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Movie Studios Pages
| Animation Page |
| Major Studios {this page}:
links on page two:
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Domestic (U.S. & Canada) Box Office Receipts for 2006 Sony Pictures ranked #1 at $1.7 billion; Disney (Buena Vista) ranked second at $1.5 billion; Fox ranked third at $1.4 billion; Warner Bros. ranked fourth at $1.06 billion, Paramount fifth at $961 million, Universal sixth at $798 million, Lions Gate seventh at $331 million, New Line Cinema eighth at $251 million, Weinstein Co. ninth at $223 million, and Focus Features (Universal) tenth at $180 million. {These ten studios tookm in a combined 92% of the market.} |
Links
Hollywood film studios category at Wikipedia
online Hollywood Studio Tour (with photographs)
General Books
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"The Genius of The System: Hollywood Filmmaking In The Studio Era" [1989] by Thomas Schatz Owl Books 9¼x6¼ pb [4/96] out of print/used Pantheon 9¾x6½ hardcover [2/89] for $0.00 |
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"The Hollywood Studios: House Style In The Golden Age of The Movies" [1987] by Ethan Mordden Fireside trade pb [11/89] out of print/used Knopf hardcover [5/88] for $24.95 |
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"The Hollywood Studio System: A History" [1986] by Douglas Gomery British Film Institute pb [9/2005] for $19.29 British Film Institute hardcover [9/2005] for $80.00 |
General Electric
Universal Pictures Co.
| Founded in 1909 as the Yankee Film Company by clothing store owner Carl Laemmle, renamed Independent Moving Picture Co., and in 1912 merged with 8 other companies to form Universal Film Manufacturing Co.; opened 230-acre studios in California in 1915; son Carl Laemmle jr. topok the helm in 1928, and modernized the company (converting to sound & adding movie theaters) and began producing monster-horror films (a signature genre); after several box-office failures, bankers seized control in 1936 and kicked the Laemmles out; the studio stayed afloat by making series movies starring Deanna Durbin, Abbott & Costello, and sequels to the horror classics; British entrepreneur J. Arthur Rank purchased a quarter interest in 1945; a merger in 1946 with William Goetz's International Pictures led to a name change to Universal-International Pictures; Rank sold his shares to investor Milton Rackmil (Decca Records) who took control in 1952; in 1950, M.C.A. talent agent Lew Wasserman made a deal with Universal for his client James Stewart to receive a portion of the profits of three films for reduced up-front salary, which changed the rules of the movie business; Universal sold the (now) 360-acre studio lot to M.C.A. in 1958; Wasserman took full control in 1962 and changed the name back to Universal Pictures, with an emphasis on TV production; the studio tour operation, begun in 1915, was expanded and theme park facilities built in Florida & Japan; Wasserman sold the company to Matsushita Electric in 1990, staying as chairman until Seagram took control in 1995; liquor distributor Seagram's Edgar Bronfman Jr. bought several smaller movie companies and then sold out to water & media company Vivendi of France in 2000, and the name was changed to Vivendi Universal; in 2004, Vivendi sold 80% of Universal to General Electric, owner of N.B.C., thus the latest rename to N.B.C. Universal. |
Universal Studios official website
Universal Studios entry at Wikipedia
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"City of Dreams: The Making & Remaking of Universal Pictures" [1997] by Bernard F. Dick Univ Press of KY 9¼x6¼ hardcover [4/97] for $35.00 |
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"Universal Pictures: A Panoramic History In Words, Pictures & Filmographies" [1977] by Michael G. Fitzgerald Arlington House pb [1/77] out of print/many used Random House hardcover[3/82] out of print/used |
N.B.C. Universal Television
| When M.C.A. took control of Universal in 1962, they merged their Revue Studios [1943-63] into Universal's TV division; the M.C.A. TV division [1951-2004] was folded into Universal TV in the 1990s; N.B.C.'s operations were merged into Universal's when General Electric bought Universal in 2004, creating a broadly-integrated production, distibution & broadcast division. |
Focus Features specialty division in New York City
| U.S.A. Films was created in 1999 by mogul Barry Diller by combining October Films, Gramercy Pictures & U.S.A. Home Entertainment; Focus was formed in 2002 when Universal merged U.S.A. Films, Universal Focus & Good Machine. |
Focus Features official website {requires Flash}
Focus Features entry at Wikipedia
Rogue Pictures specialty distribution
| Founded in 2004 as a division of Focus Features to produce & distribute low-budget action/horror films. |
Rogue Pictures official website {requires Flash}
Rogue Pictures entry at Wikipedia
Viacom
| Founded in 1971 by renaming C.B.S. Films; bought MTV and Nickelodeon and re-incorporated in 1985; acquired by National Amusements (Sumner Redstone) in 1986; purchased Paramount Communications in 1993 and the Blockbuster Video stores in 1994; merged with former parent C.B.S. Corp. in 2000; the company split on 31 December 2005, with C.B.S. Corp. having the less-profitable TV & publishing operations and 'New' Viacom having Paramount, MTV & BET. |
official website
Viacom entry at Wikipedia
Paramount Pictures
| Founded in 1912 as Famous Players Film Co. by Adolph Zukor; merged with Jesse L. Lasky & Utah distributor Paramount Pictures in 1916; moved to Hollywood, California in 1927; purchased 50% interest in fledgeling Columbia Broadcasting System in 1928; went bankrupt in 1932, Zukor was replaced, emerged as Paramount Pictures, Inc. in 1935; purchased by Charles Bluhdorn's Gulf + Western Industries conglomerate in 1966; bought Desilu in 1967; on Bluhdorn's death in 1983, sold off non-entertainment companies; headed by Sherry Lansing from 1992-2004; purchased by Viacom in 1993; launched The UPN Network in 1995 ( which was replaced with The CW Network in 2006); purchased DreamWorks SKG in 2006. |
Paramount Pictures website {requires Flash}
Paramount Pictures entry at Wikipedia
Paramount Movie Ranch [est. 1927] in Agoura, CA
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"The Paramount Story: The Complete History of The Studio & The Films" [1985] by John Douglas Eames, with Robert Abele S&S hardcover [11/2004] out of print/used Random House 13x11 hardcover [5/87] out of print/used |
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"Paramount Pictures 90th Anniversary: Memorable Scores" [2002]
Sony soundtrack CD [7/2002] 43 tracks on 2 disks for $24.98 more, similar music recordings on Magic Lantern's Film Music Page |
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"Engulfed: The Death of Paramount Pictures & The Birth of Corporate Hollywood" [1980] by Bernard F. Dick Univ Press of KY 9¼x6¼ hardcover [7/2001] for $35.00 |
DreamWorks SKG
| Founded in 1994 by moguls Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg & David Geffen {the 'SKG'}; DreamWorks Animation merged with Pacific Data Images & split off in 2004; the remainder sold to Paramount in February 2006. |
Dreamworks SKG official website {requires Flash}
Dreamworks SKG entry at Wikipedia
Jawad's fansite
DreamWorks Animation
| Independent animation company Pacific Data Images {P.D.I.} was founded in 1980, to produce animated logos & TV commercials; expanded in 1990 to develop CGI (computer generated imagery) animation software; in 1997, Dreamworks S.K.G. (founded in 1994) formed a partnership with P.D.I., resulting in the hit feature "Antz" [1998], and the "Shrek" films; in 2004, DreamWorks's own animation division split from the parent, purchased the remainder of P.D.I., and took the name DreamWorks Animation. |
Dreamworks Animation entry at Wikipedia
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"The Dream Team: The Rise & Fall of DreamWorks - Lessons From The New Hollywood" [2006] by Daniel M. Kimmel Ivan R. Dee pb [DUE Nov 2007] for $10.17 
Ivan R. Dee 8½x5¾ hardcover [11/2006] for $18.96 |
News Corp.
| Australian Rupert Murdoch re-incorporated his holdings as News Corp. in 1980; bought half of Fox in 1981, the other half in 1984; Murdoch became a U.S. citizen to allow purchase of Metromedia's television stations, which were renamed Fox Broadcasting in 1986; launched the 24-hour Fox News Channel in 1996; purchased 34% of Hughes Electronics (DirecTV) in 2003; purchased 64% of the Wall Street Journal & Dow-Jones companies for $5.6 billion in August 2007 (pending government approval). |
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"Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War On Journalism" [Brave New Films June 2004]
"Freedom of the press is guaranteed only to those who own one." — A.J. Liebling "film made possible by MoveOn.Org and The Center for American Progress" Co-produced & directed by Robert Greenwald Disinformation Co. color DVD [7/2004] for $9.95 full credits from IMDb • official movie site companion book [2005] by Alexandra Kitty, Introduction by Robert Greenwald Disinformation Co. 8¾x6 pb [4/2005] for $10.36 |
![Robert Greenwald's "Fox Attacks" website [est. Feb 2007]](images/bFoxAttacksRG.gif){kind=small}
Fox Entertainment Group
| U.S.-based umbrella corporation over 20th Century Fox Film Corp., Fox Studios, Fox Television Stations, Fox Broadcasting, and Fox News & other cable network channels. |
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp.
| Founded in 1915 by William Fox; merged with Darryl F. Zanuck's Twentieth Century Pictures in 1935; built 300-acre Fox lot in 1926; began Fox Movietone News (with sound) in 1927 (which ended in 1963); mogul Zanuck resigned in 1956; the over-budget "Cleopatra" and other financial troubles were temporarily solved by selling the backlot (now the site of Century City) for cash to Alcoa in 1961; Zanuck convinced the board to re-install him as chairman in 1962, with his son Richard as president; by 1978, the studio was owned by Marc Rich and oilman Marvin Davis; Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. purchased Rich's half in 1981 and Davis's in 1984. |
official website {requires Flash}
Twentieth Century Fox entry at Wikipedia
20th Century Fox Television - production division [est. 1949]
Fox's Baja Studios [est. 1996] in Mexico
Fox Studios Australia [est. 1998]
Blue Skies Studios - animation [est. 1987]
official website •
Wikipedia
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"20th Century Fox: The First 50 Years" [1997 documentary TV special] Co-written, co-produced & directed by Kevin Burns Image Ent. 129-min. b&w/color DVD [8/2000] for $13.99 full credits at IMDb "20th Century Fox: The Blockbuster Years" [2000 documentary TV special] Co-written, co-produced & directed by Kevin Burns Image Ent. 113-min. b&w/color DVD [9/2002] for $13.99 full credits at IMDb |
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"Hidden Hollywood: Treasures From The 20th Century Fox Vaults" [1997 TV special] Co-written, co-produced & directed by Kevin Burns Volume 1: hosted by Joan Collins; the mostly song-and-dance clips include Walter Brennan, Dan Dailey, Jimmy Durante, Alice Faye, Betty Grable, Katherine Hepburn, Edward Everett Horton, Bert Lahr, Ethel Merman, Bill 'Bojangles' Robinson & Shirley Temple Image Ent. 90-min. color DVD [3/2002] for $13.99 full credits at IMDb Volume 2: hosted by Joan Collins; the mostly song-and-dance clips include Carole Landis, Margaret Dumont, Alice Faye, W.C. Fields, Kay Francis, Betty Grable, skater Sonja Henie, Danny Kaye, Buster Keaton, Victor Mature, Mitzi Mayfair, Carmen Miranda, the Nicholas Brothers, Martha Raye, the Ritz Brothers & Phil Silvers Image Ent. 90-min. color DVD [3/2002] for $13.99 full credits at IMDb |
FOX Broadcasting Co.
| Founded in 1986 after News Corp.'s purchase of Metromedia's television stations; the current network is 25 owned-and-operated stations and 175 affiliates. |
FOX Broadcasting entry at Wikipedia
FOX News Channel
| Launched in October 1996 to 17 million subscribers; currently has 85 million subscribers. {Also known as the Faux News Network, the Fox Noise Network, and the F-word Network, based on their fascist bias.} |
FOX News Channel entry at Wikipedia
Fox Searchlight Pictures specialty division
| Founded in 1994 to produce and-or distribute independent films; founded sub-division Fox Atomic in 2006 to distribute genre films for young adults. |
Fox Searchlight entry at Wikipedia
Fox Atomic official website {requires Flash}
Fox Atomic entry at Wikipedia
Sony Pictures Entertainment
| Sony was founded in Japan in 1946, and renamed in 1958; purchased Columbia Pictures (which included Screen Gems & TriStar) from Coca-Cola in 1989; purchased the historic Triangle/M.G.M. studio lot in Culver City, California from Warner/Lorimar in 1990; renamed Sony Pictures Entertainment in 1991; has 20% stake in the partnership that purchased M.G.M./U.A. in 2005. |
Sony Pictures official website
Sony Pictures entry at Wikipedia
map of the Sony Pictures lot, circa 1988 (when owned by Lorimar) in new window
Sony Pictures Classics
| An autonomous company founded in January 1992 to make, acquire and distribute independent {i.e. 'art house'} films worldwide. |
Sony Pictures Classics entry at Wikipedia
Sony Pictures Television
| Successor company to Columbia's Screen Gems and the later Columbia Pictures TV & Columbia-TriStar TV, renamed in 2002. |
Sony Pictures Imageworks
| Founded in 1993 as a division of Sony Pictures Digital; opening a facility at Albuquerque Studios in New Mexico in 2007 (85,000 square-foot building, 100 employees). |
Sony Pictures Imageworks entry at Wikipedia
Columbia Pictures
| Founded in 1919 as C.B.C. Film Sales Corp.; renamed Columbia Pictures Corp. in 1924; though most film product was low-budget and-or low quality, an alliance with producer-director Frank Capra [1897-1991] brought increasing success, including several Academy Awards; contract stars included The Three Stooges [1934-58] and Rita Hayworth; after founder-mogul Harry Cohn died in 1958, the studio fell on hard times, and the Gower Street studios and other assets were sold off; production & distribution continued via joint venture agreements with Warner Bros.; Coca-Cola bought Columbia in 1982, adding Embassy-Tandem and other companies; also in 1982, Coca-Cola and H.B.O. and C.B.S. formed a company that was soon renamed TriStar; following the "Ishtar" disaster, nervous Coca-Cola spun off Columbia Pictures Entertainment (which included a buyout of its partners in TriStar); Sony purchased Columbia in 1989; the attempt to make a splash by hiring producers Peter Guber and Jon Peters failed miserably, costing them hundreds of millions of dollars; but deep-pockets Sony Corp. basically started over, restored & improved the MGM studio lot acquired from Warner-Lorimar, and renamed the overall company Sony Pictures Entertainment in 1991; Columbia is today very successful: recent films include the "Spiderman" franchise. |
the domain www.ColumbiaPictures.com is owned by Sony but is not in use
Columbia Pictures entry at Wikipedia
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"Columbia Pictures: Portrait of A Studio" [1991] by Bernard F. Dick Univ Press of KY 9½x6½ hardcover [10/91] for $24.95 |
Screen Gems
| Founded in 1940 when Columbia Pictures took over an animation studio, which shut down in 1946; the division was revived in 1948 to produce television shows and to distribute them along with Columbia's feature film library to TV stations; the name was changed to Columbia Pictures Television in 1974; combined with Embassy Communications & TriStar Television before Columbia was purchased by Sony in 1989; became Columbia TriStar Television in 1994, which became Sony Pictures Television in 2002; the Screen Gems name was salvaged in 1999 for a new specialty division, to produce smaller-budget genre films. |
the domain www.ScreenGems.com redirects to the main Sony Pictures website
Screen Gems entry at Wikipedia
TriStar Pictures
| Founded in 1982 as a joint-venture movie production company by Coca-Cola (then-owner of Columbia Pictures) and H.B.O. and C.B.S.; soon renamed TriStar Pictures; following the "Ishtar" disaster, nervous Coca-Cola spun off Columbia Pictures Entertainment, which included a buyout of its partners in TriStar; Sony purchased Columbia along with the TriStar division in 1989. |
there is no separate, official TriStar Pictures website
TriStar Pictures entry at Wikipedia
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures
| Founded in 1924 by theater tycoon Marcus Loew by merging Metro Pictures [est. 1916], Goldwyn Pictures [est. 1917], and Mayer Pictures [est. 1918], with Louis B. Mayer as studio head; included in the merger were Goldwyn's studio properties in Culver City, California and Goldwyn's lion mascot; M.G.M. was the top studio for a quarter century, with Harry Rapf, 'boy wonder' Irving Thalberg, Mayer, David O. Selznick & Dore Schary as heads of production; as a result of the infamous 'consent decree', Loew's Corp. gave up control of M.G.M. in 1954; Seagram's bought M.G.M. in 1967, then sold it to multi-millionaire Kirk Kerkorian in 1969; the studio land (except for the main lot) was sold to developers and the props auctioned off with great fanfare; purchased failing United Artists in 1981; in a roundelay of high finance in 1985, TV mogul Ted Turner bought M.G.M./U.A., sold the studio lot to Lorimar TV [1968-93], kept the film library, and sold the rest back to Kerkorian - the amazing thing is that each party made money on the deals!; Italian promoter Giancarlo Parretti took over M.G.M./U.A. in a leveraged buyout in 1990, which soon collapsed in criminal lawsuits; Kerkorian bought the studio back in 1991; Sony & Comcast and a group of venture capitalists bought the studio in April 2005 (Providence Equity Partners owns 29%, Texas Pacific Group Capital owns 21%, Sony owns 20%, Comcast owns 20%, D.L.J. Merchant Banking Partners owns 7% & Quadrangle Group owns 3%); the company no longer has studio facilities, and corporate headquarters are now in a Century City, California office tower (ironically, the former backlot of rival Fox). |
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer official website
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer entry at Wikipedia
history of the Triangle/M.G.M./Sony lot
map of MGM Lot 1, circa 1988 (when owned by Lorimar) in new window
"The Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Story" [M.G.M. March 1951]
Documentary featuring Lionel Barrymore & exec Dore Schary;
credits at IMDb
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"Lion of Hollywood: The Life & Legend of Louis B. Mayer" [2005] by Scott Eyman S&S 9¼x6½ hardcover [4/2005] for $22.05 Chrysalis Books hardcover [5/2005] out of print/used |
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"The Lion's Roar: Classic M-G-M Film Scores, 1935-1965" [1999]
Rhino Records/W.E.A. music CD set [5/99] 37 tracks on 2 disks for $31.98 more, similar music recordings on Magic Lantern's Film Music Page |
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"M-G-M's Greatest Musicals: The Arthur Freed Unit" [1996] by Hugh Fordin Da Capo Press 9x6 pb [9/96] for $24.00 |
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"The M.G.M. Story: The Complete History of 57 Roaring Years - All 1,738 Films of M.G.M., Described and Illustrated In Color and Black & White" [1977] by John Douglas Eames Crown pb [12/88] out of print/used Hamlyn pb [11/93] out of print/used Random House hardcover [8/85] out of print/many used |
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"Mayer and Thalberg: The Make Believe Saints" [1975] by Samuel Marx New Millennium Press pb [11/2003] for $16.94 Warner Books mass pb [11/80] out of print/used |
United Artists Pictures
| Founded in 1919 by screen stars Mary Pickford, Charles Chaplin & Douglas Fairbanks, director D.W. Griffith [1875-1948] and lawyer William Gibbs McAdoo; the early years were a struggle, from the advent of sound and constant rotation of 'producing partners' and the Great Depression; by 1951, U.A. was barely active, so an offer by New York producers Arthur Krim & Robert Benjamin was accepted; their timing was apt, because the studios had stopped renewing talent contracts; deals were signed with Sam Spiegel, John Huston, Stanley Kramer, Otto Preminger & Hecht-Hill-Lancaster; the studio was making good money by 1955, when Pickford sold out at top dollar; U.A. went public in 1956; successes like the James Bond series, the Pink Panther series, and 'spaghetti' Westerns added value, and Krim & Benjamin sold to insurance company Transamerica in 1967; new deals were made with Woody Allen, Robert Altman [1925-2006], Sylvester Stallone, Saul Zaentz, Miloš Forman & Brian De Palma; Transamerica was nervous with Hollywood economics, and fought the execs, who walked out in 1978 and formed Orion Pictures {see below}; the new management let "Heaven's Gate" set budget-overage records,and then bombed at the box office; Kerkorian's M.G.M. made an offer; producer Harry Saltzman sold U.A. his half-interest in Danjaq LLC (owner of the James Bond film franchise) in 1975; M.G.M. absorbed U.A. from 1981-85, moving everything to Culver City; U.A. was inactive while M.G.M. suffered the turmoil of the Turner sale & buyback and the Paretti fiasco, with ownership of M.G.M./U.A. back to Kerkorian in 1997; a consortum purchased M.G.M./- U.A. in April 2005; when actor Tom Cruise & producer Paula Wagner's 14-year deal with Paramount expired, they offered to revive U.A., and their management deal began in November 2006 (with a tiny ownership stake). |
United Artists official website
United Artists entry at Wikipedia
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"United Artists: The Company That Changed The Film Industry" [1987] by Tino Balio The modern era rebirth, with Krim & Benjamin Univ WI Press 9x6 pb [1/2008] for $26.95 Univ WI Press 9¼x6¼ hardcover [12/87] for $21.95 "United Artists: The Company Built By The Stars" [1976] by Tino Balio The silent-era founding, with Fairbanks, Pickford, Griffith & Chaplin Univ WI Press 8½x5½ pb [6/79] out of print/used Univ WI Press 9x5¾ hardcover [6/76] out of print/used |
 | "United Artists 90th Anniversary Prestige Collection 30-Film Set" [2007] 
M.G.M./U.A. Home Video color/b&w DVD set [12/2007] 46 disks for $260.99 the movies include {all widescreen except 2 coded P&S for 'panned & scanned'}: 2-disk "A Bridge Too Far" [1977]; "The Alamo" [1960]; Woody Allen's "Annie Hall" P&S [1977]; Billy Wilder's "The Apartment" [1960]; 2-disk "The Battle of Britain" [1969]; "The Birdcage" [1996]; "Birdman of Alcatraz" [1962]; Michael Moore's documentary "Bowling For Columbine" [2002]; 2-disk "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" [1968]; 2-disk James Bond "Dr. No" [1962]; 2-disk "Fiddler On The Roof" [1971]; 2-disk James Bond "GoldenEye" [1995]; 2-disk "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly" [1966]; 2-disk "The Great Escape" [1963]; 2-disk "The Greatest Story Ever Told" [1965]; "Hotel Rwanda" [2004]; "Judgment At Nuremberg" [1961]; 2-disk "The Magnificent Seven" [1960]; "The Manchurian Candidate" [1962]; "Marty" P&S [1955]; 2-disk "Midnight Cowboy" [1969]; "The Pink Panther" [1963]; 2-disk "Raging Bull" [1980]; "Rain Man" [1988]; 2-disk "Rocky" [1976]; 2-disk "Some Like It Hot" [1959]; 2-disk James Bond "The Spy Who Loved Me" [1977]; "Thomas Crown Affair" [1968]; "12 Angry Men" [1957]; and 2-disk "Westside Story" [1961] |
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"United Artists 90th Anniversary Prestige Collection 90-Film Set" [2007]
M.G.M./U.A. Home Video color/b&w DVD set [11/2007] 110 disks for $609.99 the movies include {all widescreen except 12 coded P&S for 'panned & scanned'}: all 30 films in the above box set, plus 2-disk "A Fistful of Dollars" [1964]; Capra's "A Hole In The Head" [1959]; "Baby Boom" [1987]; "The Barefoot Contessa" P&S [1954]; "The Big Country" [1958]; "Carrie" [1976]; "Child's Play" [1988]; "Coming Home" [1978]; "Dance With Me Henry" P&S [1956]; "Dark Blue" [2002]; "The Defiant Ones" [1958]; "Elmer Gantry" [1960]; "Equus" [1977]; Woody Allen's "Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Sex * But Were Afraid to Ask" P&S [1972]; "Fellini Satyricon" [1969]; Billy Wilder's "The Fortune Cookie" [1966]; "The French Lieutenant's Woman" [1981]; "The Fugitive Kind" [1959]; "Hang 'Em High" [1968]; "Heaven's Gate" [1980]; "I Could Go On Singing" [1963]; "I Want To Live!" [1958]; "In The Heat of The Night" [1967]; "Inherit The Wind" [1960]; "Irma La Douce" [1963]; "It's A Mad, Mad, Mad World" [1963]; "The Killing" P&S [1956]; "La Cage Aux Folles" [1978]; Bertolucci's "Last Tango In Paris" [1972]; Scorsese's rock documentary "The Last Waltz" P&S [1978]; "Leaving Las Vegas" [1995]; "Lenny" [1974]; 2-disk James Bond "The Living Daylights" [1987]; "The Man In The Iron Mask" [1998]; Woody Allen's "Manhattan" [1979]; "The Miracle Worker" [1962]; Huston's "The Misfits" [1961]; "The Missouri Breaks" [1976]; Huston's "Moby Dick" P&S [1956]; Scorsese's "New York, New York" [1977]; "The Night of The Hunter" [1955]; "No Man's Land" [2001]; 2-disk James Bond "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" [1969]; "One, Two, Three" [1961]; Kubrick's "Paths of Glory" P&S [1957]; Ingmar Bergman's "Persona" P&S [1966]; "Pieces of April" [2003]; "The Pink Panther Strikes Again" [1976]; Capra's "Pocketful of Miracles" [1961]; 2-disk "Red Dawn" [1984]; "Red River" P&S [1948]; "Richard III" [1995]; "Road House" [1989]; animated "The Secret of NIMH" [1982]; "Topkapi" [1964]; "WarGames" [1983]; "The Wilby Conspiracy" [1975]; Billy Wilder's "Witness For The Prosecution" [1957]; Fritz Lang's "The Woman In The Window" P&S [1944]; and "Yours, Mine and Ours" P&S [1968] |
Walt Disney Pictures
| Founded in 1923 in East Hollywood, California by brothers Walt & Roy Disney and animator Ub Iwerks; released the sound cartoon "Steamboat Willie" starring Mickey Mouse, in 1928, which launched Mickey's popularity; companion characters soon followed: Pluto [1930], Goofy [1932], Donald Duck [1934]; by 1935, Mickey Mouse merchandise brought in more revenue than Mickey Mouse cartoons; studio moved to Burbank, California in 1940; founded Buena Vista Distribution and began the 'Disneyland' network TV program (starring Walt) in 1954; the Disneyland theme park opened in Anaheim, California in 1955; the company went public in 1957; Walt died in December 1966; the Walt Disney World Resort opened in Orlando, Florida in 1971; EPCOT Center opened at Walt Disney World in 1982; Disney Channel launched in 1983; Touchstone Pictures launched in 1984; board of directors shakeup brought in Michael Eisner [chairman], Frank Wells [president/COO] & Jeffrey Katzenberg [CEO] to run the company; acquired independent film distributor Miramax Films in 1993; when Wells died in 1994, Katzenberg was denied promotion so he quit and co-founded DreamWorks SKG; top Hollywood agent Michael Ovitz hired as president in October 1995; acquired the A.B.C. television network from Capital Cities in 1996; Ovitz removed in November 1997 (with an outrageously excessive severance buyout); Robert Iger hired as president in 2000; bought Saban Entertainment in 2002; unhappy board members got rid of Eisner in 2004, replaced him with George J. Mitchell as chairman and Iger as CEO; purchased Pixar Animation Studios in 2006; corporate announced plans in 2007 to replace brands such as Buena Vista by converting various divisions to the Disney, A.B.C., E.S.P.N., Miramax, Pixar & Touchstone brands. |
Walt Disney Pictures official website {requires Flash}
Walt Disney Company entry at Wikipedia
Walt Disney Studios entry at Wikipedia
Walt Disney Page at Magic Lantern
Buena Vista Distribution
| Founded in 1953 to distribute Disney's films worldwide; as-of 2007, the Buena Vista brand & logo are scheduled to be retired. |
Buena Vista official placeholder site
Buena Vista entry at Wikipedia
Miramax Film Corp.
| Founded in 1979 by brothers Harvey & Bob Weinstein in Buffalo, New York to distribute (and later, to produce or acquire) independent & foreign films for the U.S. market; the company was financially successful, and Disney paid $70 million for it in 1993; the Weinstein brothers left in September 2005, and soon formed a new independent company, The Weinstein Company (below). |
Miramax official website {requires Flash}
Miramax entry at Wikipedia
Pixar Animation Studios
| Begun in 1979 as the computer graphics animation division of George Lucas's LucasFilm in Northern California; when Apple co-founder Steve Jobs left that company in 1986, he paid $5 million to Lucas and invested another $5 million in the company, renamed Pixar; emphasis was at first on selling software & hardware, to the government and Disney and others, but the market was soon saturated, so Pixar began producing C.G.I. commercials for television; Pixar signed a deal with Disney in 1991 to produce five C.G.I. feature films, the first of which was the hit "Toy Story" [1995]; Pixar re-incorporated in December 1995, and went public in November 1996; renewal of the contract with Disney was prolonged by Pixar's demands for autonomy, and by the bullying management style of Disney's Michael Eisner (ousted in 2004); in 2006, Disney paid $7.4 billion (in stock) for Pixar, making Jobs the largest shareholder of Disney and a member of Disney's board; several Pixar execs were given powerful positions within Disney. |
Pixar official website
Pixar entry at Wikipedia
Touchstone Pictures
| Founded in 1984, basically a brand (for relatively-mature product) rather than a studio. |
Touchstone Pictures official website {requires Flash}
Touchstone Pictures entry at Wikipedia
Warner Bros. Pictures [est. 1926]
| Three brothers from Poland, Harry & Albert & Sam Warner, began exhibiting motion pictures in towns across Pennsylvania & Ohio in 1903; in 1904, they incorporated the Duquesne Amusement & Supply Co. in Pittsburgh; by 1918, they were producing silent films and had opened a studio in Hollywood, California; Sam & youngest brother Jack produced while Harry & Albert ran the business side; formally incorporated as Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc. in 1923; bought distributor Vitagraph (below) in 1924, and then developed Vitaphone sound; bought the Stanley Co. theater chain in 1928, which included a stake in First National Pictures (below); Warner merged with First National in 1930 and moved to their studio lot in Burbank; Technicolor musicals thrived for a while, then gritty gangster films, then historical dramas, then Looney Tunes & Merrie Melodies cartoons; Jack Warner helped organize the U.S. Army's First Motion Picture Unit during World War II; Jack (secretly) brought in bankers to buy out his brothers' interest, which poisoned family relations; the studio successfully moved into television production and launched the Warner Records division [1958]; the aging Jack sold the movie & record business in 1967 to Seven Arts, which sold in two years to the Jersey mob-connected Kinney National Co.; new studio head Ted Ashley signed major stars – Paul Newman & Barbra Streisand [First Artists], Robert Redford, John Wayne [Batjac], and Clint Eastwood [Malpaso] – and invested in non-movie businesses such as theme parks and video-gamer Atari; a studio management joint venture formed with Columbia Pictures in 1972 {'The Burbank Studios' or T.B.S.) was phased out circa 1987; the surprise merger with Time, Inc. in 1989 was the biggest merger in history; in 1995, Warner and Tribune Broadcasting of Chicago launched the W.B. Network, aimed at teens; the 2000 takeover of conglomerate Time-Warner by internet monster A.O.L. is still bumpy; in 2006, Warner and C.B.S. agreed to shut down U.P.N. & The W.B. and jointly launch the C.W. network. |
Warner Bros. official website {requires Flash}
Warner Bros. entry at Wikipedia
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"Warners Wiseguys: All 112 Films That Robinson, Cagney & Bogart Made For The Studio" [2007] by Scott Allen Nollen McFarland & Co. 10x7¾ hardcover [11/2007] for $55.00 |
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"Hollywood Be Thy Name: The Warner Brothers Story" [1993] by Cass Warner Sperling & Cork Millner, with Jack Warner Jr. Univ Press of KY 9x6 pb [9/98] for $19.95 Prima Publng 9¾x6½ hardcover [9/93] out of print/many used |
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"Jack L. Warner: The Last Mogul - The Epic Story of The Man Behind The Movies" [indep 1993]
Produced, written & directed by {Jack's grandson} Gregory Orr; narrated by Efrem Zimbalist Jr. CustomFlix color DVD [7/2006] for $24.95 full credits from IMDb |
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"Those Crazy Wonderful Years: When We Ran Warner Brothers" [1983] by Stuart Jerome Lyle Stuart 9¼x6¼ hardcover [5/83] out of print/used "The Warner Brothers" [1983] by Michael Freedland
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"Warner Brothers: A History of The Studio - Its Pictures, Stars & Personalities" [1975] by Charles Higham Scribner 9½x6 hardcover [1/75] out of print/used |
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"My First Hundred Years In Hollywood: An Autobiography" [1964] by Jack L. Warner [1892-1978] Random House hardcover [1/64] out of print/used |
Warner Bros. Animation
| Founded in 1933 as independent Leon Schlesinger Productions, which used Warner as distributor; sold to Warner in 1944; active until 1963, revived 1967-1969, and relaunched in 1980. |
Warner Bros./Looney Toons info on Magic Lantern's Animation Page
Castle Rock Entertainment
| Founded in 1987 by director Rob Reiner and others, with backing by Columbia Pictures; acquired by Turner Broadcasting System in 1994, which was acquired by Warner in 1996. |
official? website {contaminated by links to Warner/Pokemon!}
Castle Rock Entertainment entry at Wikipedia
New Line Cinema
| Founded in 1967 by Robert Shaye & Michael Lynne, who are still co-studio heads; very successful maker of genre films and series such as "Nightmare On Elm Street", "Lord of The Rings", "Austin Powers" & "Blade"; formed a sub-division in 1972 called Fine Line Features which has since been merged into the mini-major Picturehouse (below); acquired by Turner Broadcasting System in 1994, which was acquired by Warner in 1996. |
New Line Cinema official website
New Line Cinema entry at Wikipedia
Turner Broadcasting System
| Beginning with one TV station in 1970, Ted Turner built a string of stations used to launch his 'superstation' concept in 1976; the company was renamed Turner Broadcasting System in 1979; launched 24-hour news channel C.N.N. in 1980; in a roundelay of high finance in 1985, Turner bought M.G.M./U.A. from Kirk Kerkorian, sold the studio lot to Lorimar TV [1968-93], kept the film library, and sold the rest back to Kerkorian - the amazing thing is that each party made money on the deals!; purchased New Line Cinema & Castle Rock Entertainment in 1994; merged with conglomerate Time-Warner in 1996, making Ted Turner vice chairman and head of cable networks; Turner resigned his positions at Time-Warner in February 2006. |
official T.B.S. website
Turner Broadcasting System entry at Wikipedia
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