The Onward Company

The Onward Company is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate owned by Disney, Inc. and headquartered at The Onward Company House, 1210 S Indiana Av, Chicago, Illinois. Established by Alicia Schwarz on January 1, 2021 as a joint venture of Hasbro, DreamWorks Animation, ViacomCBS, and WarnerMedia, The Onward Company was divided into four entertainment assets: Entertainment, Interactive Group, Marketing Group, and DreamWorks Worldwide (a leading media-entertainment company with of DreamWorks and related counterparty to DreamWorks Animation, a wholly owned subsidiary of The Sonic & Donkey Kong Company through Donkey Kong Enterprises).
The different brands of The Onward Company are: Paramount Pictures, Nickelodeon, MTV, Comedy Central, BET Networks, Smithsonian Channel, Warner Bros., New Line Cinema, Cartoon Network, DC Comics, Adult Swim, HBO, TNT, TBS, TruTV, Hasbro, Sony Pictures, Sony Music (plus Sony Music Entertainment Japan), Crunchyroll, PlayStation Studios (plus PlayStation Productions), Activision, Electronic Arts, Mojang, Bungie, 343 Industries, Point Grey Pictures, Lionsgate, EuropaCorp, Fremantle, Mondo Media, Discovery, Forever 21 and Take-Two Interactive. The company also co-owns 85.2% of the exciting shares of Pixar, Marvel Studios, and Lucasfilm (with their parent company The Walt Disney Company via Walt Disney Studios), as well as the minority stake in family-oriented animation entertainment company The Puyo Puyo Tetris Company.
==Background==
The first case that happened in the inner world of the Disneyverse was something special that must be founded. On August 29, 1929 (two years after the founding of The Walt Disney Company), Columbia Pictures/Sony (originally known as CBC Film Sales, founded in 1924, one year following the formation of The Walt Disney Company).
The first Leon Schlesinger Productions was founded in 1933 and then became Warner Bros. in 1944 (two years after the release of Leon's first major live-action film, Casablanca in 1942). Warner Bros. originally stuck to the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies characters until the 1950s and 1970s, when new ones arrived. The following year, Paramount was formed as the legal name of Famous Studios. In November 1966, Jack gave in to the advancing age and changing times, selling 32% control of the Warner Bros. studio and music business, including Warner Bros. Records and Warner Bros. . Television (both founded in the late 1950s) to Seven Arts Productions, for $32 million. Warner Bros.-Seven Arts operated from 1967 to 1969 when it was acquired by Kinney National Company, which was renamed Warner Communications, which, along with CBS, added new company named CBS Inc. (renamed Viacom in 1978).
The new Warner Bros. business was spun off on January 10, 1990 into Time Warner (later known as WarnerMedia following its acquisition by AT&T in 2018).
DreamWorks Animation was created in 1994 as the animation division of DreamWorks Pictures and produced its first feature film, The Frog Prince (1997), which was followed by his first computer-animated feature film, Antz (1998), which was later followed by Baby Potter, released in November, while The Prince of Egypt was released in December. DreamWorks Animation was later spun off into a separate company in 2004, as the studio originally made some traditional animated films, as well as two stop-motion co-productions with Aardman Animations, but now relies exclusively on computer animation. His productions included The Prince of Egypt, Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, and the Shrek, Madagascar, Kung Fu Panda and How to Train Your Dragon franchises as well as Flowgo Babies, Harvey Girls Forever and Trollhunters. DreamWorks Animation was acquired by Comcast via NBCUniversal in 2016.
Hasbro was first founded as Griffin-Bacal Advertising in 1978, while Griffin-Bacal Advertising acquires G.I. Joe and American toy company Tonka, establishing the first hHasbro trade name on September 12, 1983, before being spun off as a titular company on November 23, 1990. Hasbro has entertaining around the world itself to various toys and multimedia entertainment aimed at children, families and teenagers around the world. Hasbro has produced television shows, including My Little Pony Friendship is Magic, and movies, including the live-action Transformers quintology series.
==Development==
Following the success of Pokémon: Detective Pikachu in May 2019, Nintendo announced plans to create a new conglomerate entertainment value of $433.9 million (which is the film's worldwide budget) by kicking off its two concepts: The Onward Company (originally known as The 10 Best of 2015, which includes Project Spark All-Stars Entertainment, before becoming the latter, which is ultimately The Onward Company) and The Sonic & Donkey Kong Company (originally planned falsely and rumored by Nintendo and Sega Sammy Group in May 2018 for early plans for Mario and Sonic adaptations, including rights to some movies, including The Lego Movie, before they become to develop between 2019 and 2020).
The Onward Company will focus on various new next-generation entertainment from movies, TV, games, toys and consumer products, as well as nowhere theme parks, while The Sonic & Donkey Kong Company will focus on multiple movies, TV, games online and mobile entertainment products.
Liam Mulvena (then known as KirbyGorillaz Fanatic2020 and now known as KeroroClaptrap PikachuAnimations), who is the founder and former CEO of The Sonic & Donkey Kong Company, announced: "It was about time to update everything to bring the next generation preventing Viacom and CBS Corporation from merging again as we go out to experience the whole new generation of entertainment, and it will be comprised of new consumer products everywhere."
At this point, Nintendo has launched its Onward conglomerates to acquire various companies between June 2019 and mid-2020, including the rights to Five Nights at Freddy's. In August 2020, Onward Conglomerates general entertainment acquirer, manager and creator Lisa Robinson stated that The Sonic & Donkey Kong Company will focus on the most memorable modern entertainment outlet content behind Nintendo Corporation, Sega Holdings, Crypton Future Media, Rayman Ubisoft Entertainment Franchise, miHoYo Technology, 5th Cell Entertainment, Supercell, SpaceApe Games, SuperMono Studios, Walt Disney Animation Studios, Studio Trigger, Level5 Inc, Toei Animation, Google, Gainax, Universal Pictures, Illumination Entertainment, EA, PopCap, Paramount Animation, Veewo Games, WayForward Technologies, Metronomik Co Ltd., Vooz Character System, Jetix, Baobab Studios, Konami, Sony Pictures Animation Films (except Emoji Movie), Rovio Entertainment, Rovio Stars, ZeptoLab Gaming, Dinosaur Polo Club, Line Friends, 4Kids Entertainment, Toho Animation, AMC Movie Theaters Home Video, CineWorld World Cinemas Programming, Hanazuki: Full of Treasure res, Super Phantom Cat, Shantae, Regular Show, Cat Girl Without Salad, No Straight Roads, Ninjala, Supercell, Mattel, Hasbro's Generation One series of the Transformers franchise, Sword Art Online, Kill La Kill, 2Spot Studio, The Adventures of Super Mario Brothers, Scribblenauts, Splatoon, Another, Star VS The Forces Of Evil, Mao Mao: Heroes of Pure Heart, Outfit7, Bloody Bunny and the predominately fake and practically true Hyperdimension Neptunia franchise created by Idea Factory and Compile Heart. The Onward Company's upcoming entertainment experiences included several varieties of hit entertainment, including Viacom, Bethesda Game Studios, Deep Silver Inc, Marvel, Spike Chunsoft, Blumhouse Productions, Warner Bros., Cartoon Network, Comedy Central, Funimation, Nickelodeon, AnimeLab , Activison, Mojang, FOX, Pixar Films (except Toy Story 1, 2, 3, 4, Onward, The Good Dinosaur, Soul, A Bug's Life, Monsters Inc., Luca, Monsters University, etc.), Steel Wool Studios, Yggdrazil Group, Scott Cawthon, Adult Swim, SpongeBob SquarePants, Inside Out, Ubisoft, Sony, Thunderbeam Animation, EuropaCorp, FremantleMedia, EuropaCorp, Mondo Media, Nelvana, Ubisoft Entertainment SA, Bungie, 343 Industries, New World Pictures, American International Pictures, Lorimar, Klasky Csupo, Big Idea Productions, Hanna-Barbera and Jetsons Technology Limited, as well as the recently combined massive animation working duo of DreamWorks Animation SKG and Blue Sky Studios. The Onward Company is preparing to buy the entertainment varieties of DC Comics.
===Construction===
In early 2020, ViacomCBS, WarnerMedia, DreamWorks Animation, and Hasbro announced approval of their merger to form their new company as The Onward Company, which will be will set in holiday 2020. These four companies have agreed to merge most of the assets of Viacom, Sony, WarnerMedia and DreamWorks Animation, as well as Bungie and 343 Industries (from Microsoft's Xbox Games Studios), Big Idea Productions (spun off DreamWorks Classics subsidiary to become a separate public company), in which Big Idea was later sold to The Sonic & Donkey Kong Company following their merger with The Walt Disney Company, in the that its parent company will be the unsolicited Disney, Inc., which would operate a lot of things that happened in the Disneyverse. Meanwhile, Disney announced that the construction would work remotely due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In June, the four companies signed an agreement with Ubisoft to join as a joint venture asset. Alicia Schwarz, senior vice president and chief compliance officer at The Walt Disney Company, was hired to head the joint venture overseeing development, production and licensing for theme park, film, video game, radio and television efforts. Hasbro announced that the joint venture plans to develop anywhere from 2 to 20 movies, TV shows, video games and toy lines to entertain the world.
In September, all four companies approved and completed the merger operations response. They later helped in that they want to show that the tests on how the game works would later evolve as the main hub of The Onward Company, including the ringworld-centric script.
In November 2020, the four companies partnered with animation creator Seth MacFarlane (creator of Family Guy, who would lead their team consisting of Matt Groening (creator of The Simpsons), Mike Judge (creator of Beavis and Butthead), and Loren Bouchard (creator of Bob's Burgers). MacFarlane was planned to oversee the creative production of the upcoming joint venture, which is set to be established in early 2021. Kenn Navarro, co-creator of Happy Tree Friends, announced that he will join the side of The Onward Company.
The merger was finished on December 31, 2020, before the company's formation.
==History==
===Establishment and first years: 2021–2023===
The Onward Company was incorporated in Redmond, Washington on New Year's Eve 2021 (January 1), to coincide with the successes of the COVID-19 pandemic. Founded by The Walt Disney Company's Senior President of Voice and Chief Compliance Officer, Alicia Schwartz (who is the president of the newly established company), The Onward Company's brands consist of Paramount, Nickelodeon, MTV, Comedy Central, TV Land, Logo TV, Showtime Networks, BET Networks, Smithsonian Channel, Warner Bros., Warner Animation Group, Warner Bros. Animation, New Line Cinema, DC Comics, Cartoon Network, DC Comics, HBO, Adult Swim, TNT, TBS, HBO Max , DreamWorks Animation (under license from NBCUniversal) and Hasbro, with its new business assets including Onward Films, Onward Animation, Onward Television, Onward Interactive Publishing, Onward Interactive Studios, Onward Interactive Services and Onward Marketing Group. On January 5, French video game developer and publisher Ubisoft joined The Onward Company. On January 9, eight days after the company's founding (plus four days after Ubisoft joined The Onward Company), Nintendo (later became the subsidiary of its rival (formerly brother) conglomerate) The Sonic & Donkey Kong Company., which became one of the three main companies in the Disneyverse), with a budget of $617,000, announced that it would bring new entertainment value through initial deals with Jakks Pacific, England Technologies, Mattel and Restaurant Brands International to help promote all products. On January 20, Walt Disney Studios partnered with The Onward Company to enable output content from Pixar, Marvel Studios and Lucasfilm to be joined by The Onward Company as part of the company. ensures successful content development and startup.
On February 1, 2021, The Onward Company announces the full list of its upcoming projects under the DreamWorks, Hasbro, Paramount and Warner Bros. brands, including The Bad Guys (slated for September 2021), Spirit Untamed (set for June 2021), Space Jam: A New Legacy (set for July 2021), Tom & Jerry (scheduled for February 2021) and In the Heights (scheduled for June 2021), while, a week later, will announce another full list consisting of A Quiet Place Part II (set for May 2021), The Boss Baby: Family Business (set for July 2021), 2021), Rumble (set for January 14, 2022) and PAW Patrol: The Movie (set for August 2021). Full listings are collectively known as "Onward Releases", in which The Onward Company refers to it.
On February 15, The Onward Company announced that they will make a deal with Mondo Media to bring Happy Tree Friends back (and their main characters together) in an animated feature film (later picked up by Netflix starting February 2022) scheduled for release in late 2022 or early 2023, before being rebooted for its November 17, 2023 release before being pushed back to a November 24, 2023 release, with Trolls Band Together taking the planned place.
On March 1, 2021, The Onward Company team later acquired Funimation from its American media conglomerate established on January 24, 1975, called Sony Corporation (also known as Sony Corporation of America), which includes Sony Electronics, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Sony Interactive Entertainment, and Sony Music Group plus Sony Music Entertainment Japan, while the team set out to acquire more companies, including Japanese game developer and publisher Spike Chunsoft (which fully merged with The Onward Company and renamed Onward Interactive Japan on New Year's Eve 2023), international distribution company Fremantle (originally known as FremantleMedia); merged with The Onward Company on New Year's Eve 2023), Activision Blizzard (whose franchises include Call of Duty, Guitar Hero, Skylanders, World of Warcraft, StarCraft, Overwatch and Candy Crush Saga) , Mojang (th the video game developer and publisher behind Minecraft), and the rights of Family Guy, American Dad, The Cleveland Show, Bob's Burgers (whose entire rights, as of New Year's Eve 2023, have been fully sold back and merged under Disney via 20th Century Studios), and Five Nights at Freddy's.
Forecasting The Onward Company's management and effective organizational processes on May 11, 2021, Alicia Schwartz stated, "We will be ready to expand our operations with The Onward Company to more material content, and we will buy the best of bringing together the best of wonderful audience-directed entertainment. On May 27, 2021, Disney announced an agreement with The Onward Company to allow The Onward Company to handle the exciting 85.2% stake of Pixar, Marvel and Lucasfilm, as The Onward Company will co-acquire alternative rights to the Pixar, Marvel Studios and Lucasfilm catalogue, including Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Kevin Feige (producer and president of Marvel Studios) and J.J. Abrams (through its brand Bad Robots Productions) announced a four-year agreement with The Onward Company, with Feige set to produce, develop and co-produce several upcoming films, under her newly formed Thunderback Entertainment brand, which will jointly produce and distribute films, although Feige said that "movie soundtracks would only be scored in Los Angeles." On June 11, 2021, The Onward Company announced that it will acquire Mondo Media for $15 million, including the rights to Happy Tree Friends, Dick Figures and Deep Space 69 as The Onward Company would expand into the adult online animated market.
On July 21, coinciding with the release of Space Jam: A New Legacy, The Onward Company announced that it would be reaching out to experience the "world" through the power to create new properties, entertainment experiences, and manufactures for all brands (for example, Paramount Pictures, Nickelodeon, Warner Bros., Marvel, DC Comics, Cartoon Network, Adult Swim, DreamWorks Animation, Funimation, Activision, Ubisoft, and Mondo Media). On July 29, The Onward Company announces a slate of upcoming film projects, including a Call of Duty film (later to become Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War) plus an Skylanders animated feature (acquired by Paramount Pictures through Paramount Animation) plus an Sword Art Online film (later to become Sword Art Online: The Movie, which will be released on June 23, 2023 before being delayed to August 11, with No Hard Feelings taking the place planned for the film), and even, The Onward Company would be presented to create the new Halo franchise, including a television series, which Steven Spielberg, Frank O'Connor, Justin Favley and Kyle Killen signed The Onward Company's 4-year contract to do other movies besides Halo, especially a couple of movies based on the Microsoft properties.
Nina Johnson stated, "We look forward to seeing new adventures, stories, and experiences from The Onward Company, which generated over $16.3 million in showdowns, and we're bringing some of the newest projects in development, as well as bringing Skylanders and Call of Duty." to the big screen." The Onward Company and Paramount Pictures then began development of a Call of Duty film, scheduled for release in July 2023. On August 5, 2021, Paramount Pictures and Funimation announced development of a film based on the anime Nichijou to be released in theaters in late 2022. Crunchyroll, a Sony company, acquired Funimation in September 2021. On August 10, The Onward Company announced plans to acquire Six Flags for $14.3 million to begin its first attempt to expand into theme parks, with Selim Bassoul settling to work at the company, which performed as the "#1 theme park and entertainment company." Bassoul stated, "We will be ready to bring Six Flags to The Onward Company, which will take over operations at the theme park, and we will be delighted to expand Six Flags into an entertainment liner." The acquisition was completed following a $20 billion move on October 1, 2021, when the merger of The Onward Company and Sony was announced.
On August 15, 2021, The Onward Company announced that it would acquire Corus Entertainment for $14.3 billion, including Nelvana, where The Onward Company will began entering into a alternative Canadian production, distribution and product market. On August 18, 2021, The Onward Company acquired the rights to the separate, defunct The Backyardigans 2.0 franchise and revived it as its new intellectual property for reboot content, for $23.2 million. This would lead the company to enter into the greatest markets of The Backyardigans 2.0 in history, though there will be additional films set in development. 
On August 20, 2021, The Onward Company entered negotiations for the first time to acquire NBCUniversal from Comcast for $14 billion, in which the company would take over Brian L. Roberts as the "media segment" of The Onward Company, in which Dave Callaham was hired to serve as work manager for creative development production content for The Onward Company. However, The Onward Company, Netflix, Sony, and The Sonic & Donkey Kong Company later teamed up to wage a bidding war for Comcast and NBCUniversal (including the parent company of DreamWorks Animation, Universal Pictures), although The Sonic & Donkey Kong Company's acquisition of NBCUniversal results in Sony losing its bid and Netflix dropping the bid. 
On September 30, 2021, The Onward Company revived the Splashinis name by announcing plans for a deal with Cedar Fair to acquire five of the latter's amusement parks: California's Great America, Canada's Wonderland, Carowinds, Kings Dominion and Kings Island. The deal was set for October 5 (four days after the announcement of the merger). The Onward Company dropped the multi-ownership of Six Flags, which later went bankrupt by 2022, when it assets were acquired by SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment (later acquired by The Sonic & Donkey Kong Company), with these theme parks being changed to new SeaWorld-branded properties such as SeaWorld Los Angeles, SeaWorld San Antonio Resort (which would include SeaWorld San Antonio, Fiesta Texas Park and Backyardigans World), Busch Gardens Jackson and SeaWorld San Francisco.
On October 1, 2021, following the release of Venom: Let There Be Carnage, Disney announced that The Onward Company entered into an agreement with Sony to acquire all assets. Sony announced that it will sell its interesting 94.5% stake in entertainment up front, which The Onward Company will consolidate and acquire all of Sony's businesses, including Sony Pictures Entertainment, Sony Interactive Entertainment and Sony Music Group (including Sony Music Entertainment Japan), plus the rights to Spider-Man, plus Sony's Spider-Man Universe (later marketed as Spider-Verse, named after that of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse). Also on the same day, California's Great America, Canada's Wonderland, Carowinds, Kings Dominion and Kings Island were closed and revamp of the five parks as Splashinis-branded theme parks began in January, shortly after the closure. Also, The Onward Company, as a result, dropped its offer and sold it to The Sonic & Donkey Kong Company (which would later acquire Cedar Fair for $13.3 million), who took over the deals with Jeff Shell, the president of NBCUniversal, and arranged for the conglomerate to acquire the many Comcast assets, including Sky plc, excluding those of the NBC brand and Telemundo, which were spun off into NBC Corporation, which began trading on New Year's Eve 2023 (January 1). The Onward Company will complete its offer for Sony's assets by spring/summer 2023, and the formation of a consolidated restructuring for itself, The Sonic & Donkey Kong Company and The Walt Disney Company will be announced, which will take place in January 2022. 
The United States Department of State then approved the merger of The Onward Company and Sony Corporation, and sued to have the merger of The Onward Company and Sony scheduled for January 2022, amid $1.922 billion visited following the release of Spider-Man: No Way Home. In January 2022, The Walt Disney Company agreed with The Onward Company and The Sonic & Donkey Kong Company to a merger proposal that is scheduled for late 2022. Three companies have approved their New Year's Eve 2023 merger.
On New Year's Eve 2022 (January 1) with the The Onward Company/Sony merger, Disney consolidated all ViacomCBS and WarnerMedia subsidiaries, plus Hasbro, Ubisoft, and Activision Blizzard, under the main Disney entertainment business units. The Onward Company, with DreamWorks Animation owning more than 72.5% of the shares. The Onward Company announced plans to acquire American video game company Electronic Arts for $14 million, thus consolidating several franchises such as Need for Speed and Battlefield under The Onward Company's newly-formed interactive entertainment arm. Trip Hawkins began selling its $14 million to The Sonic & Donkey Kong Company, which plan to acquire Electronic Arts for $20 million, including the rights to several franchises such as The Sims, Mass Effect, Army of Two, Plants vs. Zombies and Spore, even though The Onward Company and The Walt Disney Company would co-own the rights to the Electronic Arts' own Star Wars video games, despite the rest being later acquired by The Onward Company, which focused on a bid of EA for $50 million. The Onward Company announced intentions to sell the joint investment venue of Ubisoft, which includeed the rights to Rayman, Just Dance, Assassin's Creed, Tom Clancy's and among others, in which The Sonic & Donkey Kong Company eventually acquired Ubisoft for $15 million prior to the merger. 
Disney is set to approve the $2 billion merger of the three companies (resulting in The Onward Company relocating to Chicago, Illnois and The Sonic & Donkey Kong Company relocating to Winter Haven, Florida). In the meantime, Sony shareholders will spin off assets as commercial entertainment segments of The Onward Company, and behold, the 2022 movies DC League of Super-Pets and Bullet Train were the most talented No. 1 hits ever at the box office, and they've earned success to the first works of The Onward Company. Meanwhile, DreamWorks Animation announced a partnership with The Onward Company and The Sonic & Donkey Kong Company to split its life into two companies: DreamWorks Worldwide and the main division (renamed the latter). DreamWorks Worldwide will convene DreamWorks Classics, DreamWorks Press, DreamWorks New Media, and DreamWorks Live Theatrical Productions, while parent DreamWorks Animation, including DreamWorks Animation Television, would operate as the new wholly owned company of The Sonic & Donkey Kong Company as part of the conglomerate's acquisition of NBCUniversal. 
In early August 2022, The Onward Company announced that it would acquire Sesame Workshop, the non-profit organization behind Sesame Street, for $14.3 million. The Onward Company would also acquire the rights to Sesame Street, and while upcoming slate of television shows included Velma, new seasons of Big Nate, 
Additionally, almost all executives from acquired companies joined The Onward Company. The Onward Company Senior President Nicole Clemens will be named President of Paramount Television Studios, with Paramount Television Studios comprising CBS Studios, Showtime Production and Nickelodeon Animation Studio, while Steven Wachowski will be named president of Onward Content Studios set in 2023, which features Paramount Pictures (including Paramount Players, Nickelodeon Movies and BET Films), Warner Bros. Pictures (including New Line Cinema and DC Films) and Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group (including Columbia Pictures, TriStar Pictures, Screen Gems and Sony Pictures Classics). 
On October 1, 2022, executives from Sony Pictures and Sony Interactive Entertainment joined The Onward Company. Later that day, The Onward Company announced that it will acquire Lionsgate for $14.3 million, in addition to entering the Canadian film market. On October 20, 2022, nineteen days after doing so and a few days after The Onward Company's acquisition of Lionsgate, The Onward Company announced its latest major acquisition, acquiring multinational fast fashion retailer Forever 21 for $13 million, expanding into fashion markets, and consolidated Forever 21 under Onward Marketing Group. Screen Gems President Steve Bersch will join The Onward Company as Executive Vice President of Onward Films, while Jon Hookstratten will be named President of Onward Films, taking over from Steven Wachowski, who will serve as President of the newly formed Splashinis Parks. & Resorts. including Splashinis Great America, Splashinis Canada's Wonderland, Splashinis Carowinds, Splashinis Kings Island, and Splashinis Kings Dominion. The Onward Company closed the Sony merger deal on November 28, when Disney cut Sony out of the Disneyverse after 47 years. The Onward Company announced that its acquisition of Electronic Arts would undergo to The Sonic & Donkey Kong Company. The Onward Company then would later acquire the licensing rights, alongside The Walt Disney Company, to the Star Wars video game catalog from EA.
The $2,266,179,836 budgeted merger was completed on New Year's Eve 2023 (January 1). The Walt Disney Company, The Onward Company, and The Sonic & Donkey Kong Company eventually became the trio of three major Disneyverse media conglomerates, where their parent company is Disney, Inc.
To coincide with the merger, The Onward Company consolidated all businesses and merged them into their commercial entertainment segments to begin by focusing primarily on its #1 hit catalog of popular entertainment, reorganizing into Entertainment, Interactive Group and Marketing Group. DreamWorks Worldwide was booked as the business entertainment segment of The Onward Company.
On February 1, 2023, The Onward Company announced its slate of releases included Scream VI (March 10, 2023), Shazam!: Fury of the Gods (March 17, 2023), Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (March 31, 2023), Evil Dead Rise (April 21, 2023), Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (May 5, 2023), Doctor to the Max! (May 24, 2023), Transformers: Rise of the Beasts (June 9, 2023), Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One (July 14, 2023), while anoth slate of its newer releases included both Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem and Meg 2: The Trench (August 4, 2023), Gran Turismo (August 11, 2023), Sword Art Online: The Movie (August 18, 2023), The Nun 2 (September 8, 2023) and The Expendables 4 (September 22, 2023). On December 20th, The Onward Company released Happy Tree Friends: The Movie and Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom in both on Amazon Prime Video and in theatres, followed by Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire on March 20, 2024.
On February 1, 2023, Igor Davies was named additional president of The Onward Company, while Shari Redstone, the newly hired vice president of The Onward Company, announced that she will oversee the movies and television shows of The Onward Company. The Onward Company. efforts, while Splashinis-branded theme parks would handle 100% of entertainment issues through licensing, in which Universal Parks & Resorts approved an agreement with The Onward Company to produce, develop and start new attractions with an inspiring case for The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, in which Universal Parks & Resorts' new parent company, The Sonic & Donkey Kong Company, licensed The Onward Company's "Harry Potter" franchise, which did not obtain an expected agreement for its interconnection. The Onward Company proposes the pre-merger effects when Six Flags was wound up and its assets were acquired by SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment, which now operates as a wholly owned subsidiary of The Sonic & Donkey Kong Company under its Donkey Kong Enterprises segment through the Donkey Kong Parks & Resorts unit of Donkey Kong Destinations. 
The Onward Company, on July 26, 2023, announced that it would plan to create new content based on Electronic Arts properties, including the Need for Speed television series, which will be set to be released in 2024, followed by the Spore feature film adaptation, which will be released in summer 2024, distributed by Paramount Pictures under its Paramount Animation and Nickelodeon Movies banners. The Onward Company announced that its Electronic Arts subsidiary would began developing video games based on The Backyardigans 2.0 franchise, which would mark "the generation from kids to adults". Following the release of Happy Tree Friends: The Movie, Mondo Media and its 6 Point Harness subsidiary, plus Mondo Mojo and Mondo Studios, would be fully merged under The Onward Company, with most of the assets being already consolidated under the Onward Animation banner, as some of the Mondo-branded assets will be rebranded under The Onward Company/Onward Animation labels. Happy Tree Friends, Dick Figures, Like, Share, Die, Deep Space 69 and Gundarr, among other Mondo Media shows and properties, would be fully retained by The Onward Company under its Onward Animation banner itself.
In August 2023, following the success of Sword Art Online: The Movie, The Onward Company, under its Sony Pictures Entertainment and Sony Music Entertainment Japan divisions, announced a slate of the American anime-based overseas animated feature films produced through the Sony Music Animation Group, a joint venture between its divisions, joined by Sony Pictures Animation, consisting of its animation studios Aniplex Animation Studios, Clover Works Studios, Crunchyroll Animations and Magia Record Studios, as well as the recent launch of the new Sword Art Online franchise. This included the adaptations to Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, Kaguya-sama: Love is War, Lycoris Recoil, Ranking of Kings, Puella Magi Madoka Magica, Magia Record and Guilty Crown, as well as original projects including the upcoming King Bob.
On December 18, 2023, The Onward Company officially announced its "epic next era" to acquire the video game developer-publisher Take-Two Interactive and the rights to The Smurfs franchise, including IMPS Belgium/Peyo Productions from its shareholder Microids (French video game publisher), marking The Onward Company's epic foray into the epic cartoon franchise apart from the Hanna-Barbera's titular animated series. The success of The Smurfs was given to the addition of the The Smurfs 2021 TV series, which debuted upon the company's founding. This also the acquisition of the rights to video game franchises such as Grand Theft Auto.
On December 20, 2023, The Onward Company celebrated the release of Happy Tree Friends: The Movie, exclusively on Amazon Prime, a three-segment animated feature film, marking it the most successful streaming-only film in history, in which it received critical acclaim for its writing, animation, techniques, and cross-character environments, although direction of film's director David Feiss and co-director Steven MacLeod was a vast proposal for the property's contemplation. This also included the main Mondo Media being fully absorbed into Onward Animation shortly after the film's release, while 6 Point Harness spun off as the unit's new wholly owned subsidiary. Wholly, Onward Animation now manages the central Happy Tree Friends, Dick Figures, Like, Share, Die, Deep Space 69, Gundarr, Baman Piderman, and Bigfoot properties, continuing to provide the adult animation experiences, animated comedy efforts, streamline events, marketing efforts, and providing of these intellectual property assets under the banner itself. The whole Mondo Media team, including Brendan Burch, Deirdre O'Malley, Christina Chavez, and Douglas S. Kay, joined Onward Animation.
On December 22, 2023, The Onward Company announced plans to ceased activities of the HBO and Cinemax resources, production entities, marketing and television productions, as well as ceasing operations of every single HBO and Cinemax multiplex channel, excluding the main channels, in favor of its new experiences in addition to its streaming experiences with Paramount+ with Showtime. This also included the addition of the Canadian changes of its Corus Entertainment subsidiary, thus also the shuttering of all Corus Entertainment-owned channels as the speciality television channels, as the 24 remaining Corus-owned channels would been transferred as free ad-supported streaming television (FAST) networks in favor of its migration into the StackTV subscription video streaming package, who would later been reorganized as the free ad-supported streaming service, where the 16 Corus-owned channels would been available, effective New Year's Eve 2024 (January 1st). Corus itself will also been merged into Onward Television, effective December 31; in the meantime, Nelvana is consolidated under the Onward Animation banner. The Canadian Disney Channel, Disney XD and Disney Junior channels will remain but as the cable television channels operated under Disney Branded Television via its Canadian television broadcasting unit
On December 24, 2023, The Onward Company announced in talks with The Puyo Puyo Tetris Company, which would be relevant to be never owning the Puyo Puyo Outside series from The Sonic & Donkey Kong Company, which sold the series to Sega Sammy Group's Puyo Puyo!! Quest Studios. The former gave a proposal to the latter, which would fully acquire IMPS/Peyo Productions, which would form a shareholder approval from The Onward Company. Both companies announced plans to secure the rights to the whole franchise itself, forming a joint investment holder (intentionally known as Smurfs, Inc.), as while The Puyo Puyo Tetris Company would own 80.9% majority stake in the new franchise, The Onward Company would obtain a 20.5% minority stake. The Puyo Puyo Tetris Company also announced plans to establish the Smurfs Inc. joint venture, which would own The Smurfs franchise itself, but this never came to fruition. 
On January 4, 2024, The Onward Company announced that it would made a $1 billion deal with Take-Two Interactive to consider about the merger, which consolidates assets and franchises under Onward Interactive Group. Rockstar Games, Ghost Story Games and Private Division are set to be consolidated under Onward Interactive Studios with 2K being merged under Onward Interactive Publishing. Onward Interactive Services would include Socialpoint and Zynga, as well as a new division, named Take-Two Online Services, which would commission online efforts for Take-Two properties. The acquisition was completed on February 28, 2024. The Onward Company merged Take-Two's publishing labels (2K, Rockstar Games, and T2 Mobile Games) into Onward Interactive Publishing, with several 2K, Ghost Story Games, Rockstar Games and Private Division development units, subsidiaries, assets, and operations being fully consolidated under the Onward Interactive Studios banner, effectively dissolving Take-Two Interactive as a whole. 
At the same time, the company also announced that it would eventually acquire the full rights to The Smurfs franchise as well as the IMPS/Peyo Productions for $85 million, with the intention to making the franchise to be part of the new portfolio of its brands, franchises and marketing productions. The Puyo Puyo Tetris Company backed its 80% stake and sold the holder's Smurfs, Inc. investment back to IMPS Belgium/Peyo Productions, which would be absorbed into Onward Animation, effective February 28, 2024. The success of The Smurfs, from Hanna-Barbera's classic animated series to Sony Pictures' iconic film series, was lead to the wonderful success about the most iconic happenings beyond Smurfs marketing experiences, moments and characters to arose, including characters such as the Smurfs, Gargamel and Azrael. The acquisition was completed on March 1, 2024, and the following day, Onward Animation now manages The Smurfs property, thus forming Smurfs Studios, a new Paris-based Smurfs-related animation studio operating as the wholly owned susbidiary of Onward Animation.
Additionally, The Onward Company and The Puyo Puyo Tetris Company announced a agreement to produce original productions. Both companies also announced two of their new co-production franchises: Warner Gaming Heroes (a animated series focused on the 24-member, two-team organization regarding of Warner Bros. Games experiences, games and franchises) and Greg & Lucy's Playground Adventures (an animated series revolving around the Zapping Zone-inspired main characters appearing in any episode), both of which would premiere on the Warner Bros.-branded channels and brands, including Cartoonito, which would premiere the former. 
Warner Bros. would assume production, marketing and ownership of the new Warner Gaming Heroes franchise, while The Puyo Puyo Tetris Company would assume animation, characters, and development conveniences to the franchise, with its susbidiary Puyo Puyo Animation handling full animation to the property. Its sister franchise is Disney's Rock Gang, whose animation, characters and development conveniences are made by TPPTC itself, and is fully owned, operated, managed and produced by The Walt Disney Company under its Disney Entertainment segment through production, marketing and ownership.
On February 1, 2024, the company and The Sonic & Donkey Kong Company announced that they have shut down United International Pictures (a 50%-co-owned joint venture between its Paramount Pictures division and the latter's Universal Pictures unit), largely in favor of their joint venture Studio Distribution Services, due to their financial results, for its Warner Bros. division and TSODKC's Universal Pictures. This marks the close of the UIP after 43 years. 
On April 7, 2024, The Onward Company, The Walt Disney Company and Macy's, Inc. announced a new agreement with The Puyo Puyo Tetris Company to operate the latter as the joint venture. Its Warner Bros. Entertainment brand division would oversee 30.5−35.5% minority stakes of TPPTC, with its Warner Bros. Television Networks unit owning 30.5% of TPPTC and The Cartoon Network, Inc. owning 35.5% of it, as The Onward Company and TPPTC expanded a partnership to produce new properties for the brand, including Cartoon Network, which Cartoon Network Studios (the production arm of Cartoon Network and the division of Onward Animation itself) would co-produce new productions with TPPTC. 
Meanwhile, the Disney's Animation Group division owns 70.5% majority stake of TPPTC, while its sister division Branded Television owned 75.5% majority stake of the company. Meanwhile, Macy's, Inc. owned 20.5% equity stake of the company. TPPTC also pronounced The Onward Company as one of the three exclusive partners alongside Disney and Macy's, Inc. for its original productions and franchises to handle production, marketing and ownership of these properties, while TPPTC would handle animation, characters, and development conveniences as well. Disney Television Animation, a unit of Animation Group and a division of Branded Television, will co-produce a variety of projects with TPPTC.
Onward Media & Entertainment was renamed itself as Onward Entertainment.
On April 10, 2024, The Onward Company announced the establishment of its new Onward Kids division, which would create kids-oriented entertainment content for younger and older kids. The branches included the newly-established Sony Pictures Television Kids, Sesame Workshop and Smurfs Studios itself, the latter of which operated as the sub-arm of Onward Animation.
On April 22, 2024, with the expansion of The Sonic & Donkey Kong Company's newly-formed Sega Sammy Animation Television and the cessation of the Puyo Puyo media, The Onward Company extended an agreement with The Puyo Puyo Tetris Company for new projects, including their newly-announced joint collaboration projects with its Nickelodeon and PlayStation Productions units, including The PlayStation Gang, an animated series which stars a group of the characters doing their PlayStation resources; and Nickelodeon's Pop Friends, an new animated franchise featuring the pop kids with their Nickelodeon strategy, serving as the "competitive revalidation" to the whole Disney's Rock Gang franchise. Justin & Jackie: Physical Teammates was announced as the new joint collaboration project between TPPTC and Cartoon Network. The new project will been focused on the titular duo whose parents trained them for soccer practice, and led them on the adventures with four of their favorite friends.
==Leadership==
===Board of directors===
*Alicia Schwarz
*Shari Redstone
*Igor Davies
*Julie Blanner
*Nina Johnson
*Brian Antunes
*Ann Sarnoff
===Executives===
*Steven Wachowski, President of Onward Entertainment
**Jim Gianopulos, Chairman and CEO of Paramount Motion Pictures Group
**Toby Emmerich, President of Warner Bros. Motion Pictures Group
**Tony Vinciquerra, Chairman and CEO of Sony Pictures Entertainment
***Stacy Green, Executive Vice President & Chief People Officer of Sony Pictures Entertainment
***Jon Hookstratten, Executive Vice President, Administration & Operations of Sony Pictures Entertainment
**Aubrey Ankrum, President of Mondo Films
**Seth Rogen, Co-President of Point Grey Pictures
**Evan Goldberg, Co-President of Point Grey Pictures
**Kevin Feige, President of Marvel Studios
**Louis D'Esposito, Co-president of Marvel Studios
**Victoria Alonso, head of production of Marvel Studios
*Emma Robinson, President of Onward Interactive Studios
**Nicole Clemens, President of Paramount Television Studios
**Ken Basin, EVP, and Head of Business Affairs of Paramount Television Studios
**Debra Bergman, EVP of Production of Paramount Television Studios
**Cheryl Bosnak, EVP and Head of Current Programming of Paramount Television Studios
**Jenna Santoianni, EVP and Head of Development of Paramount Television Studios
**Brian Robbins, President of Nickelodeon
** Michael Ouweleen, Additional President of Comedy Central and Chairman and CEO of Entertainment One
**Emily Feichthaler, Co-President of Onward Animation
**Lachlan Feichthaler, Co-President of Onward Animation
**Tom Ascheim, President of Warner Bros. Global Kids, Young Adults and Classics
**Margie Cohn, President of DreamWorks Worldwide
**Randy Lake, CCO of DreamWorks Worldwide
**Peter Gal, CCO of DreamWorks Merchandising
**Kristin Lowe, CCO of DreamWorks Feature Animation/DreamWorks Animation Studios
**Kristine Belson, President of Sony Pictures Animation
*Julie Smith, President of Onward Interactive Publishing, Onward Interactive Services and Onward Interactive Studios
**Andrew Wilson, CEO and Chairman of Electronic Arts
**Laura Miele, President of EA Entertainment
**Cam Weber, President of EA Sports
**Jonas Mårtensson, CEO of Mojang Studios
**Helen Chiang, studio head of Mojang Studios
**Pete Parsons, CEO of Mojang Studios
***Jason Jones, CCO of Mojang Studios
**Rob Kostich, President of Activision
**Bonnie Ross, Vice President of 343 Industries
*Peter Martinez, President of Onward Marketing Group
**Brian Goldner, Chairman and CEO of Hasbro Consumer Products US, Hasbro Consumer Products International and Wizards of the Coast
**Tina Venstein, Head of Consumer Products Development, Production and Marketing
==Assets==
The Onward Company comprises four main business entertainment segments:
*Onward Entertainment is the first major entertainment business segment of The Onward Company, comprised of its motion picture, television, animation and entertainment business segments, such as Onward Films (onsisting of Paramount Motion Pictures Group, Warner Bros. Pictures Group, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Lionsgate and Point Grey Pictures), Onward Animation (consisting of Paramount Animation, Warner Bros. Animation, Crunchyroll, Sony Pictures Animation, [[Sony Music Animation Grou[]] (consisting of Aniplex Animation Studios, Crunchyroll Animations, Clover Works Studios, and Magia Record Studios), Nickelodeon Animation Studio (including FriendZSpace Entertainment, Avatar Studios and Nickelodeon Digital), MTV Animation, The Cartoon Network, Inc. (including Cartoon Network, Boomerang, Cartoonito and Adult Swim), Nelvana, 6 Point Harness and Smurfs Studios) and Onward Television (composed of Paramount Television Studios, Warner Bros. Television Group (including Warner Bros. Television Networks, Warner Bros. Television Studios, and Warner Bros. Television Programming Content), Nickelodeon Group (including Nickelodeon (including its Nick at Nite and Sonic Nickelodeon blocks), spin-off channels (including Nick Jr., Nicktoons, TeenNick, NickMusic, NickNight and NickFamily), Nick.com, Nickelodeon Productions (including Nickelodeon Animation Studio, FriendZSpace Entertainment, Nickelodeon Digital, and Avatar Studios), Nickelodeon Velocity and Awesomeness), Paramount Television Adult Networks (including MTV, Comedy Central, Paramount Network, Smithsonian Channel and TV Land), Showtime Networks, The CW, Onward Kids (including Sesame Workshop, Sony Pictures Television Kids, Sony Wonder, Paws, Inc. and Smurfs Studios, Discovery, Sony Pictures Television (including Sony Pictures Television Networks (including CPE US Networks, Inc. and Game Show Network, LLC), Sony Pictures Television Studios, Sony Group) and Corus). Onward Entertainment's broadcast efforts included HBO, Cinemax, Max, Discovery+, Paramount+, Pluto TV, SkyShowtime (50% with The Sonic & Donkey Kong Company through Sky Group), BET+, Noggin and the Canadian free ad-supported streaming television service StackTV, as well as the premium television network Paramount+ with Showtime. The division is led by Steven Wachowski, who oversees the conglomerate's film, television and animation operations.
*Onward Interactive Group is the second largest entertainment business segment of The Onward Company, comprised of its interactive efforts. Segment includes Onward Interactive Publishing, Onward Interactive Services, and Onward Interactive Studios. Onward Interactive Group's subsidiaries are Activision, which included Infinity Ward, Raven Software, Beenox, Treyarch, High Moon Studios, Sledgehammer Games, Activision Shanghai Studio, Demonware and Toys for Bob; Electronic Games, the most popular famous game developer behind The Sims, Spore, Dead Space, NCAA Football, NHL, Medal of Honor, Battlefield, Star Wars Battlefront, EA Sports FC and Plants & Zombies; Mojang, whose video game and franchise is Minecraft; Bungie, whose franchises included both Halo and Destiny; PlayStation Studios including PlayStation Productions; Xbox Games Studios; and the 2K, Rockstar Games and Onward Mobile Studios publishing studios as well as several 2K, Rockstar Games and Private Division development studios, and video game developer Ghost Story Games.
*Onward Marketing Group is The Onward Company's third major entertainment business segment, comprised of great content marketing. Onward Marketing Group included its division Splashinis World Parks & Resorts, which included Splashinis Great America, Splashinis Canada's Wonderland, Splashinis Carowinds, Splashinis Kings Island, and Splashinis Kings Dominion. Onward Marketing Group also included SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment, which included the SeaWorld chain of SeaWorld Orlando, SeaWorld San Diego, and SeaWorld San Antonio; two Busch Gardens parks at Tampa Bay and Williamsburg; Sesame Place in both Langhorne, Pennsylvania and San Diego, California; and various properties including Aquatica, Adventure Island, and Water Country USA.
*DreamWorks Worldwide is The Onward Company's fourth and final major entertainment business segment, comprised of DreamWorks Animation's expanded entertainment and interactive media production. DreamWorks Feature Animation for theatrical feature films, DreamWorks Animation Studios (co-owned with The Walt Disney Company's Disney Animation Group) for foreign streaming and digital animation content, DreamWorks Merchandising for alternative merchandising of DreamWorks properties, most notably based on every single DreamWorks Animation Television property. DreamWorks Worldwide has alternative creative forces from DreamWorks Animation, a wholly owned subsidiary of The Sonic & Donkey Kong Company under its Donkey Kong Enterprises segment through its Donkey Kong Filmed Entertainment Group unit. The division is led by Randy Lake, CCO of DreamWorks Animation.
==See also==
*The Walt Disney Company
*The Sonic & Donkey Kong Company
Category:The Onward Company
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