Universal Pictures

Universal Pictures

The company's global headquarters at 10 Universal City Plaza in Universal City, California

Trade name
Universal Pictures

Formerly
Universal Film Manufacturing Company (1912–1923)Universal Pictures Corporation (1923–1936)Universal Productions, Inc. (1936–1937)Universal Pictures Company, Inc. (1937–1946)Universal-International Pictures, Inc. (1946–1963)Universal Pictures, Inc. (1963–1964)Universal City Studios, Inc. (1964–1999)Universal Studios Inc. (1999–2014)

Type
Subsidiary

Industry
Film

Predecessor
Independent Moving Pictures

Founded
April 30, 1912; 111 years ago

Founders
Carl LaemmlePat PowersDavid HorsleyWilliam SwansonMark DintenfassCharles BaumannRobert H. CochraneAdam KesselJules Brulatour

Headquarters
10 Universal City Plaza, Universal City, California, United States

Area served
Worldwide

Key people
Donna Langley (Chairman, Universal Filmed Entertainment Group)Peter Cramer (President)

Products
Motion pictures

Revenue
US$4.239 billion (2011)

Operating income
US$27 million (2011)

Owner
Comcast

Parent
NBCUniversal (NBCUniversal)

Divisions
Focus FeaturesIlluminationUniversal Animation StudiosBig Idea EntertainmentUniversal Pictures Home Entertainment

Subsidiaries
Amblin Partners (minority)Back Lot MusicCarnival FilmsDreamWorks AnimationMakeready (co-backing with Entertainment One only, film and television production company run by Brad Weston)NBCUniversal Entertainment JapanOTL ReleasingRede Telecine (joint-venture)United International Pictures (50%)Working Title Films

Website
universalpictures.comuniversalstudios.com

**Universal Pictures** (legally **Universal City Studios LLC**, also known as **Universal Studios**, or simply **Universal**; common metonym: **Uni**, and formerly named **Universal Film Manufacturing Company** and **Universal-International Pictures Inc.**) is an American film production and distribution company owned by Comcast through the NBCUniversal Film and Entertainment division of NBCUniversal.
Founded in 1912 by Carl Laemmle, Mark Dintenfass, Charles O. Baumann, Adam Kessel, Pat Powers, William Swanson, David Horsley, Robert H. Cochrane, and Jules Brulatour, Universal is the oldest surviving film studio in the United States; the world's fifth oldest after Gaumont, Pathé, Titanus, and Nordisk Film; and the oldest member of Hollywood's “Big Five” studios in terms of the overall film market. Its studios are located in Universal City, California, and its corporate offices are located in New York City. In 1962, the studio was acquired by MCA, which was re-launched as NBCUniversal in 2004.
Universal Pictures is a member of the Motion Picture Association (MPA), and was one of the “Little Three” majors during Hollywood's golden age.

History
Early years
Universal Studios was founded by Carl Laemmle, Mark Dintenfass, Charles O. Baumann, Adam Kessel, Pat Powers, William Swanson, David Horsley, Robert H. Cochrane and Jules Brulatour. One story has Laemmle watching a box office for hours, counting patrons, and calculating the day's takings. Within weeks of his Chicago trip, Laemmle gave up dry goods to buy the first several nickelodeons. For Laemmle and other such entrepreneurs, the creation in 1908 of the Edison-backed Motion Picture Patents Company (or the “Edison Trust”) meant that exhibitors were expected to pay fees for Trust-produced films they showed. Based on the Latham Loop used in cameras and projectors, along with other patents, the Trust collected fees on all aspects of movie production and exhibition and attempted to enforce a monopoly on distribution.
Soon, Laemmle and other disgruntled nickelodeon owners decided to avoid paying Edison by producing their own pictures. In June 1909, Laemmle started the Yankee Film Company with his brothers-in-law Abe Stern and Julius Stern. That company quickly evolved into the Independent Moving Pictures Company (IMP), with studios in Fort Lee, New Jersey, where many early films in America's first motion picture industry were produced in the early 20th century. Laemmle broke with Edison's custom of refusing to give billing and screen credits to performers. By naming the movie stars, he attracted many of the leading players of the time, contributing to the creation of the star system. In 1910, he promoted Florence Lawrence, formerly known as “The Biograph Girl”, and actor King Baggot, in what may be the first instance of a studio using stars in its marketing.
The **Universal Film Manufacturing Company** was incorporated in New York City on April 30, 1912. Laemmle, who emerged as president in July 1912, was the primary figure in the partnership with Dintenfass, Baumann, Kessel, Powers, Swanson, Horsley, and Brulatour. The company was established on June 8, 1912, formed in a merger of Independent Moving Pictures (IMP), the Powers Motion Picture Company, Rex Motion Picture Manufacturing Company, Champion Film Company, Nestor Film Company, and the New York Motion Picture Company. Eventually all would be bought out by Laemmle. The new Universal studio was a vertically integrated company, with movie production, distribution, and exhibition venues all linked in the same corporate entity, the central element of the Studio system era.
Following the westward trend of the industry, by the end of 1912, the company was focusing its production efforts in the Hollywood area.
On March 15, 1915, Laemmle opened the world's largest motion picture production facility, Universal City Studios, on a 230-acre (0.9-km2) converted farm just over the Cahuenga Pass from Hollywood. Studio management became the third facet of Universal's operations, with the studio incorporated as a distinct subsidiary organization. Unlike other movie moguls, Laemmle opened his studio to tourists. Universal became the largest studio in Hollywood and remained so for a decade. However, it sought an audience mostly in small towns, producing mostly inexpensive melodramas, westerns, and serials.
In 1916, Universal formed a three-tier branding system for their releases. Universal, unlike the top-tier studios, did not own any theaters to market its feature films. By branding their product, Universal gave theater owners and audiences a quick reference guide. Branding would help theater owners make judgments for films they were about to lease and help fans decide which movies they wanted to see. Universal released three different types of feature motion pictures:
* Red feather Photoplays – low-budget feature films
* Bluebird Photoplays – mainstream feature release and more ambitious productions
* Jewel – prestige motion pictures featuring high budgets using prominent actors

Directors included Jack Conway, John Ford, Rex Ingram, Robert Z. Leonard, George Marshall and Lois Weber, one of the few women directing films in Hollywood.
Despite Laemmle's role as an innovator, he was an extremely cautious studio chief. Unlike rivals Adolph Zukor, William Fox, and Marcus Loew, Laemmle chose not to develop a theater chain. He also financed all of his own films, refusing to take on debt. This policy nearly bankrupted the studio when actor-director Erich von Stroheim insisted on excessively lavish production values for his films *Blind Husbands* (1919) and *Foolish Wives* (1922). But yet, Universal shrewdly gained a return on some expenditure by launching a sensational ad campaign that attracted moviegoers. Character actor Lon Chaney became a drawing card for Universal in the 1920s, appearing steadily in dramas. His two biggest hits for Universal were *The Hunchback of Notre Dame* (1923) and *The Phantom of the Opera* (1925). During this period, Laemmle entrusted most of the production policy decisions to Irving Thalberg. Thalberg had been Laemmle's personal secretary, and Laemmle was impressed by his cogent observations of how efficiently the studio could be operated. Promoted to studio chief, Thalberg was giving Universal's product a touch of class, but MGM's head of production Louis B. Mayer lured Thalberg away from Universal with a promise of better pay. Without his guidance, Universal became a second-tier studio, and would remain so for several decades.
In 1926, Universal opened a production unit in Germany, Deutsche Universal-Film AG, under the direction of Joe Pasternak. This unit produced three to four films per year until 1936, migrating to Hungary and then Austria in the face of Hitler's increasing domination of Central Europe. With the advent of sound, these productions were made in the German language or, occasionally, Hungarian or Polish. In the U.S., Universal Pictures did not distribute any of this subsidiary's films, but at least some of them were exhibited through other independent, foreign-language film distributors based in New York City without the benefit of English subtitles. Nazi persecution and a change in ownership for the parent Universal Pictures organization resulted in the dissolution of this subsidiary.
In the early years, Universal had a “clean picture” policy. However, by April 1927, Carl Laemmle considered this to be a mistake as “unclean pictures” from other studios were generating more profit while Universal was losing money.