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Movie Studios Pages
| Animation Pages | 
| Major Studios {this page}:
Columbia • Screen Gems • TriStar Pixar • Touchstone Castle Rock • New Line • Turner |
There were (in the Old Days) traditionally seven Major Studios in Hollywood:
Columbia (now Sony), Disney, Fox (now News Corp.), M.G.M.,
Paramount (now Viacom), Universal, and Warner Bros.
on page two: Modern Mini-Major Studios
Amblin • C.B.S. • E.M.G. • Europa • Halcyon • Imagine • Liberty Media • Lions Gate • Relativity • Weinstein
historic studios • foreign studios
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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, LionsGate 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 took 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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"Hollywood Studios (Postcard History Series)" [2007] by Tommy Dangcil Arcadia Publng 9x6¼ pb [4/2007] for $15.99 |
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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
| General Electric was established in 1879 by Thomas Alva Edison, and was ranked by Forbes Magazine in 2009 as the world's largest company. G.E. bought 80% of Universal from Vivendi in 2004. |
![classic logo of General Electric [est. 1879 by Thomas Edison]](images/GEdkblue.gif)
General Electric entry at Wikipedia
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"The Secret To G.E.'s Success: A Former Insider Reveals The Management Startegies of The World's Most Competitive Company" [2007] by William E. Rothschild McGraw-Hill hardcover [1/2007] for $20.40 |
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. took 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
 | "Early Universal City, California (Images of America)" [2009]  by Robert S. Birchard Arcadia Publng 9x6½ pb [8/2009] for $17.15 |
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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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"The Best of Universal" [1990] by Tony Thomas Vestal Press 11x8½ pb [1/90] for $9.95 |
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"The Universal Story: The Complete History of The Studio & Its Films" [1985] by Clive Hirshhorn Random House Value hardcover [11/87] out of print/used |
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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. |
N.B.C. Universal Television entry at Wikipedia
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}
'Film In Focus' website for movie-lovers
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; sold in December 2008 to Relativity Media, with Universal/Focus kept as distributor of the library. |
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
 | "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 |
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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 |
"My Seventy Years at Paramount Studios and The Directors Guild of America" [2/96]
by Joseph C. Youngerman, Interviewed by Ira Skutch & David Shepard /1882766024/
 | "Paramount Pictures' Millennium Gift Set" on VHS [1998]
Paramount VHS set [10/98] 10 tapes - out of prodn/scarce contains 10 widescreen feature films: "The Ten Commandments" [1956] starring Charlton Heston; widescreen {first on VHS} "Breakfast At Tiffany's" [1961] starring Audrey Hepburn; Francis Ford Coppola's "The Godfather" [1972]; "Grease" [1978 musical] with John Travolta & Olivia Newton-John; Francis Ford Coppola's "Apocalypse Now" [1979]; "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home" [1986]; Tony Scott's "Top Gun" [1986] starring Tom Cruise; "Ghost" [1990] with Demi Moore & Patrick Swayze; "Forrest Gump" [1994] starring Tom Hanks; and Mel Gibson's "Braveheart" [1995] |
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"Best Picture Academy Award Winners Collection" on DVD from Paramount & DreamWorks [2007] Paramount color DVD box set [2/2007] 8 disks for $61.49 the 7 films are: "American Beauty" [1999], "Braveheart" [1995], 2-disk "Forrest Gump" [1994], "Gladiator" [2000], "The Godfather" [1972] from Francis Ford Coppola, "Terms of Endearment" [1983], and "Titanic" [1997] |
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 |
"Shrek" won first Oscar for Best Animated Picture
M.T.V. Networks
M.T.V.
Spike TV
Nickelodeon
B.E.T. {Black Entertainment Television}
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. In February 2008, News Corp. traded its controlling interest in DirecTV for News Corp. shares owned by Liberty Media (John Malone & family.) |
![Robert Greenwald's "Fox Attacks" website [est. Feb 2007]](images/bFoxAttacksRG.gif){kind=small}
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. |
Magic Lantern's 20th Century-Fox Studios Page
official website {requires Flash}
Twentieth Century Fox entry at 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 |
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's VideOn Network [est. 2010]
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 Studios
| Created in 1990 when Sony purchased the old M.G.M Lot 1 property from Warner/Lorimar +for mthe purpose of managing the physical studio operations. |
Sony Pictures Studios entry at Wikipedia
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 [1934-57] 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
history of Columbia's Sunset Gower studio property {now Capital Studios}
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"The Columbia Comedy Shorts: Two-Reel Hollywood Film Comedies, 1933-1958" [1986] by Ted Okuda & Edward Watz McFarland & Co. 9x6 pb [10/98] for $35.00 McFarland & Co. 9½x6½ hardcover [9/86] for $45.00 |
 | "The Columbia Story" [1989] by Clive Hirschhorn Hamlyn hardcover [12/2001] out of print/used Crown hardcover [11/89] out of print/used |
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"The Columbia Checklist: The Feature Films, Serials, Cartoons & Short Subjects of Columbia Pictures Corporation, 1922-1988" [1991] by Len D. Martin McFarland & Co. 9x6 pb [7/2007] for $49.95 McFarland & Co. 9½x6½ hardcover [7/91] out of print/used |
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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 |
"The Merchant Prince of Poverty Row: Harry Cohn of Columbia Pictures" [1993]
by Bernard F. Dick 0813118417
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"Columbia Pictures: The Best Picture Collection - 11 Movies, 64 Academay Awards" [2008] 11 feature films on 14 disks: "It Happened One Night" [1934] directed by Frank Capra, starring Clark Gable & Claudette Colbert; "You Can't Take It with You" [1938] directed by Frank Capra, starring James Stewart & Jean Arthur; "All the King's Men" [1949] directed by Robert Rossen, starring Broderick Crawford; "From Here To Eternity" [1953] directed by Fred Zinnemann; "On The Waterfront" [1954] directed by Elia Kazan, script by Budd Schulberg, starring Marlon Brando; 2-disk "The Bridge On The River Kwai" [1957] directed by David Lean; 2-disk "Lawrence of Arabia" [1962] directed by David Lean, starring Peter O'Toole; "A Man For All Seasons" [1966] directed by Fred Zinnemann, starring Paul Scofield, Robert Shaw & Orson Welles; "Oliver!" musical [1968]; "Kramer vs. Kramer" [1979] starring Dustin Hoffman & Meryl Streep; and 2-disk "Gandhi" [1982] directed by Richard Attenborough, starring Ben Kingsley; extras include radio shows, trailers, commentary, "Making of ..." featurettes Sony widescreen color DVD set [11/2008] 14 disks for $92.99 |
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). |
Magic Lantern's Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Page
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer official website
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer entry at Wikipedia
von Stroheim's "Greed" [M.G.M. 1924] Movie Page
M.G.M.'s 'The Thin Man' Movies Series [1934-47] Page
"Gone With The Wind" [M.G.M. 1939] Movie Page
"The Wizard of Oz" [M.G.M. 1939] Movie Page
Stanley Kubrick's "2001: A Space Odyssey" [M.G.M. 1968] Movie Page
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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 |
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). |
Magic Lantern's M.G.M. Studios Page / United Artists Pictures Section
United Artists official website
United Artists entry at Wikipedia
"The African Queen" [U.A. 1951] Movie Page
U.A.'s Agent 007 James Bond Movies Page
U.A.'s 'Rocky' Movies Page
U.A.'s "Magnificent Seven" Movies {and "Seven Samurai"} Page
 | "The United Artists Story" [1988] by Ronald Bergen Random House Value hardcover [4/92] out of print/used Random House Value hardcover [5/88] out of print/used |
Walt Disney Pictures
| Founded in 1923 in East Hollywood, California by Walt Disney and his brother 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 Disney 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. The attempt to sell off Miramax Films and its 611-picture library dragged on, but finally happened in July 2010, for a price of $650 million. |
Magic Lantern's Walt Disney Pictures Page
Walt Disney Pictures official website {requires Flash}
Walt Disney Company entry at Wikipedia
Walt Disney Studios entry at Wikipedia
Magic Lantern's Walt Disney [1901-66] Page
Magic Lantern's Walt Disney Pictures Page
Magic Lantern's Disney Films Page
American Broadcasting Corporation
| Formed in 1943 from NBC's Blue radio network; first TV broadcast 1948; purchased by Capitol Cities Communications in 1985; purchased by Disney in February 1996. |
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. |
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. Disney's attempt to sell off Miramax Films and its 611-picture library dragged on, but finally happened in July 2010, for a price of $650 million. |
Magic Lantern's independent Miramax Films entry [new 7/2010]
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. |
Touchstone Pictures
| Founded in 1984, basically a brand (for relatively-mature product) rather than a studio. |
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 New York studio & distributor Vitagraph (on page 2) in 1925; bought the Vitaphone sound-on-disk process from Western Electric in 1925; bought the Stanley Co. theater chain in 1928, which included a stake in First National Pictures (on page 2); Warner merged with First National in 1930 and moved to the latter's 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 then 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. was very bumpy; in 2006, Warner and C.B.S. agreed to shut down U.P.N. & The W.B. and jointly launch the C.W. cable network. Time-Warner announced in May 2009 that it was spinning off all A.O.L. assets, which was completed in December. |
Magic Lantern's Warner Bros. Studios Page
Warner Bros. official website {requires Flash}
Warner Bros. entry at Wikipedia
"Casablanca" [Warner Bros. 1942] Movie Page
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"You Must Remember This: The Warner Bros. Story" [2008] by Richard Schickel & George Perry Running Press 11½x10 bargain price hardcover [9/2008] for $31.50 Running Press 11½x10 hardcover [9/2008] for $36.50 this is companion book to a 5-part TV documentary project narrated by Clint Eastwood sign up with Amazon to be notified when DVD becomes available |
 | "The Warner Bros. Story: The Complete History of The Great Hollywood Studio" [1987] by Clive Hirschhorn Random House Value 12½x9¼ hardcover [1/87] out of print/many used |
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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 |
on this page: Major Studios • Books • Links
on page two: Mini-Major Studios • Historic Studios • Foreign Studios
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Current Filmmakers |
XXth Century Directors |
Early Filmmakers
Foreign Cinema |
Favorite Films (and Why) |
History of Cinema
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