Major movie studios
film production and distribution company with high output
(Redirected from Major film studio)
Big Five are the United States's major movie production studios which also distribute their product. All of them have historic flagship production facilities near Hollywood. All Big Five major studios (Walt Disney Pictures, Warner Bros. Pictures, Paramount Pictures, Universal Pictures, and Columbia Pictures) are parts of much larger business enterprises, with their corporate headquarters offices far from Hollywood. The group of major studios long numbered seven, but was reduced to six with the fading from importance of MGM in the 1980s. They became five when, on November 6, 2017 - Disney announced its deal to buy Fox for $52.4 billion.
The logos of the "Big Five" film studios, arranged in order by the year each studio was founded
Big Four studios in the San Fernando Valley, in Burbank, California (Universal Pictures, and Walt Disney Studios)
The American major studios
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- Universal Pictures - NBCUniversal / Comcast
- Warner Bros. Pictures - Warner Bros. Discovery
- Columbia Pictures / TriStar Pictures - Sony Pictures Entertainment
- Paramount Pictures - Paramount Global
- Walt Disney Pictures / 20th Century Studios - The Walt Disney Company
Mini-Majors
Former
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- RKO Radio Pictures - Defunct since 1957.
- United Artists - acquired by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1981.
- Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer - filed for bankruptcy in 2010.
- 20th Century Fox - bought by The Walt Disney Company in 2019 and renamed as 20th Century Studios in 2020.
Mini-Majors
- Embassy Pictures - sold to Coca-Cola in 1985.
- Vestron Pictures - folded into Live Entertainment in 1991.
- New Line Cinema - acquired in 1993 by Turner Broadcasting System; TBS merged with Time Warner in 1996.
- Miramax Films
- Artisan Entertainment - folded into Lions Gate Entertainment in 2003.
- DreamWorks Pictures - now became a label of Amblin Partners since 2015.
The European major studios
change- Gaumont Film Company
- Pinewood Studios
- Nordisk Film
- BBC Films
- Pathé Frères
- Constantin Film
- SF Studios
- Titanus - closed down in 1964; revived as a small studio in 1970.
- Sheperton Studios - sold to Pinewood Group in 2001.
- Rank Organisation - bought by The Rank Group in 1996; motion picture involvement ended in 2006.
- Optimum Releasing - bought by StudioCanal in 2006; later renamed as StudioCanal UK in 2011.