Amblin is named after
Steven Spielberg's first commercially released film, ''
Amblin''' (1968), a short independent film about a man and woman
hitchhiking through the desert. Costing $15,000 to produce, it was shown for
Universal Studios, giving Spielberg more
directing roles. The company was established a year later, in 1969, and it was properly incorporated in 1970. On July 14, 1975, Spielberg signed a four-picture agreement with Universal Pictures to produce its feature films through his Amblin label, aiming to build upon the success of its first two theatrical pictures,
The Sugarland Express and
Jaws. Although Amblin is an independent production company, Universal distributes many Amblin productions, and Amblin operates out of a building on the Universal lot. Amblin produced its first film,
Continental Divide, in 1981, with Spielberg serving as executive producer. The following year, Spielberg and Marshall caught the attention of
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), for which they both produced
Poltergeist with Amblin, but under the name Steven Spielberg Productions. The same year, Spielberg and Kennedy produced
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial with Amblin uncredited (with Spielberg also directing it), which ended up being the highest-grossing film of the year. In 1983, Spielberg produced
Twilight Zone: The Movie with Amblin (with Marshall credited as an executive producer), but the company was uncredited. The company was reincorporated as
Amblin Entertainment the following year, and the
television division was formed that year. Amblin went on to produce a number of successful films throughout the 1980s, such as
Gremlins,
Innerspace,
Batteries Not Included, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, and the
Back to the Future trilogy.
Gremlins was the first film to use the company's logo, which features the silhouette of Elliott flying in his bicycle with E.T. in the basket in front of the moon, from
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. In 1985, Spielberg and
Don Bluth started a partnership to produce animated feature films. The only two films that were made from the Spielberg-Bluth deal were
An American Tail (1986) and
The Land Before Time (1988). On November 5, 1986,
Walt Disney Pictures and Amblin Entertainment collaborated to produce
Who Framed Roger Rabbit, its first collaboration of such after collaborations working with Universal Pictures and
Warner Bros. Pictures, which had a pre-existing joint deal. The film was directed by
Robert Zemeckis, and it was slated for a G-rated feature, but it was upped to a PG-rated feature under the
Touchstone Pictures label. In 1987, Amblin Entertainment had named Brad Globe, former head of
Lorimar's marketing division, as vice president of marketing at the production company, and Globe himself would be joined by two special consultants, which were Martin J. Lewy and Gerry Lewis, and will work closely with the marketing department of the companies that released Amblin's product. In 1989, a dispute over film-making budgets caused Spielberg and Bluth to part ways. Amblin established their own animation unit,
Amblimation, which was headquartered in London. The only three films that were released under the Amblimation banner were
An American Tail: Fievel Goes West (1991), ''
We're Back: A Dinosaur's Story (1993) and Balto (1995). The Amblimation label was shut down in 1997 and most of the studio staff was transferred to DreamWorks Animation, which Spielberg co-founded in 1994. Two more films were in development at the time Amblimation was shut down. The first was an animated film adaptation of the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical Cats'' which was cancelled following the studio's closure in 1997. The other was an animated film adaptation of the
William Steig book,
Shrek!, which was picked up by DreamWorks Animation and made into the 2001 animated film
Shrek. The same year, Amblin signed a deal with
Turner Network Television to produce television films. In 1991, founding partner Frank Marshall left the company after 10 years. The next year, Kathleen Kennedy left the company. In 1992, Amblin launched a visual effects studio
Amblin Imaging, headed by visual effects pioneer John Gross. It was later shut down in 1995. In 1993,
Walter Parkes and
Laurie MacDonald joined the company. On June 21, 2021, it was announced that Amblin Entertainment signed a deal with
Netflix to release multiple new feature films for the
streaming service. Under the deal, Amblin is expected to produce at least two films a year for Netflix for an unspecified number of years. It is possible that Spielberg may even direct some of the projects. ==Film library==