Universal City Studios LLC
Logo used since 2021
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| Universal Pictures
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Formerly
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- 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)
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Company type
| Division
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Industry
| Film
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Predecessor
| Independent Moving Pictures
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Founded
| April 30, 1912
; 112 years ago
(
1912-04-30
)
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Founders
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Headquarters
| 10 Universal City Plaza
,
,
U.S.
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Number of locations
| 3
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Area served
| Worldwide
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Key people
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Products
| Motion pictures
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Revenue
| US$11.622 billion (2022)
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Parent
| NBCUniversal
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Divisions
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Subsidiaries
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Website
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Footnotes / references
[1]
[2]
[3]
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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).
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
.
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 film stars to be used by a studio in its marketing.
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 km
2
) converted farm just over the
Cahuenga Pass
from Hollywood.
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.
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.
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 km
2
) 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.
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, 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 originally released by
Warner Bros.
-
Rope
, and the UK rights to most of the
RKO Pictures
library.
In the early years of Universal, the company absorbed some small firms. Among those early film-production studios (and their proprietors) were:
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.
- 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.
- The Little Engine That Could
(1991) (
Kath Soucie
,
Frank Welker
, and
B.J. Ward
)
- We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story
(1993) (
John Goodman
, Rene LeVant, and
Felicity Kendal
)
- An American Tail
(1986) (
Phillip Glasser
,
Amy Green
, and
John P. Finnegan
)
- The Land Before Time
(1988) (
Gabriel Damon
, Candace Hutson, and
Judith Barsi
)
- Jurassic Park
(1993) (
Sam Neill
,
Laura Dern
, and
Jeff Goldblum
)
- Babe
(1995) (
James Cromwell
,
Magda Szubanski
, and
Brittany Byrnes
)
- Beethoven
(1992) (
Charles Grodin
)
- Jaws
(1975) (
Roy Scheider
)
- Smokey and the Bandit
(1977) (
Jackie Gleason
and
Burt Reynolds
)
- How the Grinch Stole Christmas
(2000) (
Jim Carrey
,
Taylor Momsen
, and
Jeffrey Tambor
)
- Balto
(1995) (
Kevin Bacon
,
Bob Hoskins
, and
Bridget Fonda
)
- Back to the Future
(1985) (
Michael J. Fox
)
- Curious George
(2006) (
Frank Welker
,
Will Ferrell
, and
Drew Barrymore
)
- Despicable Me
(2010) (
Steve Carell
,
Jason Segel
, and
Russell Brand
)
- American Pie
(1999) (
Jason Biggs
)
- The Mummy
(1999) (
Brendan Fraser
)
- Nanny McPhee
(2005) (
Emma Thompson
,
Colin Firth
, and
Thomas Brodie-Sangster
)
- Airport
(1970) (
Burt Lancaster
,
Dean Martin
, and
Jean Seberg
)
- The Little Engine That Could
(2011) (
Alyson Stoner
,
Whoopi Goldberg
, and
Patrick Warburton
)
- Happy Tree Friends
(1999) (Kenn Navarro, Aubrey Ankrum, Warren Graff, and David Winn)
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Operating parks
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Proposed parks
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Former parks
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