Corporation.
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