20th Century Fox

Summary of 2009 Films

Metascore Breakdown Good / So-So / Bad:
13,50,38
Quality:	Performance:
D	A

While 20th Century Fox may have finished in fourth place in the domestic box office standings, that A grade for performance is the result of one singular achievement: an all-time record $2.4 billion in foreign receipts (breaking the previous high of $2.2 billion established by Warners in 2007).

Actually, Fox's fourth-place domestic ranking is a bit misleading, for the studio's domestic performance in 2009 was anything but disappointing. Fox's 16 releases from the past year averaged $103.8 million in domestic receipts (and counting), good for second place among the major studios. The News Corporation subsidiary also increased its market share from 10.5% in 2007 and 2008 to 13.2% in 2009, and was responsible for six of the 20 highest-grossing films of the year. Oh, and one of those films -- Avatar -- just happens to be the highest-grossing movie in history.

Fox may want to put some of that money into sprucing up its upcoming releases, as the studio performed miserably with critics in 2009. Only Avatar and the underperforming animated comedy The Fantastic Mr. Fox scored good reviews and high Metascores; no other Fox release topped the 50 mark. And it wasn't just critics; the studio's average 2009 user score of 5.4 (out of 10) was the lowest for any of the six major studios. Without an Avatar to bail it out, Fox may have to put better quality on the screen in 2010 if it wants to match its box office achievements of last year.

In the Score Distribution chart, half of all scores (from the 25th percentile to the 75th percentile) fall within the shaded box, with the vertical line in the middle of the box representing the median. The Metascore is a weighted average of scores from top professional critics, on a scale from 0 (bad) to 100 (good). The User Score is an average of scores submitted by Metacritic users, on a scale from 0 (bad) to 10 (good).

Per-Film Average is the average domestic gross of all films released during 2009, and includes receipts through January 25, 2010 for films still in theaters. Rank indicates the studio's ranking among the six major studios. Sources: Box Office Mojo, The Hollywood Reporter, and Metacritic staff research.

* Domestic Gross includes box office receipts through January 25, 2010 for films still in theaters. The Metascore is a weighted average of scores from top professional critics, on a scale from 0 (bad) to 100 (good). The User Score is an average of scores submitted by Metacritic users, on a scale from 0 (bad) to 10 (good). Source for grosses: Box Office Mojo.