Baja Studios, formerly
Fox
Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush'').
Twelve sp ...
Baja, is an American-owned film studio near the resort community of
Rosarito
Rosarito is a coastal city in Playas de Rosarito Municipality, Baja California, situated on the Pacific Coast of Mexico. As of 2010, the city had a population of 65,278. Located south of the US-Mexico border, Rosarito is a part of the greater S ...
,
Baja California
Baja California (; 'Lower California'), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Baja California ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Baja California), is a state in Mexico. It is the northernmost and westernmost of the 32 federal entities of Mex ...
, Mexico. It comprises the world's largest stages and water tanks designed for filming. As well as major film work the facility is used for making commercials, music videos, television series, and movies for television.
Originally built for
Twentieth Century Fox
20th Century Studios, Inc. (previously known as 20th Century Fox) is an American film studio, film production company headquartered at the Fox Studio Lot in the Century City area of Los Angeles. As of 2019, it serves as a film production arm o ...
for the reconstruction of
RMS ''Titanic'' in the 1997 film ''
Titanic
RMS ''Titanic'' was a British passenger liner, operated by the White Star Line, which sank in the North Atlantic Ocean on 15 April 1912 after striking an iceberg during her maiden voyage from Southampton, England, to New York City, United ...
'', it has since then built some of the largest sets for numerous other studios including,
MGM
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded on April 17, 1924 a ...
s ''
Tomorrow Never Dies
''Tomorrow Never Dies'' is a 1997 spy film, the eighteenth in the ''James Bond'' series produced by Eon Productions and the second to star Pierce Brosnan as fictional MI6 agent James Bond. Directed by Roger Spottiswoode from a screenplay by ...
'',
Amblin Entertainment
Amblin Entertainment, Inc., formerly named Amblin Productions and Steven Spielberg Productions, is an American film production company founded by director and producer Steven Spielberg, and film producers Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshal ...
s ''
In Dreams'',
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. D ...
s ''
Deep Blue Sea'',
Phoenix Pictures
Phoenix Pictures is an American film production company that has produced films since the late 1990s with features including ''Black Swan'' (2010), ''Shutter Island'' (2010), ''The People vs. Larry Flynt'' (1996), '' The Thin Red Line'' (1998), an ...
s ''
Weight of Water'',
Disney
The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...
s ''
Pearl Harbor
Pearl Harbor is an American lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. It was often visited by the Naval fleet of the United States, before it was acquired from the Hawaiian Kingdom by the U.S. with the signing of the Re ...
'' and Fox's ''
Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World''. The studios are near Rosarito, Baja California, Mexico.
History
![Titanic Movie Cinema shooting](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/24/Titanic_Movie_Cinema_shooting._Airstar_Lighting_balloons.jpg)
Fox Baja Studios began life as a subsidiary of
Twentieth Century Fox
20th Century Studios, Inc. (previously known as 20th Century Fox) is an American film studio, film production company headquartered at the Fox Studio Lot in the Century City area of Los Angeles. As of 2019, it serves as a film production arm o ...
, a part of the global corporate holdings of
Rupert Murdoch
Keith Rupert Murdoch ( ; born 11 March 1931) is an Australian-born American business magnate. Through his company News Corp, he is the owner of hundreds of local, national, and international publishing outlets around the world, including ...
on land leased by the Hollywood studio. Construction of the facility costing an estimated $20 million USD began on 6 June 1996 on land leased by the Hollywood studio next to the northern edge of a small fishing village (Puerto Popotla). The corporation had an interest in breaking the power in
Hollywood
Hollywood usually refers to:
* Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California
* Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States
Hollywood may also refer to:
Places United States
* Hollywood District (disambiguation)
* Hollywood, ...
of the
Teamsters Union
The International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT), also known as the Teamsters Union, is a labor union in the United States and Canada. Formed in 1903 by the merger of The Team Drivers International Union and The Teamsters National Union, the un ...
; the corporation had learned from the
Wapping dispute
The Wapping dispute was a lengthy failed strike by print workers in London in 1986.
Print unions tried to block distribution of ''The Sunday Times'', along with other newspapers in Rupert Murdoch's News International group, after production wa ...
. The studio's design was heavily influenced by the production needs of the first film to be shot there,
James Cameron
James Francis Cameron (born August 16, 1954) is a Canadian filmmaker. A major figure in the post-New Hollywood era, he is considered one of the industry's most innovative filmmakers, regularly pushing the boundaries of cinematic capability w ...
's epic
Titanic
RMS ''Titanic'' was a British passenger liner, operated by the White Star Line, which sank in the North Atlantic Ocean on 15 April 1912 after striking an iceberg during her maiden voyage from Southampton, England, to New York City, United ...
, where there was a requirement to shoot a 775-foot-long replica of the ship in a water tank. Fox sold the studios in May 2007 to Baja Acquisitions (a consortium of "local financial interests") for an eight-figure US Dollar sum.
There was a downturn in the area from 2007 when tourism lessened due to a local drug war and a tightening of travel restrictions. Popotla had become attractive to smugglers of illegal immigrants at night once the restaurant trade had closed for the day.
In 2018 a resurgence in filmmaking for Internet streaming by Amazon, HBO, and Netflix lifted prospects for the studio.
Facilities
![Baja Studios](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b0/Baja_Studios.jpg)
The studio is built alongside the ocean coastline, enabling an unobstructed view of the sea. It comprises 51 acres of land overlooking the Pacific Ocean, with 2,000 feet of coastline frontage. The facility has 5 stages, 4 indoor and outdoor water tanks, street sets, and is a self-contained facility, with offices, scenery shops, wardrobe and dressing rooms. Two of the stages and three of the tanks are combined. There are four tanks with a combined volume of over 20 million gallons fed by a filtration seawater plant capable of delivering 9,000 gallons of water per minute.
Tank 1 is an
infinite horizon pond which adjoins and overlooks the Pacific. Built to film ''Titanic'', it is a 360,000-square-foot concrete pool with a full capacity of 17 million gallons, used for exterior shooting, wet or dry, and consists of three depth levels from 3 1/2 to 40 feet. The tank can be emptied or filled in 40 hours. Alongside it is a 162-foot motor-driven tower crane, used for constructing film sets and as a lighting and camera platform. Fox employed mostly American technical personnel for the tank's construction, despite available Mexican resources. On completion of filming, the tank was drained of chlorinated water too quickly without management in one batch, ruining the fishing waters at Popotla.
There is a smaller outdoor tank and another two built into an indoor stage.
;Studio tour
Fox created a Studio Tour named Foxploration, which opened in May 2001 consisting largely of ''Titanic'' exhibits, Fox-derived displays, and items from other films, notably ''Master and Commander''.
This tour closed.
Films
![2001 - Full size fake Tank Ship under construction 103-0314_IMG](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/80/2001_-_Full_size_fake_Tank_Ship_under_construction_103-0314_IMG.jpg)
*''
Titanic
RMS ''Titanic'' was a British passenger liner, operated by the White Star Line, which sank in the North Atlantic Ocean on 15 April 1912 after striking an iceberg during her maiden voyage from Southampton, England, to New York City, United ...
'' (1997)
*''
Tomorrow Never Dies
''Tomorrow Never Dies'' is a 1997 spy film, the eighteenth in the ''James Bond'' series produced by Eon Productions and the second to star Pierce Brosnan as fictional MI6 agent James Bond. Directed by Roger Spottiswoode from a screenplay by ...
'' (1997) (Second Unit)
*''
Deep Blue Sea'' (1999)
*''
In Dreams'' (1999)
*''
The Weight of Water
''The Weight of Water'' is a 1997 bestselling novel by Anita Shreve. Half of the novel is historical fiction based on the Smuttynose Island murders, which took place in 1873.
The book was adapted for a film of the same name, directed by Kathryn ...
'' (2000)
*''
Pearl Harbor
Pearl Harbor is an American lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. It was often visited by the Naval fleet of the United States, before it was acquired from the Hawaiian Kingdom by the U.S. with the signing of the Re ...
'' (2001)
*''
Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World'' (2003)
*''
Kung Pow! Enter the Fist
''Kung Pow! Enter the Fist'' is a 2002 American martial arts comedy film that parodies Hong Kong action cinema. Written, directed by and starring Steve Oedekerk, it uses footage from the 1976 Hong Kong martial arts film ''Tiger & Crane Fists'' ...
'' (2002)
*''
Ghosts of the Abyss
''Ghosts of the Abyss'' is a 2003 American documentary film produced by Walden Media and released in most countries by Walt Disney Pictures. It was directed by James Cameron after his 1997 film ''Titanic''. During August and September 2001, Camer ...
'' (2003)
*''
Jumper
Jumper or Jumpers may refer to:
Clothing
*Jumper (sweater), a long-sleeve article of clothing; also called a top, pullover, or sweater
**A waist-length top garment of dense wool, part of the Royal Navy uniform and the uniform of the United State ...
'' (2008)
*''
All Is Lost
''All Is Lost'' is a 2013 survival drama film written and directed by J. C. Chandor. The film stars Robert Redford as a man lost at sea. Redford is the only cast member, and the film has 51 spoken English words. ''All Is Lost'' is Chandor's secon ...
'' (2013)
*''
Against the Sun'' (2014)
*''
Little Boy
"Little Boy" was the type of atomic bomb dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima on 6 August 1945 during World War II, making it the first nuclear weapon used in warfare. The bomb was dropped by the Boeing B-29 Superfortress ''Enola Gay'' p ...
'' (2015)
Television
*''
Tremors'' (2003)
*''
Fear the Walking Dead'' (2016) • Season 2
*''
9-1-1 (TV series)
''9-1-1'' is an American procedural drama television series created by Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk, and Tim Minear. The series had aired on Fox and currently airs on ABC. The series follows the lives of Los Angeles first responders: police o ...
'' (2019) Season 3
*''
Selena: The Series'' (2020–2021) • Part 1 and Part 2
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Baja Studios
1996 establishments in Mexico
Film production companies of Mexico
Entertainment companies established in 1996
Mass media companies established in 1996
Companies based in Mexico City