Universal Pictures

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Early years

Carl Laemmle (1867–1939)

Mark Dintenfass (1872–1933), co-founder of Universal

Universal Studios was founded by Carl Laemmle, Mark Dintenfass, Charles O. Baumann, Adam Kessel, Pat Powers, William Swanson, David Horsley, Robert H. Cochrane^[a] and Jules Brulatour. One story has Laemmle watching a box office for hours, counting patrons, and calculating the day's takings. Within weeks of his Chicago trip, Laemmle gave up dry goods to buy the first several nickelodeons. For Laemmle and other such entrepreneurs, the creation in 1908 of the Edison-backed Motion Picture Patents Company (or the "Edison Trust") meant that exhibitors were expected to pay fees for Trust-produced films they showed. Based on the Latham Loop used in cameras and projectors, along with other patents, the Trust collected fees on all aspects of movie production and exhibition and attempted to enforce a monopoly on distribution.

Soon, Laemmle and other disgruntled nickelodeon owners decided to avoid paying Edison by producing their own pictures. In June 1909, Laemmle started the Yankee Film Company with his brothers-in-law^[7] Abe Stern and Julius Stern.^[8] That company quickly evolved into the Independent Moving Pictures Company (IMP), with studios in Fort Lee, New Jersey, where many early films in America's first motion picture industry were produced in the early 20th century.^{[9][10][11][12]} Laemmle broke with Edison's custom of refusing to give billing and screen credits to performers. By naming the movie stars, he attracted many of the leading players of the time, contributing to the creation of the star system. In 1910, he promoted Florence Lawrence, formerly known as "The Biograph Girl",^[13] and actor King Baggot, in what may be the first instance of a studio using stars in its marketing.

Poster for Ivanhoe (1913)

The Universal Film Manufacturing Company was incorporated in New York City on April 30, 1912.^[14] Laemmle, who emerged as president in July 1912, was the primary figure in the partnership with Dintenfass, Baumann, Kessel, Powers, Swanson, Horsley, and Brulatour. The company was established on June 8, 1912, formed in a merger of Independent Moving Pictures (IMP), the Powers Motion Picture Company, Rex Motion Picture Manufacturing Company, Champion Film Company, Nestor Film Company, and the New York Motion Picture Company.^[15] Eventually all would be bought out by Laemmle. The new Universal studio was a vertically integrated company, with movie production, distribution, and exhibition venues all linked in the same corporate entity, the central element of the Studio system era.

Following the westward trend of the industry, by the end of 1912, the company was focusing its production efforts in the Hollywood area.

Universal Weekly and Moving Picture Weekly^[16] were the alternating names of Universal's internal magazine that began publication in this era; the magazine was intended to market Universal's films to exhibitors.^[17] Since much of Universal's early film output was destroyed in subsequent fires and nitrate degradation, the surviving issues of these magazines are a crucial source for film historians.^[17]

Universal advertisement touting the benefit of the studio's short films to theater operators^[18]

On March 15, 1915,^[19]: 8 Laemmle opened the world's largest motion picture production facility, Universal City Studios, on a 230-acre (0.9-km²) converted farm just over the Cahuenga Pass from Hollywood.^[20] Studio management became the third facet of Universal's operations, with the studio incorporated as a distinct subsidiary organization. Unlike other movie moguls, Laemmle opened his studio to tourists. Universal became the largest studio in Hollywood and remained so for a decade. However, it sought an audience mostly in small towns, producing mostly inexpensive melodramas, westerns, and serials.

In 1916, Universal formed a three-tier branding system for their releases. Unlike the top-tier studios, Universal did not own any theaters to market its feature films. Universal branding their product gave theater owners and audiences a quick reference guide. Branding would help theater owners judge films they were about to lease and help fans decide which movies they wanted to see. Universal released three different types of feature motion pictures:^[21][22]

• Red Feather Photoplays – low-budget feature films
• Bluebird Photoplays – mainstream feature release and more ambitious productions
• Jewel – prestige motion pictures featuring high budgets using prominent actors

Directors of "Jewel" films included Jack Conway, John Ford, Rex Ingram, Robert Z. Leonard, George Marshall, and Lois Weber, one of the few women directing films in Hollywood.^[19]: 13

Starting in the mid-1920s, Universal branded its most expensive and heavily-promoted feature films as "Super-Jewel" productions. These included films such as Erich von Stroheim's Foolish Wives (1922), Clarence Brown's The Acquittal (1923), Hobart Henley's A Lady of Quality (1924), Harry A. Pollard's Uncle Tom's Cabin (1927), and Edward Sloman's Surrender (1928).

Despite Laemmle's role as an innovator, he was an extremely cautious studio chief. Unlike rivals Adolph Zukor, William Fox, and Marcus Loew, Laemmle chose not to develop a theater chain. He also financed all of his own films, refusing to take on debt. This policy nearly bankrupted the studio when actor-director Erich von Stroheim insisted on excessively lavish production values for his films Blind Husbands (1919) and Foolish Wives (1922), but Universal shrewdly gained a return on some of the expenditure by launching a sensational ad campaign that attracted moviegoers. Character actor Lon Chaney became a drawing card for Universal in the mid-1910s, appearing steadily in dramas. However, Chaney left Universal in 1917 because of a salary dispute, and his two biggest hits for Universal were made as isolated returns to the studio: The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923) and The Phantom of the Opera (1925).^[23]

During the early 1920s Laemmle entrusted most of Universal's production policy decisions to Irving Thalberg. Thalberg had been Laemmle's personal secretary, and Laemmle was impressed by his cogent observations of how efficiently the studio could be operated. Promoted to studio chief in 1919, Thalberg made distinct improvements of quality and prestige in Universal's output in addition to dealing with star director Erich von Stroheim's increasing inability to control the expense and length of his films, eventually firing Stroheim on October 6, 1922, six weeks into the production of Merry-Go-Round (1923) and replacing him with Rupert Julian. Louis B. Mayer lured Thalberg away from Universal in late 1922 to his own growing studio, Louis B. Mayer Productions, as vice-president in charge of production, and when Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer was formed in 1924 Thalberg continued in the same position for the new company. Without Thalberg's guidance, Universal became a second-tier studio and would remain so for several decades.

In 1926, Universal opened a production unit in Germany, Deutsche Universal-Film AG, under the direction of Joe Pasternak. This unit produced three to four films per year until 1936, migrating to Hungary and then Austria in the face of Hitler's increasing domination of central Europe. With the advent of sound, these productions were made in the German language or, occasionally, Hungarian or Polish. In the U.S., Universal Pictures did not distribute any of this subsidiary's films. Still, some of them were exhibited through other independent, foreign-language film distributors based in New York City without the benefit of English subtitles. Nazi persecution and a change in ownership for the parent Universal Pictures organization resulted in the dissolution of this subsidiary.

In the early years, Universal had a "clean picture" policy. However, by April 1927, Carl Laemmle considered this a mistake as "unclean pictures" from other studios generated more profit while Universal lost money.^[24]

Oswald the Lucky Rabbit

In early 1927, Universal had been negotiating deals with cartoon producers since they wanted to get back into producing them. On March 4, Charles Mintz signed a contract with Universal in the presence of its vice president, R. H. Cochrane. Mintz's company, Winkler Pictures, was to produce 26 "Oswald the Lucky Rabbit" cartoons for Universal.^[25] Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks created the character and the Walt Disney Studio provided the animation for the cartoons under Winkler's supervision.

The films enjoyed a successful theatrical run, and Mintz would sign a contract with Universal ensuring three more years of Oswald cartoons.^[26] However, after Mintz had unsuccessfully demanded that Disney accept a lower fee for producing the films, Mintz took most of Walt's animators to work at his own studio. Disney and Iwerks would create Mickey Mouse in secret while they finished the remaining Oswald films they were contractually obligated to finish. Universal subsequently severed its link to Mintz and formed its own in-house animation studio to produce Oswald cartoons headed by Walter Lantz.

In February 2006, NBCUniversal sold all the Disney-animated Oswald cartoons, along with the rights to the character himself, to The Walt Disney Company. In return, Disney released ABC sportscaster Al Michaels from his contract so he could work on NBC's recently acquired Sunday night NFL football package. Universal retained ownership of the remaining Oswald cartoons.

Keeping leadership of the studio in the family

Bela Lugosi in Dracula (1931)

Boris Karloff in Bride of Frankenstein (1935)

In 1928, Laemmle, Sr. made his son, Carl, Jr., head of Universal Pictures, a 21st birthday present. Universal already had a reputation for nepotism—at one time, 70 of Carl Sr.'s relatives were supposedly on the payroll. Many of them were nephews, resulting in Carl, Sr. being known around the studios as "Uncle Carl". Ogden Nash famously quipped in rhyme, "Uncle Carl Laemmle/Has a very large faemmle". Among these relatives was future Academy Award-winning director/producer William Wyler.

"Junior," Laemmle persuaded his father to bring Universal up to date. He bought and built theaters, converted the studio to sound production, and made several forays into high-quality production. His early efforts included the critically panned part-talkie version of Edna Ferber's novel Show Boat (1929), the lavish musical Broadway (1929) which included Technicolor sequences; and the first all-color musical feature (for Universal), King of Jazz (1930). The more serious All Quiet on the Western Front (1930) won its year's Best Picture Oscar.

Laemmle, Jr. created a niche for the studio, beginning a series of horror films which extended into the 1940s, affectionately dubbed Universal Horror. Among them are Dracula (1931), Frankenstein (1931), The Mummy (1932) and The Invisible Man (1933). Other Laemmle productions of this period include Tay Garnett's Destination Unknown (1933), John M. Stahl's Imitation of Life (1934) and William Wyler's The Good Fairy (1935).

The Laemmles lose control

Universal's forays into high-quality production spelled the end of the Laemmle era at the studio. Taking on the task of modernizing and upgrading a film conglomerate in the depths of the Great Depression was risky, and for a time, Universal slipped into receivership. The theater chain was scrapped, but Carl, Jr. held fast to distribution, studio, and production operations.

The end for the Laemmles came with a lavish version of Show Boat (1936), a remake of its earlier 1929 part-talkie production, and produced as a high-quality, big-budget film rather than as a B-picture. The new film featured several stars from the Broadway stage version, which began production in late 1935, and unlike the 1929 film, was based on the Broadway musical rather than the novel. Carl, Jr.'s spending habits alarmed company stockholders. They would not allow production to start on Show Boat unless the Laemmles obtained a loan. Universal was forced to seek a $750,000 production loan from the Standard Capital Corporation, pledging the Laemmle family's controlling interest in Universal as collateral. It was the first time Universal had borrowed money for a production in its 26-year history. The production went $300,000 over budget; Standard called in the loan, cash-strapped Universal could not pay, and Standard foreclosed and seized control of the studio on April 2, 1936.

Although Universal's 1936 Show Boat (released a little over a month later) became a critical and financial success, it was not enough to save the Laemmles' involvement with the studio. They were unceremoniously removed from the company they had founded. Because the Laemmles personally oversaw production, Show Boat was released (despite the takeover) with Carl Laemmle and Carl Laemmle Jr.'s names on the credits and in the film's advertising campaign. Standard Capital's J. Cheever Cowdin had taken over as president and chairman of the board of directors and instituted severe cuts in production budgets. Joining him were British entrepreneurs C.M. Woolf and J. Arthur Rank, who bought a significant stake in the studio.^[27] Gone were the big ambitions, and though Universal had a few big names under contract, those it had been cultivating, like William Wyler and Margaret Sullavan, left.

Meanwhile, producer Joe Pasternak, who had been successfully producing light musicals with young sopranos for Universal's German subsidiary, repeated his formula in the United States. Teenage singer Deanna Durbin starred in Pasternak's first American film, Three Smart Girls (1936). The film was a box-office hit and reputedly resolved the studio's financial problems. The film's success led Universal to offer her a contract, which for the first five years of her career, produced her most successful pictures.

James Stewart and Marlene Dietrich in Destry Rides Again (1939)

When Pasternak stopped producing Durbin's pictures, and she outgrew her screen persona and pursued more dramatic roles, the studio signed 13-year-old Gloria Jean for her own series of Pasternak musicals from 1939; she went on to star with Bing Crosby, W. C. Fields, and Donald O'Connor. A popular Universal film of the late 1930s was Destry Rides Again (1939), starring James Stewart as Destry and Marlene Dietrich in her comeback role after leaving Paramount.

By the early 1940s, the company was concentrating on lower-budget productions that were the company's main staple: westerns, melodramas, serials, and sequels to the studio's horror pictures, the latter now solely B pictures. The studio fostered many series: The Dead End Kids and Little Tough Guys action features and serials (1938–43); the comic adventures of infant Baby Sandy (1938–41); comedies with Hugh Herbert (1938–42) and The Ritz Brothers (1940–43); musicals with Robert Paige, Jane Frazee, The Andrews Sisters, and The Merry Macs (1938–45); and westerns with Tom Mix (1932–33), Buck Jones (1933–36), Bob Baker (1938–39), Johnny Mack Brown (1938–43); Rod Cameron (1944–45), and Kirby Grant (1946–47).

Universal could seldom afford its own stable of stars and often borrowed talent from other studios or hired freelance actors. In addition to Stewart and Dietrich, Margaret Sullavan and Bing Crosby were two of the major names that made a couple of pictures for Universal during this period. Some stars came from radio, including Edgar Bergen, W. C. Fields, and the comedy team of Abbott and Costello (Bud Abbott and Lou Costello). Abbott and Costello's military comedy Buck Privates (1941) gave the former burlesque comedians a national and international profile.

During the war years, Universal did have a co-production arrangement with producer Walter Wanger and his partner, director Fritz Lang, lending the studio some amount of prestige productions. Universal's core audience base was still found in the neighborhood movie theaters, and the studio continued to please the public with low- to medium-budget films. Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce in new Sherlock Holmes mysteries (1942–46), teenage musicals with Gloria Jean, Donald O'Connor, and Peggy Ryan (1942–43), and screen adaptations of radio's Inner Sanctum Mysteries with Lon Chaney, Jr. (1943–45). Alfred Hitchcock was also borrowed for two films from Selznick International Pictures: Saboteur (1942) and Shadow of a Doubt (1943).

As Universal's main product had always been lower-budgeted films, it was one of the last major studios to contract with Technicolor. The studio did not make use of the three-strip Technicolor process until Arabian Nights (1942), starring Jon Hall and Maria Montez. Technicolor was also utilized for the studio's remake of their 1925 horror melodrama, Phantom of the Opera (1943) with Claude Rains and Nelson Eddy. With the success of their first two pictures, a regular schedule of high-budget Technicolor films followed.

Universal-International and Decca Records take control

In 1945, J. Arthur Rank, who had already owned a stake in the studio almost a decade before, hoping to expand his American presence, bought into a four-way merger with Universal, the independent company International Pictures, and producer Kenneth Young. The new combine, United World Pictures, was a failure and was dissolved within one year. However, Rank and International remained interested in Universal, culminating in the studio's reorganization as Universal-International; the merger was announced on July 30, 1946.^[28] William Goetz, a founder of International along with Leo Spitz, was made head of production at the renamed Universal-International Pictures, a subsidiary of Universal Pictures Company, Inc. which also served as an import-export subsidiary, and copyright holder for the production arm's films. Goetz, a son-in-law of Louis B. Mayer, decided to bring "prestige" to the new company. He stopped the studio's low-budget production of B movies, serials and curtailed Universal's horror and "Arabian Nights" cycles. He also reduced the studio's output from its wartime average of fifty films per year (nearly twice the major studio's output) to thirty-five films a year.^[29] Distribution and copyright control remained under the name of Universal Pictures Company Inc.

Goetz set out an ambitious schedule. Universal-International became responsible for the American distribution of Rank's British productions, including such classics as David Lean's Great Expectations (1946) and Laurence Olivier's Hamlet (1948). Broadening its scope further, Universal-International branched out into the lucrative non-theatrical field, buying a majority stake in home-movie dealer Castle Films in 1947 and taking the company over entirely in 1951. For three decades, Castle would offer "highlights" reels from the Universal film library to home-movie enthusiasts and collectors. Goetz licensed Universal's pre–Universal-International film library to Jack Broeder's Realart Pictures for cinema re-release, but Realart was not allowed to show the films on television.

The production arm of the studio still struggled. While there were to be a few hits like The Killers (1946) and The Naked City (1948), Universal-International's new theatrical films often met with disappointing response at the box office. By the late 1940s, Goetz was out. The studio returned to low-budget and series films such as Ma and Pa Kettle (1949), a spin-off of the studio's 1947 hit The Egg and I and the inexpensive Francis (1950), the first film of a series about a talking mule, became mainstays of the company. Once again, the films of Abbott and Costello, including Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948), were among the studio's top-grossing productions. But at this point, Rank lost interest and sold his shares to the investor Milton Rackmil, whose Decca Records would take full control of Universal in 1952. Besides Abbott and Costello, the studio retained the Walter Lantz cartoon studio, whose product was released with Universal-International's films.

In the 1950s, Universal-International resumed their series of Arabian Nights films, many starring Tony Curtis. The studio also had success with monster and science fiction films produced by William Alland, with many directed by Jack Arnold and starring John Agar. Other successes were the melodramas directed by Douglas Sirk and produced by Ross Hunter, which were critically reassessed more positively years later. Among Universal-International's stable of stars were Rock Hudson, Tony Curtis, Jeff Chandler, Audie Murphy, and John Gavin.

Although Decca would continue to keep picture budgets lean, it was favored by changing circumstances in the film business, as other studios let their contract actors go in the wake of the 1948 U.S. vs. Paramount Pictures, et al. decision. Leading actors were increasingly free to work where and when they chose, and in 1950 MCA agent Lew Wasserman made a deal with Universal for his client James Stewart that would change the rules of the business. Wasserman's deal gave Stewart a share in the profits of three pictures in lieu of a large salary. When one of those films, Winchester '73 (1950), proved to be a hit, the arrangement would become the rule for many future productions at Universal and eventually at other studios as well.

MCA takes over

Ceremonial gate to Universal Studios Hollywood (the theme park attached to the studio lot)

In the early 1950s, Universal set up its own distribution company in France. In the late 1960s, the company also started a production company in Paris, Universal Productions France S.A., although sometimes credited by the name of the distribution company, Universal Pictures France. Except for the two first films it produced, Claude Chabrol's Le scandale (English title The Champagne Murders, 1967) and Romain Gary's Les oiseaux vont mourir au Pérou (English title Birds in Peru), it was only involved in French or other European co-productions, including Louis Malle's Lacombe, Lucien, Bertrand Blier's Les Valseuses (English title Going Places, 1974), and Fred Zinnemann's The Day of the Jackal (1973). It was only involved in approximately 20 French film productions. In the early 1970s, the unit was incorporated into the French Cinema International Corporation arm.

By the late 1950s, the motion picture business was again changing. The combination of the studio/theater-chain break-up and the rise of television saw the reduced audience size for cinema productions. The Music Corporation of America (MCA), the world's largest talent agency, had also become a powerful television producer, renting space at Republic Studios for its Revue Productions subsidiary. After a period of complete shutdown, a moribund Universal agreed to sell its 360-acre (1.5 km²) studio lot to MCA in 1958 for $11 million, renamed Revue Studios. MCA owned the studio lot, but not Universal Pictures, yet was increasingly influential on Universal's products. The studio lot was upgraded and modernized, while MCA clients like Doris Day, Lana Turner, Cary Grant, and director Alfred Hitchcock were signed to Universal contracts.

The long-awaited takeover of Universal Pictures by MCA, Inc. happened in mid-1962 as part of the MCA-Decca Records merger. The company reverted in name to Universal Pictures from Universal-International. As a final gesture before leaving the talent agency business, virtually every MCA client was signed to a Universal contract. In 1964, MCA formed Universal City Studios, Inc., merging the motion pictures and television arms of Universal Pictures Company and Revue Productions (officially renamed as Universal Television in 1966). And so, with MCA in charge, Universal became a full-blown, A-film movie studio, with leading actors and directors under contract; offering slick, commercial films; and a studio tour subsidiary launched in 1964.

Television production made up much of the studio's output, with Universal heavily committed, in particular, to deals with NBC (which much later merged with Universal to form NBC Universal; see below) providing up to half of all prime time shows for several seasons. An innovation during this period championed by Universal was the made-for-television movie. In 1982, Universal became the studio base for many shows that were produced by Norman Lear's Tandem Productions/Embassy Television, including Diff'rent Strokes, One Day at a Time, The Jeffersons, The Facts of Life, and Silver Spoons which premiered on NBC that same fall.

At this time, Hal B. Wallis, who had recently worked as a major producer at Paramount, moved over to Universal, where he produced several films, among them a lavish version of Maxwell Anderson's Anne of the Thousand Days (1969), and the equally lavish Mary, Queen of Scots (1971).^[30] Although neither could claim to be a big financial hit, both films received Academy Award nominations, and Anne was nominated for Best Picture, Best Actor (Richard Burton), Best Actress (Geneviève Bujold), and Best Supporting Actor (Anthony Quayle). Wallis retired from Universal after making the film Rooster Cogburn (1975), a sequel to True Grit (1969), which Wallis had produced at Paramount. Rooster Cogburn co-starred John Wayne, reprising his Oscar-winning role from the earlier film, and Katharine Hepburn, their only film together. The film was only a moderate success.

In 1983, Universal Pictures launched an independent film arm designed to release specialty films, Universal Classics, and the division has sights on separation.^[31] In 1987, both Universal Pictures, along with MGM/UA Communications Co. and Paramount Pictures teamed up to market feature film and television product to China, and the consumer reach is measured in terms of the 25-billion admission tickets that were clocked in China in 1986, and Worldwide Media Sales, a division of the New York-based Worldwide Media Group had been placed in charge of the undertaking.^[32]

In the early 1980s, the company had its own pay television arm Universal Pay Television (a.k.a. Universal Pay TV Programming, Inc.), which spawned in 1987, an 11-picture cable television agreement with then-independent film studio New Line Cinema.^[33]

In the early 1970s, Universal teamed up with Paramount to form Cinema International Corporation, which distributed films by Paramount and Universal outside of the US and Canada. Although Universal did produce occasional hits, among them Airport (1970), The Sting (1973), American Graffiti (also 1973), Earthquake (1974), and a big box-office success which restored the company's fortunes: Jaws (1975), Universal during the decade was primarily a television studio. When Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer purchased United Artists in 1981, MGM could not drop out of the CIC venture to merge with United Artists overseas operations. However, with future film productions from both names being released through the MGM/UA Entertainment plate, CIC decided to merge UA's international units with MGM and reformed as United International Pictures. There would be other film hits like Smokey and the Bandit (1977), Animal House (1978), The Jerk (1979), The Blues Brothers (1980), E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982), Scarface (1983), The Breakfast Club (1985), Back to the Future (also 1985), An American Tail (1986), The Land Before Time (1988), Field of Dreams (1989), and Jurassic Park (1993), but the film business was financially unpredictable. UIP began distributing films by start-up studio DreamWorks in 1997 due to the founders' connections with Paramount, Universal, and Amblin Entertainment. In 2001, MGM dropped out of the UIP venture and went with 20th Century Fox's international arm to handle the distribution of their titles, an ongoing arrangement. UIP nearly lost its connection with Universal Pictures in 1999 when Universal started Universal Pictures International to take over the assets of PolyGram Filmed Entertainment and wanted UPI to distribute their films starting in 2001.^[34] Only a small handful of films were released theatrically by Universal Pictures International, up until the release of the film Mickey Blue Eyes. UIP then took over the theatrical distribution inventory of future films planned to be released by Universal Pictures International, such as The Green Mile and Angela's Ashes.^[35] On October 4, 1999, Universal renewed its commitments to United International Pictures to release its films internationally through 2006.^[36][37]

Matsushita, Seagram, Vivendi and NBCUniversal

Logo used from 1997 to 2012, still used on some properties, such as Universal Sony Pictures Home Entertainment and the independent company, Universal Music Group

Anxious to expand the company's broadcast and cable presence, longtime MCA head Lew Wasserman sought a rich partner. He located Japanese electronics manufacturer Matsushita Electric (now known as Panasonic), which agreed to acquire MCA for $6.6 billion in 1990.

Matsushita provided a cash infusion, but the clash of cultures was too great to overcome, and five years later, Matsushita sold an 80% stake in MCA/Universal to Canadian drinks distributor Seagram for $5.7 billion.^[38] Seagram sold off its stake in DuPont to fund this expansion into the entertainment industry. Hoping to build an entertainment empire around Universal, Seagram bought PolyGram in 1999 and other entertainment properties, but the fluctuating profits characteristic of Hollywood were no substitute for the reliable income stream gained from the previously held shares in DuPont.

Gate 2, Universal Studios (as it appears when closed on weekends)

To raise money, Seagram head Edgar Bronfman Jr. sold Universal's television holdings, including cable network USA, to Barry Diller (these same properties would be bought back later at greatly inflated prices). In June 2000, Seagram was sold to French water utility and media company Vivendi, which owned StudioCanal; the conglomerate then became known as Vivendi Universal. Afterward, Universal Pictures acquired the United States distribution rights of several of StudioCanal's films, such as David Lynch's Mulholland Drive (2001) and Brotherhood of the Wolf (2001) which became the second-highest-grossing French language film in the United States since 1980. Universal Pictures and StudioCanal also co-produced several films, such as Love Actually (2003); a $40 million-budgeted film that eventually grossed $246 million worldwide.^[39] In late 2000, the New York Film Academy was permitted to use the Universal Studios backlot for student film projects in an unofficial partnership.^[40]

Burdened with debt, in 2004, Vivendi Universal sold 80% of Vivendi Universal Entertainment (including the studio and theme parks) to General Electric (GE), parent of NBC.^[41] The resulting company was named NBCUniversal, while Universal Studios Inc. remained the name of the production subsidiary. After that deal, GE owned 80% of NBC Universal; Vivendi held the remaining 20%, with an option to sell its share in 2006.

In late 2005, Viacom's Paramount Pictures acquired DreamWorks SKG after acquisition talks between GE and DreamWorks stalled. Universal's long-time chairperson, Stacey Snider, left the company in early 2006 to head up DreamWorks. Snider was replaced by then-Vice Chairman Marc Shmuger and Focus Features head David Linde. On October 5, 2009, Marc Shmuger and David Linde were ousted, and their co-chairperson jobs were consolidated under former president of worldwide marketing and distribution Adam Fogelson, becoming the single chairperson. Donna Langley was also upped to co-chairperson.^[42] In 2009, Stephanie Sperber founded Universal Partnerships & Licensing within Universal to license consumer products for Universal.^[43]

GE purchased Vivendi's share in NBCUniversal in 2011.^[44]

Comcast era (2011–present)

Gate 3 with signs for KNBC and KVEA

GE sold 51% of the company to cable provider Comcast in 2011. Comcast merged the former GE subsidiary with its own cable-television programming assets, creating the current NBCUniversal. Following Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approval, the Comcast-GE deal was closed on January 29, 2011.^[45] In March 2013, Comcast bought the remaining 49% of NBCUniversal for $16.7 billion.^[46]

In September 2013, Adam Fogelson was ousted as co-chairman of Universal Pictures, promoting Donna Langley to the sole chairperson. In addition, NBCUniversal International Chairman Jeff Shell would be appointed as Chairman of the newly created Filmed Entertainment Group. Longtime studio head Ron Meyer would give up oversight of the film studio and appointed Vice Chairman of NBCUniversal, providing consultation to CEO Steve Burke on all of the company's operations. Meyer retained oversight of Universal Parks and Resorts.^[47]

Universal's multi-year film financing deal with Elliott Management expired in 2013.^[48] In summer 2013, Universal made an agreement with Thomas Tull's Legendary Pictures to distribute their films for five years starting in 2014 (the year that Legendary's similar agreement with Warner Bros. Pictures ended).^[49]

In June 2014, Universal Partnerships took over licensing consumer products for NBC and Sprout with the expectation that all licensing would eventually be centralized within NBCUniversal.^[43] In May 2015, Gramercy Pictures was revived by Focus Features as a genre label concentrating on action, sci-fi, and horror films.^[50]

On December 16, 2015, Amblin Partners announced that it entered into a five-year distribution deal with Universal Pictures by which the films will be distributed and marketed by either Universal or Focus Features.^[51][52]

In early 2016, Perfect World Pictures announced a long-term co-financing deal with Universal, representing the first time a Chinese company directly invests in a multi-year slate deal with a major U.S. studio.^[53]

On April 28, 2016, Universal's parent company, NBCUniversal, announced a $3.8 billion deal to buy DreamWorks Animation.^[54] On August 22, 2016, the deal was completed.^[55] Universal took over the distribution deal with DreamWorks Animation starting in 2019 with the release of How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World, after DreamWorks Animation's distribution deal with 20th Century Fox ended.

On February 15, 2017, Universal Pictures acquired a minority stake in Amblin Partners, strengthening the relationship between Universal and Amblin,^[56] and reuniting a minority percentage of the DreamWorks Pictures label with DreamWorks Animation.

In December 2019, Universal Pictures entered early negotiations to distribute upcoming feature film properties based on the Lego toys. Although the original Lego Movie characters are still owned by Warner Bros. Pictures, Universal Pictures will serve as a distributor of future releases and will develop additional Lego films. The future of the already in-development films is believed to remain the same.^[57]

In June, it was announced longtime Universal International Distribution President Duncan Clark would be stepping down. He would transition to a consulting role with the studio in August and would be replaced by Veronika Kwan Vandenberg.^[58]

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Carl Laemmle

Carl Laemmle

Carl Laemmle was a film producer and the co-founder and, until 1934, owner of Universal Pictures. He produced or worked on over 400 films.

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David Horsley

David Horsley was an English pioneer of the film industry. He founded the Centaur Film Company and its West Coast branch, the Nestor Film Company, which established the first film studio in Hollywood in 1911.

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Jules Brulatour

Pierre Ernest Jules Brulatour was a pioneering executive figure in American silent cinema. Beginning as American distribution representative for Lumiere Brothers raw film stock in 1907, he joined producer Carl Laemmle in forming the Motion Picture Distributing and Sales Company in 1909, effectively weakening the stronghold of the Motion Picture Patents Company, headed by Thomas Edison, a large trust company that was then monopolizing the American film industry through contracts with hand-picked, established studios. By 1911 Brulatour was president of the Sales Company. He was a founder of the Universal Film Manufacturing Company, later known as Universal Pictures.

Chicago

Chicago

Chicago is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and the third most populous in the United States after New York City and Los Angeles. With a population of 2,746,388 in the 2020 census, it is also the most populous city in the Midwest. As the seat of Cook County, the city is the center of the Chicago metropolitan area, one of the largest in the world.

Dry goods

Dry goods

Dry goods is a historic term describing the type of product line a store carries, which differs by region. The term comes from the textile trade, and the shops appear to have spread with the mercantile trade across the British Empire as a means of bringing supplies and manufactured goods to far-flung settlements and homesteads. Starting in the mid-18th century, these stores began by selling supplies and textile goods to remote communities, and many customized the products they carried to the area's needs. This continued to be the trend well into the early 20th century. With the rise of department stores and catalog sales, the decline of dry goods stores began, and the term has largely fallen out of use. Some dry goods stores became department stores especially around the turn of the 20th century.

Motion Picture Patents Company

Motion Picture Patents Company

The Motion Picture Patents Company, founded in December 1908 and terminated seven years later in 1915 after conflicts within the industry, was a trust of all the major US film companies and local foreign-branches, the leading film distributor and the biggest supplier of raw film stock, Eastman Kodak. The MPPC ended the domination of foreign films on US screens, standardized the manner in which films were distributed and exhibited within the US, and improved the quality of US motion pictures by internal competition. But it also discouraged its members' entry into feature film production, and the use of outside financing, both to its members' eventual detriment.

Monopoly

Monopoly

A monopoly, as described by Irving Fisher, is a market with the "absence of competition", creating a situation where a specific person or enterprise is the only supplier of a particular thing. This contrasts with a monopsony which relates to a single entity's control of a market to purchase a good or service, and with oligopoly and duopoly which consists of a few sellers dominating a market. Monopolies are thus characterized by a lack of economic competition to produce the good or service, a lack of viable substitute goods, and the possibility of a high monopoly price well above the seller's marginal cost that leads to a high monopoly profit. The verb monopolise or monopolize refers to the process by which a company gains the ability to raise prices or exclude competitors. In economics, a monopoly is a single seller. In law, a monopoly is a business entity that has significant market power, that is, the power to charge overly high prices, which is associated with a decrease in social surplus. Although monopolies may be big businesses, size is not a characteristic of a monopoly. A small business may still have the power to raise prices in a small industry.

Abe Stern

Abe Stern

Abe Stern was an American film producer. He produced 542 films between 1917 and 1929. He was a co-founder of Universal Studios.

Julius Stern (producer)

Julius Stern (producer)

Julius Stern was an American film producer. He produced 541 films between 1917 and 1929. He was a co-founder of Universal Studios. He was born in Hintersteinau, Germany, and died in New York City, New York. He was the brother of producer Abe Stern and the brother-in-law of Universal Studios co-founder Carl Laemmle.

Independent Moving Pictures

Independent Moving Pictures

The Independent Moving Pictures Company (IMP) was a motion picture studio and production company founded in 1909 by Carl Laemmle. The company was based in New York City, with production facilities in Fort Lee, New Jersey. In 1912, IMP merged with several other production companies to form Universal Film Manufacturing Company, later re-named Universal Pictures Company with Laemmle as president.

Fort Lee, New Jersey

Fort Lee, New Jersey

Fort Lee is a borough at the eastern border of Bergen County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey, situated along the Hudson River atop The Palisades.

Motion picture credits

Motion picture credits

Two types of credits are traditionally used in films, television programs, and video games, all of which provide attribution to the staff involved in their productions. While opening credits will usually display only the major positions in a production's cast and crew, closing credits will typically acknowledge all staff members that were involved in the production.

• Universal Pictures International
  • Universal International Distribution
• Universal Pictures Home Entertainment
  • Universal Home Entertainment Productions
  • Universal 1440 Entertainment
  • DreamWorks Animation Home Entertainment
  • Universal Sony Pictures Home Entertainment Australia (joint venture with Sony Pictures Home Entertainment)
  • Universal Playback
  • Studio Distribution Services (joint venture with Warner Bros. Home Entertainment)
• Focus Features
• Universal Pictures International Entertainment
  • NBCUniversal Entertainment Japan
• Working Title Films
  • WT² Productions
  • Working Title Television
• Carnival Films
• Rede Telecine (10%, joint venture with Canais Globo, Disney, Paramount Pictures and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer)
• Illumination
  • Illumination Studios Paris
  • Illumination Labs
  • Moonlight
• Universal Animation Studios
• DreamWorks Animation
  • DreamWorks Animation Television
  • DreamWorks Classics
    • Big Idea Entertainment (in-name-only unit of DreamWorks Animation)
    • Bullwinkle Studios (JV)
    • Harvey Entertainment
  • DreamWorks Theatricals
  • DreamWorks New Media
    • DreamWorksTV
  • DreamWorks Press
• OTL Releasing
• Back Lot Music
• Universal Brand Development
• United International Pictures (50%, joint venture with Paramount Global's Paramount Pictures)
• Amblin Partners (minor stake)^[51][52] (JV)^[56]
  • Amblin Entertainment
  • Amblin Television
  • DreamWorks Pictures
  • Storyteller Distribution^[59]

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Focus Features

Focus Features

Focus Features LLC is an American film production and distribution company, owned by Comcast as a division of Universal Pictures, which is itself a division of its wholly owned subsidiary NBCUniversal. Focus Features distributes independent and foreign films in the United States and internationally.

NBCUniversal Entertainment Japan

NBCUniversal Entertainment Japan

NBCUniversal Entertainment Japan LLC is a Japanese music, anime, and home entertainment production and distribution enterprise headquartered in Akasaka, Minato, Tokyo. It is primarily involved in the production and distribution of anime within Japan.

Carnival Films

Carnival Films

Carnival Films is a British production company based in London, UK, founded in 1978. It has produced television series for all the major UK networks including the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, and Sky, as well as international broadcasters including PBS, A&E, HBO and NBC. Productions include single dramas, long-running television dramas, feature films, and stage productions.

Rede Telecine

Rede Telecine

Rede Telecine is a Brazilian premium television network owned by Canais Globo, a division of Grupo Globo, jointly with Hollywood studios Paramount Pictures, Universal Pictures, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, and Walt Disney Studios.

Canais Globo

Canais Globo

Globosat, was a Brazilian pay television content service, part of Grupo Globo. Established in 1991, after the creation of subscription television services in Brazil, with 29 channels and over 1,000 employees, it is the largest pay television content provider in Brazil, as well as of Latin America, comprising a domestic audience of 45 million viewers distributed among more than 15 million households.

Paramount Pictures

Paramount Pictures

Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film and television production and distribution company and the main namesake division of Paramount Global. It is the fifth-oldest film studio in the world, the second-oldest film studio in the United States, and the sole member of the "Big Five" film studios located within the city limits of Los Angeles.

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded on April 17, 1924, and based in Beverly Hills, California.

Illumination (company)

Illumination (company)

Illumination is an American computer animation studio, founded by Chris Meledandri in 2007. Illumination is owned by Meledandri and the Illumination brand is co-owned by Universal Pictures, a division of Comcast through its wholly owned subsidiary NBCUniversal. Meledandri produces the films, while Universal finances and distributes them. The studio is the creator of the Despicable Me, The Secret Life of Pets and Sing franchises and the film adaptations of Dr. Seuss' books The Lorax and How the Grinch Stole Christmas. The Minions, characters from the Despicable Me series, are the mascots of the studio.

Illumination Studios Paris

Illumination Studios Paris

Illumination Studios Paris is a French animated feature production company owned by Illumination, a division of Universal Pictures. Based in Paris, France, the company was created in 2011 as part of Universal's purchase deal of the animation arm of French animation and VFX company Mac Guff. It is responsible for the animation on Illumination's feature-length animated films and associated short films, most notably the Despicable Me franchise.

DreamWorks Animation

DreamWorks Animation

DreamWorks Animation LLC is an American animation studio that produces animated films and television programs and is a subsidiary of Universal Pictures, a division of NBCUniversal, which is itself a division of Comcast. The studio has released 44 feature films as of December 2022, including several of the highest-grossing animated films of all time, with Shrek 2 (2004) having been the highest at the time of its release. The studio's first film, Antz, was released on October 2, 1998, and its latest film was Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, which was released on December 21, 2022; their upcoming slate of films includes Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken on June 30, 2023, Trolls Band Together on November 17, 2023, and Kung Fu Panda 4 on March 8, 2024. Additionally, two untitled films are scheduled to be released on February 9, 2024, and September 27, 2024.

DreamWorks Animation Television

DreamWorks Animation Television

DreamWorks Animation Television is an American animation studio that serves as the television production arm of DreamWorks Animation, itself a subsidiary of Universal Pictures and a division of Comcast's NBCUniversal. Founded in 1996, the entity was formerly named DreamWorks Television Animation. Its first programs from the 1990s and early 2000s used the live-action television logo, and were produced by DreamWorks Television, before DWATV and its parent company were spun off into an independent company in 2004 and later purchased by NBCUniversal in 2016. In total, the division has released 51 programs, with 9 in development.

DreamWorks Classics

DreamWorks Classics

Classic Media, LLC, doing business as DreamWorks Classics, is an American entertainment company owned by DreamWorks Animation, which is a subsidiary of Universal Pictures and a division of Comcast's NBCUniversal. It was founded as Classic Media in 2000 by Eric Ellenbogen and John Engelman. The studio's library consists of acquired intellectual property catalogs and character brands, as well as the licensing rights for various third-party properties. In 2012, Boomerang Media sold Classic Media to DreamWorks Animation, who rebranded the company as DreamWorks Classics. DreamWorks Animation became a subsidiary of NBCUniversal in 2016.

In addition to its own library, Universal releases the EMKA, Ltd. catalog of 1929–1949 Paramount Pictures, owned by sister company Universal Television.

Film series

Highest-grossing films

Universal was the first studio to have released three billion-dollar films in one year; this distinction was achieved in 2015 with Furious 7, Jurassic World, and Minions.^[60]

^‡ Includes theatrical reissue(s).

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Lists of Universal Pictures films

Lists of Universal Pictures films

The following are lists of Universal Pictures films by decade:

EMKA, Ltd.

EMKA, Ltd.

EMKA Limited is a division of Universal Television with the sole function of overseeing the 1929–1949 Paramount Pictures sound feature film library.

Paramount Pictures

Paramount Pictures

Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film and television production and distribution company and the main namesake division of Paramount Global. It is the fifth-oldest film studio in the world, the second-oldest film studio in the United States, and the sole member of the "Big Five" film studios located within the city limits of Los Angeles.

Relativity Media

Relativity Media

Relativity Media is an American media company founded in 2004 by Lynwood Spinks and Ryan Kavanaugh. The company brokered film finance deals and later branched into film production and other entertainment ventures. The company was commercially successful prior to bankruptcy.

Sommers Company

Sommers Company

The Sommers Company is a film production company founded by Stephen Sommers and Bob Ducsay in 2004.

K/O Paper Products

K/O Paper Products

K/O Paper Products was an American television and motion picture production company founded by Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci c. 2004, after signing a deal with DreamWorks Pictures to rewrite the script of the 2005 film The Island.

Perfect World Pictures

Perfect World Pictures

Perfect World Pictures (PWPIC) is a Chinese and American entertainment company. Founded in 2008, it engages in the production, distribution and marketing of film and television content, content related advertising, merchandising business, and talent management business, as well as investment.

Abbott and Costello

Abbott and Costello

Abbott and Costello were an American comedy duo composed of comedians Bud Abbott and Lou Costello, whose work in radio, film, and television made them the most popular comedy team of the 1940s and 1950s, and the highest-paid entertainers in the world during the Second World War. Their patter routine "Who's on First?" is considered one of the greatest comedy routines of all time, a version of which appears in their 1945 film The Naughty Nineties.

Ma and Pa Kettle

Ma and Pa Kettle

Ma and Pa Kettle are comic film characters of the successful film series of the same name, produced by Universal Studios, in the late 1940s and 1950s. The hillbilly duo had their hands full with a ramshackle farm and a brood of rambunctious children. When the future comes a-callin' in the form of modern houses, exotic locales, and newfangled ideas, Ma and Pa must learn how to make the best of it with luck, pluck, and a little country charm.

Francis the Talking Mule

Francis the Talking Mule

Francis the Talking Mule was a mule character who gained popularity during the 1950s as the star of seven popular Universal-International film comedies. The character originated in the 1946 novel Francis by former U.S. Army Captain David Stern III (1909–2003), son of newspaper publisher J. David Stern. After another studio turned down the novel, Universal bought the rights for a film series, with Stern adapting his own script for the first entry simply titled Francis.

Cape Fear (1962 film)

Cape Fear (1962 film)

Cape Fear is a 1962 American noir psychological thriller film starring Gregory Peck, Robert Mitchum, and Polly Bergen. It was adapted by James R. Webb from the 1957 novel The Executioners by John D. MacDonald. The picture was directed by J. Lee Thompson from storyboards devised by original director Alfred Hitchcock and released on April 12, 1962. The film concerns an attorney whose family is stalked by a criminal he helped to send to jail. The supporting cast features Martin Balsam, Telly Savalas and Barrie Chase.

The Birds (film)

The Birds (film)

The Birds is a 1963 American natural horror-thriller film produced and directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Loosely based on the 1952 short story of the same name by Daphne du Maurier, it focuses on a series of sudden and unexplained violent bird attacks on the people of Bodega Bay, California, over the course of a few days.