Fox's inhouse pact

'X-Men,' 'Momma,' 'Irene' sold to TV siblings

By JOHN DEMPSEY

NEW YORK -- Twentieth Century Fox has sold its theatricals "X-Men," "Big Momma's House" and "Me, Myself & Irene," along with four others, in an exclusive deal with the Fox network and its cable siblings FX and Fox Family Channel for a total license fee of about $80 million.

Deal has a wrinkle that's unprecedented: 20th has tacked on a cable back window of five years to give FX and Fox Family exclusive multiple-run plays of all of the pics to keep the networks competitive with such aggressive movie buyers as TBS, USA and TNT. The extra term for cable means that at least the top three titles will be locked up in the shared network window for up to 10 years instead of the usual five years.

The principals to the deal declined comment, but sources say top-level officials at News Corp., which owns 20th as well as the Fox broadcast and cable nets, orchestrated the stretched-out license term. The four other titles in the package are "Men of Honor," "Dude, Where's My Car," "Bedazzled" and "Titan A.E."

Twentieth's blockbuster hit "Cast Away," which is not part of the deal, is still available in the network window. Industry speculation is that 20th will sell "Cast Away" as a standalone, not as part of a multi-title movie package.

For the first five years of the deal, the movies will move between the Fox network and either FX or Fox Family. "X-Men," "Big Momma's House" and "Me, Myself & Irene" will become available to the Fox net in February 2003. Before they wind up at Fox in the network window, the pictures will get their exclusive pay TV runs on HBO, which has a long-term output deal with 20th Century Fox.

Although the logistics are still being worked out, Fox will get at least two runs of the big-grossing titles and will likely take only one run of the box-office disappointments such as "Titan A.E.," which grossed $23 million in U.S. theaters, and "Bedazzled," which wound up at $38 million domestically.

FX will probably run all seven titles over the course of the network-window contract, whereas Fox Family, which is more restrictive about content, will have to pick more carefully, probably taking "Titan A.E." and, with some editing, "X-Men" and "Men of Honor."

In anticipation of laying out big bucks for these 20th titles, the Fox Network has bypassed the other summer blockbusters, although in recent months it has picked up "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" and "Vertical Limit" from Columbia TriStar and, in a shared window with TBS and TNT, "Little Nicky" from New Line.