‘X’-Movie Chief Mechanic a Marvel for Fox

It’s one of those classic Hollywood ironies: A movie chief gets fired, and, bam, his next release is a smash hit.

Sure, Bill Mechanic had his share of wrong bets during his nearly seven-year tenure as head of 20th Century Fox, including the recent costly animated flop “Titan A.E.” But, as with other studio honchos who were fired and left lucrative movie franchises in their wake, Fox has Mechanic to thank for its latest: “X-Men.”

Just three weeks after Fox booted its widely beloved movie chairman and before it has even named a successor, the studio had its second-biggest movie opening in history after last year’s “Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace.”

“It’s a little bittersweet, but that’s cool,” said the plain-spoken Mechanic when reached Monday morning at his home office, where he was fielding congratulatory calls on two ringing phones from his Hollywood friends.

Far surpassing all industry expectations, “X-Men” took in $54.4 million during its debut this past weekend--nearly as much as “Star Wars’ ” $64.8 million. Not only was it Fox’s biggest weekend opening ever, but it was also the industry’s biggest opening ever for a non-sequel or for the month of July. It also beat out any opening by a “Batman” movie.

Despite its lack of big stars to draw in audiences, “X-Men” is also the second-biggest opening this year, after Paramount Pictures’ “Mission: Impossible” sequel, starring Tom Cruise, which brought in $57.8 million over its holiday weekend opening.

“X-Men” is the kind of tent-pole movie that studios pray for, and Fox is already working on the sequel, having locked down the cast as part of the original deal.

“X-Men” follows a prolonged box-office slump for Fox that resulted in Mechanic’s ouster late last month. Mechanic had come under intensifying pressure from Rupert Murdoch, chairman of Fox parent News Corp., who had long criticized the studio chief’s creative choices and costly bet on animation. Peter Chernin, Murdoch’s No. 2 at News Corp., called Mechanic with the news after the disastrous opening of “Titan A.E.,” which cost about $100 million and could lose $70 million or more.

But however big the loss, it is likely to be more than paid for by profits from “X-Men” and two other current releases from Fox--”Big Momma’s House,” which has grossed more than $108 million to date, and “Me, Myself and Irene,” which has fallen short of expectations but will still gross about $100 million domestically.

Asked if he feels bitter toward Murdoch and Chernin, Mechanic simply said, “Look, I had a good run. I’m looking forward, not back.”

Mechanic said since leaving Fox he has received feelers from several other entertainment companies about top studio jobs and is exploring forming an independent company similar to the one created by former Disney Studios Chairman Joe Roth. Despite his run-ins with Fox management over last year’s violent box-office flop “Fight Club” and the huge money-loser “Anna and the King,” Mechanic said running another studio “was not out of the realm of possibilities.”

Unlike many of his counterparts at other studios, Mechanic is loath to take sole credit for the hits he presided over. He credited a number of Fox executives, calling himself “just a guider.”

But Mechanic deserves the major credit for breathing life into the comic-book property that was acquired before he joined the studio. A big “comic-book fan,” Mechanic said, “This was the exceptional piece of material and a movie I wanted to make almost from the beginning. It had been a big focus of mine.”

In true Mechanic fashion, however, it was not to be the typical Hollywood special-effects production costing more than $100 million and fueled by big-name stars or a big-name director.

By design, the movie was understated. It cost $75 million to make, was somewhat dark “to reflect the true spirit of the comic,” Mechanic said, and was directed by Bryan Singer, whose only two credits were “The Usual Suspects,” a highly acclaimed $6-million film that won two Oscars, and the 1998 thriller “Apt Pupil,” which took in just $8.7 million.

Though to most execs Singer would not have been an obvious choice to direct Fox’s sci-fi action-adventure, he was to Mechanic.

“The coolness of both his [previous] movies reflects the sensibility of the comic books,” Mechanic said. “His movies are about alienation and isolation.”

“X-Men” is about a group of mutant outcasts who fight to protect the world from bad mutants who hate them for being different. “It’s the classic story of good and evil and protecting the innocent,” said Tom Sherak, chairman of the company’s Domestic Film Group.

But to garner such a bonanza at the box office, “X-Men” clearly went far beyond its core audience of young comic-book fans and appealed broadly to both genders.

Sherak said the audience last weekend was largely 18-to-39-year-olds, about 60% male to 40% female. Surprisingly, 53% of the audience was over 25. 20th Century Fox Film Group President Tom Rothman said he believes that the fundamental theme made it a phenomenon with moviegoers of all ages.

“At some point, all of us feel apart, separate and different and that everyone else belongs but I don’t. It’s a very universal theme,” Rothman said.

Fox insiders are crediting the studio’s marketing team, including President Bob Harper and creative advertising head Tony Sella, with devising an effective campaign, including an Internet component much like that of last year’s sleeper hit “The Blair Witch Project.” According to Harper, more than a quarter of the people who went to see “X-Men” had visited the movie’s Web site.

“It’s an Internet-friendly subject,” Harper said, noting, “It’s the first time we’ve actually seen in exit polls that a movie was as much influenced by the Internet as it was by newspapers.”

In addition to the “X-Men” movie site, Fox had a separate “Mutant Watch” site that drew users into the mutant hysteria central to the movie’s story line.

The idea behind the campaign, also launched in TV ads in April, was initially to disassociate from the movie itself, proposing the idea of a world where a mutant population existed. Fox created a sort of faux political campaign centered on the film’s fictional character Senator Kelly, who warns the country is being overrun by impure mutants.

In the months leading up to “X-Men’s” release, Fox then filled in the blanks by linking its “Mutant Watch” TV and Internet campaign to selling people on a movie about people who feel as if they don’t completely fit in.

“Our objective was that this movie would not just be perceived as being for the ‘X-Men’ fanatic,” Harper said.

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Bittersweet Endings

Bill Mechanic is just the latest studio chief to be ousted for betting on money-losing films only to be vindicated by box-office blockbusters after departing. A look at him and two others who hit it big after they left:

*

Bill Mechanic,

chairman, 20th Century Fox

* Ousted: June 2000

* Failures: “Titan A.E.,” “Fight Club”

* Hits: “X-Men,” “Big Momma’s House,” “Me, Myself and Irene”

*

Mark Canton, chairman, Columbia TriStar

* Ousted: September 1996

* Failures: “Multiplicity,” “The Cable Guy”

* Hits: “Jerry Maguire,” “My Best Friend’s Wedding,” “Men in Black”

*

Casey Silver, studio chief,

Universal Studios

* Ousted: December 1998

* Failures: “Babe: Pig in the City,” “Meet Joe Black”

* Hits: “American Pie,” “Erin Brockovich,” “The Mummy”

*

Source: Times research