53 Facts About Paramount Pictures

Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film and television production and distribution company and the main namesake division of Paramount Global.

In 2014, Paramount Pictures became the first major Hollywood studio to distribute all of its films in digital form only.

Paramount Pictures is the fifth oldest surviving film studio in the world; after the French studios Gaumont Film Company and Pathe (1896), Titanus (1904), followed by the Nordisk Film company (1906), and Universal Studios (1912).

Paramount Pictures was the first successful nationwide distributor; until this time, films were sold on a statewide or regional basis which had proved costly to film producers.

Paramount Pictures was one of the first Hollywood studios to release what were known at that time as "talkies", and in 1929, released their first musical, Innocents of Paris.

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Paramount Pictures remained under the control of trustees for more than a year in order to restructure the debt and pursue a reorganization plan.

Paramount Pictures cartoons produced by Fleischer Studios continued to be successful, with characters such as Betty Boop and Popeye the Sailor becoming widely successful.

In 1940, Paramount Pictures agreed to a government-instituted consent decree: block booking and "pre-selling" would end.

Immediately, Paramount Pictures cut back on production, from 71 films to a more modest 19 annually in the war years.

Paramount Pictures had a monopoly over Detroit movie theaters through subsidiary company United Detroit Theaters.

Paramount Pictures Corporation was formed to be the production distribution company, with the 1, 500-screen theater chain handed to the new United Paramount Theaters on December 31, 1949.

Paramount Pictures had been an early backer of television, launching experimental stations in 1939 in Los Angeles and Chicago.

In 1938, Paramount Pictures bought a stake in television manufacturer DuMont Laboratories.

Also Paramount Pictures launched its own network, Paramount Pictures Television Network, in 1948 through its television unit, Television Productions, Inc.

Paramount Pictures management planned to acquire additional owned-and-operated stations; the company applied to the FCC for additional stations in San Francisco, Detroit, and Boston.

Paramount Pictures was hampered by its minority stake in the DuMont Television Network.

Since DuMont owned three television stations and Paramount Pictures owned two, the federal agency ruled neither network could acquire additional television stations.

In 1951, Paramount Pictures bought a stake in International Telemeter, an experimental pay TV service which operated with a coin inserted into a box.

Such aged leadership was incapable of keeping up with the changing times, and in 1966, a sinking Paramount Pictures was sold to Charles Bluhdorn's industrial conglomerate, Gulf + Western Industries Corporation.

In 1968, Paramount Pictures formed Films Distributing Corp to distribute sensitive film product, including Sin With a Stranger, which was one of the first films to receive an X rating in the United States when the MPAA introduced their new rating system.

In 1970, Paramount Pictures teamed with Universal Studios to form Cinema International Corporation, a new company that would distribute films by the two studios outside the United States.

Paramount Pictures purchased the Hughes Television Network including its satellite time in planning for PTVS in 1976.

The Paramount Pictures name was used for soundtrack albums and some pop re-issues from the Dot Records catalog which Paramount Pictures had acquired in 1957.

In May 1985, Paramount Pictures decided to start its own talent department, establishing which its feature directors could draw, which the studio decided to shut down on July 30, 1986, by then-studio president Dawn Steel.

That year, Paramount Pictures decided to consolidate its distribution operations, that closing a number of branch offices that was designed for the studio and relocating staff and major activities in an effort to cut costs and provide for a more efficient centralization, which was a response in a change to the distribution practices by working out cities where exhibitors had offices.

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Paramount Pictures is the last major film studio located in Hollywood proper.

When Paramount Pictures moved to its present home in 1927, it was in the heart of the film community.

Paramount Pictures used cash acquired from the sale of Gulf and Western's non-entertainment properties to take over the TVX Broadcast Group chain of television stations, and the KECO Entertainment chain of theme parks from Taft successor Great American Broadcasting.

Paramount Pictures Television launched Wilshire Court Productions in conjunction with USA Networks, before the latter was renamed NBCUniversal Cable, in 1989.

Paramount Pictures bought one more television station in 1993: Cox Enterprises' WKBD-TV in Detroit, Michigan, at the time an affiliate of the Fox Broadcasting Company.

Also during this time, three Paramount Pictures films won the Academy Award for Best Picture; Titanic, Braveheart, and Forrest Gump.

In 1999, Viacom bought out United Television's interests, and handed responsibility for the start-up network to the newly acquired CBS unit, which Viacom bought in 1999 – an ironic confluence of events as Paramount Pictures had once invested in CBS, and Viacom had once been the syndication arm of CBS as well.

Paramount Pictures gained the ownership rights to the Rysher library, after Viacom acquired the rights from Cox Enterprises.

The announcement was made by Brad Grey, chairman and CEO of Paramount Pictures who noted that enhancing Paramount's pipeline of pictures is a "key strategic objective in restoring Paramount's stature as a leader in filmed entertainment.

In early 2008, Paramount Pictures partnered with Los Angeles-based developer FanRocket to make short scenes taken from its film library available to users on Facebook.

Paramount Pictures engineered a similar deal with Makena Technologies to allow users of vMTV and There.

In March 2010, Paramount founded Insurge Pictures, an independent distributor of "micro budget" films.

In March 2015, following waning box office returns, Paramount shuttered Insurge Pictures and moved its operations to the main studio.

In July 2011, in the wake of critical and box office success of the animated feature, Rango, and the departure of DreamWorks Animation upon completion of their distribution contract in 2012, Paramount Pictures announced the formation of a new division, devoted to the creation of animated productions.

In December 2013, Walt Disney Studios gained Paramount Pictures's remaining distribution and marketing rights to future Indiana Jones films.

In June 2017, Paramount Pictures signed a deal with 20th Century Fox for distribution of its films in Italy, which took effect on September.

On December 7, 2017, it was reported that Paramount Pictures sold the international distribution rights of Annihilation to Netflix.

On November 16, 2018, Paramount Pictures signed a multi-picture film deal with Netflix as part of Viacom's growth strategy, making Paramount Pictures the first major film studio to do so.

In January 2022, Paramount Pictures acquired the rights to Tomi Adeyemi's young adult fantasy novel Children of Blood and Bone from Lucasfilm.

Also, Paramount Pictures will produce television series based on Miramax's IPs.

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ViacomCBS later announced that it would rebrand the CBS All Access streaming service as Paramount Pictures+ to allow for international expansion using the widely recognized Paramount Pictures name and drawing from the studio's library as well as that of CBS, MTV, Nickelodeon, and more.

However, Paramount Pictures still owns distribution and other ancillary rights to Soros and Dune films.

Paramount Pictures owned distribution rights to the DreamWorks Animation library of films made before 2013, and their previous distribution deal with future DWA titles expired at the end of 2012, with Rise of the Guardians.

Universal Paramount Pictures subsequently took over distribution for DreamWorks Animation's films beginning with How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World due to NBCUniversal's acquisition of the company in 2016.

In March 2012, Paramount Pictures licensed their name and logo to a luxury hotel investment group which subsequently named the company Paramount Pictures Hotels and Resorts.

Distinctively pyramidal Paramount Pictures mountain has been the mainstay of the company's production logo since its inception and is the oldest surviving Hollywood film logo.

Paramount Pictures saw this as a bargain since the fleeting movie studio saw very little value in its library of old films at the time.

On July 31, 2018, Paramount Pictures was targeted by the National Hispanic Media Coalition and the National Latino Media Council, which have both claimed that the studio has the worst track record of hiring Latino and Hispanic talent both in front of and behind the camera.