Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film and television production company and part of the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group, which in turn belongs to Sony Pictures Entertainment. The company is one of the so-called " majors ", the seven largest film company in the U.S. (next to Warner Bros., Walt Disney Motion Pictures Group, MGM, Paramount Pictures, 20th Century Fox and Universal Studios ).
History
Prehistory
The Jack and Harry Cohn brothers founded in 1919 together with his friend Joe Brandt lawyer in New York, the Cohn -Brandt- Cohn Film Sales Corporation ( CBC). Brandt was president and took care of along with Jack Cohn in New York to sales, advertising and rentals, while Harry Cohn monitored in Hollywood film production. He rented space in a Poverty Row studio, away from Sunset Boulevard near Hollywood's Gower Street and produced moderately successful low-budget films. Her first film was 1922 More To Be pitied Than Scorned, a melodrama with J. Frank Glendon and Rosemary Theby.
In an effort to improve the image, the studio was renamed in 1924 thanks to the efforts of Harry Cohn in accordance with Columbia as a poetic name for the United States in Columbia Pictures Corporation.
Rise 1924-1939
Columbia's first president was Joe Brandt, who had to give a lot between the two always controversial Cohn brothers ( both Vice-Presidents ). 1932 bought from Harry Cohn Brandt and led since then the company itself. It was unique in Hollywood that a production manager was also president of the company. Columbia was the only studio that was supervised by any company in finance or operating policy decisions.
Even with the new name and new rented offices on Sunset Boulevard B-movies were mostly brought out in the early years. Columbia's ascent began when they won the ambitious director Frank Capra for themselves. In 1928 he rescued the production of the film Submarine. Incidentally, it was the first movie with sound effects, the 1929 Capra's first "real " sound film followed: The Donovan Affair.
Capra proved to be Columbia's biggest win, he earned the deep trust of the owners and the oppressed Cohn for better material and increased investments. Capra's film It Happened One Night (1934, orig It Happened One Night. ) Was the first film to win all five major Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress and Best Screenplay. This success solidified Columbia's status as now one of the major Hollywood studios.
In addition to other great movies such as Lost Horizon (1937, German title in of Shangri - La) and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington ( 1939), with James Stewart experienced its breakthrough, Columbia also produced many short films (two- reeler ) and others with Buster Keaton, Charley Chase, and Harry Langdon. 1937, began to bring out first sequel stories ( serial ). The individual episodes, the most with " to be continued " ( " continues " ) ended, should attract visitors week after week in the cinemas. After Jungle Menace (1937, 15 episodes ), among others followed later Batman (1943, 15 episodes ) and Superman (1948, 15 episodes ).
1940s
The desire for distraction and entertainment in the war and postwar years meant that Hollywood experienced its richest decade. All studios flourished. Columbia, which until then had stars like Clark Gable or Cary Grant just borrowed or shared with other studios, then tried to set up their own stars. Since 1936, she had a talented young dancer named Margarita Cansino under contract. After a few insignificant B-movies she changed her name to Rita Hayworth and Columbia became the first superstar. In the movie Cover Girl (1944, German Title Cover Girl or The young lady on the cover ) was great at her side Gene Kelly out. And with her in the lead role, the film Gilda in 1946 as one of the major American film noir.
Columbia had previously released animated films, but sold only foreign productions in principle, including " Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse. Recently we had the character of Charles B. Mintz tricks sold ( Krazy Kat, Color Rhapsody ). 1940 took over the studio of Columbia Mintz and called it in to Screen Gems. 1946, the animation studio was closed after the produced black -and-white cartoons showed only moderate success, with the possible exception of The Fox and The Crow.
The Screen Gems brand was revived again in 1948, this time as a subsidiary of Columbia applicable to television broadcasting. Under this label, successful shows and TV series were produced in the following years - Rin Tin Tin, Father Knows Best (orig. Father Knows Best ), I Dream of Jeannie (orig. I Dream of Jeannie ) and many more.
1950s
In the fifties followed some great movies like From Here to Eternity (1952, orig. From Here to Eternity, 8 Oscars ) with Burt Lancaster, On the Waterfront (1954, orig. On The Waterfront, 8 Oscars ) with Marlon Brando and The bridge on the River Kwai (1957, orig. the Bridge on the River Kwai, 7 Oscars ) with Alec Guinness and William Holden.
Columbia benefited from the fact that they had dispensed with in the early years of it, to have their own movie theater. That left the company, other than the big competitors, spared from the massive losses of the cinema chains in that time. However, increasing competition from television made it increasingly difficult to operate profitably for Columbia. After the death of Jack Cohn Harry Cohn in 1956 and 1958 Columbia fell for the first time in the red. Abe Schneider and Leo Jaffe now led the company.
1960s and 1970s
All major studios slowly lost their identity. Independent producers rented the studio capacities, at least introduced, such as the British production Lawrence of Arabia (1962 ) Money and fame and probably led to the fact that Columbia in 1965 opened a branch in England. Major British productions were A Man for All Seasons (1966, orig. A Man for All Seasons ) and Georgy Girl ( 1966). As then followed some costly flops, the commitment in the UK in 1969 was ended again.
1968 Columbia was restructured to Columbia Pictures Industries Inc. and moved into a studio lot in Gower Street, corner of Sunset Boulevard. ( Lage34.097111111111 - 118.32122222222 ) In 1972, she took over in a joint venture with Warner Communications, the Burbank Studios.
After successes such as Easy Rider ( 1969) but there was a series of failures. 1973 got in the investment bank Allen & Company Inc., and under new management, followed again a great success with Shampoo ( 1975), Taxi Driver ( 1976), Steven Spielberg's Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977, orig. Close Encounters of the Third Child) and Kramer vs. Kramer (1979, orig. vs. Kramer. Kramer ).
Acquisitions
In 1982, the company of The Coca -Cola Company was bought. There were some blockbuster out how Ghostbusters (1984 ), and in 1988 received the film The Last Emperor (1987, orig. The Last Emperor ) all nine Oscars for which it was nominated. But already in 1989, Coca -Cola broke out of the film business and Columbia Pictures was bought along with Tri - Star Pictures and other entertainment investments of the Coca -Cola Company by the Sony Corporation of America.
Since 1991, Columbia Pictures is at the core of Sony Pictures Entertainment. The company was then merged with TriStar Pictures to Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group, usually wear their agencies outside the United States the name Columbia TriStar film and Columbia TriStar Film Distributors International ( CTFDI ).
In the U.S., the company will continue to operate under the name of Columbia Pictures, but only forms a label of SPE. The television division and the home entertainment division contributed to 2002, the alliance name Columbia TriStar Television ( since 2002 Sony Pictures Television ) or Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment ( since 2004 Sony Pictures Home Entertainment). Since late 2004/early 2005, the old alliance name Columbia TriStar will be replaced consistently worldwide by Sony Pictures.
In September 2000, published Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment anatomy, the first project of the German Columbia Pictures Filmproduktion GmbH on DVD.