Aug 6, 2019

Fox Entertainment acquires "Bob's Burger" Studio Lunch Box

Fox Entertainment has acquired the decade-old production company Bento Box Entertainment, the production studio behind Fox's Bob's Burgers as well as two upcoming animated Fox series, Duncanville (created by Amy Poehler, Mike Scully, and Julie Scully) and The Great North (created by Loren Bouchard, Wendy Molyneux, Lizzie Molyneux, and Minty Lewis).

Prior to its acquisition, Bento Box was one of the largest independent animation studios in the United States, employing 500 artists and staff at its studios in Los Angeles and Atlanta. In addition to its work for Fox, it produces other animated series including Paradise PD (Netflix), Brickleberry (Comedy Central), The Awesomes (Hulu), Lazor Wulf (Adult Swim), and the upcoming Central Park (Apple TV+).

The studio will operate as a stand-alone entity under the Fox Entertainment banner and produce content for all platforms. The existing leadership of Bento Box will remain in place, including co-founders Scott Greenberg (CEO) and Joel Kuwahara (president of production), as well as senior executives Brett Coker (COO), Ben Jones (creative director), Craig Hartin (GM of Bento Box Atlanta), Janelle Momary (supervising producer) and Andi Raab (supervising producer).

“You can't walk around the Fox lot without noticing a decades-long passion for animation. It is in the Fox DNA and has served legions of fans, partners and investors,” Fox Entertainment CEO Charlie Collier said in a statement. “As we grow Fox for the next generation, it only makes sense we would expand our animation capabilities by bringing on board the best in the business: Bento Box. The Bento-Fox combination brings Fox front-door access to the next wave of the genre's creative leaders, while still maintaining Bento Box's focus on all that makes them a terrific partner for outside producers.”

Greenberg and Kuwahara added, “Today, we're the world's leading studio for primetime animation, and this acquisition will provide us with the unique opportunity to build, to grow and to better service our current partners. While we've always had a special relationship with Fox, we're so excited to officially be part of the family.”

Fox Entertainment is part of Rupert Murdoch's Fox Corporation, the spinoff of the parts of 21st Century Fox that were not acquired by the Walt Disney Company. Fox Corp's other key businesses include Fox News Channel, Fox Sports channels, and 28 local Fox channels. The Bento Box acquisition marks part of Fox's strategy to build in-house production capabilities. In February, the company launched Sidecar, a content development accelerator headed by Gail Berman, to incubate scripted and unscripted programming for both Fox and third-party platforms, and in May, Fox Entertainment announced it would build its unscripted programming capabilities through a new in-house unit, Fox Alternative Entertainment.

Fox's Animation Domination, which currently includes The Simpsons, Family Guy, and Bob's Burgers, will expand this fall with the new series Bless the Harts (created by Emily Spivey and executive produced by Phil Lord and Chris Miller), followed by the mid-season launch of Duncanville.

Bento Box's kids and family investment, Sutikki, and its related assets, are not part of the acquisition.