The six major Hollywood studios, circa 2007

Transcription

1 The six major Hollywood studios, circa 2007 Universal Owned by NBC Universal, formerly MCA/Universal, owned in part by GE and Vivendi, previously owned by Seagram beverages (Canadian). NBC Universal also owns NBC television network, cable networks (SciFi, USA, Bravo, Telemundo), Universal Music Group (Kanye West, U2, Ludacris, The Who, Keane), Universal theme parks. Well-known Universal Studios pictures include The Sting, To Kill a Mockingbird, American Graffiti, Jaws, The Deer Hunter, the Halloween horror franchise, most John Hughes films (Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club, etc.), and Scarface. Recent films include The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Jarhead, and Miami Vice. Divisions include Focus Features (formerly USA Films, merged together with what were formerly October Films, Gramercy, others) produces and distributes American art-house films, e.g., Brokeback Mountain, Gosford Park, Lost in Translation, and produces/distributes foreign films of all types, e.g., Swimming Pool, Monsoon Wedding, Shaun of the Dead. Universal distributes its own pictures and sometimes co-finances and distributes films with these production companies: Imagine Entertainment: founded by Brian Grazer & Ron Howard; responsible for Da Vinci Code, A Beautiful Mind, TV shows like 24 Amblin Entertainment: founded by Stephen Spielberg and others, produced E.T. and Schindler s List; also produced Back to the Future trilogy, Men in Black, Monster House. Morgan Creek: finances its own production and marketing for films like Ace Ventura, Major League, True Romance, Man of the Year. Working Title Films: a British production company co-owned by Universal and BBC Films; produces all the Coen Bros. films (Fargo, The Big Lebowski, etc.) plus British-scripted hits like Four Weddings and a Funeral, Bridget Jones s Diary, and films by British directors like United 93. Studio Canal: a French production company which sometimes coproduces with Working Title; produced or co-produced British and European films including Billy Elliot, and occasionally invests in the production of art-house American features like The Pianist and Mulholland Drive.

2 Disney Owned by Walt Disney Corporation The Disney Corporation also owns Disney theme parks, TV networks (ESPN, ABC, Disney Channel, History Channel, A&E, Lifetime, etc.), radio stations, music labels (Hollywood Records, Mammoth, others), book publishers (Hyperion), Broadway stage production companies (The Lion King), consumer products (Disney Stores), a video games company (Buena Vista games), and the Muppets/Jim Henson Productions. Disney formerly owned the Anaheim Angels and NHL s Mighty Ducks (a franchise originally created by Disney after the success of its Mighty Ducks film) Disney divisions include: Walt Disney Pictures: kids movies, including traditional Disney animation, e.g., Snow White, Bambi, Fantasia, The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, as well as G-rated and PG-rated liveaction features like Freaky Friday, Honey I Shrunk the Kids, and the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise (the only PG-13 rated Disney studio films) Touchstone Pictures: adult movies: Hitchhiker s Guide, The Royal Tenenbaums and other Wes Anderson films Hollywood Pictures (produced The Sixth Sense) and now mostly defunct Miramax Films (formerly owned by the Weinstein Brothers with Disney) responsible for art-house films and foreign film distribution Pixar: new-wave animation, e.g. Cars, Monster Inc. Distributed by Buena Vista Pictures, a division of the larger Disney corporation, Disney is also affiliated with and distributes many features by Spyglass Entertainment (a production company) produced in conjunction with Disney divisions.

3 Paramount Owned by Viacom Viacom also owns TV networks (CBS, MTV, Nickelodeon, BET, Comedy Central, CW network, etc.) record company Famous Music (Shakira, Eminem), Internet ventures (ifilm), video game companies (Xfire), Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. chain restaurants (a spin-off of the Forrest Gump film) The oldest studio still in existence, Paramount is the producer of such classics as Sunset Boulevard and Shane, many Hitchcock films, Chinatown, The Godfather films, Saturday Night Fever, and the Star Trek and Indiana Jones franchises. Films from the last decade range from World Trade Center to Vanilla Sky to Clueless. Divisions include Paramount Vantage (formerly Paramount Classics) responsible for art-house productions like The Virgin Suicides, Babel, Hustle and Flow, An Inconvenient Truth. Paramount is its own distributor, and they distribute MTV Films and Nickelodeon Films, among others. As of 2006, the newest division of Paramount is Dreamworks, founded by Stephen Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg, and David Geffen, and responsible for many of Spielberg s recent hits (Minority Report, Munich) as well as major pictures like Almost Famous, American Beauty, Cast Away, The Ring, Anchorman, Collateral, Seabiscuit, and Meet the Parents, but not the Dreamworks animation division which produces movies like Shrek, and which is its own company.

4 Warner Bros Owned by Time Warner Inc. Time Warner Inc. also owns two other production studios (Castle Rock and New Line Cinema), Time Warner book publishing (Warner Books, Little Brown), magazines like Time, People, Sports Illustrated, Money, and Fortune, HBO, the WB network now CW network, cable networks including CNN, Headline News, Cartoon Network, all the Turner channels (TBS, TNT, Turner Movie Classics), AOL, Netscape, Advertising.com, Time Warner cable company (the ones who install your home cable), the Atlanta Braves, DC Comics Warner Brothers is one of the oldest Hollywood studios, producer of Casablanca, Rebel Without a Cause, and Mean Streets to name just a few of thousands of classics. More recent films include the Harry Potter, Matrix, and Terminator franchises, all the old and new Superman films, V for Vendetta, The Departed, and Blood Diamond. WB distributes its own movies and films by Time Warner Co. s other film studios: New Line Cinema: producer of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, the Austin Powers movies, and films ranging from Pleasantville to Nightmare on Elm Street. New Line also has a subdivision formerly known as Fine Line Features (now known as Picturehouse since it merged with HBO Films) that produces independent films like Hedwig and the Angry Inch and Shine. Castle Rock Entertainment, co-founded in part by Rob Reiner (director of When Harry Met Sally, Stand by Me, etc.); has produced movies like The Shawshank Redemption, A Few Good Men, The Polar Express, and all of the Christopher Guest mockumentaries like This is Spinal Tap, Waiting for Guffman, A Mighty Wind.

5 Sony Sony Pictures Entertainment is mainly the classic Hollywood studio formerly known as Columbia. Sony purchased Columbia from Coca-Cola, which owned the studio for a short period in the 1980s, before which Columbia was independent. Coca-Cola created TriStar Pictures, a joint venture with CBS and HBO. Sony Pictures also acquired the classic MGM studios in 2005 in a partnership with Comcast and others. MGM includes United Artists, Orion Pictures, and Samuel Goldwyn Pictures. ] Sony is a multinational holding corporation based in Japan with four other major divisions: Electronics, Computer Entertainment (Video Games), Sony/BMG Music, and financial services. Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group includes the following divisions: Columbia Pictures: the original studio founded in 1924, famous for classics Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, On the Waterfront, Easy Rider, and Taxi Driver among thousands of others. More recent films include Groundhog Day, and the Spider-Man and Charlie s Angels movies. TriStar Pictures: major pictures like in the 1980s and 1990s like Jerry Maguire and Philadelphia. Now reorganized to work more on genre films (likely other than horror which are made by Screen Gems) Sony Pictures Classics: independent and art-house films like House of Flying Daggers, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, and Pedro Almodovar films like Volver and Bad Education Screen Gems: mostly horror films (Hostel, Resident Evil, The Grudge) Triumph Films: often low-budget or direct-to-video films Destination Films: a small niche distribution company (Cowboy BeBop) Sony distributes its own films and has distribution deals with MGM/UA and now Revolution Films, an independent production studio affiliated with Sony. Revolution has made films ranging from Black Hawk Down to Punch-Drunk Love to XXX to Rent.

6 Fox 20th Century Fox was founded as Fox studios in 1915 and merged with 20th Century Pictures in Since 1984, it has been owned outright by the News Corporation (media mogul Rupert Murdoch s company), a mammoth media conglomerate whose holdings include HarperCollins book publishing, hundreds of newspapers in the US, UK, and internationally, magazines including TV Guide, the Fox TV network and affiliated cable stations (FX, Fox Sports, Fox News Channel), DirectTV satellite service, Fox television studios (owner of The Simpsons and countless other shows), hundreds of local Fox television affiliates, Internet ventures like MySpace, and sports teams like the Colorado Rockies (they formerly owned the Manchester United soccer team, the Yankees of English league soccer). 20th Century Fox historically is famous for countless classics like All About Eve, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, MASH, Patton, and are co-producers of the Star Wars franchise. Recent films include Borat, The Devil Wears Prada, and Walk the Line. Fox divisions include: Fox Searchlight, which focuses on art-house and independent films like The Full Monty, The Ice Storm, Quills, Bend it Like Beckham, Sideways, Little Miss Sunshine. Blue Sky Studios, an animation production firm, notably producing the Ice Age movies. Fox also has distribution deals and part-ownership with Regency studios (Mr. and Mrs. Smith, Date Movie)