Fox tucks into Bento Box

Animated comedy Bob’s Burgers was created by Loren Bouchard

Fox Entertainment has acquired the Emmy-winning production company behind Fox animated comedy Bob’s Burgers.

Bento Box Entertainment, which is also behind forthcoming Fox series Duncanville and The Great North, will operate as a standalone entity under the Fox Entertainment banner and will produce content for all platforms.

Its leadership team will remain in place, including co-founders Scott Greenberg (CEO) and Joel Kuwahara (president of production), and senior executives Brett Coker (chief operating officer), Ben Jones (creative director), Craig Hartin (general manager of Bento Box Atlanta), Janelle Momary (supervising producer) and Andi Raab (supervising producer).

The company’s kids’ and family division, Sutikki, and its related assets, are not part of the acquisition.

Bento Box currently produces the animation for Bob’s Burgers for 20th Century Fox Television, which is owned by Walt Disney Television. It is also producing Duncanville alongside 20th Century Fox Television, Universal Television and Fox Entertainment, and The Great North with 20th Century Fox Television and Fox Entertainment.

The company’s other recent work includes one of Apple TV+’s first animated programmes, musical comedy Central Park. The show comes from Bob’s Burgers creator Loren Bouchard.

Fox Entertainment CEO Charlie Collier said: “You can’t walk around the Fox lot without noticing a decades-long passion for animation. It is in the Fox DNA and has served legions of fans, partners and investors.”

“As we grow Fox for the next generation, it only makes sense we would expand our animation capabilities by bringing on board the best in the business: Bento Box.

“The Bento-Fox combination brings Fox front-door access to the next wave of the genre’s creative leaders, while still maintaining Bento Box’s focus on all that makes them a terrific partner for outside producers.”

In a joint statement, Greenberg and Kuwahara said the deal would provide Bento Box with the “unique opportunity to build, to grow and to better service our current partners.”

The acquisition, financial details of which were not disclosed, marks the latest move by Fox Entertainment to grow its portfolio of assets after its former parent company, 21st Century Fox, was acquired by The Walt Disney Company.

Fox Entertainment is a division of Fox Corporation, which was formed last year to house the assets of 21st Century Fox that Disney did not acquire, including US broadcast network Fox. The latter is home to programming such as 9-1-1, The Masked Singer, Empire, Last Man Standing, 24, The X-Files and American Idol.

In February, the company launched SideCar, headed by Gail Berman, to incubate scripted and unscripted programming for both Fox and third-party platforms.

In May, it formally brought unscripted production in-house with new unit Fox Alternative Entertainment, which will make content such  as season two of The Masked Singer.