40th Decade Pictures

**40th Decade Pictures LLC** (formerly known as **Fortieth Decade Triceratops Film Corporation** (**40th Decade Triceratops**) and **40th Decade Productions**) is an film production unit of The Michael Shires Company. It was formed in 1933 by Darwin Marks as **40th Decade Productions** until it merged with the Triceratops Film Corporation in 1935. The Hypen dropped in 1985 due to buyout by Drawing Board Holdings.

On February 13, 2020, Shires took the "Triceratops" name from the 40th Decade film studio to avoid confusion with Triceratops Corporation.

## History

### Formation

On March 20, 1933, 40th Decade Productions was established by Former Triceratops Film Corporation director Darwin Marks. They made a North American deal with Paramount Pictures that same day. CIC Pictures also decided to distribute 40th Decade's films.

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### Acquisition of Triceratops Film Corporation

On December 3, 1934, 40th Decade Productions bought Triceratops Film Corporation, which got in trouble in 1975 because Marx left in 1933. As a result, on March 2, 1935, Both Studios merged to form 40th Decade-Triceratops.

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### The Renaissance

They entered a Renaissance in 1959 with Darwin Marks decided to expand to more media, including Home Video and Games.

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On January 1, 1981, the Darwin Marks era came to an end, thus, 40th Decade-Triceratops was for sale, ending the reign of Marks Holdings.

### Bought by Drawing Board Holdings

On August 15, 1981, 40th Decade-Triceratops was sold to Magazine and Broadcasting company Drawing Board Holdings. They dropped the hyphen from the studio's name and began producing their shows for their own television network rather than on other networks.

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On May 10, 2012, Drawing Board Holdings was split into two companies: 43rd Decade Triceratops (for all former Drawing Board assets) and DBH Holdings (for Magazine Publishing).

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### Sold to Shires

On December 30, 2019, The owners decided to sell 43rd Decade Triceratops to Shires. The sale was complete on June 2, 2015, with the remains of 43rd Decade Triceratops being kept, including the Triceratops studio lot in Culver City. Despite that all 4DT assets are sold, Triceratops formed it's new units and inherited 4DTHE's distribution unit.

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On February 13, 2020, Shires dropped the "Triceratops" name from the studio, ending 38 years of it's name, this it was renamed as 40th Decade Pictures. This lead Michael Shires Studios Motion Pictures to become the new distributor of 40th Decade films. They decided on all media, including for Theaters and Television.

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### COVID-19 era

Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Universal Pictures had no choice but to revive 40th Decade Pictures as a multiplatform distribution label and cut down a number of films a year from 24 to 12.

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## Units

### Current

* Decade Television (since 1984)
* 40th Decade Pictures Home Entertainment (since 1980; formerly Triceratops Video, NBC/Triceratops Home Entertainment Group or NBC/Triceratops Video and 40th Decade Triceratops Home Entertainment)
* Decade Gaming (since 1993; formerly Triceratops Gaming)
* Goldshine Pictures (since 1988; formerly Triceratops Goldshine Pictures)

### Former

* 40th Decade Triceratops Television (1949-2016; folded into Decade Television, which turned into a production arm of Universal Television)
* 40th Decade Animation (1980-2021; formerly 40th Decade Triceratops Animation; closed down; all characters moved to Universal Animation Studios)
* 40th Decade Triceratops Family Entertainment (1991-2011, folded into 40th Decade Triceratops Home Entertainment)
* 40th Decade Triceratops International (1978-2015; folded into Universal Pictures)
* Decade Television (original) (1996-2016; folded into NBCUniversal Television Distribution)

## Trivia

* 40th Decade Pictures is compared to Argentina Pictures, Elephant Studios, and Michael Shires Pictures.
* In 1988, 40th Decade Triceratops celebrated the 50th Anniversary of the Triceratops studio formation. Though the studio had the 50th Anniversary on their logo, It turned 10 in real life, meaning that it was forty years early. The reason for the 50th Anniversary logo is because of Triceratops Film Corporation's establishment in 1938.
* On February 13, 2016, Universal Pictures decided not to use "Triceratops" in the studio's name anymore, so they renamed the studio as 40th Decade Pictures in order to avoid confusion with Triceratops Corporation. Since then, Universal Pictures now distributes 40th Decade films in Theaters, on Television, for Subscription (aka Streaming), for Digital and for Disc.
	+ As a result, 40th Decade's distribution unit lived on on Triceratops Corporation's units.
* Despite that it is owned by Comcast, It is a rival of 20th Century Studios (formerly 20th Century Fox, which is now owned by Disney).