THE 'BIG SIX' RESEARCH

Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. (CPII) is an American film production and distribution studio that is part of the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group, owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Entertainment, a subsidiary of the Japanese conglomerate Sony. It is one of the leading film studios in the world, a member of the so-called Big Six. It was one of the so-called Little Three among the eight major film studios of Hollywood's Golden Age.

The studio, founded in 1918 as Cohn-Brandt-Cohn Film Sales by brothers Jack and Harry Cohn and Joe Brandt, released its first feature film in August 1922. It adopted the Columbia Pictures name in 1924 and went public two years later. The name is derived from "Columbia", a national personification of the United States, which is used as the company's logo.

In its early years a minor player in Hollywood, Columbia began to grow in the late 1920s, spurred by a successful association with director Frank Capra.

With Capra and others, Columbia became one of the primary homes of the screwball comedy. In the 1930s, Columbia's major contract stars were Jean Arthur and Cary Grant (who was shared with RKO Pictures). In the 1940s, Rita Hayworth became the studio's premier star and propelled their fortunes into the late 1950s. Rosalind Russell, Glenn Ford, and William Holden also became major stars at the studio.

In 1982, the studio was purchased by Coca-Cola; that same year it launched TriStar Pictures as a joint venture with HBO and CBS. Five years later, Coca-Cola spun off Columbia, which merged with Tri-Star to create Columbia Pictures Entertainment. After a brief period of independence with Coca-Cola maintaining a financial interest, the combined studio was acquired by Japanese company, Sony in 1989.

Films include:

·         21 Jump street

·         The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists!

·         Men in Black

·         The Amazing Spider-Man

·         Total Recall

·         Skyfall

·         Django Unchained

Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc., formerly known as Warner Bros. Studios, commonly referred to as Warner Bros. (spelled Warner Brothers during the company's early years), or simply WB is an American producer of film, television, and music entertainment.

One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank, California and New York. Warner Bros. has several subsidiary companies, including Warner Bros. Studios, Warner Bros. Pictures, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, Warner Bros. Television, Warner Bros. Animation, Warner Home Video, New Line Cinema, TheWB.com, and DC Entertainment. Warner owns half of The CW Television Network.

Warner Bros. is a member of the Motion Picture Association of America

Films Include:

·         The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

·         Gangster Squad

·         Jack the Giant Slayer

·         42

·         The Great Gatsby

·         The Hangover Part III

·         Man of Steel

·         Pacific Rim

·         The Conjuring

·         Prisoners

·         Gravity

Walt Disney Pictures is an American film production company and division of The Walt Disney Studios, owned by The Walt Disney Company. Founded in 1950 as Walt Disney Productions, the division is based at the Walt Disney Studios and is the main producer of live-action feature films within the Walt Disney Studios unit. It took on its current name in 1983. Today, in conjunction with the other units of The Walt Disney Studios, Walt Disney Pictures is classified as one of Hollywood's "Big Six" film studios. Nearly all of Walt Disney Pictures' releases are distributed theatrically by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, through home media platforms via Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment and through television syndication by Disney-ABC Domestic Television.

The studio's predecessor (and the modern-day The Walt Disney Company's as a whole) was originally founded as the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, by filmmaker Walt Disney and his business partner and brother, Roy, in 1923.

The creation of Mickey Mouse and subsequent short films and merchandise generated revenue for the studio which was renamed as Walt Disney Productions at the Hyperion Studio by 1928. The studio's streak of success continued in the 1930s, culminating with the 1937 release of the first feature-length animated film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, which became a huge financial success. With the profits from Snow White, Walt relocated to a third studio in Burbank, California.

Films Include:

·         Toy Story 3

·         The Sorcerer's Apprentice

·         Tangled

·         Tron: Legacy

·         Mars Needs Moms

·         Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides

·         Cars 2

·         John Carter

·         Brave

·         A Wreck-It Ralph

·         A Monsters University

 The company divided motion picture productions within the studio as two units; one for animation and another for live-action. The latter division began producing live-action films in 1950 with the release of Treasure Island. By 1953, the company ended their agreements with such third-party distributors as RKO Radio Pictures and United Artists and formed their own distribution company; Buena Vista Distribution. In 1983, Disney underwent a corporate restructuring resulting in the renaming of Walt Disney Productions as The Walt Disney Company and the studio itself as Walt Disney Pictures.

Universal Studios Inc. (also known as Universal Pictures), is an American motion picture studio, owned by Comcast through its wholly owned subsidiary NBC Universal, and is one of the six major movie studios. Its production studios are at 100 Universal City Plaza Drive in Universal City, California. Distribution and other corporate offices are in New York City.

Founded in 1912 by Carl Laemmle, Mark Dintenfass, Charles Baumann, Adam Kessel, Pat Powers, William Swanson, David Horsley, and Jules Brulatour, it is the oldest movie studio in the United States of America. It is also the fourth oldest in the world that is still in continuous production; the first being Gaumont Pictures, the second oldest is Pathé, the third is Nordisk Film, and the fifth oldest is Paramount Pictures. On May 11, 2004, the controlling stake in the company was sold by Vivendi Universal to General Electric, parent of NBC. The resulting media super-conglomerate was renamed NBC Universal, while Universal Studios Inc. remained the name of the production subsidiary. In addition to owning a sizable film library spanning the earliest decades of cinema to more contemporary works, it also owns a sizable collection of TV shows through its subsidiary NBC Universal Television Distribution. It also acquired rights to several prominent filmmakers' works originally released by other studios through its subsidiaries over the years.

Films Include:

·         Snow White & the Huntsman

·         Ted         

·         The Bourne Legacy

·         Pitch Perfect

·         Les Misérables

·         Mama 

·         Jurassic Park

·         Fast & Furious 6

·         Despicable Me 2

·         R.I.P.D. 

·         Kick-Ass 2 

·         The World's End

Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation (Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation, with hyphen, from 1935 to 1985)—also known as 20th Century Fox, or 20th Century Fox Pictures, is one of the six major American film studios as of 2011. Located in the Century City area of Los Angeles, just west of Beverly Hills, the studio used to be a subsidiary of News Corporation, but now it's currently a subsidiary of 21st Century Fox. The company was founded on May 31, 1935, as the result of the merger of Fox Film Corporation, founded by William Fox in 1915, and Twentieth Century Pictures, founded in 1933 by Darryl F. Zanuck and Joseph M. Schenck.

20th Century Fox has distributed various commercially successful film series, including Star Wars, Ice Age, X-Men, Die Hard, Planet of the Apes, Fantastic Four, Alien and Predator. Television series produced by Fox include The Simpsons, M*A*S*H, The X-Files, Family Guy, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, How I Met Your Mother, Glee, Modern Family and 24. Among the most famous actresses to come out of this studio were Shirley Temple, who was 20th Century Fox's first film star, Betty Grable, Gene Tierney, Marilyn Monroe and Jayne Mansfield. The studio also contracted the first African-American cinema star, Dorothy Dandridge.

20th Century Fox is a member of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA).

Films Include:

·         Rise of the Planet of the apes

·         We Bought a Zoo

·         Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace

·         Titanic

·         Prometheus

·         Abraham Lincoln: Vampire hunter

·         Ice Age: Continental Drift

·         Taken 2

Paramount Pictures Corporation (commonly known as Paramount Pictures or simply Paramount) is a film and television production/distribution studio, consistently ranked as one of the largest (top-grossing) film studios. It is a subsidiary of U.S. media conglomerate Viacom, Paramount is a member of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA). It has distributed various commercially successful film series,

Films series include:

·         Shrek,

·         Transformers,

·         Mission: Impossible, 

·         Cinematic Universe (2008-2011),

·         Indiana Jones,

·         Star Trek,

·         Jackass,

·         Beverly Hills Cop,

·         "Crocodile" Dundee,

·         Madagascar,

·         Kung Fu Panda,

·         Paranormal Activity,

·         G.I. Joe,  

·         Friday the 13th.