Production and Distribution Movie StudiosThis page contains information on most of the major movie studios and distribution companies that release films to the movie box office. It will include lots of information on the individual studios including their origins, famous movies, and current role(s) in the movie and film industry. Although this page is mostly dedicated to informative information on major studios, we will include some of the larger independent companies as well. Below are links to our informative pages on film studios, some of which are directly responsible for the films we love today. Thanks to the pioneers of the film industry and the building of Hollywood studios as we know them.
Warner Bros. is one of world's largest and most successful film producing and distributing companies. Warner Brothers was originally founded in 1918 by four brothers, who were immigrants from Poland. It is the third oldest of Hollywood studios, and is one of the original pioneers in the film industry. More Warner Brothers film industry history click here. DreamWorks SKG was founded in 1994, forming a new Hollywood studio. The SKG following the name DreamWorks (as can be seen in it's logo), stands for the names of it's famous founders, Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg, and David Geffen. DreamWorks is currently own by Viacom Inc, after being purchased by them in 2006 at the price of $1.6 billon. It's headquarters are now located in Universal City, California, U.S.A. DreamWorks is well known for the Animated Shrek series, which have all been Box Office Blockbusters, with Shrek 2 grossing $441,226,247 Domestic and $919,838,758 WorldWide. Paramount Pictures is currently one of the largest and most well know movie production and distribution companies. Paramount has almost always been a strong and prominent figure and in the film industry and is one of the oldest major Hollywood studios having been founded in 1912 by Adolph Zukor who was born in Hungarian. Paramount is currently own by Viacom Inc, with it headquarters located in Hollywood, California, U.S. Paramount currently holds the record for highest grossing film at the box office (unadjusted). The movie, Titanic 1997 grossed $1,842,879,955 at the world wide box office, with it's domestic total gross being $600,788,188. Lionsgate was originally founded as an independent studio in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada in the year of 1985. Frank Giustra was the founder of the entertainment company, he was a Canadian investment banker. Lionsgate grew in the number of films it distributed after seeing success at the box office. It now is a publicly traded company and is considered a one of the upcoming major movie studios, and a growing competition to all studios. LionsGate is well known for it's horror movies, most notably the Saw series , of which they have released a sequel every year after the first Saw movie. Other notable box office successes is the documentary Fahrenheit 9/11, and it's Madea movies from Tyler Perry. Universal Studios is the second oldest Hollywood studio as well as one of the industry's leading film and distribution companies in the world. It was founded in Los Angeles, California, U.S. in June of 1912 by a German Jewish immigrant by the name of Carl Laemmle. Universal Studios is currently ownd by GE (General Electric Corp.) with it headquarters located in Universal City, California, U.S., with corporate and distribution offices located in New York. 20th Century Fox movie studios was founded in 1935 when Fox Film Corporation and Twentieth Century Pictures merged companies and productions. Fox Film Corporation was founded in 1915 by William Fox who was born in Tolcsva, Hungary, then moved to America when just 9 months old. Twentieth Century Pictures was formed in 1933, it was a collaboration between five men, whose names include Darryl F. Zanuck, Joseph Schenck, Raymond Griffith and William Goetz. 20th Century Fox is currently owned by News Corporation, which was founded by Rupert Murdoch who was responsible for purchasing 20th Century Fox. It is one of the leading major movie studios and is a prominent figure in the film industry. 20th Century Fox is most well known for it's distribution of the "Star Wars" series, with five of the six movies in the series ranking in the top ten of Fox's box office grosses. Sony is one of the six major movie studios in the film industry, but it is also one of the youngest movie studios. It was founded in 1987 when Sony purchased Columbia Pictures Entertainment, Inc. which consisted of two movie studios by the name of Columbia Pictures and TriStar Pictures. It was bought from Coca-Cola Company for $3.4 billion, and later Sony purchased the major movie studio MGM in a deal estimated at nearly $5 billion. Sony Pictures has recently been most successful and recognized as the movie studio behind the hugely successful Spider Man series. Sony's Spider Man franchise has received top grosses at the box office with all three movies ranking 1-3 on Sony's top grossing movies (in the order they were released). Disney is the largest entertainment and media conglomerate corporation in the world, as well as one of the biggest Hollywood studios, and perhaps the most recognizable. It was founded in October of 1923, by two brothers (not one) Walt and Roy Disney, both of which were born in Chicago, Illinois. Disney Productions was originally formed as a animation studio, and then grew as it saw continued success. Disney's headquarters is currently located in Burbank, California, U.S.A., with Roy E. Disney, the son of Roy Disney, still involved in the movie companies operations. Miramax Films is an American movie production and distribution company. It was founded by Harvey Weinstein, and Bob Weinstein in 1979. Miramax was considered to be one of the leading independent movie studios, that specialized in releasing relativity low budget movies, and turning them into box office hits and overall financial success. They were famous for the quality of films they distributed, with a very large number of the receiving Acadamy Award Nominations and subsequent wins. In the year of 1993 Miramax was bought by The Walt Disney Company for a total of $70 Million. Bob and Harvey Weinstein stayed with the company after the purchase, but under the control of Disney. Twele years later, the Weienstein's decided to leave Disney (and Miramax) and form their own hollywood studio, which would later become known as "The Weinstein Company". Miramax still releases and distributes movies, but it is on a much smaller scale then the studio's former years. Summit Entertainment is a movie studio that is involved with the production and distribution of movies. It is a independent movie studio, with it's head quarters located in Universal City, Ca, U.S.A. It was founded in the mid 1990's by Bob Hayward and David Garrett. The studio got it's start when it major funding totaling almost $1 billion, most notably from Merrill Lynch. The company saw it's fist major success in 2008 when it released the Twilight movie, based on the book by Stephenie Meyer. The movie went on to be a huge box office success, and went to gross $376,148,833 at the world wide box office. Focus Features is a division of Universal, and was formed in 2002 from the merger of Universal Focus, USA Films, and Good Machine. New Line Cinema was originally founded in 1967 and is/was considered one of the major movie studios. It was originally a independent studio in regards to it's stance and relation to other studios, until in 1996 it became a subsidiary of Time Warner, although it still acted on it's own. This all changed in the beginning of 2008, when the CEO of Time Warner announced that New Line Cinema would shut down it's independent operations as a movie studio and become absorbed into Warner Brothers. New Line Cinema is most known for it's production and distribution of the Lord of the Rings Trilogy.
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