American Zoetrope

American Zoetrope (also known as Omni Zoetrope from 1977 to 1980 and Zoetrope Studios from 1980 until 1990) is a privately run American film production company, centered in San Francisco, California and founded by Francis Ford Coppola and George Lucas.
Opened on December 12, 1969,[1] the studio has produced not only the films of Coppola (including Apocalypse Now, Bram Stoker's Dracula and Tetro), but also George Lucas's pre-Star Wars film THX 1138, as well as many others by avant-garde directors such as Jean-Luc Godard, Akira Kurosawa, Wim Wenders and Godfrey Reggio. American Zoetrope was an early adopter of digital filmmaking, including some of the earliest uses of HDTV.[2]
Four films produced by American Zoetrope are included in the American Film Institute's Top 100 Films. American Zoetrope-produced films have received 15 Academy Awards and 68 nominations.
link=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Cafe_Zoetrope_Building.jpg|thumb|341x341px|American Zoetrope is located in the Sentinel Building
== Formation[edit] ==
Initially located in a warehouse at 827[3][4][5] Folsom Street on the second floor of The Automatt building, the company's headquarters have, since 1972,[6] been in the historic Sentinel Building, at 916 Kearny Street in San Francisco's North Beach neighborhood.
Coppola named the studio after a zoetrope he was given in the late 1960s by the filmmaker and collector of early film devices, Mogens Skot-Hansen.[7] "Zoetrope" is also the name by which Coppola's quarterly fiction magazine, Zoetrope: All-Story, is often known.
In 1980, the company bought General Service Studios in Hollywood, California, and became Zoetrope Studios, to produce and distribute films, as did later DreamWorks studio.[8][9]
In 1999, it signed a deal with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer for a first-look financing and production agreement.[10] In 2000, it signed a ten-year financing pact with VCL Film + Medien to handle foreign sales of their own titles.[11]
By 2007, ownership of American Zoetrope had been passed to Coppola's son and daughter, directors Roman Coppola and Sofia Coppola.[12]
In 2010, Lionsgate announced a deal to distribute American Zoetrope films, including classics like The Conversation and Apocalypse Now, in North America on DVD, Blu-ray, electronic-sell-through, VOD as well as broadcast distribution rights.[13] The only movies from the Coppola canon that won't be released as part of the pact are The Godfather trilogy, which is owned by Paramount.[14]
Zoetrope.com, the Coppola family's website, was created around 1996 and became an online community for writers. In 2016, Francis Ford Coppola announced its relaunch as a "virtual studio".[15]
In 2024, American Zoetrope earned its first Tony Award for Best Musical as one of the producers of the 2023 stage musical adaptation of The Outsiders.[16]
== Filmography[edit] ==
=== Feature films[edit] ===
Year	Title 	Director 	Company 	Credit 	References
1969	The Rain People 	Francis Ford Coppola 	American Zoetrope	Production company 	[17][18]
1971	THX 1138 	George Lucas 	American Zoetrope	Production company 	[17]
1972	The Godfather 	Francis Ford Coppola 	American Zoetrope	Production company 	[17]
1972	Ludwig: Requiem for a Virgin King 	Hans-Jürgen Syberberg 	American Zoetrope	Distributor 	[17]
1973	American Graffiti 	George Lucas 	American Zoetrope	Production company 	[17]
1974	The Conversation 	Francis Ford Coppola 	American Zoetrope	Production company 	[17]
1974	The Godfather Part II 	Francis Ford Coppola 	American Zoetrope	Production facilities furnished through (as American Zoetrope San Francisco)	[17]
1977	Perfumed Nightmare 	Kidlat Tahimik 	American Zoetrope	Distributor 	[17]
1977	Hitler: A Film from Germany 	Hans-Jürgen Syberberg 	Omni Zoetrope 	Distributor 	[17]
1979	Apocalypse Now 	Francis Ford Coppola 	Omni Zoetrope 	Production company 	[17][19]
1979	The Black Stallion 	Carroll Ballard 	Omni Zoetrope 	Production company 	[17]
1980	Sauve qui peut (la vie) 	Jean-Luc Godard 	Zoetrope Studios 	Production company/distributor 	[17]
1980	Kagemusha 	Akira Kurosawa 	Zoetrope Studios 	Production company 	[17]
1982	Parsifal 	Hans-Jürgen Syberberg 	Zoetrope Studios 	Distributor 	[17]
1982	The Escape Artist 	Caleb Deschanel 	Zoetrope Studios 	Production company 	[17]
1982	Passion 	Jean-Luc Godard 	Zoetrope Studios 	Production company/distributor 	[17]
1982	The Grey Fox 	Phillip Borsos 	Zoetrope Studios 	Production company 	[17]
1982	Koyaanisqatsi 	Godfrey Reggio 	Zoetrope Studios 	Production company 	
1982	The Making of 'One from the Heart' 	Tony St. John 	Zoetrope Studios 	Production company 	
1982	Hammett 	Wim Wenders 	Zoetrope Studios 	Production company 	[17]
1982	One from the Heart 	Francis Ford Coppola 	Zoetrope Studios 	Production company/distributor 	[17]
1983	The Outsiders 	Francis Ford Coppola 	Zoetrope Studios 	Production company 	[17]
1983	Rumble Fish 	Francis Ford Coppola 	Zoetrope Studios 	Production company 	[17]
1983	The Black Stallion Returns 	Robert Dalva 	Zoetrope Studios 	Production company 	[17]
1984	The Cotton Club 	Francis Ford Coppola 	Zoetrope Studios 	Production company 	[17]
1985	Seven Minutes in Heaven 	Linda Feferman 	Zoetrope Studios 	Production company 	
1985	Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters 	Paul Schrader 	Zoetrope Studios 	Production company 	[17]
1986	Peggy Sue Got Married 	Francis Ford Coppola 	Zoetrope Studios 	Production company 	[17]
1987	Tough Guys Don't Dance 	Norman Mailer 	Zoetrope Studios 	Production company 	
1987	Gardens of Stone 	Francis Ford Coppola 	Zoetrope Studios 	Production company 	[17]
1987	Barfly 	Barbet Schroeder 	Zoetrope Studios 	Production company 	[17]
1988	Tucker: The Man and His Dream 	Francis Ford Coppola 	Zoetrope Studios 	Production company 	
1989	Wait Until Spring, Bandini 	Dominique Deruddere 	Zoetrope Studios 	Production company 	[17]
1990	The Godfather Part III 	Francis Ford Coppola 	Zoetrope Studios 	Production company 	[17]
1991	Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse 	Fax Bahr, Eleanor Coppola, and George Hickenlooper	American Zoetrope	Production company 	[17]
1992	Bram Stoker's Dracula 	Francis Ford Coppola 	American Zoetrope	Production company 	[17]
1992	Wind 	Carroll Ballard 	American Zoetrope	Production company 	[17]
1993	The Secret Garden 	Agnieszka Holland 	American Zoetrope	Production company 	[17]
1994	Mary Shelley's Frankenstein 	Kenneth Branagh 	American Zoetrope	Production company 	[17]
1994	Don Juan DeMarco 	Jeremy Leven 	American Zoetrope	Production company 	[17]
1995	Haunted 	Lewis Gilbert 	American Zoetrope	Production company 	
1995	My Family 	Gregory Nava 	American Zoetrope	Production company 	[17]
1996	Jack 	Francis Ford Coppola 	American Zoetrope	Production company 	[17]
1997	The Rainmaker 	Francis Ford Coppola 	American Zoetrope	Production company 	[17]
1997	Buddy 	Caroline Thompson 	American Zoetrope	Production company (as An American Zoetrope Production) 	[17]
1999	The Florentine 	Nick Stagliano 	American Zoetrope	Production company 	
1999	The Virgin Suicides 	Sofia Coppola 	American Zoetrope	Production company 	[17]
1999	The Third Miracle 	Agnieszka Holland 	American Zoetrope	Production company 	[17]
1999	Sleepy Hollow 	Tim Burton 	American Zoetrope	Production company 	[17]
2001	Jeepers Creepers 	Victor Salva 	American Zoetrope	Production company 	[17]
2001	CQ 	Roman Coppola 	American Zoetrope	Production company 	[17]
2001	No Such Thing 	Hal Hartley 	American Zoetrope	Production company 	[17]
2001	Suriyothai 	Chatrichalerm Yukol 	American Zoetrope	Production company 	[17]
2002	Pumpkin 	Anthony Abrams and Adam Larson Broder 	American Zoetrope	Production company 	[17]
2002	Assassination Tango 	Robert Duvall 	American Zoetrope	Production company 	[17]
2003	Lost in Translation 	Sofia Coppola 	American Zoetrope	Production company 	[17]
2003	Jeepers Creepers 2 	Victor Salva 	American Zoetrope	Production company 	[17]
2004	Kinsey 	Bill Condon 	American Zoetrope	Production company (uncredited) 	[17]
2006	Marie Antoinette 	Sofia Coppola 	American Zoetrope	Production company 	[17]
2006	The Good Shepherd 	Robert De Niro 	American Zoetrope	Production company 	[17]
2007	Youth Without Youth 	Francis Ford Coppola 	American Zoetrope	Production company 	[17]
2009	Tetro 	Francis Ford Coppola 	American Zoetrope	Production company 	[17]
2010	Somewhere 	Sofia Coppola 	American Zoetrope	Production company 	
2011	Twixt 	Francis Ford Coppola 	American Zoetrope	Production company 	[17]
2012	A Glimpse Inside the Mind of Charles Swan III	Roman Coppola 	American Zoetrope	Production company 	[17]
2012	On the Road 	Walter Salles 	American Zoetrope	Production company 	[17]
2013	Palo Alto 	Gia Coppola 	American Zoetrope	Production company 	[17]
2013	The Bling Ring 	Sofia Coppola 	American Zoetrope	Production company 	[17]
2014	Life After Beth 	Jeff Baena 	American Zoetrope	Production company 	[17]
2015	A Very Murray Christmas 	Sofia Coppola 	American Zoetrope	Production company 	[17]
2015	Last Days in the Desert 	Rodrigo García 	American Zoetrope	Production company 	[20]
2016	Paris Can Wait 	Eleanor Coppola 	American Zoetrope	Production company 	[17]
2016	Joshy 	Jeff Baena 	American Zoetrope	Production company 	[17]
2017	The Beguiled 	Sofia Coppola 	American Zoetrope	Production company 	[17]
2020	Love Is Love Is Love 	Eleanor Coppola 	American Zoetrope	Production company 	[21]
2020	On the Rocks 	Sofia Coppola 	American Zoetrope	Production company 	[22]
2021	Mainstream 	Gia Coppola 	American Zoetrope	Production company 	[23]
2023	Fairyland 	Andrew Durham 	American Zoetrope	Production company 	[24]
2023	Priscilla 	Sofia Coppola 	American Zoetrope	Production company 	
2024	Megalopolis 	Francis Ford Coppola 	American Zoetrope	Production company 	
=== Television series[edit] ===
Year 	Title 	Creator 	Company 	Credit 	Network 	Notes 	References
1990 	The Outsiders 	characters by:
S.E. Hinton
developed by:
S.E. Hinton
Joe Byrne
Jeb Rosebrook	Zoetrope Studios 	Production Company 	Fox 	co-production with Papazian-Hirsch Entertainment 	
1997 	The Odyssey 	Andrei Konchalovsky
based on Odyssey by:
Homer	American Zoetrope	Production Company (as American Zoetrope San Francisco)	NBC 	miniseries; co-production with Hallmark Entertainment 	[17]
1998 	Moby Dick 	Anton Diether
Franc Roddam
Benedict Fitzgerald
based on Moby-Dick by:
Herman Melville	American Zoetrope	Production Company 	USA Network 	miniseries; co-production with Hallmark Entertainment, Nine Network Australia and USA Pictures 	[17]
1998–2001	First Wave 	Chris Brancato	American Zoetrope	Production Company 	Sci-Fi Channel	co-production with Sugar Entertainment 	[17]
2003 	Platinum 	John Ridley
Sofia Coppola	American Zoetrope	Production Company 	UPN 	co-production with The Greenblatt/Janollari Studio, International Famous Players Radio Picture Corporation and Eye Productions 	[25]
2004–2007	The 4400 	René Echevarria
Scott Peters	American Zoetrope	Production Company 	USA Network 	co-production with Renegade 83, Viacom Productions (season 1), Paramount Network Television (season 2) and CBS Paramount Network Television (seasons 3–4)	
2014–2018	Mozart in the Jungle	based on Mozart in the Jungle: Sex, Drugs, and Classical Music by:
Blair Tindall
developed by:
Roman Coppola
Jason Schwartzman
Alex Timbers
Paul Weitz	American Zoetrope	Production Company 	Amazon Video 	co-production with Depth of Field, Picrow and Amazon Studios 	
Category:American Zoetrope
Category:American companies established in 1969
Category:Film production companies of the United States
Category:Film distributors of the United States
Category:Entertainment companies based in California
Category:Companies based in San Francisco
Category:Cinema of the San Francisco Bay Area
Category:Francis Ford Coppola
Category:George Lucas
Category:North Beach, San Francisco
Category:Mass media companies established in 1969
Category:1969 establishments in California