Fox Studio Lot Getting Major Expansion to Ramp Up Production
Rupert Murdoch’s Fox Corp. is expanding its legendary Century City studio lot.
The proposed Fox Future Studio Lot promises another nine new soundstages, to bring the total number to 24, and will add new production facilities and commercial office space.
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Fox owns the former 20th Century Fox complex and leased the facility to Disney for seven years as part of the $52 billion deal unveiled in late 2017, in which Disney acquired Fox’s film and television assets, much of which was centered on the lot.
Now, Fox will expand the studio facility as the Century City film shooting sector expands. “The Fox Studio Lot is one of the most iconic and treasured production locations in the history of entertainment and is a rich part of our history. The Fox Future project represents a long-term commitment to our industry, to our community, and to the City of Los Angeles,” Lachlan Murdoch, executive chair and CEO of Fox Corp., said in a statement.
Besides soundstages, the expanded studio lot will also have postproduction facilities, base camps, and media campus offices for film and television production in the digital era. The expansion will take place where classic movies like Miracle on 34th Street and Sound of Music were shot, and where the Fox broadcast network was launched.
The development also aims to ease a shortage of premium studio space in Los Angeles. Currently, there are around 80 permanent buildings on Fox’s lot, including soundstages, television production and programming facilities, executive offices and support facilities. Altogether, it amounts to nearly 1.8 million square feet of building space.
More recently, the Fox lot has been one of the most active production facilities in the city. ABC’s Modern Family, Speechless and Fresh Off the Boat were shot on the Century City lot, as was Fox’s The Orville, The Mick and LA to Vegas, along with all of Ryan Murphy’s FX shows and others.
Century City was originally built on Fox’s backlot in 1956, when studio executives sold off that land to remedy the runaway budget of Cleopatra in the midst of a major development boom.
