20th Century Fox Opening Division for Live Theater

LOS ANGELES â€" One of the last Hollywood studios without a Broadway division, 20th Century Fox, is diving into the live theater business by teaming with Kevin McCollum, a producer of hits like “Rent,” “Avenue Q” and “Motown.”

Mr. McCollum and Fox - along with the film producer John Davis and Tom McGrath, a veteran entertainment executive - on Thursday plan to announce a joint venture to develop a slate of nine to 12 musicals based on Fox films. The shows could go to Broadway or simply tour, either in North America or overseas.

Mr. McCollum and Mr. Davis, whose blockbusters have ranged from “Dr. Dolittle” to “Predator,” declined in interviews to say what films they saw as likely candidates for stage adaptations. Fox’s 4,500-title catalog dates to the 1930s and includes such seemingly tantalizing titles as “Mrs. Doubtfire,” the “Ice Age” movies, “Moulin Rouge” and old Shirley Temple and Marilyn Monroe comedies.

“Theater is about surprises and things that you haven’t seen before on stage,” said Mr. McCollum, who will oversee day-to-day operations. “There are amazing Fox Searchlight titles and great films from the ‘70s that nobody today has heard of.” (Searchlight is the studio’s art house label.)

Mr. Davis added: “Most important is not forcing anything. A big, popular movie doesn’t always lend itself to a live experience.”

Until now, Fox has approached the live theater business as a passive licenser. The unsuccessful musical “9 to 5,” for instance, was based on one of its films. Roughly 70 percent of Broadway shows lose money, but Fox executives said they had recently grown frustrated by adaptation efforts that misfired.

“For years we have been eager to expand our entertainment expertise to the world of live stage, but we wanted to do it right and, most importantly, with the right people,” Fox’s chairman, Jim Gianopulos, said in a statement.

Disney, Warner Brothers, MGM, Sony and Universal - all eager to capitalize on theatergoer demand for musicals based on movies - have Broadway operations of varying sizes. Disney’s has been the most effective, in part because it has largely focused on adapting movie musicals, albeit animated ones; Disney said on Wednesday, for instance, that the domestic tour of “The Lion King” alone has taken in more than $1 billion over the years.

If successful, live theater revenue can be an important cushion for movie studios, whose financial fortunes often whipsaw from quarter to quarter as films hit or miss. Disney’s Broadway division has at times helped make the difference between Walt Disney Studios’ reporting a quarterly loss or a profit.

As the film business becomes more treacherous because of rising costs, studios see Broadway as a safe place to dabble because the investment required is relatively small, especially compared with the potential upside. Losing $20 million on a failed stage musical seems like nothing in Hollywood, where a movie bomb can result in a write-down of $100 million or more.

Fox will finance 50 percent of the joint venture, with the balance coming from Mr. McCollum, Mr. Davis and Mr. McGrath, the former chairman of Key Brand Entertainment, which owns the Broadway Across America touring network and the Broadway.com ticket-selling site.

Fox has also hired Isaac Robert Hurwitz, a founder and the executive director of the New York Musical Theater Festival, as a consultant. Mr. Hurwitz said in an interview that he was assessing Fox’s library by watching dozens of movies that he thought might hold promise. As for his tenure at the annual musical festival, he said he would step down soon after its run concludes at the end of July.

Mr. McCollum, whose other musical hits include “In the Heights” and “The Drowsy Chaperone,” will continue to work on independent projects while collaborating with Fox on the adaptations. Mr. Davis and Mr. McGrath will do the same. Mr. McCollum said he hoped that Fox would become a partner in the reverse, with his original stage shows moving to the big screen.

Broadway can be a cutthroat business, but one competitor, Thomas Schumacher, president of Disney Theatrical Group, gave Fox’s move a surprisingly upbeat assessment. “A lot of different companies have wanted to get in,” he said, “but to do this with someone like Kevin, a smart producer who knows everybody, is a great decision.”