Almost all women are familiar with the names of the big Hollywood movie studios that release blockbuster films each year, but few people besides actresses probably realize that each movie studio has an extremely long history in the movie business. In fact, some movie studios are over a century old, and the others are quickly reaching that centennial mark. In fact, each major studio has had an illustrious history in entertainment, developing some of the most beloved movies and movie franchises of all time.
While some major movie studios have gone defunct (such as RKO) and others are no longer the powerhouse movie studios that they once were (such as MGM), there remain six major Hollywood movie studios that continue to release the vast majority of movies at your local movie theaters each year.
Here is a basic primer for actresses and female fashion models covering the six major movie studios whose movies continue to pack audiences into movie theaters around the world.
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Universal Pictures (Founded in 1912)
Universal is the oldest American film studio. In fact, the original president of Universal, Carl Laemmle, was the first movie executive to give actors on-screen credit, which eventually led to popular performers becoming box office draws.
Beginning in the 1920’s and continuing through the 1930’s and the early 1940’s, Universal had great success with its monster films with movies like Dracula (1931), Frankenstein (1931), The Mummy (1932), and The Wolf Man (1941). The movie studio’s fortunes dipped in the following decades, though it had several hits with stars like Abbott and Costello, James Stewart, and Lana Turner. Alfred Hitchcock also spent the last decade and a half of his career making films for Universal.
During the second half of the 20th century, Universal Pictures had massive successes with three Steven Spielberg movies: 1975’s Jaws, 1982’s E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, and 1993’s Jurassic Park. Today, Universal Studios is almost as well known for its theme parks as it is for its movies.
Major Universal franchises include the Universal Monsters, Jurassic Park, Despicable Me, Fast and the Furious, Back to the Future, and Jason Bourne. Universal’s highest grossing film is Jurassic World (2015) with a production budget of approximately $150 million and total worldwide ticket sales of approximately $1,671,713,208.00 (this is over $1.6 billion United States dollars for the mathematically challenged).
Paramount Pictures (Founded in 1912)
Paramount was founded as the Famous Players Film Company in 1912. Early Paramount films featured some of the industry’s earliest movie stars, including Mary Pickford, Rudolph Valentino, Douglas Fairbanks, and Gloria Swanson. Paramount is also the studio that released the movie Wings, the very first winner of the Academy Award (also known as the Oscars) for Best Picture.
Paramount maintained its reputation as the “star studio” throughout the 1930’s, the 1940’s, and the 1950’s, featuring movie legends like the Marx Brothers, Bob Hope, Bing Crosby, and Marlene Dietrich in its films. However, the landmark 1948 Supreme Court decision that forced movie studios to sell their extremely successful movie theater chains hurt Paramount significantly, and the studio’s fortunes faced a deep decline.
Paramount eventually rebounded on the strength of critical and commercial movie hits like The Godfather (1972), Saturday Night Fever (1977), Grease (1978), Top Gun (1986), Ghost (1990), and the famous Indiana Jones and Star Trek movie franchises. Other key movie franchises include Transformers, Iron Man (the first two films), Mission: Impossible, Friday the 13th (the first eight films), and Beverly Hills Cop.
Paramount’s highest grossing film is Titanic (1997) (co-production with 20th Century Fox) with a production budget of approximately $200 million and total worldwide ticket sales of approximately $2,187,463,944.00 (this is over $2.1 billion United States dollars).
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