Fox enters 'Matrix,' but after Turner
TV deal includes 'Soldier,' 'Lost'
Two other Warner Bros. movies are included in the deal: Kurt Russell starrer "Soldier," which grossed only $16.2 million in U.S. theaters last year, and "Lost & Found" with David Spade, which opens this week.
Warner Bros., Fox and Turner all declined comment. But sources said Warner Bros. will compute the fees that Turner and Fox pay based on the domestic box office gross of the pictures. Turner will probably end up paying between $18 million and $22 million for the three movies, according to one source, with Fox kicking in another $10 million to $13 million.
A hit with target auds
Sources said both ABC and NBC also were interested in buying "The Matrix," but Fox escalated its bid because the movie has tapped into the imagination of masses of teen-age boys and young men, the audience that Fox targets with most of its primetime series.
The sharing of big-grossing theatricals by a cable network and a broadcast network in the first contractual window has become more prevalent as movie prices continue to soar. Turner's TBS and TNT have stepped up the demand for first play because of the possibility of a breakthrough Nielsen rating for a movie that's a known commodity as a result of millions of dollars of marketing.
HBO nabs pay TV rights
As with all Warner Bros. theatricals, HBO has bought the exclusive pay TV rights, which typically become available to HBO one year after a pic's debut in the multiplexes.
HBO's exclusive window runs for about 20 months. Turner expects to get "Matrix" in December 2001 for a six-month window, during which it will schedule eight runs of the picture. Then Fox will get 18 months to play two runs of "Matrix," with the first play expected to go in May 2002. The movie bounces back to Turner's TBS and TNT for 3-1/2 more years of multiple plays.
Fox gets one run of "Soldier" in a one-year window before TBS, which will then get it for four years. Sources said Fox will also get "Lost & Found" first unless the movie becomes a hit in the theaters, triggering a clause that would give Turner the first play.
