Early years as CBC Film Sales (1918–1924) The studio was founded on June 19, 1918, as Cohn-Brandt-Cohn (CBC) Film Sales by brothers
Jack and
Harry Cohn and Jack's best friend
Joe Brandt, and released its first feature film
More to Be Pitied Than Scorned on August 20, 1922. The film, with a budget of $20,000, was a success, bringing in $130,000 in revenue for the company. Brandt was president of CBC Film Sales, handling sales, marketing and distribution from New York along with Jack Cohn, while Harry Cohn ran production in Hollywood. The studio's early productions were low-budget short subjects:
Screen Snapshots, the
Hallroom Boys (the vaudeville duo of
Edward Flanagan and
Neely Edwards), and the former
Charlie Chaplin imitator
Billy West. The start-up CBC leased space in a
Poverty Row studio on Hollywood's famously low-rent
Gower Street. Among Hollywood's elite, the studio's small-time reputation led some to joke that "CBC" stood for "Corned Beef and Cabbage". Harry Cohn became president in 1932 and remained head of production as well, thus concentrating enormous power in his hands. He would run Columbia for a total of 34 years, one of the longest tenures of any studio chief (
Warner Bros.'
Jack L. Warner was head of production
or CEO longer but did not become CEO until 1956). Even in an industry rife with nepotism, Columbia was particularly notorious for having a number of Harry and Jack's relatives in high positions. Humorist
Robert Benchley called it the Pine Tree Studio, "because it has so many Cohns". Brandt eventually tired of dealing with the Cohn brothers, and in 1932 sold his one-third stake to Jack and Harry Cohn. Harry took over from Brandt as president. Columbia's product line consisted mostly of low- to moderately budgeted features and short subjects encompassing action subjects, comedies, sports films,
serials, and cartoons. Columbia gradually moved into the production of higher-budget fare, eventually joining the second tier of Hollywood studios along with
United Artists and
Universal. Like United Artists and Universal, Columbia was a horizontally integrated company. It controlled production and distribution; it did not own any theaters. Helping Columbia's climb was the arrival of an ambitious director, Frank Capra. Between 1927 and 1939, Capra constantly pushed Cohn for better material and bigger budgets. A string of hits he directed in the early and mid 1930s solidified Columbia's status as a major studio. In particular,
It Happened One Night, which nearly swept the 1934 Oscars, put Columbia on the map. Until then, Columbia's business had depended on theater owners willing to take its films, since it did not have a theater network of its own. Other Capra-directed hits followed, including the original version of
Lost Horizon (1937), with
Ronald Colman, and
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) with
James Stewart. In 1933, Columbia hired
Robert Kalloch to be its chief fashion and women's costume designer. He was the first contract costume designer hired by the studio, and he established the studio's wardrobe department. Kalloch's employment, in turn, convinced leading actresses that Columbia Pictures intended to invest in their careers. In 1938, the addition of
B. B. Kahane as vice president would produce
Charles Vidor's
Those High Grey Walls (1939), and
The Lady in Question (1940), the first joint film of
Rita Hayworth and
Glenn Ford. Kahane would later become the president of
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 1959, until his death a year later. Columbia could not afford to keep a huge roster of contract stars, so Jack Cohn usually borrowed them from other studios. At
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, the industry's most prestigious studio, Columbia was nicknamed "Siberia", as
Louis B. Mayer would use the loan-out to Columbia as a way to punish his less-obedient signings. In the 1930s, Columbia signed
Jean Arthur to a long-term contract, and after ''
The Whole Town's Talking'' (1935), Arthur became a major comedy star.
Ann Sothern's career was launched when Columbia signed her to a contract in 1936.
Cary Grant signed a contract in 1937 and soon after it was altered to a non-exclusive contract shared with
RKO. Many theaters relied on
westerns to attract big weekend audiences, and Columbia always recognized this market. Its first cowboy star was
Buck Jones, who signed with Columbia in 1930 for a fraction of his former big-studio salary. Over the next two decades Columbia released scores of outdoor adventures with Jones,
Tim McCoy,
Ken Maynard,
Jack Luden,
Bob Allen,
Russell Hayden,
Tex Ritter,
Ken Curtis, and
Gene Autry. Columbia's most popular cowboy was
Charles Starrett, who signed with Columbia in 1935 and still holds the record for starring in the longest string of feature films (131 titles over 17 years).
Short subjects At Harry Cohn's insistence, the studio signed
vaudeville comedians
The Three Stooges in 1934. Rejected by
MGM (which kept straight-man
Ted Healy but let the Stooges go), the Stooges made 190
slapstick shorts for Columbia between 1934 and 1957. Columbia's short-subject department employed many famous comedians, including
Buster Keaton,
Charley Chase,
Harry Langdon,
Andy Clyde, and
Hugh Herbert. Almost 400 of Columbia's 529 two-reel comedies were released to television between 1958 and 1961; to date, all of the Stooges, Keaton,
Charley Chase,
Shemp Howard,
Joe Besser, and
Joe DeRita subjects have been released to home video. Columbia incorporated animation into its studio in 1929, distributing
Krazy Kat cartoons, taking over from
Paramount. The following year, Columbia served as the distributor for
Walt Disney's
Mickey Mouse and
Silly Symphony series from
Pat Powers's Celebrity Productions until 1932. In 1933, The
Charles Mintz studio was re-established under the
Screen Gems brand; Columbia's leading cartoon series were
Krazy Kat,
Scrappy,
The Fox and the Crow, and (very briefly) ''
Li'l Abner''. Screen Gems was the last major cartoon studio to make black-and-white cartoons, producing them until 1946. That same year, Screen Gems shut down but had completed enough cartoons for the studio to release until 1949. In 1948, Columbia agreed to release animated shorts from
United Productions of America; these new shorts were more sophisticated than Columbia's older cartoons, and many won critical praise and industry awards.
Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera made TV cartoons for Columbia; Columbia asked the team for a theatrical series, and from 1959 to 1965 Columbia distributed cartoons featuring
Loopy De Loop. It was Columbia's final theatrical cartoon series. In 1967, the Hanna-Barbera deal expired and was not renewed. According to the
Bob Thomas book
King Cohn, studio chief Harry Cohn always placed a high priority on serials. Beginning in 1937, Columbia entered the lucrative serial market and kept making these weekly episodic adventures until 1955, after other studios had discontinued them; then the studio reissued older serials to theaters until 1966. The most famous Columbia serials are based on
pulp magazine, comic-strip or radio characters: ''
The Spider's Web (1938), Mandrake the Magician (1939), The Shadow (1940), Terry and the Pirates (1940), Captain Midnight (1942), The Phantom (1943), Batman (1943), and the especially successful Superman'' (1948), among many others. Columbia also produced musical shorts, sports reels (usually narrated by sportscaster
Bill Stern), and travelogues. Its
Screen Snapshots series, showing behind-the-scenes footage of Hollywood stars, was a Columbia perennial the studio had been releasing since 1920; producer-director
Ralph Staub kept this series going through 1958. Harry Cohn was especially proud of the longevity of the
Snapshots, and only his death curtailed the series.
1940s In the 1940s, propelled in part by the surge in audiences for their films during
World War II, the studio also benefited from the popularity of its biggest star,
Rita Hayworth. Columbia maintained a long list of contractees well into the 1950s;
Glenn Ford,
Penny Singleton,
William Holden,
Judy Holliday,
The Three Stooges,
Ann Miller,
Evelyn Keyes,
Ann Doran,
Jack Lemmon,
Cleo Moore,
Barbara Hale,
Adele Jergens,
Larry Parks,
Arthur Lake,
Lucille Ball,
Jock Mahoney,
Kerwin Mathews, and
Kim Novak. Harry Cohn monitored the budgets of his films, and the studio got the maximum use out of costly sets, costumes, and props by reusing them in other films. Many of Columbia's low-budget
"B" pictures and short subjects have an expensive look, thanks to Columbia's efficient recycling policy. Cohn was reluctant to spend lavish sums on even his most important pictures, and it was not until 1943 that he agreed to use three-strip
Technicolor in a live-action feature. Columbia was the last major studio to employ the expensive color process. Columbia's first Technicolor feature was the western
The Desperadoes, starring
Randolph Scott and
Glenn Ford. Cohn quickly used Technicolor again for
Cover Girl, a Hayworth vehicle that instantly was a smash hit, released in 1944, and for the fanciful biography of
Frédéric Chopin,
A Song to Remember, with
Cornel Wilde, released in 1945. Another biopic, 1946's
The Jolson Story with
Larry Parks and
Evelyn Keyes, was started in black-and-white, but when Cohn saw how well the project was proceeding, he scrapped the footage and insisted on filming in Technicolor. In 1948, the
United States v. Paramount Pictures, Inc. anti-trust decision forced Hollywood motion picture companies to divest themselves of the theater chains they owned. Since Columbia did not own any theaters, it was now on equal terms with the largest studios. The studio soon replaced
RKO on the list of the "Big Five" studios.
Screen Gems In 1946, Columbia dropped the
Screen Gems brand from its cartoon line, but retained the Screen Gems name for various ancillary activities, including a 16 mm film-rental agency and a TV-commercial production company. On November 8, 1948, Columbia adopted the
Screen Gems name for its television production subsidiary when the studio acquired Pioneer Telefilms, a television commercial company founded by Jack Cohn's son, Ralph. Pioneer had been founded in 1947, and was later reorganized as Screen Gems. On December 10, Screen Gems expanded into
television syndication by acquiring Hygo Television Films (a.k.a. "Serials Inc.") and its affiliated company United Television Films, Inc. Hygo Television Films was founded in 1951 by Jerome Hyams, who also acquired United Television Films in 1955 that was founded by Archie Mayers. In 1957, two years before its parent company Columbia dropped UPA, Screen Gems entered a distribution deal with
Hanna-Barbera Productions, which produced classic animated series such as
The Flintstones,
The Quick Draw McGraw Show,
The Huckleberry Hound Show,
The Yogi Bear Show,
Jonny Quest,
The Jetsons and
Top Cat among others. Screen Gems distributed the company's shows until 1967, when Hanna-Barbera was sold to
Taft Broadcasting. In 1960, the animation studio became a publicly traded company under the name Screen Gems, Inc., when Columbia spun off an 18% stake.
1950s By 1950, Columbia had discontinued most of its popular
series films (
Boston Blackie,
Blondie,
The Lone Wolf,
The Crime Doctor,
Rusty, etc.) Only
Jungle Jim, launched by producer
Sam Katzman in 1949, kept going through 1955. Katzman contributed greatly to Columbia's success by producing dozens of topical feature films, including
crime dramas,
science-fiction stories, and
rock'n'roll musicals. Columbia kept releasing new serials (produced by Katzman) until 1956 and new two-reel comedies (produced by
Jules White) until 1959, after other studios had abandoned these subjects. As the larger studios declined in the 1950s, Columbia's position improved. This was largely because it did not suffer from the massive loss of income the other major studios sustained from the loss of their theaters (well over 90%, in some cases). Columbia continued to produce 40-plus pictures a year, offering productions that often broke ground and kept audiences coming to theaters. Some of its significant films from this era include the studio's adaptation of the controversial
James Jones novel
From Here to Eternity (1953),
On the Waterfront (1954), and
The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) with
William Holden and
Alec Guinness, all of which won the
Best Picture Oscar. Another significant film of the studio was the free adaptation of
George Orwell's
dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four (1956). Columbia also released the productions of the English studio
Warwick Films (by producers
Irving Allen and
Albert R. Broccoli), as well as many films by producer
Carl Foreman, who resided in England. Columbia distributed some films made by
Hammer, which was also based in England. In December 1956, Jack Cohn, co-founder and executive vice-president, died. In 1958, Columbia established its own record label,
Colpix Records, initially run by Jonie Taps, who headed Columbia's music department, and later
Paul Wexler and
Lester Sill. Colpix was active until 1966 when Columbia entered into a joint agreement with
RCA Victor and discontinued Colpix in favor of its new label,
Colgems Records.
1960s: After Harry Cohn's death in 1965 Columbia president
Harry Cohn died of a heart attack in February 1958. His nephew Ralph Cohn died in 1959, ending almost four decades of family management. In 1963, Columbia acquired music publisher
Aldon Music. By the late 1960s, Columbia had an ambiguous identity, offering old-fashioned fare such as
A Man for All Seasons and
Oliver! along with the more contemporary
Easy Rider and
The Monkees. After turning down releasing
Albert R. Broccoli's
Eon Productions James Bond films, Columbia hired Broccoli's former partner
Irving Allen to produce the
Matt Helm series with
Dean Martin. Columbia also produced a
James Bond spoof,
Casino Royale (1967), in conjunction with
Charles K. Feldman, which held the adaptation rights for
that novel. By 1966, the studio was suffering from box-office failures, and takeover rumors began surfacing. Columbia was surviving solely on the profits made from Screen Gems, whose holdings also included radio and television stations. On December 23, 1968, Screen Gems merged with Columbia Pictures Corporation and became part of the newly formed Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. for $24.5 million. Schneider was chairman of the holding company and
Leo Jaffe president. Following the merger, in March 1969, CPI purchased
Bell Records for $3.5 million (mainly in CPI stock), retaining
Larry Uttal as label president.
1970s Nearly bankrupt by the early 1970s, the studio was saved via a radical overhaul: the Gower Street Studios (now called "
Sunset Gower Studios") were sold and a new management team was brought in. In 1972, Columbia and Warner Bros. formed a partnership called The Burbank Studios, in which both companies shared the
Warner studio lot in
Burbank. In 1971, Columbia Pictures established sheet music publisher Columbia Pictures Publications, with vice president and general manager
Frank J. Hackinson, who later became the president. In 1973,
Allen & Co took a financial stake in Columbia Pictures Industries and
Alan Hirschfield was appointed CEO, succeeding
Leo Jaffe who became chairman. Stanley Schneider, son of Abe Schneider (who became honorary chairman before leaving the board in 1975) was replaced as head of the Columbia Pictures studio by
David Begelman, who reported to Hirschfield. Some years later Begelman was involved in a check-forging scandal that badly hurt the studio's image. On May 6, 1974, Columbia retired the
Screen Gems name from television, renaming its television division
Columbia Pictures Television. The name was suggested by
David Gerber, who was then president of Columbia's television division. The same year, Columbia Pictures acquired Rastar Pictures, which included Rastar Productions, Rastar Features, and Rastar Television. Ray Stark then founded Rastar Films, the reincarnation of Rastar Pictures, which was acquired by Columbia Pictures in February 1980. Columbia Pictures also reorganized its music and record divisions.
Clive Davis was hired as a record and music consultant by Columbia Pictures in 1974 and later became temporary president of
Bell Records. Davis's real goal was to revitalize Columbia Pictures' music division. With a $10 million investment by CPI, and a reorganization of the various Columbia Pictures legacy labels (Colpix,
Colgems, and Bell), Davis introduced Columbia Pictures' new record division,
Arista Records, in November 1974, with Davis himself owning 20% of the new venture. Columbia maintained control of the label until 1979, when it was sold to
Ariola Records. In addition, Columbia sold its music publishing business (Columbia-Screen Gems) to
EMI in August 1976 for $15 million. Both would later be reunited with Columbia Pictures under Sony ownership. In December 1976, Columbia Pictures acquired the arcade game company
D. Gottlieb & Co. for $50 million. In 1978, Begelman was suspended for having
embezzled money from Columbia. Hirschfield was forced out for his refusal to reinstate him. Begelman later resigned and was replaced by
Daniel Melnick in June 1978.
Fay Vincent was hired to replace Hirschfield.
Frank Price became president of production in 1978. In March 1979, he would become president of Columbia Pictures, succeeding Melnick. In the fall of 1978,
Kirk Kerkorian, a Vegas casino mogul who also controlled
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, acquired a 5.5% stake in Columbia Pictures. He then announced on November 20, he intended to launch a tender offer to acquire another 20% for the studio. In May, Kerkorian acquired an additional 214,000 shares in Columbia, raising his stake to 25%.
1980s: Coca-Cola, Tri-Star, and other acquisitions and ventures On September 30, 1980, Kerkorian sued Columbia for ignoring shareholders' interest and violating an agreement with him. On May 17, 1982, Columbia Pictures acquired
Spelling-Goldberg Productions for over $40 million. With a healthier balance-sheet (due in large part to boxoffice hits like
Kramer vs. Kramer,
Stir Crazy,
The Blue Lagoon, and
Stripes), Columbia was bought by
The Coca-Cola Company on June 22, 1982, for $750 million. Studio head Frank Price mixed big hits like
Tootsie,
Gandhi,
The Karate Kid,
The Big Chill, and
Ghostbusters with many costly flops. To share the increasing cost of film production, Coke brought in two outside investors whose earlier efforts in Hollywood had come to nothing. In 1982, Columbia,
Time Inc.'s
HBO and
CBS announced, as a joint venture, "Nova Pictures"; this enterprise was to be renamed
Tri-Star Pictures. In 1983, Price left Columbia Pictures after a dispute with Coca-Cola and went back to Universal. He was replaced by
Guy McElwaine. In the early 1980s, Columbia and Tri-Star Pictures set up a film partnership with Delphi Film Associates and acquired an interest in various film releases. In 1984, Delphi Film Associates III acquired an interest in the Tri-Star and Columbia film slate of 1984, which would make a $60 million offering in the financing of film production. Also that year, Columbia Pictures had bought out the rights to
Hardbodies, which was once premiered on
The Playboy Channel. Columbia Pictures expanded its music publishing operations in the 1980s, acquiring Big 3 Publishing (the former sheet music operations of Robbins,
Feist, and
Miller) from
MGM/UA Communications Co. in 1983, Belwin-Mills Publishing from
Simon & Schuster in 1985, and Al Gallico Music in 1987. On June 18, 1985, Columbia's parent acquired
Norman Lear and
Jerry Perenchio's Embassy Communications, Inc. (including
Embassy Pictures, Embassy Television,
Tandem Productions, and Embassy Home Entertainment), mostly for its library of television series such as
All in the Family and
The Jeffersons, for $485 million. On November 16, 1985, CBS dropped out of the Tri-Star venture. Many changes occurred in 1986. Expanding its television franchise, on May 5, Columbia's parent also bought
Merv Griffin Enterprises for $250 million. The company was notable for:
Wheel of Fortune,
Jeopardy!,
Dance Fever, and
The Merv Griffin Show. Months later on August 28, the Columbia Pictures Television Group acquired
Danny Arnold's Danny Arnold Productions, Inc.. The deal included Arnold's rights to the sitcom
Barney Miller (Four D Productions) among other produced series such as
Fish (The Mimus Corporation),
A.E.S. Hudson Street (Triseme Corporation), and
Joe Bash (Tetagram Ltd.). Arnold had dropped the federal and state lawsuits against the television studio, who was accusing them of
antitrust violations, fraud, and breach of
fiduciary duty. Coca-Cola sold the Embassy Pictures division to
Dino de Laurentiis, who later folded Embassy Pictures into Dino de Laurentiis Productions, Inc. The company was renamed as
De Laurentiis Entertainment Group. Coca-Cola also sold Embassy Home Entertainment to
Nelson Entertainment. Coca-Cola, however, retained the Embassy Pictures name, logo, and trademark. HBO was the last partner to drop out of the Tri-Star venture and sold its shares to Columbia Tri-Star later expanded into the television business with its new
Tri-Star Television division. The same year, Columbia recruited British producer
David Puttnam to head the studio. Puttnam attempted to defy Hollywood filmmaking by making smaller films instead of big tentpole pictures. His criticism of American film production, in addition to the fact the films he greenlit were mostly flops, left Coke and Hollywood concerned. Puttnam then discontinued multi-picture pacts with various filmmakers, including
Norman Jewison, which was permitted to expire before all of the promised product could be delivered. Under Puttnam's control, he set up a $270 million package of in-house pictures and acquisitions, and the average lineup of 25 features was expected to be $10.78 million, about $4 million less of the cost at Columbia before Puttnam came on board, and a number of low-cost acquisitions such as
Spike Lee's $5 million picture
School Daze. On October 22, 1986, Greg Coote was appointed by Columbia Pictures as key executive of the studio, to complement David Puttman's pledge on Columbia Pictures to fix its sights over its international market. On December 17, 1986, the company acquired a 30% share in Roadshow, Coote & Carroll, a company Greg Coote headed, and decided they would pick up films and miniseries to put an effort to add it up to Columbia's shares, and listed dozens of theatrical and television films and dozens of miniseries throughout the addition of the Columbia slate. On June 26, 1987, Coca-Cola sold The Walter Reade Organization to
Cineplex Odeon Corporation. On October 14, 1987, Coca-Cola's entertainment division invested in $30 million in
Castle Rock Entertainment with five Hollywood executives. Coke's entertainment business division owned 40% in Castle Rock, while the execs owned 60%.
Columbia Pictures Entertainment era (1987–1989) The volatile film business made Coke shareholders nervous, and following the critical and box-office failure of
Ishtar, Coke spun off its entertainment holdings on December 21, 1987, and sold it to Tri-Star Pictures for $3.1 billion. Tri-Star Pictures, Inc. was renamed as Columbia Pictures Entertainment, Inc. (CPE), with Coke owning 80% of the company. Both studios continued to produce and distribute films under their separate names. Puttnam was ousted from the position after only one year. Puttnam was succeeded by
Dawn Steel. Other small-scale, "boutique" entities were created:
Nelson Entertainment, a joint venture with British and Canadian partners,
Triumph Films, jointly owned with French studio
Gaumont, and which is now a low-budget label, and
Castle Rock Entertainment. On January 2, 1988, Columbia/Embassy Television and Tri-Star Television were formed into the new Columbia Pictures Television and Embassy Communications was renamed as ELP Communications to serve as a copyright holder of the Embassy television productions. In early 1988, CPE relaunched
Triumph Films as Triumph Releasing Corporation, which handled administrative services related to distribution of Columbia and Tri-Star's films for the North American market, while Triumph was responsible for the sales, marketing and distribution of Columbia and
Tri-Star films under the direction of each individual studio internationally, with Patrick N. Williamson serving as head of Triumph. On January 16, 1988, CPE's stock fell slightly in the market on its first day trading in the
New York Stock Exchange. Coke spun off 34.1 million of its Columbia shares to its shareholders by reducing its stake in CPE from 80% to 49%. On April 13, 1988, CPE spun off Tri-Star Pictures, Inc. as a reformed company of the Tri-Star studio. In April 1988, CPE sold its music publishing operations to the British company Filmtrax. (Filmtrax was acquired by
Thorn EMI in 1990.) In June 1988, CPE announced the sale of Columbia Pictures Publications (consisting of the print music operations) to the investment firm Boston Ventures and was renamed CPP/Belwin. CPP/Belwin was acquired by
Warner Chappell Music of Warner Bros. in 1994. On February 2, 1989, Columbia Pictures Television formed a joint-venture with Norman Lear's Act III Communications called Act III Television (now Act III Productions) to produce television series instead of managing.
Sony era (1989–present) On September 28, 1989, the Columbia Pictures empire was sold to the electronics giant
Sony, one of several
Japanese firms then buying American properties, for the amount of $3.4 billion. The sale netted Coca-Cola a profit from its investment in the studio. Sony then hired two producers,
Peter Guber and
Jon Peters, to serve as coheads of production when Sony also acquired the Guber-Peters Entertainment Company (the former game show production company,
Barris Industries) for $200 million on September 29, 1989. Guber and Peters had just signed a long-term contract with Warner Bros. in 1989, having been with the company since 1983. Warner Bros., then a subsidiary of
Warner Communications, sued Sony for $1 billion. Sony completed CPE's acquisition on November 8, and the Guber-Peters acquisition was completed on the following day. On December 1, 1989, Guber and Peters hired a longtime lawyer of GPEC, Alan J. Levine, to the post of president and COO of Columbia's newly formed company Filmed Entertainment Group (FEG). FEG consisted of Columbia Pictures, Tri-Star Pictures, Triumph Releasing, Columbia Pictures Television, Columbia Pictures Television Distribution, Merv Griffin Enterprises, RCA/Columbia Pictures Home Video (internationally known as RCA/Columbia Pictures International Video), Guber-Peters Entertainment Company, and ancillary and distribution companies.
1990s In 1990, Sony ended up paying hundreds of millions of dollars, gave up a half-interest in its
Columbia House Records Club mail-order business, and bought from
Time Warner the former
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) studio lot in Culver City, which Warner Communications had acquired in its takeover of
Lorimar-Telepictures in 1989, thus ending the Burbank Studios partnership. Initially renamed
Columbia Studios, Sony spent $100 million to refurbish the rechristened
Sony Pictures Studios lot. Guber and Peters set out to prove they were worth this fortune, but though there were to be some successes, there were also many costly flops. The same year,
Frank Price was made the chairman of Columbia Pictures. His company Price Entertainment, Inc., which he founded in 1987, was merged with Columbia in March 1991. Price left Columbia on October 4, 1991, and was replaced by Warner Bros. executive
Mark Canton and reactivated Price Entertainment as Price Entertainment Company with a nonexclusive deal with SPE. Peters was fired by his partner Guber in 1991, but Guber later resigned in 1994 to form
Mandalay Entertainment the following year. The entire operation was reorganized and renamed Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE) on August 7, 1991, and at the same time, TriStar (which had officially lost its hyphen) relaunched its television division in October. In December 1991, SPE created
Sony Pictures Classics for arthouse fare and was headed by
Michael Barker,
Tom Bernard, and Marcie Bloom, who previously operated
United Artists Classics and
Orion Classics. Publicly humiliated, Sony suffered an enormous loss on its investment in Columbia, taking a $2.7 billion write-off in 1994.
John Calley took over as SPE president in November 1996, installing
Amy Pascal as Columbia Pictures president and
Chris Lee as president of production at TriStar. By the next spring, the studios were clearly rebounding, setting a record pace at the box office. On December 7, 1992, Sony Pictures acquired the Barry & Enright game show library. On February 21, 1994, Columbia Pictures Television and TriStar Television merged to form
Columbia TriStar Television (CTT), including the rights to
Wheel of Fortune and
Jeopardy! after CTT folded Merv Griffin Enterprises in June. That same year, the company also purchased
Stewart Television, known for producing game shows such as
Pyramid and
Chain Reaction, among others. On July 21, 1995, Sony Pictures teamed up with
Jim Henson Productions and created the joint venture Jim Henson Pictures. In the 1990s, Columbia announced plans for a rival
James Bond franchise since they owned the rights to
Casino Royale and were planning to make a third version of
Thunderball with
Kevin McClory. MGM and
Danjaq, LLC, owners of the franchise,
sued Sony Pictures in 1997, with the legal dispute ending two years later in an out-of-court settlement. Sony traded the
Casino Royale rights for $10 million, as well as the
Spider-Man filming rights. The superhero became Columbia's most successful
franchise:
The first movie came out in 2002, and as of 2021, there have been seven follow-up movies with US grosses in excess of $2.5 billion. Between the releases of the first and second sequels in 2004 and 2007, Sony led a consortium that purchased MGM, giving it distribution rights to the
James Bond franchise. In 1997, Columbia Pictures ranked as the highest-grossing movie studio in the United States, with a gross of $1.256 billion. In 1998, Columbia and TriStar merged to form the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group (a.k.a. Columbia TriStar Pictures), though both studios still produce and distribute under their own names. Pascal retained her position as president of the newly united Columbia Pictures, while Lee became the combined studio's head of production. On December 8, 1998, Sony Pictures Entertainment relaunched the Screen Gems brand as a horror and independent film distribution company after shutting down Triumph Films. In 1999, TriStar Television was folded into CTT. Two years later, CPT was folded into CTT as well.
2000s In the 2000s, Sony broadened its release schedule by backing
Revolution Studios, the production/distribution company headed by
Joe Roth. On October 25, 2001, CTT and Columbia TriStar Television Distribution (CTTD) merged to form Columbia TriStar Domestic Television and was renamed as
Sony Pictures Television on September 16, 2002. Also in 2002, Columbia broke the record for biggest domestic theatrical gross, with a tally of $1.575 billion, coincidentally breaking its own record of $1.256 billion, set in 1997. The 2002 gross was primarily raised by such blockbusters as
Spider-Man,
Men in Black II, and
XXX. The studio was also the most lucrative of 2004, and in 2006. Columbia's box office successes of 2006 included such blockbusters as
The Da Vinci Code,
The Pursuit of Happyness,
Monster House,
Casino Royale, and
Open Season. The studio not only finished the year in first place, but also reached an all-time record high sum of $1.711 billion, which was an all-time yearly record for any studio. It was surpassed by Warner Bros. in 2009.
2010s On October 29, 2010,
Matt Tolmach, the copresident of Columbia Pictures, stepped down to produce
The Amazing Spider-Man and
its sequel. Doug Belgrad, the other copresident of Columbia, was promoted to sole president of the studio. Belgrad and Tolmach had been copresidents of the studio since 2008 and had been working together as a team since 2003. The same day, Hanna Minghella was named president of production of Columbia. On July 16, 2014, Doug Belgrad was named president of the Sony Pictures Entertainment Motion Picture Group. He exited the post in June 2016. On June 2,
Sanford Panitch, who had been the head of international local language production at the studio, was named president of Columbia Pictures. In 2019,
Sony Interactive Entertainment launched
PlayStation Productions with the purpose of adapting
PlayStation game franchises into films and television shows and with this, an emphasis was placed on SIE working with Sony Pictures Entertainment, and thus most of the films from PlayStation Productions would be released under Columbia Pictures.
2020s In April 2021, Sony signed a deal with
Netflix, Inc. and
The Walt Disney Company that allows Sony's titles from 2022 to 2026 to stream on
Netflix,
Hulu and
Disney+. Netflix signed for exclusive "pay 1 window" streaming rights, which is typically an 18-month window following its theatrical release, and Disney signed for "pay 2 window" rights for the films, which would be streamed on
Disney+ and
Hulu as well as broadcast on Disney's linear television networks. On December 17, 2021, Columbia released
Spider-Man: No Way Home. The movie grossed over $1 billion in the box office, being the first film since the start of the
COVID-19 pandemic to gross $1 billion. The film became Sony Pictures' highest-grossing release. On January 10, 2024, Sony Pictures celebrated the centennial anniversary of the founding of Columbia Pictures with a new motion logo; the centennial print logo was previously revealed on November 14, 2023. The motion logo, which was used throughout Columbia's 2024 slate, made its theatrical debut in the 2024 re-release of
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023). On January 31, 2024, it was announced Columbia Pictures have collaborated with
Kojima Productions for a game under the
working title Physint. Described as both a film and game, it is scheduled to enter full development after
Death Stranding 2. ==International film production==