Film institution research

What is a film studio?
A film studio is a major entertainment company or motion picture company that has its own privately owned studio facility or facilities that are used to make films, which is handled by the production company.


There are currently 6 major film studios these include Paramount, Warner bros, Columbia pictures (sony), Walt Disney pictures, Universal pictures and 20th century fox.

Paramount:

Paramount studios have been running since 1912 and is currently the longest operating and only major studio remaining in Hollywood. In 1927 paramount won the very first award for best picture in 1927, before moving to the current studio lot they are now working in. They worked with many legendary industry talents such as directors like Cecil B, Alfred Hitchcock and more recently Steven Spielberg, Harrison Ford, Tom cruise, Angelina Jolie and many more. They don’t only just share the love for films, in the 1960’s they discovered a passion for TV and decided to expand into this market, creating TV programmes like ‘The Brady Bunch’, ‘Star trek’ and ‘Happy days’. The genres best known for paramount was family films for example ‘Titanic, ‘Top gun’, ‘Forrest Gump’, ‘Saturday night fever’, ‘Grease’, ‘Shrek’, ‘How to train your dragon’ and many more. Paramount had also recently entered into production and distribution arrangements with DreamWorks. Paramount’s most successful blockbuster was titanic bringing in a gross profit of $1.843 billion.

Warner Bros:

Warner Bros studios was founded in 1923 in Hollywood, it was created by the 4 brothers Sam, Albert, Jack and Harry. Their headquarters is now in Burbank, California. With many unsuccessful attempts to make it as one of the top film studios, there turning point for Warner Bros was when they released ‘The jazz singer’ in 1927. The film has seven subsidiary companies (have shares in the business) for example ‘Telepictures’, ‘Cartoon network studios’ and ‘New line cinema’. Warner Bros are most famous for their action, adventure and thriller genre, example of their most successful films include ‘The dark knight rises’, ‘Suicide Squad’ , the ‘Harry Potter’ films and ‘Batman vs Superman’. Warner bros most successful film in terms of the gross profit was ‘The dark Knight’ which was made in 2008 and brought in a gross profit off $534,967,647.  The dark Knight was probably most successful as Morgan freeman, Williams Fichtner and Heath Ledger and many more award winning actors and actresses played a part in this film. 

Columbia Pictures (Sony):

Was originally set up as CBC film Sales Corporation in 1918 in Los Angeles, California but in 1924 was re—named Columbia pictures. Its headquarters is now in Culver City, California. Stars such as Rosalind Russell, Glenn Ford, and William Holden around the 1940’s/50’s were very successful actors or actresses for a period of time for Columbia pictures. By 1951 they became a major producer for TV comedies for example ‘Father knows best’, ‘Bewitched’ and ‘The Monkees’. In the 1990’s Sony put in billions of dollars to buy a higher interest of Columbia and bought out Time Warner. Columbia pictures release a lot of action, adventure and Sci-fi films for example ‘White house down’, ‘Men in Black’, ‘Skyfall’, ‘Total Recall’, ‘Spider man’ and ‘Karate kid’. However they also do release some animation films like ‘The Smurfs’ and ‘Surf's up’.

Walt Disney pictures:

Walt Disney pictures was founded in 1928 in Burbank, California, it is a division of Walt Disney studios and is owned by Walt Disney Company. The majority of Walt Disney pictures release with Touchstone Pictures and Hollywood Pictures films. In 1926 Walt Disney released the first short film of ‘Mickey mouse’ and in 1937 saw the release of ‘Snow white and the seven dwarfs’. Walt Disney pictures mostly produced comedies or dramas, some of their most successful films include ‘The jungle book’, ‘Toy story’, ‘the princess diaries’ and ‘Monsters inc’. The most successful film based on gross profit was ‘Star wars; the force awakens’ bringing in a total of $936,662,225.

Universal Pictures:

Universal pictures is owned by
Comcast through the Universal Filmed entertainment group, it was founded in 1912 in California but its headquarters is now located in Universal city. It has a number of subsidiaries including ‘Dreamworks animations’, ‘Focus features’ and more. The top 5 grossing films worldwide include ‘Despicable me 2’, ‘Jurassic park’, ‘Minions’, ‘Furious 7’ and ‘Jurassic world’. With ‘Jurassic world’ bringing in a grand total of $1,670,400,637 in gross profits in 2015 worldwide. With famous actors and actresses like Jennifer Aniston, Tom Cruise, George Clooney and many others being in many of their films.

20th Century fox:

20th Century fox was founded
in 1935 by Darryl Zanuck and Joseph Schneck. Its current headquarters is in Los
angeles, America. 20th Century fox did go through financial and production
problems in the early 1960’s  but shortly
afterwards they were back on track, releasing in the tv production and music
label industries not just films. ‘Avatar’ was there highest grossing film
worldwide bringing in a total of $2,787,965,087 in 2009. There most successful
films made were predominantly in the action and adventure genre for example ‘X
men’ and ‘Star wars’. The famous actors and actresses include Sandra Bullock,
Tom hanks, Will Smith and many others featuring in their many releases of
films.