Wyatt leaves Fox to connect with her roots
UPDATE: Video president will run anime-style production company.
By Jennifer Netherby and Scott Hettrick -- Video Business, 12/19/2002
| Pat Wyatt |
DEC. 19 | Pat Wyatt, president of Fox's home video and consumer products operations, has resigned to start an indie film production and financing company specializing in Japanese-style animated programming produced specifically for home viewing.
Wyatt's departure after seven years with the studio, including five overseeing video, comes as Fox is enjoying one of its biggest video sales seasons ever with Ice Age and the Star Wars entry Attack of the Clones ranking among the top DVDs of the quarter.
Wyatt said she is eager to step away from the corporate culture for awhile and try to reconnect with her family roots in Japan. Her grandfather, Kiyoshi Masumoto, was one of the founding fathers of Japanese cinema, having started one of the first Japanese studios and creating a theater/school of Japanese drama focusing on stories about real life, she said.
"I feel like my grandfather brought Western culture to Japanese cinema; now I'd like to bring Eastern culture to the West," Wyatt said.
"Pat's enormous contributions are integral to the fiscal and operational excellence of our North American Home Entertainment business," Fox Filmed Entertainment chairmen Tom Rothman and Jim Gianopulos said in a statement. "Her talents will be missed, and we wish her the best with her production and financing endeavor."
Fox has no announcement as yet about replacements for Wyatt either on the video or consumer products sides, although it is believed those units will once again be put under separate executives. An announcement is expected in the near future relative to consumer products. Sources at Fox and within the video industry believe that Fox Home Entertainment executive VP of sales and marketing Mike Dunn has been groomed for the top video post.
Wyatt joined the company in 1995 as president of Twentieth Century Fox Licensing and Merchandising. She was responsible for 100% growth in merchandising revenue in just two years, during which she also created a brand-focused marketing structure and was named one of the top 100 marketing executives in the country by Advertising Age.
Since former Fox studio head Bill Mechanic gave her the additional oversight of the video unit five years ago following the departure of former video president Jeff Yapp, Wyatt has led the company to revenue that topped $1 billion a year and moved the company into the DVD era.
Wyatt guided Fox's home entertainment operation to record-setting revenue and profits for fiscal 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001 and 2002. In 2000, she was recognized by the UCLA Anderson School with its Executive Leadership Award.
Wyatt says the experience she gained in retailing and licensing, as well as overhauling the company's data systems, will help her build her new business that will rely heavily on merchandising opportunities.
"Every time I drive to that ranch that [Star Wars creator George] Lucas built and see all that acreage, I think to myself, that isn't all necessarily from the films; there's a lot of profits from the toys and merchandise that went into that."
She says Hollywood films have become formulaic, and that Japanese anime movies and programs, while visually appealing, lack traditional American forms of storytelling to appeal to broader audiences here in the U.S. "Japanese storytelling is sometimes obtuse," she said.
Thus, her new company, the name and details of which will be forthcoming, will combine the look of animation created by Japanese and Korean companies with stories that have a beginning, middle and end, she said. The company will also produce theatrical films.
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