Timeline of the Major Studios

Here is the Timeline of the Major Studios.

## Timeline of Majors

* 1895: American Mutoscope Company is founded
* 1896: Vitagraph Studios is founded
* 1899: American Mutoscope Company is rename to American Mutoscope and Biograph Company
* 1908: American Mutoscope and Biograph Company are separated into American Film Company and Biograph Company
* 1909: Champion Film Company is founded
* 1912: Paramount Pictures is founded
* 1913: Biograph Company and Champion Film Company merged into Biograph-Champion Pictures
* 1915: Fox Film Corporation and Triangle Film Corporation are founded
* 1916: American Film Company and Biograph-Champion Pictures merged into American-Biograph-Champion and Goldwyn Pictures is founded
* 1917: First National Pictures is founded.
* 1919: Triangle Film Corporation is renamed to Robertson-Cole Pictures.
* 1921: Tyr Pictures is founded.
* 1923: Robertson-Cole Pictures is renamed to Film Booking Offices of America and Metro Pictures and Goldwyn Pictures merged to form Metro-Goldwyn Pictures.
* 1924: Producers Distributing Corporation is founded and Metro-Goldwyn Pictures and Louis B. Mayer Pictures merged into Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
* 1925: Warner Bros. acquired Vitagraph and becomes a major.
* 1927: Producers Distributing Corporation is renamed to Mascot Pictures.
* 1928: Warner Bros. acquired First National
* 1928: Film Booking Offices of America is renamed to RKO Radio Pictures.
* 1935: 20th Century Pictures and Fox Film Corporation merged into 20th Century Fox and Mascot Pictures is renamed to Republic Pictures.
* 1960: Tyr Pictures dissolves due to Warner Bros. buying Monogram-Allied Artists, leading Element One to distribute these films itself.
* 1962: Universal and Knighthood both becomes majors, Due to the former being acquired by MCA.
* 1966: Gulf+Western acquires Paramount and Taft buys Loew's.
* 1967: Gulf+Western acquires Knighthood, which means United Artists joins the majors after Transamerica acquired it, and Warner Bros. and Seven Arts merged to form W7 Pictures.
* 1968: Columbia becomes a major.
* 1969: Kinney National Company acquired W7 Pictures and renames it back to Warner Bros. Pictures.
* 1972: Kinney National Company is renamed as Warner Communications.
* 1981: Taft acquires Transamerica, which means TriStar joins the majors.
* 1982: Coca-Cola acquired Columbia.
* 1984: Westinghouse acquired CBS.
* 1985: Capital Cities acquired ABC.
* 1986: Disney joined the majors and Turner buys Taft.
* 1987: Coca-Cola sells Columbia to TriStar, thus the merger formed Columbia Pictures Entertainment.
* 1989: Sony acquired CPE and AMC acquired film/television studio assets of American-Biograph-Champion from Capital Cities/ABC.
* 1990: American-Biograph-Champion is folded into Sunset Ocean Pictures, and the rest of ABC is sold to Disney.
* 1993: Westinghouse acquired SSG Corporation.
* 1994: Sony acquired AMC Corporation, which means DreamWorks joins the majors.
* 1996: Time Warner buys Turner, meaning that Rhinocloud became a major.
* 2000: Bell Atlantic and Westinghouse merged to form Verizon, which means Element One, under Emerson, joins the majors.
* 2003: Shaw Communications (Lions Gate Entertainment) and Emerson Electric (Element One Entertainment) merges to form WGNLionsgate.
* 2004: Vivendi and General Electric merges to form NBCUniversal.
* 2011: Comcast acquired NBCUniversal.
* 2012: Microsoft acquired WGNLionsgate.
* 2013: News Corporation is renamed as 21st Century Fox.
* 2016: Comcast acquired Intel, meaning Congmorshy became a major.
* 2019: Disney acquired Fox.

## Timeline of Mini-Majors

* 1912: Universal Pictures was founded.
* 1918: Solar System Pictures is founded.
* 1919: United Artists was founded.
* 1922: Element Pictures was founded.
* 1924: Columbia Pictures was founded.
* 1928: Solar System Pictures is renamed as Solar System-Galaxy as a result of Galaxy Broadcasting acquiring the studio.
* 1932: Sunset Ocean Pictures and Knighthood Pictures were founded.
* 1934: DreamWorks Pictures was founded.
* 1940: Element Picture became Element-Oswald Pictures.
* 1942: Lions Gate Films was founded.
* 1943: International Pictures was founded,
* 1944: International Pictures merged with Universal in 1946 to form Universal-International.
* 1950: Solar System-Galaxy becomes a major (and remains one until 1993).
* 1952: TriStar Pictures became a mini-major.
* 1953: Walt Disney Productions became a mini-major.
* 1955: American International Pictures is founded.
* 1957: Seven Arts Pictures was founded.
* 1960: Sunset Ocean Pictures became a major until 1994 after Tyr dissolved.
* 1962: Universal and Knighthood becomes majors after MCA acquired the former.
* 1967: United Artists became a major after Paramount acquired Knighthood and remains one until 1981.
* 1968: Columbia Pictures became a major.
* 1975: AIP was sold to MGM.
* 1981: TriStar Pictures became a major until 1987.
* 1982: Vertical Entertainment is founded
* 1986: Walt Disney Pictures becomes a major.
* 1994: DreamWorks becomes a major until 2016 after Sony-Sunset Ocean merger in 1994.
* 1996: Rhinocloud becomes a major after TimeWarner acquired Turner.
* 1997: Netflix Pictures is founded
* 2000: Element One (now Entertainment One) becomes a major after Paramount acquired Republic in 2000.
* 2003: Lionsgate becomes major after it acquired Element One.
* 2010: Amazon Studios is founded.
* 2016: Congmorshy becomes a major after Comcast acquired DreamWorks.