Paramount Pictures

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Paramount Pictures Corporation (commonly known as Paramount Pictures and also known simply as Paramount) is an American film studio and subsidiary of ViacomCBS. It is the fifth oldest film studio in the world,[1] the second oldest film studio in the United States, and the sole member of the "Big Five" film studios still located in the city limits of Los Angeles.
In 1916, film producer Adolph Zukor put 22 actors and actresses under contract and honored each with a star on the logo.[2] In 2014, Paramount Pictures became the first major Hollywood studio to distribute all of its films in digital form only.[3] The company's headquarters and studios are located at 5555 Melrose Avenue, Hollywood, California, United States.

## Units

### Divisions

* Paramount Pictures
	+ Paramount Home Entertainment
	+ Paramount Licensing, Inc.
	+ Paramount Digital Entertainment
	+ Paramount Pictures International
	+ Paramount Studio Group – physical studio and post production
		- The Studios at Paramount – production facilities & lot
		- Paramount on Location – production support facilities throughout North America including New York, Vancouver, and Atlanta
		- Worldwide Technical Operations – archives, restoration and preservation programs, the mastering and distribution fulfillment services, on-lot post production facilities management
	+ Paramount Parks & Resorts, licensing and design for parks and resorts[109]
* Paramount Animation (2011–present)[79]
* Paramount Players (June 2017–) (ViacomCBS Domestic Media Networks branded labels):
	+ MTV Films
	+ Nickelodeon Movies
	+ Comedy Central Films
	+ BET Films
* Paramount Television Studios (formerly Paramount Television, revived in March 2013)
	+ Paramount Worldwide Television Licensing & Distribution

### Joint ventures

* Miramax (co-owned with beIN Media Group)
* United International Pictures (co-owned with Comcast's Universal Pictures)
* Rede Telecine

### Former divisions, subsidiaries, and joint ventures

* Paramount Television (original) (now CBS Television Studios)
	+ Big Ticket Television (semi-in-name-only since 2006; currently produces *Judge Judy* and *Hot Bench*)
	+ Spelling Television (in-name-only since 2006)
	+ Viacom Productions (folded into PNT in 2004)
	+ Wilshire Court Productions (shut down in 2003)
	+ Paramount Domestic Television (now CBS Television Distribution)
		- Folded Viacom Enterprises in 1995 and Rysher Entertainment and Worldvision Enterprises in 1999
		- RTV News, Inc., producer of *Real TV* and *Maximum Exposure*
	+ United Paramount Network (UPN) – formerly a joint venture with United Television, now part of the CBS/WarnerMedia joint venture The CW Television Network
	+ Paramount Stations Group (now CBS Television Stations)
	+ USA Networks (also including the Sci-Fi Channel) – Paramount owned a stake starting in 1982, 50% owner (with Universal Studios) from 1987 until 1997, when Paramount/Viacom sold their stake to Universal (now part of NBCUniversal)
	+ Paramount International Television (now CBS Studios International)
* Paramount Famous Productions – direct-to-video division
* Paramount Parks (Purchased by Cedar Fair Entertainment Company in 2006)
* Paramount Classics/Paramount Vantage[110]
* DW Studios, LLC (also DW Pictures) – defunct, holding film library and rights, principal officers left to recreate DreamWorks as an independent company
	+ DW Funding LLC – DreamWorks live-action library (pre-09/16/2005; DW Funding, LLC) sold to Soros Strategic Partners and Dune Entertainment II and purchased back in 2010[111]
* Paramount Theatres Limited – Founded 1930 in the United Kingdom with the opening of a cinema in Manchester. Several Paramount Theatres had opened or had been acquired in the United Kingdom during the 1930s before being sold to The Rank Organisation becoming part of the Odeon Cinemas chain in 1939.
* Epix – 49.76% owner (with Metro–Goldwyn–Mayer and Lionsgate) from 2009 until 2017, when Paramount/Viacom and Lionsgate sold their stakes to MGM
* Insurge Pictures – micro-budget film division (March 2010 – 2015)[76]
* Republic Pictures
* "Continental Café" - the commissary run by Pauline Kessinger until the cafe was replaced by the Zukor Building in 1983.

## Film library

Main article: Lists of Paramount Pictures films

A few years after the ruling of the *United States v. Paramount Pictures, Inc.* case in 1948, Music Corporation of America (MCA) approached Paramount offering $50 million for 750 sound feature films released prior to December 1, 1949 with payment to be spread over a period of several years. Paramount saw this as a bargain since the fleeting movie studio saw very little value in its library of old films at the time. To address any antitrust concerns, MCA set up EMKA, Ltd. as a dummy corporation to sell these films to television. EMKA's/Universal Television's library includes the five Paramount Marx Brothers films, most of the Bob Hope–Bing Crosby *Road to...* pictures, and other classics such as *Trouble in Paradise*, *Shanghai Express*, *She Done Him Wrong*, *Sullivan's Travels*, *The Palm Beach Story*, *For Whom the Bell Tolls*, *Double Indemnity*, *The Lost Weekend*, and *The Heiress*.

The studio has produced many critically acclaimed films such as *Titanic*, *Footloose*, *Breakfast at Tiffany's*, *Braveheart*, *Ghost*, *The Truman Show*, *Mean Girls*, *Psycho*, *Rocketman*, *Ferris Bueller's Day Off*, *The Curious Case of Benjamin Button*, *Days of Thunder*, *Rosemary's Baby*, *Nebraska*, *Sunset Boulevard*, *Forrest Gump*, *Super 8*, *Coming to America*, *World War Z*, *Babel*, *The Conversation*, *The Fighter*, *Interstellar*, *Team America*, *Terms of Endearment*, *The Wolf of Wall Street* and *A Quiet Place*; as well as commercially successful franchises and/or properties such as: the *Godfather* films, *Star Trek*, *Mission: Impossible*, *SpongeBob SquarePants*, the *Grease* films, *Sonic the Hedgehog*, the *Top Gun* films, *The Italian Job*, the *Transformers* films, the *Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles* films, the *Tomb Raider* films, the *Friday the 13th* films, the *Cloverfield* films, the *G.I. Joe* films, the *Beverly Hills Cop* films, the *Terminator*films, the *Pet Sematary* films, the *Without a Paddle* films, *Jackass*, the *Odd Couple* films, *South Park*, the *Crocodile Dundee* films, the *Charolette's Web* films, the *Wayne's World* films, *Beavis & Butthead*, *Jimmy Neutron*, the *War of the Worlds* films, the *Naked Gun*films, the *Anchorman* films, *Dora the Explorer*, the *Addams Family* films, *Rugrats*, the *Zoolander* films, *Æon Flux*, the *Ring* films, the *Bad News Bears* films, *The Wild Thornberrys*, and the *Paranormal Activity* films; as well as the first four films of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the *Indiana Jones* films, and various DreamWorks Animation properties (such as *Shrek*, the *Madagascar* sequels, the first two *Kung Fu Panda* films, and the first *How to Train Your Dragon*) before both studios were respectively acquired by Disney (via Marvel Studios and Lucasfilm) and Universal Studios.

### Highest-grossing films

‡—Includes theatrical reissue(s).

1. ↑ Template:Cite web
2. ↑ Template:Cite web