Institutions Research

Institutional Research

Major: Paramount Picturesparamount

About
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film studio established on May 8th 1912 as Famous Players Film Company before changing to Paramount Pictures on June 19th 1914. The studio is a member of the ‘Big 6’, and is considered to be the second oldest studio in the United States and the fifth oldest in the world. It is the last major film studio with its headquarters still in Hollywood. Paramount has been a subsidiary of Viacom since 1994. The founder, Hungarian-born Adolph Zukor, saw that films appealed towards working class immigrants. Along with partners Daniel and Charles Frohman, they planned to develop feature-length films to appeal to the middle class by featuring the leading theatrical players of time.

dreamworks-animation-logoIn 2005, Paramount Motion Pictures Group purchased DreamWorks SKG for an estimated $1.6 billion, making Paramount the parent of DreamWorks Pictures. The current CEO is Jim Ginopulos as of March 2017, replacing Brad Grey. Plans to build a Paramount theme park in north Kent fell through in mid-June 2017 with the London Resort Company Holdings (LRCH). The park was to open in 2022 and have more than 50 rides affiliated with Paramount. In February 2015, Paramount Home Media Distribution signed a distribution agreement with Universal Pictures Home Entertainment, so Universal could distribute Paramount’s films overseas where Paramount holds office. The deal first began in the U.K. on July 1st 2015.

Funding

Paramount Pictures invest in 2 companies:

  • CHILI €7.6M private Equity
  • Carbon Black €38.25M Series E

Associated companies:

viacom-logo-billboard-1548

  • Viacom is a multinational media conglomerate founded on December 31stThe company bought Paramount for $9.75 billion in 1994, and the two companies merged
  • ScreenLife was acquired on September 2nd 2008 for an undisclosed amount. The gaming company launched in 2002 and sold more than 15 million DVD games, including Scene It?.

Competitors

  • Warner Bros. Entertainment
  • Fox Filmed Entertainment
  • Walt Disney Pictures and Television

Achievements

Top Grossing films worldwide:

titanic
Titanic (1997) Grossed a worldwide total of $2,186,772,302
  1. Titanic (1997), $2,186,772,302
  2. Transformers: Dark of the Moon (2011), $1,123,794,079
  3. Transformers: Age of Extinction (2014) $1,104,054,072
  4. Transformers: Revenge of Fallen (2009), $836,303,693
  5. Shrek the Third (2007), $798,958,162

Top grossing films in North America:

  1. Titanic (1997) $658,672,302
  2. Transformers: Revenge of Fallen (2009), $402,11,870
  3. Transformers: Dark of the Moon (2011) $352,290,543
  4. Forrest Gump, (1994) $220,252,182
  5. Shrek the Third, (2007) $322,719,944

 

How internet has changed distributions & Formats Today

psycho

  • In 2015, Paramount Pictures released over 100 free films onto YouTube, including Psycho (1960) and The Godfather (1972).
  • Paramount brands on the majority of HD content under ‘Paramount High Definition’. In 2005, Paramount announced it would support Blu-ray in addition to HD DVD, becoming one of the first studios to release both formats. Paramount eventually dropped the HD DVD format, opting for just Blu-ray. As of May 2008, Blu-ray film discs and HD discs are still released.
  • Paramount Pictures developed the division Paramount Digital Entertainment to develop and distribute films and video games digitally over various platforms. Some titles include Star Trek (2013), World War Z (2013), and Rango (2011).
  • Paramount Home Media Distribution (PHMD) is a home video distribution subsidiary of Paramount founded in the late 1975. PHMD distributes most of the programming assets owned by Viacom’s National Amusements, distributing not only Paramount Pictures films, but the back catalogue of DreamWorks
  • Paramount Television made a production deal with network Netflix for their 2016 series 13 Reasons Why, allowing global streaming.