Film is a medium that emphasizes creativity and diversity, so it might come as a surprise that the business practices happening behind the scenes are actually reducing the number of studios in the industry. We can take a closer look at this phenomenon by examining Wyoming LLC Attorney’s timeline of the 5 major film studios and the mergers they’ve orchestrated.
This extensive timeline dates back all the way to the 1910s. The five major studios taking up a majority of the market share are Universal, Walt Disney Studios, Sony Pictures, Warner Brothers, and Paramount. There are even rumblings the 5 could further merge into three or four studios, while others point to more strictly enforced monopoly laws that would prevent such a merger.
One of the biggest mergers in recent memory was Walt Disney’s company’s acquisition of 21st Century Fox. This didn’t include the Fox Broadcasting Network, but it did include FX and National Geographic.
Here’s a full list of all Disney’s subsidiaries:
- Walt Disney Pictures (The Lion King, Frozen, Beauty and the Beast)
- Disneynature (Earth, Oceans)
- Marvel Studios (Avengers, Black Panther, Iron Man)
- Lucasfilm (Star Wars)
- 20th Century Studios (Avatar, Ice Age, Independence Day)
- Searchlight Pictures (Slumdog Millionaire, Black Swan, The Full Monty, Juno)
- Walt Disney Animation Studios (Frozen, Zootopia, Moana, Big Hero 6)
- Pixar (Incredibles, Inside Out, Toy Story)
They aren’t the only powerhouse though. The studio with the largest share of the market is actually Universal. Here is a list of their subsidiaries:
- Focus Features (Brokeback Mountain, London Has Fallen)
- Working Title Films (Les Miserables, Notting Hill, Bridget Jones’s Diary, Bean)
- Illumination (Despicable Me, Super Mario Bros. Movie)
- Dreamworks Animation (Shrek, How to Train Your Dragon)
- Amblin Partners (Jurassic Park, Men in Black, War of the Worlds, Ready Player One)
- Blumhouse Productions (Get Out, Halloween, The Purge, Insidious)
- Carnival Films (Firelight, Downton Abbey, Shadowlands)
