Paramount Pictures

**Paramount Pictures Corporation** (also known simply as **Paramount**) is an American film studio based in Hollywood, California, and owned by telecoms and media conglomerate Verizon through the Paramount Motion Pictures Group division of Verizon Media. Paramount is the fifth oldest surviving film studio in the world, the second oldest in the United States, and the sole member of the "Big Five" film studios still located in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Hollywood.

In 1916, film producer Adolph Zukor put 22 actors and actresses under contract and honored each with a star on the logo. These fortunate few would become the first "movie stars." In 2014, Paramount Pictures became the first major Hollywood studio to distribute all of its films in digital form only. The company's headquarters and studios are located at 5555 Melrose Avenue, Hollywood, California, United States.

Paramount Pictures is a member of the Motion Picture Association (MPA).

## Investments

### DreamWorks Pictures

In 2006, Paramount became the parent of DreamWorks Pictures. Soros Strategic Partners and Dune Entertainment II soon afterwards acquired controlling interest in live-action films released through DreamWorks, with the release of *Just Like Heaven* on September 16, 2005. The remaining live-action films released until March 2006 remained under direct Paramount control. However, Paramount still owns distribution and other ancillary rights to Soros and Dune films.

On February 8, 2010, Viacom repurchased Soros' controlling stake in DreamWorks' library of films released before 2005 for around $400 million. Even as DreamWorks switched distribution of live-action films not part of existing franchises to Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures and later Universal Studios, Paramount continues to own the films released before the merger, and the films that Paramount themselves distributed, including sequel rights such as that of *Little Fockers* (2011), distributed by Paramount and DreamWorks. It was a sequel to two existing DreamWorks films, *Meet the Parents* (2000) and *Meet the Fockers* (2004). Paramount only owned the international distribution rights to *Little Fockers*, whereas Universal Studios handled domestic distribution).

Paramount owned distribution rights to the DreamWorks Animation library of films made before 2013, and their previous distribution deal with future DWA titles expired at the end of 2012, with *Rise of the Guardians*. 20th Century Fox took over distribution on post-2012 titles beginning with *The Croods* (2013) and ended with *Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie* (2017) with Universal Pictures taking over distribution for DreamWorks Animation with NBCUniversal's acquisition of DreamWorks Animation in 2016, starting in 2019 with the release of *How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World*, though Paramount's rights to pre-2013 DreamWorks Animation films would've expired 16 years after each film's initial theatrical release date. However, in July 2014, DreamWorks Animation purchased Paramount's distribution rights to the pre-2013 library, with 20th Century Fox distributing the library until January 2018, which Universal then assumed ownership of distribution rights.

Another asset of the former DreamWorks owned by Paramount, is the pre-2008 DreamWorks Television library, distributed through Paramount Worldwide Television Licensing & Distribution, the library includes *Spin City*, *High Incident*, *Freaks and Geeks*, *Undeclared* and *On the Lot*, the DreamWorks Television library was distributed by the old Paramount Television years before.

### CBS library

Independent company Hollywood Classics now represents Paramount with the theatrical distribution of all the films produced by the various motion picture divisions of CBS over the years, as a result of the Viacom/CBS merger.

Paramount (via CBS Home Entertainment) has outright video distribution to the aforementioned CBS library with few exceptions-for example, the original *Twilight Zone* DVDs are handled by Image Entertainment. Until 2009, the video rights to *My Fair Lady* were with original theatrical distributor Warner Bros., under license from CBS (the video license to that film has now reverted to CBS Home Entertainment under Paramount).

The CBS-produced/owned films, unlike other films in Paramount's library, are still distributed by CBS Television Distribution on TV, and not by Trifecta Entertainment & Media, because CBS (or a subdivision) is the copyright holder for these films.

## Film library

*Main article: List 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 anti-trust 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 Imdemnity*, *The Lost Weekend*, and *The Heiress*.

## External links

* Official website
* Paramount Pictures on IMDB Pro (subscription required)