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Selected Articles
/1
Warner Bros. Pictures' origins trace back to 1918, when brothers Harry, Albert, Sam, and Jack
Warner established a studio on Sunset Boulevard. Sam and Jack would handle the production of the films, while Harry and Albert were in charge of distribution. The studio was incorporated as "Warner Bros' Pictures Incorporated" on April 4, 1923, making it the third oldest American movie studio in continuous operation, after
Paramount Pictures (founded on May 8, 1912 as Famous Players Film Corporation) and
Universal Pictures (founded on June 8, 1912).
/2
Walt Disney Pictures is an American film production studio owned by The Walt Disney Company. The studio is the flagship producer of live-action feature films and is based at the Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, California. Animated films produced by
Walt Disney Animation Studios and
Pixar Animation Studios are also released under the studio banner. Originally reorganized from Walt Disney Productions (now "The Walt Disney Company") as the live-action division of Disney, today it is one of Hollywood's major film studios.
/3
Paramount Pictures traces its history back to May 8, 1912, when it was originally founded as Famous Players Film Company by Hungarian-born Adolph Zukor. In 1914, it was renamed Paramount Pictures Corporation, as the second oldest-running movie studio in Hollywood, with
Universal Pictures being founded only eight days earlier. Today, it is one of Hollywood's major film studios.
/4
Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. (commonly known as
Columbia Pictures) is an American film studio and production company that is a member of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group, a division of Sony Entertainment's
Sony Pictures Entertainment, itself a subsidiary of the multinational conglomerate Sony and one of the major American film studios. Columbia Pictures was originally founded as Cohn-Brandt-Cohn Film Sales in 1918 by Harry Cohn, his brother Jack Cohn, and Jack's friend Joe Brandt.
/5
Universal Pictures was originally formed on April 30, 1912 by Carl Laemmle, a German-Jewish immigrant who settled in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, where he managed a clothing store. It is the oldest studio in Hollywood. The word "Universal" means "Omnipresent". In 1915, he opened Universal Studios. In 1946, Universal merged with International Pictures, headed by Leo Spitz and William Goetz.
/6
New Line Cinema (also known as "New Line Productions, Inc." and formerly known as "New Line Cinema Corporation") originally started in 1967 by Robert Shaye, as an indie/low-budget film studio. They did not use a logo until the early 1970s. New Line was acquired by Turner Broadcasting on January 28, 1994; both merged with Time Warner (now "WarnerMedia") on October 10, 1996. In 2008, New Line became a genre and low-to-mid-budget unit of
Warner Bros. Pictures, shutting down as an independent studio.
/7
20th Century Studios' history goes back to 1935, when Twentieth Century Pictures, Inc. and Fox Film Corporation merged together to form "Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation" (the hyphen between "Century" and "Fox" was dropped in 1985), or simply "20th Century Fox". During the Golden Age of Hollywood, it was one of the "Big Five" studios (the other were
MGM,
Paramount Pictures,
RKO Radio Pictures and
Warner Bros. Pictures).
/8
Metro Pictures Corporation was founded in late 1915 by Richard A. Rowland (1880-1947) and Louis B. Mayer (1885-1957). Dissatisfied with Metro's output following his purchase of the studio, Loew later purchased Goldwyn Pictures in 1924 and combined the two studios in the hope of creating higher quality content for his theaters. The same year, Louis B. Mayer sold his company, Louis B. Mayer Productions, to Loew. The merger between the three studios was completed on April 17, 1924, with the three studios becoming
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Inc., or simply MGM.
/9
The
Gaumont Film Company is a major French film studio established in 1895 by engineer-turned-inventor Léon Gaumont (1864–1946). It is the world's first and oldest film studio, established before Pathé (founded in 1896), Titanus (1904), Nordisk Film (1906), Universal, Paramount, and Nikkatsu (founded in 1912).
/10
Toho Co., Ltd. (東宝株式会社) is a Japanese film, theater production, and distribution company. It has its headquarters in Yūrakuchō, Chiyoda, Tokyo, and is one of the core companies of the Hankyu Hanshin Toho Group. It was formed as Toho Eiga Co., Ltd. from the merger of P.C.L., Jenkins Osawa Studio , and Toho Eiga Haikyu of the Tokyo-Takarazuka Theater Company which itself was formed in 1932. In 1937, the documentary film department, Toho Bunka Eiga, was established. In 1943, it was merged with the Tokyo-Takarazuka Theater Company, forming Toho Co., Ltd. and renaming their production facilities as Toho Studios.
/11
Orange Sky Golden Harvest Entertainment (橙天嘉禾娛樂集團有限公司) is a film production, distribution, and exhibition company based in Hong Kong. Founded in 1970 by Raymond Chow and Leonard Ho (both former executives of Shaw Brothers) as well as Leung Fung, it dominated Hong Kong box office sales from the 1970s to the 1980s, supplanting Shaw Brothers as Hong Kong's dominant film studio at the time and played a major role in introducing Hong Kong films to the Western market, especially those by Bruce Lee (Concord Productions), Jackie Chan (Golden Way Films), and Sammo Hung.
/12
CJ Entertainment (CJ 엔터테인먼트) is a South Korean film and television company that acquires, produces and distributes over 3,000 titles for the Korean market and the world, and a branch of Korean food company CJ Corporation. Being South Korea's largest entertainment company, it played an important role in the rise of the South Korean film industry. The success of their own films after the 2000 film
Chunhyang, most notably Joint Security Area that broke the Korean box office records previously set by
Shiri, helped the company in becoming one of the two largest film companies in the country along with Kang Woo-suk's Cinema Service.
/13
Samuel Goldwyn Films is the current independent film company of
Samuel Goldwyn, Jr. formed in 1999, two years after his
former production company was folded into
MGM and transferred most of the library into it, even though he started producing and distributing independent movies later on. After Goldwyn's death on January 9, 2015, his son Peter has been co-running the company.
/14
Named after a Vancouver landmark, the
Lions' Gate Bridge (officially known as the "First Narrows Bridge"),
Lions Gate Films (trading as
Lionsgate since 2005) is a North American film production/distribution studio based in Vancouver, Canada, with headquarters in Santa Monica, California. It was originally formed in 1989 as C/FP Distribution, a joint venture between Famous Players Entertainment and Cinépix, Inc. In 1994, Cinépix acquired Famous Players' share of C/FP, which was renamed to "Cinépix Inc. Distribution" two years later, then again to Cinépix Film Properties that same year. At the time, its assets included a 56% stake in animation company CinéGroupe. In 1997, Cinépix was purchased by Canadian financier Frank Giustra and CFP was renamed to "Lions Gate Films" on January 12, 1998.
/15
TriStar Pictures, Inc. (originally spelled Tri-Star) was formed on March 2, 1982 as a joint venture between Columbia Pictures (then owned by The Coca-Cola Company), HBO and CBS, hence the name of the studio. It was originally known as Nova Pictures until May 16, 1983, when its name was changed in order to avoid confusion with the PBS series Nova. CBS was the first joint-owner who dropped out of the venture on November 15, 1985, and sold its interest to Columbia for $48 million. In 1986, HBO sold its shares in Tri-Star to Columbia as well, and formed HBO Pictures.
/16
Sony Pictures Classics was formed in 1992 by Michael Barker, Tom Bernard and Marcie Bloom (the same founders who started
United Artists Classics in 1981 and
Orion Classics in 1983) by
Sony Pictures Entertainment to produce and distribute independent, artistic, foreign and alternative film releases.
/17
On March 24, 2023,
Paramount Global announced that it would revive the Republic Pictures brand (which has gone through two
different incarnations) as the company's acquisitions label. Its library would include titles acquired by
Paramount Global Content Distribution.
/18
Fox Searchlight Pictures was formed in 1994 under News Corporation (now owned by
The Walt Disney Company) as a division of 20th Century Fox (now
20th Century Studios) mainly to release independent, arthouse, horror, and foreign films, as well as some comedy, action, romance, and family films. On January 17, 2020, parent company Disney announced that it would remove "Fox" from the company's name, presumably to avoid confusion with Fox Corporation, renaming it
Searchlight Pictures.
/19
Focus Features is the current indie/arthouse film subsidiary of
Universal Studios, which was formed in 2002 by the merging of
USA Films,
Universal Focus,
Good Machine, and its folded endeavors (
Rogue,
October Films,
Gramercy Pictures, and
Interscope Communications). The label specializes in independent and foreign films as well as other genre titles. The Interscope Communications name continued to be used under films planned for the label, but instead used for Focus Features until 2003. In 2004, Focus revived Rogue as a genre-specific subsidiary of horror, thriller, African-American, high suspense and action. Ten years later, the label acquired
FilmDistrict and absorbed it shortly after. A year following, Focus revived
Gramercy Pictures as a full on film label, but dissolved it again in 2016 following the box office failure of
Ratchet & Clank. As of 2013, Focus Features is a subsidiary of the
Universal Pictures section of NBCUniversal, which in turn, is a division of Comcast.
/20
Disneynature (also spelled "Disney Nature" in some Disney press releases) is a production banner of
Walt Disney Pictures established in 2008 to produce nature documentary films. Its first release was
Earth which premiered in cinemas on Earth Day, April 22, 2009, but their logo was first seen in 2008, on their website. As of October 1, 2023, Disneynature content is now distributed via home video under exclusive license by Elevation Sales (a British home video joint venture between StudioCanal and Lionsgate) in the UK. Starting in 2024, future physical media releases will be distributed by
Sony Pictures Home Entertainment in North America.
/21
The "
Screen Gems" name was resurrected by
Sony Pictures Entertainment on December 8, 1998, as a film division to distribute specific genre and mid-budget film releases, such as horror, thriller, science fiction, as well as films geared towards African-American and youth audiences. The studio also distributed some independent films earlier on. The studio was founded in 1998, but didn't have an on-screen logo until the following year.
/22
Amblin Entertainment is a production company founded by Steven Spielberg, Kathleen Kennedy, and Frank Marshall (the latter two of whom went on to form their own company,
The Kennedy/Marshall Company, in 1991) in 1981. Named after a short film titled
Amblin' (1968; which Spielberg also directed), its logo features the silhouette of the titular character E.T. riding in the basket of Elliott's bicycle flying in front of the moon, from
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, in which they are the company's official mascots.
/23
In 2015, TVB Group, a former subsidiary of
Shaw Brothers Ltd., resurrected the Shaw Brothers name to the big screen. This new company,
Shaw Brothers Pictures Ltd., was launched on March 24, 2015.
/24
USA Films was created by Barry Diller in 1999 as an arthouse film division of his USA Networks/
Studios USA Television LLC by merging
October Films, the original
Rogue Pictures and
Gramercy Pictures. In 2001, Diller sold Studios USA to Vivendi S.A., and then in 2002,
Universal Studios merged USA Films with
Interscope Communications,
Good Machine and
Universal Focus to create
Focus Features.
/25
Castle Rock Entertainment is an American film production company founded in 1987 by actor and director Rob Reiner, Martin Shafer, Andy Scheinman, Glenn Padnick, and Alan Horn, with
Columbia Pictures as their original strategic partner. Early in the studio's history,
Nelson Entertainment co-financed their films until 1991, when
New Line Cinema took over their duties (after Nelson was sold to New Line). On December 22, 1993, Castle Rock was acquired by
Turner Broadcasting System and would become a part of Time Warner when the two along with New Line Cinema merged with them on October 10, 1996. In 1999,
Warner Bros. Pictures gained distribution rights from Sony Pictures Entertainment/Columbia Pictures. Castle Rock's first release was
Winter People in 1989, but no logo was used until
When Harry Met Sally.
/26
Orion Pictures (legally
Orion Releasing LLC) was formed as the
Orion Pictures Company in March 1978 as a joint venture between
Warner Bros. and former
United Artists executives Arthur B. Krim, Eric Pleskow and Robert S. Benjamin. When the studio was formed, they produced films that would be released through Warner Bros. In 1982, Orion bought Filmways, Inc. after Orion was unhappy with distribution agreements with Warner Bros. In June 1982,
Filmways Pictures was reincorporated as
Orion Pictures Corporation.
/27
Turner Pictures was founded by
Turner Broadcasting in 1989 as their film production division, initially producing made-for-TV movies, then expanding to theatrical features. Turner Pictures continued to produce films as an autonomous division alongside Turner Broadcasting's recently-purchased
New Line Cinema and
Castle Rock Entertainment. "Turner Pictures Worldwide Distribution, Inc." was also founded to handle international sales and distribution of Turner Pictures productions. With some exceptions, Turner Pictures feature films were released through New Line Cinema starting in 1993 and lasted until 1996, when
Warner Bros. took over distribution from New Line after its parent company
Time Warner purchased Turner that same year. Turner Pictures continues to operate under the name "
TNT Originals, Inc.", producing TV movies.
/28
Warner China Film HG was a production and distribution company that was a joint venture of
Warner Bros. with state-owned
China Film Group and
Hengdian
Group. Since then, TimeWarner (now
Warner Bros. Discovery) has co-founded a new joint venture named
Flagship Entertainment, a Hong Kong-based joint venture between TimeWarner and a China Media Capital-led consortium established in 2015 that includes
TVB.
/29
Revolution Studios is a company founded in 2000 by Joe Roth, a former chairman of
Walt Disney Pictures and
20th Century Fox (now 20th Century Studios) with Todd Garner, Rob Moore, Tom Sherak, Elaine Goldsmith-Thomas,
Starz and Fox as equity owners.
/30
Morgan Creek Entertainment (formerly known as Morgan Creek Productions) is a production company co-founded in 1987 by producer Joe Roth and former auto import executive James G. Robinson. The name of the company comes from Roth's favorite movie, 1944's
The Miracle of Morgan's Creek.
/31
ImageMovers, L.L.C. was founded as the in-name-only "South Side Amusement Company" in 1984 by Robert Zemeckis. It was officially incorporated as ImageMovers, L.L.C. in 1997 by Zemeckis along with producers Jack Rapke and Steve Starkey. They didn't use an animated logo until
What Lies Beneath and
Cast Away which were both released in 2000.
/32
After Viacom and CBS Corporation split in 2006, the latter company formed
CBS Films to produce and distribute films. The first film from the studio was
Extraordinary Measures, released on January 22, 2010.
/33
Open Road Films is a distribution company started by theater chains
AMC Theatres and
Regal Cinemas in March 2011. In August 2017, it was purchased by
Tang Media Partners, which merged it with the also then-purchased
IM Global, resulting in the partnership,
Global Road Entertainment. On November 6, 2018, Open Road agreed to be purchased by Raven Capital Management, which was completed in February 2019. The company made its comeback at the June 2020 Virtual Cannes after their recapitalization by Raven; the resurrected production company is led by Raven principal James Masciello with key assistance from Matt Sidari. The company is currently partnering with Briarcliff Entertainment, Tom Ortenberg's new company, in acquiring and releasing films starting with
Honest Thief.
/34
DreamWorks Pictures (also known as
DreamWorks SKG,
DreamWorks, LLC, and formerly
DreamWorks Studios) is an American film production company originally founded in 1994 by
Amblin Entertainment co-founder Steven
Spielberg, former Walt Disney Studios charmain Jeffery
Katzenberg, and Geffen/DGC Records founder David
Geffen in an ambitious attempt to create a new Hollywood studio.
/35
Founded in 2000,
Go Fish Pictures was a label of
DreamWorks specializing in independent films and anime titles. However, this company didn't use an on-screen logo until the US release of
Millennium Actress in 2003. The last film released through them was the
Shochiku-produced
Casshern in 2007.
/36
Starz! Pictures was an internal studio of
Starz, launched by Encore Media Corporation in 1994 to produce cable movies for the channel. The studio was closed in 2002, after they released their first and only major film project,
Joe & Max.
/37
Caravan Pictures was created in 1992 by Joe Roth and Roger Birnbaum as part of the Walt Disney Motion Pictures Group of The Walt Disney Company for producing films for film units
Hollywood Pictures,
Walt Disney Pictures, and
Touchstone Pictures. Their first movie was
The Three Musketeers, while their last film was
Inspector Gadget. In 1994, Roth became the head chief of Walt Disney Pictures and left Birnbaum in charge, then in 1998, Birnbaum himself left the company and formed
Spyglass Entertainment with Gary Barber. The company closed down in late July 1999 after the release of
Inspector Gadget.
/38
After the collapse of
Alliance Atlantis in 2007, the movie distribution arm was re-launched as
Alliance Films. On January 9, 2013, competing studio
Entertainment One (now owned by Lionsgate Studios) acquired and folded Alliance Films.
/39
This was the theatrical production/distribution unit of the Canadian theater chain
Cineplex Odeon. In 1998, Cineplex Odeon sold controlling interest in the company to
Alliance Communications, who subsequently rebranded it
Odeon Films.
/40
FilmDistrict was an American multi-thread production and film distribution company founded in August 2010 by Graham King and
GK Films. The company also released theatrical films through
Sony Pictures Entertainment and GK Films. Unfortunately for them, the company was torpedoed by the failures of
Pompeii and the 2013 remake of
Oldboy. In October 2013, it ceased to be a distributor, and in February 2014, FilmDistrict was folded into
Focus Features, a division of Comcast's NBCUniversal. In October 2020, its library were acquired by Content Partners LLC.
/41
Fox Atomic was a short-lived production and distribution label of film studios
20th Century Fox and
Fox Searchlight Pictures created in 2006 to generate comedy and genre films. In 2008, following overall disappointing results, Fox Atomic scaled back its production operations and shut down all marketing divisions. In 2009, the label was shut down, with films in development transferred to other Fox labels. All of the Fox Atomic film library is now owned by
The Walt Disney Company via Walt Disney Studios, following Disney's acquisition of 21st Century Fox on March 20, 2019.
/42
This incarnation of Marvel was founded in 1993 as
Marvel Films, as a joint-venture between
Marvel Entertainment Group and
New World Entertainment. The venture also held an animation studio -
Marvel Films Animation, to produce animated content for television as well. In 1996, the company formed
Marvel Studios and signed a seven-year development deal with
20th Century Fox to produce movies based on some of their franchises, and soon signed a deal with
Artisan Entertainment as well. On August 31, 2009,
The Walt Disney Company announced that it would acquire Marvel Entertainment; the transaction was finalized on December 31. However, due to grandfathered contracts, Fox retained the film rights to the
X-Men and
Fantastic Four franchises until 2019, when the rights went back to Marvel after Disney's purchase of Fox.
/43
Skydance Media (formerly
Skydance Productions) is the production company of David Ellison, launched on April 4, 2006. The company entered a five-year partnership to co-produce and co-finance films with
Paramount Pictures starting in 2009. David's sister, Megan, founded
Annapurna Pictures. The company name comes from Ellison's love of aviation, since he is an accomplished pilot and took inspiration from flying aerobatics known as "
skydancing". In 2018, the company partnered with
Tencent Pictures, buying a 5% to 10% minority stake, with RedBird Capital Partners and
CJ ENM later coming in as investors since February 2020. As of this year, Skydance's parent company is currently making plans to merge with
Paramount Global. The merger will be completed in March 2025.
/44
Magnolia Pictures is an American film distributor and a holding of
2929 Entertainment, owned by Todd Wagner and Mark Cuban. Magnolia was formed in 2001 by Bill Banowsky and Eamonn Bowles, and specializes in both foreign and independent films. The company distributes some of its films, especially foreign ones, under the labels
Magnet Releasing and
HDNet Films.
/45
Anchor Bay Films was the film unit of
Anchor Bay Entertainment. It was formed in 2009 and was folded into
Lionsgate Films in 2016 upon their purchase of Anchor Bay's parent
Starz Media.
/46
Viacom Pictures was the made-for-television film division of
Viacom Productions (now "
CBS Studios"), that produced television films for the Showtime Network and some theatrical releases. Viacom Pictures's film library is now owned by
Paramount Pictures (acquired by Viacom in 1994) and are distributed on home video by
Paramount Home Entertainment (under the label
CBS Home Entertainment)
/47
Gladden Entertainment Corporation was a film company founded by former
United Artists executive David Begelman, which supplanted
Sherwood Productions, the company of which he was head of production. Begelman named the company after his wife
Gladys. Gladden was overshadowed by Begelman's fraudulent schemes and unpaid taxes that would haunt him until he committed suicide in 1995. In February 1994, the founder left Gladden Entertainment, which would go bankrupt that April, and focused on a company he founded months earlier called Gladden Productions, but no movies ever came out of that new company. All films would eventually fall under control of
Epic Productions, which would incorporate the Sherwood films into its Zeta library and the Gladden films into its Alpha library. Today, the company's films along with the pre-1996
PolyGram Filmed Entertainment library are owned by
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios through
Orion Pictures.
/48
October Films was an independent film production company and distributor founded in 1991 by Bingham Ray and Jeff Lipsky as a means of distributing the 1990 film
Life Is Sweet. A series of mergers and acquisitions began when
Universal Studios (then a division of Seagram & Sons) bought a majority stake in October Films in 1997. Universal then sold its shares to Barry Diller in 1999, who merged it with
Gramercy Pictures and
Interscope Communications, forming
USA Films. Vivendi then acquired USA Films, who in 2002 acquired
Good Machine and merged it with USA Films and
Universal Focus, forming
Focus Features.
/49
Prestige Films was the short-lived arthouse film sub-arm of
Miramax Films. It was eventually replaced by
Dimension Films.
/50
MTV Studios was founded by MTV in 2018 as a restructure of its previous TV production arm,
MTV Production Development. In 2020,
MTV Films was merged with MTV Studios, which became
MTV Entertainment Studios in 2021, encompassing content for and based on all of MTV's brands.
/51
Fox Entertainment Studios is a division of
Fox Entertainment that was launched in 2022 as its first venture into content produced entirely in-house. In 2023, it entered the movie business.
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