The 20th Century Fox Story (1990-1999)

As the 1990's began, some of the most profitable 20th Century Fox releases were sequels. 1990 alone produced three of them with "Die Hard 2: Die Harder", "Young Guns II" and "Predator 2." The decade's first really big box office surprise though would come from a rather unlikely source: the Christmas family comedy. Most past Christmas themed films that weren't versions of "A Christmas Carol" had not been particularly successful at the box office but "Home Alone" (1990) was a major exception. The John Hughes-produced slapstick comedy/crime action hybrid set new box office records as the highest grossing comedy movie of all time. Its incredible success both in theaters and later on home video launched a new franchise that has so far produced two theatrical sequels (in 1992 and 1997), two made for television sequels and a made for streaming franchise reboot movie. John Hughes, the writer/producer/director who had made a very successful name for himself throughout the 80's with his teenage "dramedies" and occasional domestic comedies, reinvented himself as the box office king of "kiddie slapstick" and would move on to produce a critically panned but almost always financially successful string of "Home Alone clones" at Fox and other studios during the rest of the 90's before his retirement.

Other early to mid 90's box office and/or critics' highlights included "Edward Scissorhands" (1990), "The Commitments" (1991), "Hot Shots" (1991, and its 1993 sequel), "Point Break" (1991), "The Last of the Mohicans" (1992), "My Cousin Vinny" (1992), "Mrs. Doubtfire" (1993), "The Sandlot" (1993), "Speed" (1994), "True Lies" (1994), "Braveheart" (1995, a Best Picture Oscar winner that Fox distributed internationally) "Die Hard With a Vengeance" (1995), "Waiting to Exhale" (1995), "Independence Day" (1996) and "That Thing You Do" (1996). However, it was director James Cameron's (who had previously done 1986's "Aliens", 1989's "The Abyss" and "True Lies" for the studio) next film that would bring Fox and the entire motion picture industry their greatest moneymaking success by far. The movie was "Titanic" (1997), a three and a half hour epic romantic drama set against the backdrop of the ill fated 1912 ocean voyage of the luxury liner of the same name. The $200 million Paramount Pictures co-production was a groundbreaking box office triumph that made a record setting worldwide box office total of over $2 billion, stayed in theaters for nearly an entire year, set additional records in VHS rentals/sales, won countless awards, elevated its two young leads (Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet) to instant A-list celebrity status that they still have to this day and is still considered to be one of the most popular and beloved movies of all time. The continued profits just from "Titanic" alone were enough to keep Fox on financially stable ground during an otherwise mostly lackluster 1998. To keep Fox's accountants happy, the long awaited first installment in the "Star Wars" prequel trilogy would finally get released in 1999. Titled "Episode I - The Phantom Menace", it disappointed critics and divided audiences but it was still a huge hit. With these movie successes, the rapid growth of the initially tiny and barely distributed FOX television network which had by now included several additional cable channels and the 1994 founding of a well received independent film subsidiary called Fox Searchlight Pictures, Fox was riding high as it got ready to enter the new millennium.

All of 20th Century Fox's theatrical feature film releases from January 1990 through December 1999 are listed here. The Fox Searchlight releases are not counted as they deserve a separate listing by themselves. For fans and enthusiasts of 90's cinema, it seemed like quite a few of the decade's most iconic and memorable films would come from Fox.

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