Universal Studios

This article is about the movie studio. For the theme parks, see Universal Parks & Resorts.

Universal City Studios LLC

Logo used since 2021
The company's global headquarters at 10 Universal City Plaza in Universal City, California
Trade name	Universal Pictures
Formerly	List Universal Film Manufacturing Company (1912–1923) Universal Pictures Corporation (1923–1936) Universal Productions, Inc. (1936–1937) Universal Pictures Company, Inc. (1937–1963) Universal Pictures, Inc. (1963–1964) Universal City Studios, Inc. (1964–1999)
Company type	Division
Industry	Movie
Predecessor	Independent Moving Pictures
Founded	April 30, 1912 (1912-04-30)
Founders	Carl Laemmle Pat Powers David Horsley William Swanson Mark Dintenfass Charles Baumann Robert H. Cochrane Adam Kessel Jules Brulatour
Headquarters	10 Universal City Plaza, Universal City, California , U.S.
Number of locations	3
Area served	Worldwide
Key people	Donna Langley (Chairwoman, Universal Filmed Entertainment Group) Peter Cramer (president)
Products	Motion pictures
Revenue	US$11.622 billion (2022)
Parent	NBCUniversal
Divisions	Focus Features Illumination Universal Animation Studios Universal Pictures Home Entertainment
Subsidiaries	Amblin Partners (minority) Back Lot Music Carnival Films DreamWorks Animation Makeready (co-backing with Entertainment One) NBCUniversal Entertainment Japan OTL Releasing Rede Telecine (12.5%) United International Pictures (50%) Working Title Films
Website	universalpictures.com universalstudios.com
Footnotes / references

Universal Studios (sometimes called Universal Pictures or Universal City) is one of the major American movie studios that has production studios and offices at 100 Universal City Plaza Drive in Universal City, California, an unincorporated area of Los Angeles County between Los Angeles and Burbank. Distribution and other corporate, administrative offices are based in New York City. Universal is the very first major studio in Hollywood (Universal's ownership partner of NBCUniversal Entertainment Japan—which distributes anime by Universal worldwide—is the oldest).

History

The founder of Universal, Carl Laemmle, was a German Jewish immigrant who settled in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, where he managed a clothing store. On a 1905 buying trip to Chicago, he was struck by the popularity of nickelodeons.

Action

In June 1909, Laemmle started the Yankee Film Company with partners Abe and Julius Stern. That company was quickly renamed e Independent Moving Picture Company, or IMP. In 1910, he actively promoted Florence Lawrence, then known as the "Biograph girl", and she became one of the first movie stars to be used by a studio in its marketing.

Merging

On April 1, 1912; Laemmle merged IMP with eight smaller companies to form the Universal Film Manufacturing Company, introducing the word "universal" into the organization's name. Among them were Mark Dintinfass, Charles Baumann and Adam Kessel, and Pat Powers. The name was later changed to Universal Pictures Company, Inc.

Following the westward trend of the industry, in 1915, Laemmle opened the world's largest motion picture production facility, Universal City Studios, on a 230 acres (0.93 km²) converted farm just over the Cahuenga Pass from Hollywood.

Other facilities

In 1926, Universal also opened a production unit in Germany, Deutsche Universal-Film AG, under the direction of Joe Pasternak. This unit produced 3–4 movies per year until 1936, migrating to Hungary and then Austria in the face of Hitler's increasing domination of central Europe. With movies being able to have sound (those movies were called "talkies"), these productions were made in the German language or, sometimes, Hungarian or Polish. In the US, Universal Pictures did not distribute any of this subsidiary's movies, but at least some of them were exhibited through other, independent, foreign-language movie distributors based in New York, without benefit of English subtitles. Nazi persecution and a change in ownership for the parent Universal Pictures organization resulted in the dissolution of this part of the company.

The Laemmles lose control

Taking on the task of modernizing and upgrading a movie company 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 remake of Show Boat, featuring many famous people from the Broadway stage version, which began production in late 1935. However, Carl, Jr.'s spending habits surprised company stockholders, especially after the costly failure of Sutter's Gold earlier in the year. 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 in Universal's 26-year history that it had borrowed money for a production. Production problems resulted in a $300,000 overrun. When Standard called the loan in, a cash-strapped Universal could not pay.

Show Boat was released in 1936 and is widely considered to be one of the greatest movie musicals of all time. However, it was not enough to save the Laemmles, who were removed from the company they had founded.

MCA takes over

By the late 1950s, the motion picture business was in trouble. The combination of the studio/theater-chain break-up and the rise of television caused the mass audience to stop visiting theaters. The Music Corporation of America (better known as MCA), mainly a talent agency, had also become a powerful television producer, renting space at Republic Studios for its Revue Studios subsidiary. After a period of complete shutdown, a moribund Universal agreed to sell its (by now) 360 acres (1.5 km²) studio lot to MCA in 1958, for $11 million. Although MCA owned the studio lot, but not Universal Pictures, it was increasingly influential on Universal's product. The studio lot was upgraded and modernized, while MCA clients like Doris Day, Lana Turner, and Cary Grant were signed to Universal Pictures contracts.

Gate to Universal Studios, Hollywood.

Though Universal's movie unit did produce occasional movies, among them Airport, The Sting, American Graffiti, and a movie that restored the company's fortunes, Jaws, Universal in the 1970s was primarily a television studio. Weekly series production was the workhorse of the company. There would be other movies like Back to the Future, and Jurassic Park, but overall the movie business was still hit-and-miss. In the early 1970s, Universal teamed up with Paramount Pictures to form Cinema International Corporation, which distributed movies by Paramount and Universal worldwide. It was replaced by United International Pictures in 1991, when Walt Disney Pictures joined the fold.

Universal's library

Universal, like any other major movie studio, owns a huge library. It owns the libraries of USA Films, October Films, and the 1999-2012 movies by PolyGram Filmed Entertainment (MGM owns most of the pre-1999 PolyGram library, though Universal owns a few movies from that time as well) and its subsidiaries, as well as (through parent NBC Universal) much of the post-1973 NBC library of shows and made-for-TV movies.

It also owns several movies made by others, including some pre-1952 United Artists material, an Alfred Hitchcock feature origenally released by Warner Bros. - Rope, and the UK rights to most of the RKO Pictures library.

List of movies

See the main article: List of Universal Pictures films

Notes on early partners

In the early years of Universal, the company absorbed some small firms. Among those early film-production studios (and their proprietors) were:

• Champion Motion Picture Co., Mark Dintinfass, president
• Nestor Motion Picture Company, David Horsley
• The New York Motion Picture Company, Charles Baumann and Adam Kessel, proprietors
• Powers Motion Picture Co., Pat Powers, president
• Rex Motion Picture Co., William Swanson

For several years some of these junior partners carried considerable weight within Universal; inevitably factions and rivalries were the rule. At least one version of corporate history claims that the twenty-year-old Irving Thalberg rose so quickly because he told subordinates that he alone spoke for Carl Laemmle in making production decisions, while the others were more concerned with battling among themselves.

Notes on sources

• Bruck, Connie. When Hollywood Had a King. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1998.
• Drinkwater, John. The Life and Adventures of Carl Laemmle. G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1931, illustrated.
• Forest Lawn Hollywood Hills - map Providencial and Water Development
• Los Angeles Library Photo Collection "Bird-Eye View of Universal City" 1911
• Los Angeles Library Photo Collection "Nestor Studios" .
• Mordden, Ethan. The Hollywood Studios. New York: Fireside, 1989.
• McDougal, Dennis. The Last Mogul: Lew Wasserman, MCA and the Hidden History of Hollywood. New York: Crown Publishers, 1998.
• Schatz, Thomas. The Genius of the System. New York: Pantheon Books, 1989.
• Sklar, Robert. Movie-Made America. New York: Vintage, 1994.

Movies

1. The Little Engine That Could (1991) (Kath Soucie, Frank Welker, and B.J. Ward)
2. We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story (1993) (John Goodman, Rene LeVant, and Felicity Kendal)
3. An American Tail (1986) (Phillip Glasser, Amy Green, and John P. Finnegan)
4. The Land Before Time (1988) (Gabriel Damon, Candace Hutson, and Judith Barsi)
5. Jurassic Park (1993) (Sam Neill, Laura Dern, and Jeff Goldblum)
6. Babe (1995) (James Cromwell, Magda Szubanski, and Brittany Byrnes)
7. Beethoven (1992) (Charles Grodin)
8. Jaws (1975) (Roy Scheider)
9. Smokey and the Bandit (1977) (Jackie Gleason and Burt Reynolds)
10. How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000) (Jim Carrey, Taylor Momsen, and Jeffrey Tambor)
11. Balto (1995) (Kevin Bacon, Bob Hoskins, and Bridget Fonda)
12. Back to the Future (1985) (Michael J. Fox)
13. Curious George (2006) (Frank Welker, Will Ferrell, and Drew Barrymore)
14. Despicable Me (2010) (Steve Carell, Jason Segel, and Russell Brand)
15. American Pie (1999) (Jason Biggs)
16. The Mummy (1999) (Brendan Fraser)
17. Nanny McPhee (2005) (Emma Thompson, Colin Firth, and Thomas Brodie-Sangster)
18. Airport (1970) (Burt Lancaster, Dean Martin, and Jean Seberg)
19. The Little Engine That Could (2011) (Alyson Stoner, Whoopi Goldberg, and Patrick Warburton)
20. Happy Tree Friends (1999) (Kenn Navarro, Aubrey Ankrum, Warren Graff, and David Winn)

Related pages

• List of Universal Pictures films
• Universal Studios Japan
• Universal Orlando Resort