By Lily Terzis

Headquarters
10202 W. Washington Blvd.
Culver City, CA
90232

Contact Information
Phone: 310-244-4000
URL: sonypictures.com

Key Executives

 

About the Company

Columbia Pictures is a production and distribution company founded in 1924 by Jack Cohn, Harry Cohn, and Joe Brandt. It is currently owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment, operating as part of Sony’s Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group, through which Sony produces most of its big budget movies. Considered one of the leading film studios in the world, Columbia Pictures is one of Hollywood’s “Big Six”, distributing over 22 films yearly in the United States alone. Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group operations are located in six other countries: Columbia Pictures Producciones Espanolas in Madrid; Columbia Pictures Producciones Mexico in Mexico City; Columbia Pictures Film Production Asia in Hong Kong; and others in the United Kingdom, Brazil, and Japan (16).

Top Competitors

Warner Brothers Entertainment Inc (6)
Walt Disney Studios (6)
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation (6)

History

During the Golden Age of of Hollywood, Columbia Pictures was considered one of the ‘Little Three’. Much of their earlier success can be accredited to director Frank Capra, who created Columbia’s first all “talkie” feature, titled “The Donovan Affair”. His film ‘It Happened One Night’ earned Columbia their first Best Picture Academy Award and brought the studio to fame. In the mid ’40’s, Columbia released their highest-grossing movie ever, “The Jolson Story”. This earned them another Best Picture award as well as marked the beginning of their most profitable decade (5).
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In 1982, Columbia was bought by Coca Cola. This was a lucrative time for the company as they expanded into other forms of entertainment, such as home video. Three years later, Columbia joined with HBO and CBS to make the first new motion picture studio in decades, TriStar Pictures. This major studio was the had the fastest growth in the history of the film industry.

Sony Corporation purchased Columbia Pictures in 1989 for $3.2 billion (5). This purchase was unprecedented, and was, at that time, the largest acquisition by a Japanese company. Columbia Pictures has been gaining success ever since.

            Finances

Columbia Pictures does not make its finances known to the public. It is not a publicly traded company, its parent company Sony, is traded under the name SNE at $18.51 a share. Columbia and Sony Pictures together have grossed $1,065.8 million this year alone, and control 11.4% of the market share (21). They are currently ranked as the number 4 studio by Box Office Mojo, just under Buena Vista.

Recent Releases

Captain Phillips
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Release Date: October 11, 2013
Production Budget: $55 Million

“Captain Phillips” is a true story about an American cargo ship that was hijacked by Somali pirates and was a hugely successful film, its widest release in 3,143 theaters. Despite the competitively successful “Gravity” released at a similar time, the film is doing very well. So far, it has grossed over $97,820,373 domestically, which is much more than its budget. Its opening weekend, it was ranked number 2 at the box office (9).

You can find the trailer for this film HERE
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Elysium
MPAA Rating: R
Release Date: August 9, 2013
Production Budget: $115 Million

“Elysium” is a film about the future, where the wealthy live on a space ship and the poor must live on the destroyed earth. The main character’s mission is to create equality. The film’s domestic total gross so far is $92,947,675, but its foreign gross is $192,007,963. Its widest release was to 3,284 theaters and ranked number 1 its opening weekend (10).

You can find the trailer for this film HERE
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Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2 
MPAA Rating: PG
Release Date: September 27, 2013
Production Budget: $78 million

“Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2” is an animated movie for children. It features the voices of some celebrities, like Anna Faris, Andy Samburg, and Neil Patrick Harris. This was a highly successful film for Columbia, grossing $34,017, 930 domestically its opening weekend in 4,001 theaters. It was immediately ranked number 1 at the box office. So far, the film has made almost double its budget, grossing $113,125,418 domestically as of November 18th (19).

You can find the trailer for this film HERE.

Upcoming Releases

American Hustle
MPAA Rating: Not yet rated
Release Date: December 13, 2013

“American Hustle” is about a con man and his partner, a British woman, who are forced to work for the FBI. This film is expected to do well at the box office. It has a lot of star power, as the cast is made up of Jennifer Lawrence, Bradley Cooper, Louis CK, and Christian Bale (12). This film is generating a lot of buzz as it is soon to show at its first film festival, the Dubai International Film Festival, or DIFF.
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You can find the trailer for this film HERE.

The Amazing Spider-Man 2
MPAA Rating: Not yet rated
Release Date: May 2, 2014

“The Amazing Spider-Man 2” is starring Emma Stone, Andrew Garfield, and Jamie Foxx. It is being produced by Matthew Tolmach, who is a previous  co-president of Columbia Pictures (14). Columbia Pictures has had a huge amount of success with the Spider-man franchise. Working with Marvel, Columbia also plans to release an IMAX 3D version (15).

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Recent News

In 2012, Sony released that it had made over $4 billion worldwide, mostly in part to Columbia’s successful films, including “Skyfall“, “The Amazing Spider-Man“, “21 Jump Street“, “Men in Black 3“, and “Hotel Transylvania“. The Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group now has a motion picture library with over 3,500 titles with 12 Best Picture Academy Awards. Currently, Columbia plans to continue creating big budget box office hits and gaining large profits for Sony Pictures Entertainment. In the upcoming 2014-2015 year, the studio plans to create some sequels to their previously successful films, such as “Bad Teacher 2“, “Hotel Transylvania 2” and “22 Jump Street” (16). Columbia is also looking to produce some Oscar contenders, like “Annie“, a modern telling of the classic musical. It is set to be released in 2014, and stars Quvenzhane Wallis who was nominated for an Oscar for her acting in “Beasts of the Southern Wild” (17).

Recently, Columbia’s parent company Sony has not been doing so well. This year, they were ranked fourth in domestic box-office sales, and gained a revenue of $1.13 billion, which is down 32% from last year. They are undergoing many changes, especially after some box office flops like “White House Down” and “After Earth” (18). They are reportedly reviewing their process for how movies are selected and are looking to cut costs.

Sources

[1] Columbia Pictures Logo
[2] Doug Belgrad
[3] Robert Osher
[4] Frank Capra
[5] History of the studio
[6] Top Competitors
[7] TriStar Logo
[8] Image for Captain Phillips
[9] Movie info Captain Phillips
[10] Elysium info
[11] Elysium Poster
[12] American Hustle Poster and Info
[13] Amazing Spiderman Poster
[14] Spiderman Producer
[15] Spiderman Info
[16] Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group
[17] Annie
[18] Sony Finances
[19] Cloudy Chance of Meatballs Info
[20] Cloudy Chance of Meatballs Poster
[21] Financial Information Columbia and Sony