Biography for
Bill Mechanic More at IMDbPro »

Birth Name

Trivia

CEO and Chairman of Fox Studios (1996-2000). He was allegedly fired because of Fight Club (1999) , which only made $37 million at the American box office.

Member of the Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (Executives Branch) [2002-2005]

Personal Quotes

For a start, evil out of the hands of innocence is always interesting. [on the recent popularity of child-monster in horror movies (2005)]

When you had Gone With the Wind, the system was much more controlled. Movies were 90% of the leisure-time activities. Movies are now probably 10%, so you're fighting a confluence of other media. Driving through not just the clutter of other movies, but the clutter of entertainment, concerts, music, cable, satellite, you name it.

Everybody is about basically the same kind of thing, caught in a spiral of stupid budgets, with everybody relying 100% on these big movies when the name of the game is not making the same thing all the time. You can't afford to have 12 blockbusters a year. The idea has gotten empty. We went from the point where $100m should be like touching scalding coals to the point where it's something you roast chestnuts on. [August 2005]