Baja Studios

'' in 1997 Baja Studios began life as a Mexican subsidiary of 20th Century Fox, a part of the global corporate holdings of Rupert Murdoch on land leased by the Hollywood studio. Specializing in the production of Mexican films, co-productions between the United States and Mexico, as well as exclusive productions by American companies that rented the facilities to film underwater scenes. Construction of the facility costing an estimated $20 million USD began on 6 June 1996 next to the northern edge of a small fishing village (Puerto Popotla). Construction lasted 100 days. The corporation had an interest in breaking the power in Hollywood of the Teamsters Union; the corporation had learned from the Wapping dispute. The studio's design was heavily influenced by the production needs of the first film to be shot there, James Cameron's epic Titanic, where there was a requirement to shoot a 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==

The studio is built alongside the ocean coastline, enabling an unobstructed view of the sea. It comprises of land overlooking the Pacific Ocean, with 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 concrete pool with a full capacity of 17 million gallons, 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==

model under construction on set • Titanic (1997) Television • Tremors (2003) • Fear the Walking Dead (2016) – Season 2 • 9-1-1 (2019) – Season 3 • Selena: The Series (2020–2021) – Part 1 and Part 2 ==References==