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Established in 1989, by Disney CEO Michael Eisner and studio chief Jeffrey Katzenberg, Hollywood Pictures was founded to increase the film output of the Walt Disney Studios, and release films similar to those of Touchstone Pictures.
Hollywood Pictures was a film division of The Walt Disney Company that was established on February 1, 1989, initially to finance and distribute B-movies and smaller-budget films, and to create internal competition with the company's other adult-oriented label, Touchstone Pictures.
- Overview
- History
Hollywood Pictures was one of the Walt Disney Company's several alternate movie divisions. Like Disney's Touchstone Pictures brand, it produced films for a more mature adult audience than Walt Disney Pictures.
Because of the success of Disney's mature film division Touchstone Pictures, yet another Disney film label was established as Hollywood Pictures in 1990. Danny Elfman composed the fanfare for the opening logo. The company's first release was Arachnophobia.
While then-Disney chief Michael Eisner at first intended Hollywood Pictures to be a full-fledged studio, like Touchstone, in recent years its operations have been scaled back and its management has been merged with the flagship Walt Disney Pictures studio.
Towards the ending of the 1990s, the majority of Hollywood Pictures releases were films that got overall negative reviews, among which was An Alan Smithee Film: Burn Hollywood Burn, which won the Razzie Award for Worst Movie of 1998, with the negative stigma of the banner being likely the main reason as to why Hollywood Pictures would become eventually retired just a few years later, in 2001.
Despite this, the banner has managed to release some acclaimed titles, including its most profitable film to date, The Sixth Sense, which grossed over $200 million at the North American box office.
After being dormant since 2001, the brand was re-activated for low-budget genre films, similar to Dimension Films (once a Disney division itself, now part of The Weinstein Company) or Sony Pictures' Screen Gems (part of Columbia Pictures), News Corporation's Fox Atomic (part of Fox Searchlight Pictures), and Relativity Media's Rogue Pictures (distributed by former parent Universal Studios). The first film released by the resurrected Hollywood was the 2006 horror film, Stay Alive.
This wouldn't however last very long, as after Bob Iger replaced Michael Eisner as CEO of the Walt Disney Company, in late 2005, he decided to instead focus more on reinforcing brand recognition throughout the Disney brand itself, instead of relying on other distribution labels, which was what Eisner had done through Touchstone and Miramax. This lead to the permanent retirement of Hollywood Pictures in April 27, 2007. The final film to be distributed by Hollywood Pictures was The Invisible.
- Universal Pictures. Founded: 1912. Highest-Grossing Film: Jurassic World (2015) 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.
- Paramount Pictures. Founded: 1912. Highest-Grossing Film: Titanic (1997) (co-production with 20th Century Fox) Paramount was founded as the Famous Players Film Company in 1912.
- Walt Disney Pictures (1923) Founded: 1923. Highest-Grossing Film: Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015) Walt Disney Pictures began its life as the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, and was renamed after the massive success of Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse cartoon character allowed the company to expand beyond traditional cartoon shorts.
- Warner Bros. Pictures (1923) Founded: 1923. Highest-Grossing Film: The Dark Knight (2008) was founded by four brothers — Harry, Albert, Sam, and Jack Warner.
Sep 25, 1988 · The fact is that Hollywood, a.k.a. the American film industry, was “founded and for more than thirty years operated by Eastern European Jews,” as Neal Gabler says in his lively and scholarly...
Hollywood Pictures was originally founded by Disney's then-Chairman and CEO Michael Eisner and fellow executive Jeffrey Katzenberg in 1989 to take advantage of a gap left by several other film companies at the time either having gone under or suffering from serious turmoil.
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Hollywood Pictures Company was an American film production label of The Walt Disney Studios, a business segment of The Walt Disney Company. It was established in 1989 by the Disney CEO, Michael Eisnerand studio's cheif, Jeffrey Katzenberg., at first intended Hollywood Pictures to be a...
