Major film studios are
production and
distribution companies that release a substantial number of
films annually and consistently command a significant share of
box office revenue in a given market. In the American and international markets, the major film studios, often known simply as the majors or the Big Five studios, are commonly regarded as the five diversified
media conglomerates whose various film production and distribution subsidiaries collectively command approximately 80 to 85% of U.S. box office revenue.[1][2][3][4] The term may also be applied more specifically to the primary motion picture business subsidiary of each respective conglomerate.[2]
The current "Big Five" majors (Universal, Paramount, Warner Bros., Disney, and Sony) all originate from film studios that were active during
Hollywood's "Golden Age." Four of these were among that original era's "
Eight Majors," being that era's original "Big Five" plus its "Little Three," collectively the eight
film studios that controlled as much as 96% of the market during the 1930s and 1940s.
Universal Pictures was, during that early era, considered one of the "Little Three," along with
United Artists and
Columbia Pictures. RKO went defunct in 1959. United Artists began as a distribution company for several independent producers, later began producing its own films, and was eventually acquired by MGM in 1981. Columbia Pictures eventually merged in 1987 with Tri-Star Pictures to form Columbia Pictures Entertainment, now known as Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc.
During the Golden Age,
Walt Disney Productions was an independent production company and not considered a "major studio" until 1984, when it joined 20th Century Fox, Columbia, Metro–Goldwyn–Mayer, Paramount, Universal, and Warner Bros. to comprise the "Big Seven." The decay of MGM in 1986 lead the studio to become a mini-major upon its sale in 1986, reducing the majors to the "Big Six". In 1989,
Sony acquired Columbia Pictures Entertainment, which became Sony Pictures Entertainment in 1991.
In 2019,
Disney acquired Fox, reducing the majors to a new "Big Five" for the first time since Hollywood's Golden Age.[10] Thus, Paramount and Warner are the only Golden Age Big Five members to remain as majors today with the same names, while 20th Century Studios continues to be a major under the ownership of Disney.
While the Big Five's main studio lots are located within 15 miles (24 km) of each other, Paramount is the only member of the Big Five still based inHollywood and located entirely within the official
city limits of the City of Los Angeles.[11] Warner Bros. and Disney are both located in
Burbank, while Universal is in the nearby unincorporated area of
Universal City, and Sony is in
Culver City.
Disney is the only studio that has been owned by the same conglomerate since its founding. The offices of that parent entity are still located on
Disney's studio lot and
in the same building.[12][13]
Meanwhile,
Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sony Pictures Entertainment, which is owned by Tokyo-based Sony Group Corporation and is the only US film studio owned by a foreign conglomerate, while Universal is owned by Philadelphia-based
Comcast (via
NBCUniversal), and the other two report to corporations headquartered in New York City —
Paramount Global and
Warner Bros. Discovery. Most of today's Big Five also control subsidiaries with their own distribution networks that concentrate on
arthouse pictures (e.g., Universal's
Focus Features) or
genre films (e.g., Sony's
Screen Gems); several other specialty units were shut down or sold off between 2008 and 2010.
Outside of the Big Five, there are several smaller U.S. production and distribution companies, known as independents or "indies." The leading independent producers and distributors such as
Lionsgate Studios, the aforementioned
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (now owned by
Amazon),
A24, and
STX Entertainment, are sometimes referred to as "mini-majors." From 1998 through 2005, during a portion of the Big Six period,
DreamWorks SKG commanded a large enough market share to arguably qualify it as a seventh major. In 2006, DreamWorks was acquired by
Viacom, Paramount's then-corporate parent (Viacom, after other mergers and acquisitions and rebrandings, included its movie studio's well-known name when the parent company rebranded as
Paramount Global in 2022). In late 2008, DreamWorks once again became an independent production company; its films were distributed by Disney's
Touchstone Pictures until 2016, at which point distribution switched to Universal.
Today, the Big Five major studios are primarily financial backers and distributors of films whose actual production is largely handled by independent companies – either long-running entities or ones created for and dedicated to the making of a specific film. For example, Disney and Sony Pictures distribute their films through affiliated divisions (
Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures and
Sony Pictures Releasing, respectively), while the others function as both production and distribution companies. The specialty divisions (such as Disney's
Searchlight Pictures and Universal's
Focus Features) often acquire distribution rights to films in which the studio has had no prior involvement. While the majors still do a modicum of true production, their activities are focused more in the areas of development, financing, marketing, and merchandising. Those business functions are still usually performed in or near Los Angeles, even though the
runaway production phenomenon means that most films are now mostly or completely
shot on location at places outside Los Angeles.
Other major film studios of the 20th century included:
RKO Pictures (RKO) (1929–1959): one of the Big Five studios (originally incorporated as RKO Radio Pictures), bought by
Howard Hughes in 1948, was mismanaged and dismantled and was largely defunct by the 1957 studio lot sale;[21] revived several times as an independent studio, with most recent film releases in 2012 and 2015.
United Artists (UA) (1919–1981): one of the "Little Three" (or "major minor") studios, originally only a distributor for independent film producers[21] acquired by MGM in 1981; brand name was resurrected in 2019 when
Annapurna Pictures and MGM renamed a distribution company, which was a joint venture between the two companies, to
United Artists Releasing; revived in 2024 as a label under the
Amazon MGM Studios umbrella.[22]
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) (1924–1986): one of the Big Seven studios,[21] acquired by
Ted Turner in 1986, who sold the studio back to
Kirk Kerkorian later that year while retaining MGM's pre-May 1986 library; became a mini-major studio upon the sale; emerged from
bankruptcy in 2010; now owned by
Amazon, which also owns and operates Amazon MGM Studios,
Amazon Prime Video, and
Amazon Freevee.
"Instant major" is a 1960s coined term for a film company that seemingly overnight had approached the status of major."[23]In 1967, three "instant major" studios popped up, two of which were partnered with a
television network theatrical film unit, with the most lasting until 1973:
Mini-major studios (or "mini-majors") are the larger, independent film production companies that are smaller than the major studios and attempt to compete directly with them.[25]
Monogram Pictures/
Allied Artists Pictures, 1967[34] – The current entertainment company,
Allied Artists International, is considered the successor to AAP; library rights are currently split mostly between Amazon (through MGM), Warner Bros. Discovery (through Warner Bros.), and Paramount Global (through Paramount Pictures).
New Line Cinema[25] – purchased in 1994 by Turner Broadcasting System; TBS merged with Time Warner (now
Warner Bros. Discovery) in 1996; and New Line merged with Warner Bros. in 2008.
Orion Pictures[21] – in 1990, was considered the last of the mini-majors.[36] Purchased in 1988 by Kluge/
Metromedia; purchased in 1997 by MGM.
Avco Embassy, 1967[34] – acquired by
Norman Lear and
Jerry Perenchio in 1982;[37] acquired by the Coca-Cola Company in 1985;[38] its theatrical division was acquired by
Dino DeLaurentiis in 1986. Sony Pictures currently owns the television rights to most of the theatrical library and the logo, names, and trademarks through its
ELP Communications subsidiary.
Republic Pictures – originally a "poverty row" B-movie producer,[21] produced many serials and was formed by the consolidation of six minor production companies[41] in 1935. It was rebooted in 1985. Viacom then purchased it in the early 2000s.
FilmDistrict[42] – merged into
Focus Features (a subsidiary of Universal) in 2014; the library acquired by Content Partners LLC in December 2020.[43]
Global Road Entertainment – formerly
Open Road Films, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on September 6, 2018;[51] by November 2018, it had reverted to Open Road, purchased by Raven Capital Management on approval as of December 19, 2018 by a Delaware bankruptcy judge.[52]
CBS Films[42] – folded into the CBS Entertainment Group on October 11, 2019, and absorbed into CBS Studios to produce TV films for CBS All Access (later
Paramount+). [57]
Revolution Studios – purchased by Content Partners LLC in 2017, focuses on distribution, remake, and sequel rights to its library following the end of its six-year deal with
Sony Pictures Entertainment.
In 1909,
Thomas Edison, who had been fighting in the courts for years for control of fundamental motion picture patents, won a major decision. This led to the creation of the
Motion Picture Patents Company, widely known as the Trust. Comprising the eight largest U.S. film companies, it was "designed to eliminate not only independent film producers but also the country's 10,000 independent [distribution] exchanges and exhibitors."[58] Though its many members did not consolidate their filmmaking operations, the New York–based Trust was arguably the first major North American movie conglomerate. The independents' fight against the Trust was led by
Carl Laemmle, whose Chicago-based Laemmle Film Service, serving the Midwest and Canada, was the largest distribution exchange in North America. Laemmle's efforts were rewarded in 1912 when the U.S. government ruled that the Trust was a "corrupt and unlawful association" and must be dissolved. On June 8, 1912, Laemmle organized the merger of his production division, IMP (Independent Motion Picture Company), with several other filmmaking companies, creating the
Universal Film Manufacturing Company in
New York City. By the end of the year, Universal was making movies at two Los Angeles facilities: the former Nestor Film studio in Hollywood, and another studio in
Edendale. The first Hollywood major studio was in business.[59]
In 1923,
Walt Disney had founded the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio and The Disney Brothers Features Company with his brother
Roy and animator
Ub Iwerks. Renamed as
Walt Disney Productions, Disney became a powerful independent over the next three decades focusing on animation with its shorts and films being distributed over the years by various majors; primarily Leslie B. Mace, Winkler Pictures, Universal Pictures, Celebrity Productions, Cinephone, Columbia Pictures, United Artists, United Artists Pictures and finally RKO. In its first year in 1928, Celebrity Productions and Cinephone had released its first blockbuster Steamboat Willie. In the decades that followed, Disney and its associated distributors were able to achieve occasional successes, but its relatively small output and exclusive focus on G-rated films meant that it was not generally considered to be one of the majors.
The Motion Picture Theatre Owners of America and the Independent Producers' Association declared war in 1925 on what they termed a common enemy — the "film trust" of
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Paramount, and
First National, which they claimed dominated the industry by not only producing and distributing motion pictures, but by entering into exhibition as well.[61]
On October 6, 1927, Warner Bros. released The Jazz Singer, starring
Al Jolson, and a whole new era began, with "pictures that talked", bringing the studio to the forefront of the film industry. The Jazz Singer played to standing-room-only crowds throughout the country and earned a special
Academy Award for Technical Achievement.[62] Fox, in the forefront of
sound film technology along with Warner Bros., was also acquiring a sizable circuit of movie theaters to exhibit its product.[citation needed] The development of sound films like The Jazz Singer near the end of the
Roaring Twenties resulted in a massive rush of Americans to movie theaters to watch the astonishing new "talkies".[6] At the peak of the fad, every person in the United States over the age of six was watching a motion picture in a theater at least once a week.[6] The box office revenue from the first sound films is what enabled the Hollywood majors to achieve their lasting domination of the global film industry.[6]
Between late 1928, when
RCA's
David Sarnoff engineered the creation of the
RKO (Radio-Keith-Orpheum) studio, and the end of 1949, when Paramount divested its theater chain—roughly the period considered Hollywood's Golden Age—there were eight Hollywood studios commonly regarded as the "majors".[63][64] Of these eight, the so-called Big Five were integrated conglomerates, combining ownership of a production studio, distribution division, and substantial theater chain, and contracting with performers and filmmaking personnel: Loews/MGM, Paramount, Fox (which became 20th Century-Fox after a 1935 merger), Warner Bros., and RKO. The remaining majors were sometimes referred to as the "Little Three" or "major minor" studios.[21] Two—Universal and Columbia (founded in 1924)—were organized similarly to the Big Five, except for the fact that they never owned more than small theater circuits (a consistently reliable source of profits). The third of the lesser majors, United Artists (founded in 1919), owned a few theaters and had access to production facilities owned by its principals, but it functioned primarily as a backer-distributor, loaning money to independent producers and releasing their films. During the 1930s, the eight majors averaged a total of 358 feature film releases a year; in the 1940s, the four largest companies shifted more of their resources toward high-budget productions and away from
B movies, bringing the yearly average down to 288 for the decade.[63]
Among the significant characteristics of the Golden Age was the stability of the Hollywood majors, their hierarchy, and their near-complete domination of the box office. At the midpoint of the Golden Age, 1939, the Big Five had market shares ranging from 22% (MGM) to 9% (RKO); each of the Little Three had around a 7% share. In sum, the eight majors controlled 95% of the market. Ten years later, the picture was largely the same: the Big Five had market shares ranging from 22% (MGM) to 9% (RKO); the Little Three had shares ranging from 8% (Columbia) to 4% (United Artists). In sum, the eight majors controlled 96% of the market.[65]
The majors after the Golden Age
1950s–1960s
The end of the Golden Age had been signaled by the majors' loss of a
federal antitrust case that led to the divestiture of the Big Five's theater chains. Though this had virtually no immediate effect on the eight majors' box-office domination, it somewhat leveled the playing field between the Big Five and the Little Three. In November 1951,
Decca Records purchased 28% of Universal; early the following year, the studio became the first of the classic Hollywood majors to be taken over by an outside corporation, as Decca acquired majority ownership.[66] In 1953, Disney established its own distribution division,
Buena Vista Film Distribution, to handle its own product which had been largely distributed by RKO. The 1950s also saw two substantial shifts in the hierarchy of the majors: RKO, perennially the weakest of the Big Five, declined rapidly under the mismanagement of
Howard Hughes, who had purchased a controlling interest in the studio in 1948. By the time Hughes sold it to the
General Tire and Rubber Company in 1955, the studio was a major by outdated reputation alone. In 1957, virtually all RKO movie operations ceased and the studio was dissolved in 1959. (Revived on a small scale in 1981, it was eventually spun off and now operates as a minor independent company.) In contrast, there was United Artists, which had long operated under the financing-distribution model the other majors were now progressively shifting toward. Under
Arthur Krim and
Robert Benjamin, who began managing the company in 1951, UA became consistently profitable. By 1956—when it released one of the biggest blockbusters of the decade, Around the World in 80 Days—it commanded a 10% market share. By the middle of the next decade, it had reached 16% and was the second-most profitable studio in Hollywood.
Despite RKO's collapse, the remaining seven majors still averaged a total yearly release slate of 253 feature films during the decade.[63] Following
MCA Inc.'s acquisition of Decca Records and the aforementioned Universal under
Lew Wasserman in 1962, the later half of the 1960s were marked by four others — Paramount, United Artists, Warner Bros., and MGM — involved in a spate of corporate takeovers that left Columbia, Fox, and its eventual parent company Disney under original ownership.
Gulf+Western took over Paramount in 1966; and the
Transamerica Corporation purchased United Artists in 1967. Warner Bros. underwent large-scale reorganization twice in two years: a 1967 merger with the
Seven Arts company preceded a 1969 purchase by
Kinney National, under
Stephen J. Ross. MGM, in the process of a slow decline, changed ownership twice in the same span as well, winding up in the hands of financier
Kirk Kerkorian also in 1969. The majors almost entirely abandoned low-budget production during this era, bringing the annual average of features released down to 160.[63] The decade also saw Disney/Buena Vista commanding a prominent position in the market. Buoyed by the success of Mary Poppins, Disney achieved a 9% market share in 1964, more than Warner and its eventual subsidiary Fox. Though over the next two decades Disney/Buena Vista's share of the box-office would continue to reach this level, the studio was still not considered a major as it did not release many films, and those it did release were exclusively G-rated.
1970s–1980s
The early 1970s were difficult years for all the classic majors. Movie attendance, which had been declining steadily since the end of the Golden Age, hit an all-time low by 1971. In 1973, MGM president
James T. Aubrey drastically downsized the studio, slashing its production schedule and eliminating its distribution arm (UA would distribute the studio's films for the remainder of the decade). From fifteen releases in 1973, the next year MGM was down to five; its average for the rest of the 1970s would be even lower.[67] Like RKO in its last days under Hughes, MGM remained a major in terms of brand reputation, but little more. Disney by contrast began to ascend towards major status through a resurgence in its animated movies, beginning with The Rescuers (1977), and the studio began to enter the adult market with The Black Hole (1979), its first non-G rated film.
By the mid-1970s, the industry had rebounded and a significant philosophical shift was in progress. As the majors focused increasingly on the development of the next hoped-for blockbuster and began routinely opening each new movie in many hundreds of theaters (an approach called "saturation booking"), their collective yearly release average fell to 81 films during 1975–84.[63] The classic set of majors was shaken further in late 1980, when the disastrously expensive flop of Heaven's Gate effectively ruined United Artists. The studio was sold the following year to Kerkorian, who merged it with MGM. After a brief resurgence, the combined studio continued to decline. From 1986, MGM/UA has been at best a "mini-major", to use the present-day term.
Meanwhile, a new member was finally admitted to the club of major studios and two significant contenders emerged. With the combined output of
Walt Disney Pictures, the establishment of the
Touchstone Pictures brand in 1984, and increasing attention to the adult live-action market during the early 1980s, Disney/Buena Vista secured acknowledgment as a full-fledged major.[21] Film historian Joel Finler identifies 1986 as the breakthrough year, when Disney rose to third place in market share and remained consistently competitive for a leading position thereafter.[68]
The two emerging contenders were both newly formed companies. In 1978, Krim, Benjamin, and three other studio executives departed UA to found
Orion Pictures as a joint venture with Warner Bros. It was announced optimistically as the "first major new film company in 50 years".[69]Tri-Star Pictures was created in 1982 as a joint venture of future corporate sibling Columbia Pictures (at that time acquired by the
Coca-Cola Company),
HBO (then owned by Warner Bros. Discovery's predecessor
Time Inc.), and
CBS. In 1985,
Rupert Murdoch's
News Corporation acquired 20th Century-Fox (thus dropping that name's hyphen), the last of both the classic Hollywood majors to be taken over by an outside corporation and five relatively healthy Golden Age majors to remain independent throughout that era and after until its eventual sale to Disney in 2019 brought back the Big Five for the first time since then.
By 1986, the combined share of the six classic majors — Paramount, MGM/UA, Fox, Warner Bros., Columbia and Universal — fell to 64%, the lowest since the beginning of the Golden Age. Fox's future parent company Disney was in third place, behind only Paramount and Warner. Even including Disney/Buena Vista as a seventh major and adding its 10% share (only for them to acquire Fox 33 years later), the majors' control of the North American market was at a historic ebb. Orion (now completely independent of Warner) and Tri-Star were well positioned as mini-majors, each with North American market shares of around 6% and regarded by industry observers as "fully competitive with the majors", much like MGM and Lionsgate by the turn of the century.[70] Smaller independents garnered 13%—more than any studio aside from Paramount. In 1964, by comparison, all of the companies outside of the then-seven majors and Disney had combined for a grand total of 1%. In the first edition of Finler's The Hollywood Story (1988), he wrote, "It will be interesting to see whether the old-established studios will be able to bounce back in the future, as they have done so many times before, or whether the newest developments really do reflect a fundamental change in the US movie industry for the first times since the 20s."[71]
1990s–2000s
With the exception of MGM/UA—whose position was effectively supplanted by Disney—the old-established studios did bounce back. The aforementioned purchase of
20th Century Fox by
Rupert Murdoch's
News Corporation left its future parent company Disney under original ownership and presaged a new round of corporate acquisitions not long afterward. As part of that series, Columbia, Paramount and Warner Bros. received new owners once and for all while Universal changed corporate hands until the mid-2000s. Paramount's parent company
Gulf+Western was renamed Paramount Communications and Coca-Cola sold Columbia to Japanese electronics firm
Sony in 1989, creating
Sony Pictures. The following year,
Warner Communications merged with
Time Inc. to birth
Time Warner and Universal's parent company
MCA was purchased by fellow Japanese electronics conglomerate
Matsushita. At this time, both Tri-Star and Orion were essentially out of business: the former merged with Sony and Columbia, the latter bankrupt and sold to MGM. The most important contenders to emerge during the 1990s with Viacom's purchase of Paramount Communications in 1994 —
New Line Cinema,
Miramax, and
DreamWorks SKG — were likewise sooner or later brought into the majors' fold. Shortly after, Matsushita sold MCA (and Universal) to Seagram in 1996, then
Vivendi in 2000, and later NBC's parent company
General Electric in 2004 to become NBCUniversal.
The development of in-house pseudo-indie subsidiaries by the conglomerates—sparked by the 1992 establishment of
Sony Pictures Classics and the success of Pulp Fiction (1994) on home video, significantly undermined the position of the true independents. The majors' release schedule rebounded: the six (later five) primary studio subsidiaries alone put out a total of 124 films during 2006; the three largest secondary subsidiaries (New Line, Fox Searchlight, and Focus Features) accounted for another 30. Box-office domination was fully restored: in 2006, the then-six (now five) major movie conglomerates combined for 89.8% of the North American market; Lionsgate and Weinstein were almost exactly half as successful as their 1986 mini-major counterparts, sharing 6.1%; MGM came in at 1.8%; and all of the remaining independent companies split a pool totaling 2.3%.[72]
More developments took place among the majors' subsidiaries. The very successful animation production house
Pixar, whose films were distributed by Buena Vista, was acquired by Disney also in 2006. In 2008, New Line Cinema lost its independent status within Time Warner and became a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Time Warner also announced that it would be shutting down its two specialty units, Warner Independent and Picturehouse.[73] Also in 2008, Paramount Vantage's production, marketing, and distribution departments were folded into the parent studio,[74] though it retained the brand for release purposes.[75][76] Universal sold off its genre specialty division, Rogue Pictures, to
Relativity Media in 2009.[77]
2010–present
In January 2010,[78] Disney closed down Miramax's operations and sold off the unit and its library that July to an investor group led by Ronald N. Tutor of the
Tutor Perini construction firm and
Tom Barrack of the
Colony Capital private equity firm.[79]
In January 2011, the majority of
Universal was acquired by Comcast when acquiring 51% of NBCUniversal from General Electric before acquiring the remaining 49% and take complete ownership in March 2013.
On December 14, 2017, The Walt Disney Company (the parent company of major film studio Walt Disney Studios)
announced to acquire key assets of
21st Century Fox (including fellow major film studio
20th Century Fox along with
Fox Searchlight Pictures).[80][81] After beating out Comcast in a bidding war for Fox, both Disney and Fox shareholders approved the deal on July 27, 2018, and closed on March 20, 2019.[82][83][80] The number of major film studios lowered to five, a number that not happen since the Golden Age of Hollywood,[84] the era of the "Big Six" studios and Fox as a major studio for 83 years ended.[84]
From June 14, 2018, until its acquisition by Discovery in 2022, Warner Bros. was owned by
AT&T, which completed its acquisition of Time Warner, renaming it "WarnerMedia",[85] which contained all assets owned by Warner Bros. and its subsidiaries.
On August 13, 2019, Paramount Pictures parent, Viacom, announced
its reunion with CBS Corporation, and the combined company would be called
ViacomCBS, renamed Paramount also in 2022. The two companies previously merged in 2000 but split in 2005. The deal was completed on December 4, 2019.[86][87] Meanwhile, CBS Corporation's mini-major film studio, CBS Films was folded into CBS Entertainment Group after releasing its 2019 film slate, switching its focus to creating original film content for
CBS All Access.[88]
On January 17, 2020, Disney discontinued the "Fox" name from both 20th Century Fox and Fox Searchlight Pictures and rebranded them as
20th Century Studios and
Searchlight Pictures respectively, to avoid brand confusion with
Fox Corporation. The "Searchlight Pictures" and "20th Century Studios" name were first seen on Downhill on February 14, and on The Call of the Wild a week later on February 21 respectively.[89][90]
On May 16, 2021, it was reported that AT&T was in talks with
Discovery, Inc. for it to merge with and acquire Warner Bros.' parent company
WarnerMedia, forming a publicly traded company that would be divided between its shareholders.[92] The proposed spin-off and acquisition was officially announced the next day, which was structured as a
Reverse Morris Trust. AT&T shareholders would receive a 71% stake in the enlarged Discovery, which would be led by its current CEO
David Zaslav. As the transaction closed on April 8, 2022, Discovery renamed itself
Warner Bros. Discovery and ended AT&T's investment in the entertainment business.[93][94][95]
On the same day after the announcement of the acquisition/merger of
WarnerMedia by
Discovery,
Amazon entered negotiations with MGM Holdings to acquire Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The negotiations were made directly with MGM board chairman Kevin Ulrich whose
Anchorage Capital Group is a major shareholder.[96][97] MGM already began to explore a potential sale of the studio since December 2020, with the COVID-19 pandemic and the domination of streaming platforms due to the closure of movie theaters as contributing factors.[98][99] On May 26, 2021, it was officially announced that MGM would be acquired by Amazon for $8.45 billion, subject to regulatory approvals and other routine closing conditions; with the studio continuing to operate as a label under Amazon's existing content arm, complementing
Amazon Studios and
Amazon Prime Video.[100] The acquisition closed on March 17, 2022.[101]
On April 18, 2024, rumors began to circulate that Sony Pictures and
Apollo Global Management were interested in jointly acquiring Paramount Global. Sony Pictures and Apollo presented a $26 billion all-cash offer to acquire Paramount Global on May 5, 2024.[102] According to The New York Times, the board of directors of Paramount Global formally commenced negotiations with Sony and Apollo over the possible sale of the company.[103] If the deal is finalized, Sony will rank third in the world's movie studio rankings, behind The Walt Disney Company and NBCUniversal. In the US and Canada alone, Sony would have a 20.81% market share.[104] On June 3, 2024, Paramount Group reportedly agreed to merge with
Skydance Media instead of Sony for $8 billion. Skydance would first acquire
National Amusements, which controls 80% of the voting shares of Paramount, and then pump cash into Paramount, which would then acquire Skydance.[105] On June 11, 2024, National Amusements announced that they have failed to reach an agreement with Skydance on the Paramount deal.[106] On July 2, 2024, Skydance reached a preliminary agreement to acquire National Amusements and
merge with Paramount to create which is currently being called "New Paramount".[107][108] The transaction is expected to close by September 2025.
Historical organizational lineage
The eight Golden Age majors
The eight major film studios of the Golden Age have gone through significant ownership changes ("independent" meaning customarily identified as the primary commercial entity in its corporate structure; "purchased" meaning acquired anything from majority to total ownership). For instance, this does not include
Walt Disney Studios, which despite being primarily an independent
animation studio during the Golden Age, is the only current existing major studio to remain under continuous autonomous ownership since its founding.
Standard Capital, 1936-1946 (
Laemmle retired from the movie industry and sold a controlling interest of Universal to an American businessman
Lewis Rosenstiel through Standard Capital.)
Seagram, 1996-2000 (On December 9, 1996, the new owners dropped the
MCA name, the company became Universal Studios, Inc. and the parent company of
Universal Pictures.)
Vivendi, 2000 (
Edgar Bronfman Jr sold a controlling interest of Seagram's entertainment division and combined those business to French water utility and media company Vivendi, and with it,
Universal Studios.)
Paramount Communications, 1989–1995 (Gulf+Western changed the name after selling non-entertainment assets)
National Amusements, 1994–present (owner of the two iterations of Viacom; the first includes
CBS Corporation, the second involving the split; CBS and Viacom would reunite in 2019)
Sony/
Comcast/4 private equity firms, 2005–2010 (purchased by Sony, Comcast, and private investment firms—
Providence Equity Partners currently owns the greatest number of shares—and privately held as a minor media company independent of Sony/Columbia)
Kinney, 1969–1972 (Kinney purchased Warner Bros.–Seven Arts)
Warner Communications, 1972–1990 (Kinney spun off non-entertainment assets and changed name)
Time-Warner, 1990–2001 (on January 10, 1990, in New York City, New York as a merger of
Time Inc. and Warner Communications)
AOL Time Warner, 2001–2003 (
AOL merged with Time Warner in 2001)
Time Warner, 2003–2018 (AOL Time Warner reverted to their original name in 2003, which remained until AT&T's acquisition in 2018, despite spinning off AOL and Time Inc.)
Loew's Inc., 1924–1959 (in 1924,
Marcus Loew merged the first two studios and Louis B. Mayer offered up the third and was named head of MGM; controlling interest in Loew's purchased by
William Fox in 1929, but was then forced to sell off interest due to stock market crash; operational control ceded by Loew's to studio management in 1957)
Sony/
Comcast/4 private equity firms, 2005–2010 (purchased by Sony, Comcast, and private investment firms—
Providence Equity Partners currently owns the greatest number of shares—and privately held as a minor media company independent of Sony/Columbia)
Independent, 1935–1955 (half of RCA's interest purchased by
Floyd Odlum, control split between RCA, Odlum, and
Rockefeller brothers; controlling interest purchased by Odlum in 1942; controlling interest purchased by
Howard Hughes in 1948; Hughes's interest purchased by Stolkin-Koolish-Ryan-Burke-Corwin syndicate in 1952; interest repurchased by Hughes in 1953; studio nearly fully purchased by Hughes in 1954)
General Tire and Rubber, 1955–1984 (purchased by General Tire and Rubber—coupled with General Tire's broadcasting operation as RKO Teleradio Pictures; production and distribution halted in 1957; movie business dissolved in 1959 and RKO Teleradio renamed
RKO General; RKO General establishes RKO Pictures as production subsidiary in 1981)
GenCorp, 1984–1987 (reorganization creates holding company with RKO General and General Tire as primary subsidiaries)
Independent as RKO Pictures LLC, 1989–present (owned by
Ted Hartley, who also is the CEO. As of 2015, the company's recent films released were A Late Quartet and Barely Lethal.)
Independent, 1935–1985 (merged both companies in 1935 as 20th Century-Fox; fully purchased by
Marc Rich and
Marvin Davis in 1981 with the hyphen removed; Rich's interest purchased by Davis in 1984; half of Davis's interest purchased by
Rupert Murdoch's
News Corporation in March 1985)
News Corporation, 1985–2013 (purchased the remainder of Davis's shares in September)
21st Century Fox, 2013–2019 (renamed media conglomerate when News Corporation split into two companies on June 28, 2013)
The Walt Disney Company, 2019–present (Disney acquired 20th Century Fox as part of a
$71.3 billion purchase of their owner 21st Century Fox, which was announced on December 14, 2017, and completed on March 20, 2019; was renamed
20th Century Studios by January 17, 2020)
^
abSchatz, Thomas (2009).
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^Warner Bros. held 42,000 shares of common stock out of 72,000 outstanding shares, while Fox Pictures held 21,000 shares, and 12,000 shares were publicly held. *"Warner Buys First National", The Wall Street Journal, September 27, 1928, p. 3. Fox sold its shares of First National to Warner Bros. in November 1929.
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8.^
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Film studios at Wikimedia Commons