20th Century Fox (then solely-owned by News Corporation), controlled by Rupert Murdoch, became a major investor in 1994 and purchased the company outright in 1997; the alliance with Murdoch, specifically through a group affiliation agreement with New World reached between the two companies in May 1994, helped to cement the Fox network as the fourth major U.S. television network.

New World Pictures' co-founder Gene Corman died at his home in Beverly Hills, California, on September 28, 2020, at the age of 93.

[citation needed] Corman hoped to continue AIP's formula at New World, making low-budget films by new talent and distributing them internationally.

However, it started out with only ten domestic offices, and one each in Canada and the United Kingdom; its films were distributed regionally by other companies.

Corman helped launch the filmmaking careers of Jonathan Demme (Caged Heat, Crazy Mama), Jonathan Kaplan (White Line Fever), Ron Howard (Grand Theft Auto), Paul Bartel (Death Race 2000) and Joe Dante (Piranha), all of whom made some of their early films as interns for the company.

[6] New World also released foreign films from acclaimed directors such as Ingmar Bergman (Cries and Whispers, Autumn Sonata), Federico Fellini (Amarcord) and Akira Kurosawa (Dersu Uzala).

[10][11] In July 1967, William "Bill" Deneen left Encyclopædia Britannica Films to start up the Learning Corporation of America, a rival company with Columbia Pictures.

Among his most famous in-depth looks of everyday life overseas were a series on Japan, Hungary and Communism and a trio shot on Samuel Bronston's sets of Fall of the Roman Empire, including Claudius: Boy of Ancient Rome.

[13] By this time New World Pictures changed its name to New World Entertainment to better reflect its range of subsidiaries besides the film studio, including its purchase of Marvel Comics, and partner Harry Sloan said that the name change would have the revised banner "more accurately reflects the business the company is in".

On February 17, 1993, Perelman purchased a majority stake in SCI Television, taking over control of the company from George Gillett.

[21] The core of the group was the former television properties of Storer Communications, which Gillett bought in 1987 financed through junk bonds that soured after Black Monday, putting him in a 10:1 debt-to-profit ratio.

In the wake of Fox's landmark $1.58-billion deal with the National Football League (NFL) on December 17, 1993, which awarded it the television rights to the National Football Conference (NFC) beginning with the league's 1994 season,[33][34] the network began seeking agreements with various station groups such as SF Broadcasting to affiliate with VHF stations that had established histories as affiliates of the Big Three broadcast television networks (ABC, CBS and NBC) and therefore had higher value with advertisers (compared to its predominately UHF affiliate body, the vast majority of which were independent stations before joining the network), in an effort to bolster the network's newly acquired package of NFL game telecasts.

[1][36][30][37] New World was approached by Fox in part due to the group's expanding presence in several primary and secondary markets of NFC teams.

[40] Later that year, Brandon Tartikoff, who helped NBC out of its ratings doldrums in the 1980s in his former role as President of Entertainment at NBC, joined New World Communications in an executive position; concurrently, New World acquired Tartikoff's production company Moving Target Productions.

[47][48] On July 17, 1996, Fox parent News Corporation announced that it would acquire the remainder of New World Communications for $2.48 billion in stock.