Usuario:Friera/Taller2

MAJORS

Los estudios de cine', tambien denominados majors, son las compañías de producción y distribución de largometrajes de cine que de forma sostenida en el tiempo vienen produciendo y distribuyendo globalmente la mayor parte de los largometrajes de cine de éxito comercial.

Las películas de las majors acumulan sistemáticamente la mayor cuota de mercado tanto en lo que respecta a recaudación en taquilla, box office en inglés y número de espectadores, admissions en inglés, tanto a nivel local como internacional. Como consecuencia indirecta, los grandes estudios tambien dominan de forma sistemáticamente los mercados derivados, en concreto: las ventas a cadenas de televisión, la distribución de vídeo y DVD, las ventas de licencias (a los fabricantes de videojuegos, juquetes y cadenas de restauración y ocio) y van desarrollando progresivamente una creciente posición de dominio también en nuevos medios de distribución (Internet y telefonía móvil, principalmente). Para asegurar este dominio a largo plazo, las corporaciones propietarias de las majors integran compañías de televisión, cadenas de exhibición cinematográfica, portales de Internet

Las Big Six majors

El término majors se reserva tradicionalmente a los mayores estudios, que en la actualidad seis: los denominados Big Six. Estos conglomerados, formados por distintas compañías de producción y distribución, tienen inversiones estratégicamente diversificadas en los distintos segmentos de la cadena de valor de la producción y la distribución que les permiten mantener su posición de dominio a pesar de los grandes riesgos inherentes a la industria del entretenimiento comercial. De esta forma mantienen de forma sistemática aproximadamente un 90% de cuota de mercado en la recaudación de taquilla en (Estados Unidos y Canadá)

Las majors han estado basadas tradicionalmente en Hollywood, California o en sus alrededores (algunos estudios están en Burbank). Las Big Six majors tienen una larga historia que empezó ya en la denominada "época dorada" de Hollywood (entre los años 1930 y 1940). En tres casos: 20th Century Fox, Warner Bros. y Paramount, ya formaban parte del selecto grupo de los cinco mayores estudios, denominados los Big Five entonces. Otros dos grandes estudios: Columbia y Universal, eran importantes pero estaban en un segundo orden de importancia. El sexto gran estudio en la actualidad, Walt Disney Studios, era en aquel entonces una compañía de producción de animación independiente en aquel tiempo.

Otra de las formas de consolidar y mantener su dominio a lo largo del tiempo ha sido la estrategia de adquisiciones. Un buen número de estudios anteriormente independientes han ido siendo adquiridos e integrados en alguna de las grandes corporaciones en cuanto se ha demostrado su capacidad de generar negocio en la industria y de amenazar la posición de privilegio de las majors. Los más recientes ejemplos de esta política de integración permanente han sido las adquisiciones de New Line Cinema por el grupo Time Warner, de Dreamworks por Paramount y de Miramax por Disney.

Para mantener la cuota de mercado, además de producir un cine eminenemente comercial y de seguro atractivo para el público más amplio posible, también es importante atender las preferencias de segmentos de mercado que requieren de un producto más especializado. Por este motivo, las majors mantienen bajo su control una gran variedad de divisiones y compañías especializadas, ya sea en cine independiente de perfil más artístico o cinéfilo, por ejemplo: Paramount Classics) o películas de serie B, por ejemplo Fox Atomic).

Grupo	Matriz	Estudio filial (major)	Filiales cine comercial	Filiales "Indie"	Filiales "serie B"	Cuota mercado USA/Can.(2006)​
Sony	Sony Pictures	Columbia Pictures	MGM, UA (under MGM)	Sony Pictures Classics	Screen Gems, TriStar Pictures, Destination Films	21,1%​
News Corporation	Fox Filmed Entertainment	20th Century Fox		Fox Searchlight	Fox Faith, Fox Atomic	17,0%​
The Walt Disney Company	Buena Vista Motion Pictures Group	Walt Disney Pictures/Touchstone Pictures (negocio unificado bajo marcas separadas)		Miramax Films	Hollywood Pictures	16,7%​
Time Warner	Warner Bros. Entertainment, New Line Cinema, HBO	Warner Bros. Pictures	New Line Cinema, HBO Films, Castle Rock Entertainment (bajo Warner Bros.)	Warner Independent, Picturehouse (bajo New Line y HBO Films)		14,9%​
Viacom	Paramount Motion Pictures Group	Paramount Pictures	DreamWorks SKG	Paramount Classics/Paramount Vantage, Go Fish Pictures (bajo DreamWorks)		11,0%​
General Electric	NBC Universal	Universal Studios		Focus Features	Rogue Pictures (bajo Focus Features)	10,9%​

Las mini-majors

Las seis majors compiten desde su posición de dominio de la industria cinematográfica con compañías de producción y/o distribución más pequeñas, a las que se denomina genéricamente compañías independientes, y más concretamente y en inglés: indies. Las dos mayores compañías independientes de producción y distribución de cine son Lionsgate y The Weinstein Company y son popularmente conocidas como las mini-majors. Desde 1998 a 2005, la compañía independiente DreamWorks SKG consiguió y mantuvo una cuota de mercado suficientemente grande y sostenida como para poder ser considerada la séptima major, a pesar de que producía un número su relativamente limitado de largometrajes. Pero en febrero de 2006, Viacom, el grupo empresarial propietario de Paramount, compró Dreamworks.

Lions Gate Entertainment ha sido el más exitoso de los estudios norteamericanos ubicado fuera del área de Hollywood antes de su traslado en 2006 desde Vancouver, Columbia Británica en Canadá, a Santa Monica, California en donde está su sede corporativa actualmente. La actual Lionsgate proviene de la compañía Lion's Gate Films, que fundó el director Robert Altman en los años 1970.

La Weinstein Company fue fundada a finales del año 2005 por los famosos hermanos Weinstein, Harvey y Bob, después de su salida de su anterior compañía Miramax, que fundaron en 1979 y vendieron en 1993 a la Disney, y en la que siguieron trabajando, produciendo películas de corte casi independiente durante más de una década. Cuando los hermanos Weinstein dejaron Disney, retuvieron los derechos sobre la marca Dimension Films, que es utilizada por The Weinstein Company para las películas de género (del mismo modo en que era anteriormente utilizada por Miramax).

En el año 2006, Lionsgate consiguió un 3,6% de cuota de mercado y The Weinstein Company un 2,5%. La siguiente compañía independiente por cuota de mercado en 2006 fue Yari Film Group, con un 0,4%​.

En 2005, la entonces todavía independiente DreamWorks SKG logró un 5,7% y Lionsgate un 3,2%. Of MGM/UA's four significant money-earners during 2005, it released three before its acquisition by a Sony-led consortium in April; MGM/UA's total market share for the year was 2.1%. The Weinstein Company, in its first three months of operation, gained 0.5% of the year's total market share. The next most successful independent was IMAX, with 0.2%.​ In 2004, DreamWorks SKG had 10.0% (more than the Paramount Motion Pictures Group), Newmarket had 4.3% (due almost entirely to The Passion of the Christ), Lionsgate had 3.2%, and MGM/UA had 2.1%. The next most successful independent was Giant Screen Films, a distributor of IMAX-format movies, with 0.2%.​

De todas formas, las majors acaban co-financiando y distribuyendo buena parte de las películas que producen las indies, ya sean estas compañías independientes estables o entidades creadas ad-hoc para la producción de una película concreta. Y además, las filiales de los estudios adquieren derechos de distribución de muchas otras películas con las que los estudios no han tenido ninguna involucración previa. En realidad, si bien las majors realizan por si mismas importantes producciones, puede decirse que sus actividades están más bien enfocadas al desarrollo y financiación de nuevos proyectos cinematográficos, al marketing y la distribución y a la comercialización de licencias y merchandising, limitándose en muchos casos a subcontratar la producción a productoras independientes.

History

The majors before the Golden Age

In 1909, Thomas Edison, who had been fighting in the courts for years for control of fundamental motion picture patents, won a major decision. This lead to the creation of the Motion Picture Patents Company, widely known as the Trust. Comprising the nine largest U.S. film companies, it was "designed to eliminate not only independent film producers but also the country's 10,000 independent [distribution] exchanges and exhibitors."​ Though its many members did not consolidate their filmmaking operations, the New York–based Trust was arguably the first major North American movie conglomerate. The independents' fight against the Trust was led by Carl Laemmle, whose Chicago-based Laemmle Film Service, serving the Midwest and Canada, was the largest distribution exchange in North America. Laemmle's efforts were rewarded in 1912 when the U.S. government ruled that the Trust was a "corrupt and unlawful association" and must be dissolved. On June 8, 1912, Laemmle organized the merger of his production division, IMP (Independent Motion Picture Company), with several other filmmaking companies, creating the studio that would soon be named Universal. By the end of the year, Universal was making movies at two Los Angeles facilities: the former Nestor Film studio in Hollywood, and another studio in Edendale. The first Hollywood major was in business.​

In 1916, a second powerful Hollywood studio was established when Adolph Zukor merged his Famous Players movie production house with the Jesse L. Lasky Company to form Famous Players–Lasky. The combined studio acquired Paramount Pictures as a distribution arm and eventually adopted its name. Paramount quickly surpassed Universal as Hollywood's dominant company. In 1916 as well, William Fox relocated his Fox Film Corporation from the East Coast to Hollywood and began expanding.​ Between 1924, when Metro Pictures combined with Goldwyn Pictures and Louis B. Mayer Productions to form MGM (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer), and 1928, the year in which the U.S. film industry converted en masse to sound film, Hollywood had a Big Two: Paramount and Loew’s Incorporated, owner of America's largest theater circuit and parent company to MGM. Through 1927, the next three largest studios were Fox, Universal, and First National (founded in 1917). Propelled by the great success of The Jazz Singer (1927), the first important feature-length "talkie," small Warner Bros. (founded in 1919) quickly entered the big leagues and acquired First National in 1928. Fox, in the forefront of sound film along with Warners, was also acquiring a sizable circuit of movie theaters to exhibit its product.

The majors during the Golden Age

Between late 1928, when RCA's David Sarnoff engineered the creation of the RKO (Radio-Keith-Orpheum) studio, and the end of 1949, when Paramount divested its theater chain—roughly the period considered Hollywood's Golden Age—there were eight Hollywood studios commonly regarded as the "majors." Of these eight, the so-called Big Five were integrated conglomerates, combining ownership of a production studio, distribution division, and substantial theater chain, and contracting with performers and filmmaking personnel: Loew's/MGM, Paramount, Fox (which became 20th Century-Fox after a 1935 merger), Warner Bros., and RKO. The remaining majors were sometimes referred to as the Little Three or the "major-minors." Two—Universal and Columbia (founded in 1920)—were organized similarly to the Big Five, except for the fact that they never owned more than small theater circuits (a consistently reliable source of profits). The third of the lesser majors, United Artists (founded in 1919), owned a few theaters and had access to production facilities owned by its principals, but it functioned primarily as a backer-distributor, loaning money to independent producers and releasing their films. During the 1930s, the eight majors averaged a total of 358 feature film releases a year; in the 1940s, the four largest companies shifted more of their resources toward high-budget productions and away from B movies, bringing the yearly average down to 288 for the decade.​

Among the significant characteristics of the Golden Age was the stability of the Hollywood majors, their hierarchy, and their near-complete domination of the box office. At the midpoint of the Golden Age, 1939, the Big Five had market shares ranging from 22% (MGM) to 9% (RKO); each of the Little Three had around a 7% share. In sum, the eight majors controlled 95% of the market and all the smaller companies combined had a total of 5%. Ten years later, the picture was largely the same: the Big Five had market shares ranging from 22% (MGM) to 9% (RKO); the Little Three had shares ranging from 8% (Columbia) to 4% (United Artists). In sum, the eight majors controlled 96% of the market and all the smaller companies combined had a total of 4%.​

The majors after the Golden Age

1950s–1960s

The end of the Golden Age had been signaled by the majors' loss of a federal antitrust case that led to the divestiture of the Big Five's theater chains. This somewhat leveled the playing field between the Big Five and the Little Three, though it had virtually no effect on the eight majors' box-office domination. In November 1951, Decca Records purchased 28% of Universal; early the following year, the studio became the first of the classic Hollywood majors to be taken over by an outside corporation, as Decca acquired majority ownership.​ The 1950s saw two substantial shifts in the hierarchy of the majors: RKO, perennially the weakest of the Big Five, declined rapidly under the mismanagement of Howard Hughes, who had purchased a controlling interest in the studio in 1948. By the time Hughes sold it to the General Tire and Rubber Company in 1955, the studio was a major by outdated reputation alone. In 1957, virtually all RKO movie operations ceased and the studio was dissolved in 1959. (Revived on a small scale in 1981, it was eventually spun off and now operates as a minor independent company.) In contrast, there was United Artists, which had long operated under the financing-distribution model the other majors were now progressively shifting toward. Under Arthur Krim and Robert Benjamin, who began managing the company in 1951, UA became consistently profitable. By 1956—when it released one of the biggest blockbusters of the decade, Around the World in 80 Days—it commanded a 10% market share. By the middle of the next decade, it had reached 16% and was the second-most profitable studio in Hollywood. Despite RKO's collapse, the majors still averaged a total of 253 feature film release during the decade.​

The 1960s were marked by a spate of corporate takeovers. MCA, under Lew Wasserman, acquired Universal in 1962; Gulf+Western took over Paramount in 1966; and the Transamerica Corporation purchased United Artists in 1967. Warner Bros. underwent large-scale reorganization twice in two years: a 1967 merger with the Seven Arts company preceded a 1969 purchase by Kinney National, under Stephen J. Ross. MGM, in the process of a slow decline, changed ownership twice in the same span as well, winding up in the hands of financier Kirk Kerkorian. The majors almost entirely abandoned low-budget production during this era, bringing the annual average of features released down to 160.​ The decade also saw an old name in the industry secure a position as a leading player. In 1923, Walt Disney had founded the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio with his brother Roy and animator Ub Iwerks. Over the following three decades Disney became a powerful independent focusing on animation and, from the late 1940s, an increasing number of live-action movies. In 1954, the company—now Walt Disney Productions—established Buena Vista Film Distribution to handle its own product, which had been distributed for years by various majors, primarily United Artists and then RKO. (Disney's 1937 Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, released by RKO, was the second biggest hit of the 1930s.) In its first year, Buena Vista had a major success with 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, the third biggest movie of 1954. In 1964, Buena Vista had its first blockbuster, Mary Poppins, Hollywood's biggest hit in half a decade. The company achieved a 9% market share that year, more than Fox and Warner Bros. Though over the next two decades, Disney/Buena Vista's share of the box-office would again hit similar marks, its relatively small output and exclusive focus on family movies meant that it was not generally considered a major despite its success.

1970s–1980s

The early 1970s were difficult years for all the majors. Movie attendance, which had been declining steadily in since the Golden Age, hit an all-time low in 1971. In 1973, MGM president James T. Aubrey Jr. drastically downsized the studio, slashing its production schedule and eliminating its distribution arm (UA would distribute the studio's films for the remainder of the decade). From fifteen releases in 1973, the next year MGM was down to five; its average for the rest of the 1970s would be even lower. The cutbacks, in the words of historian Joel Finler, "reduced the once proud studio to a Hollywood also-ran."​ Like RKO in its last days under Hughes, MGM might have remained a major in terms of brand reputation, but little more. MGM, however, was not the only studio to trim its release line. By the mid-1970s, the industry had rebounded and a significant philosophical shift was in progress. As the majors focused increasingly on the development of the next hoped-for blockbuster and began routinely opening each new movie in many hundreds of theaters (an approach called "saturation booking"), their collective yearly release average fell to 81 films during 1975–84.​ The classic set of majors was shaken further in late 1980, when the disastrously expensive flop of Heaven's Gate effectively ruined United Artists. The studio was sold the following year to Kerkorian, who merged it with MGM. After a brief resurgence, the combined studio again declined. From the mid-1980s through its 2005 purchase by a Sony-led consortium, MGM/UA was effectively a "mini-major," to use the present-day term.

Meanwhile, a new member was finally admitted to the club of major studios and two significant contenders emerged. With the establishment of its Touchstone Pictures brand and increasing attention to the adult market in the mid-1980s, Disney/Buena Vista secured acknowledgment as a full-fledged major. The two contenders were both newly formed companies. In 1978, Krim, Benjamin, and three other studio executives departed UA to found Orion Pictures as a joint venture with Warner Bros. It was announced optimistically as the "first major new film company in 50 years."​ Tri-Star Pictures was created in 1982 as a joint venture of Columbia Pictures (then owned by Coca-Cola), HBO (then owned by Time Inc.), and CBS. In 1985, Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation acquired 20th Century-Fox, the last of the five relatively healthy Golden Age majors to remain independent throughout the entire Golden Age and after.

In 1986, the combined share of the six classic majors—at that point Paramount, Warner Bros., Columbia, Universal, Fox, and MGM/UA—fell to 64%, the lowest since the beginning of the Golden Age. Disney was in third place, behind only Paramount and Warners. Even including it as a seventh major and adding its 10% share, the majors' control of the North American market was at a historic ebb. Orion, now completely independent of Warner Bros., and Tri-Star were well positioned as mini-majors, each with North American market shares of around 6%. Smaller independents garnered 13%—more than any studio aside from Paramount. In 1964, by comparison, all of the companies beside the then seven majors and Disney had combined for a grand total of 1%. As Finler wrote in his study The Hollywood Story (1988), "It will be interesting to see whether the old-established studios will be able to bounce back in the future, as they have done so many times before, or whether the newest developments really do reflect a fundamental change in the US movie industry for the first times since the 20s."​

1990s–present

With the exception of MGM/UA—whose position was effectively filled by Disney—the old-established studios did bounce back. The purchase of Fox by Murdoch's News Corp. presaged a new round of corporate acquisitions. Between 1989 and 1994, Paramount, Warners, Columbia, and Universal all changed ownership in a series of conglomerate purchases and mergers that brought them new financial and marketing muscle. By the early 1990s, both Tri-Star and Orion were essentially out of business: the former consolidated into Columbia, the later bankrupt. The most important contenders to emerge during the 1990s, New Line, the Weinsteins' Miramax, and DreamWorks SKG, were likewise sooner or later brought into the majors' fold. The very successful animation production house Pixar, whose films were distributed by Buena Vista, was acquired by Disney in 2006.

The development of in-house pseudo-indie subsidiaries by the conglomerates—sparked by the 1992 establishment of Sony Pictures Classics and the success of Pulp Fiction (1994), Miramax's first project under Disney ownership—significantly undermined the position of the true independents. The majors' release schedule rebounded: the six primary studio subsidiaries alone put out a total of 124 films during 2006; the four largest secondary subsidiaries (New Line, MGM/UA, Fox Searchlight, Focus Features) accounted for another 46. Box-office domination was fully restored: in 2006, the six major movie conglomerates combined for 91.6% of the North American market; the two mini-majors were almost exactly half as successful as their 1986 counterparts, sharing 6.1%; and all of the remaining independent companies split a pool amounting to 2.3%.​

Organizational lineage

The eight Golden Age majors

The eight major film studios of the Golden Age have gone through the following significant ownership changes ("independent" meaning customarily identified as the primary commercial entity in its corporate structure; "purchased" meaning acquired anything from majority to total ownership):

Columbia Pictures

• independent as CBC Film Sales, 1920–1924 (founded by Harry Cohn, Joe Brandt, and Jack Cohn)
• independent, 1924–1982 (company changes name; goes public in 1926)
• Coca-Cola, 1982–1987 (purchased by Coca-Cola; Tri-Star Pictures, a joint venture with HBO and CBS initiated in 1982—CBS drops out in 1984)
• independent as Columbia/Tri-Star, 1987–1989 (divested by Coca-Cola; also in 1987, HBO drops out of Tri-Star, which merges with Columbia)
• Sony, 1989–present (purchased by Sony)

20th Century-Fox

• independent as Fox, 1915–1935 (founded by William Fox; Fox forced to sell off controlling interest in now-public company in 1930)
• independent, 1935–1985 (merges with Twentieth Century Pictures; fully purchased by Marc Rich and Marvin Davis in 1981; Rich's interest purchased by Davis in 1984; half of Davis's interest purchased by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation in March 1985)
• News Corporation, 1985–present (purchases the remainder of Davis's shares in September)

Warner Bros.

• independent as Warner Brothers West Coast Studio, 1919–1923 (founded by Jack L. Warner, Harry Warner, Albert Warner, and Sam Warner)
• independent, 1923–1929 (company changes name and goes public, brothers maintain controlling interest; Sam Warner dies in 1927)
• independent as Warner Bros.–First National, 1929–1967 (acquires First National Pictures; syndicate led by Serge Semenenko of First National Bank of Boston and Charles Allen Jr. purchases controlling interest from Harry and Albert Warner in 1956)
• Warner Bros.–Seven Arts, 1967–1969 (purchased by and merged with Seven Arts Productions)
• Kinney National Company, 1969–1975 (Kinney purchases Warner Bros.–Seven Arts)
• Warner Communications, 1975–1989 (Kinney changes name)
• Time Warner, 1989–present (Warner merges with Time Inc.; from 2000 to 2003, the parent company was known as AOL Time Warner, following merger with AOL)

Paramount Pictures

• independent as Famous Players–Lasky, 1916–1921 (founded as public company via merger of Adolph Zukor's Famous Players and Jesse L. Lasky, Samuel Goldfish (later Goldwyn), Dustin Farnum, and Cecil B. DeMille's Jesse L. Lasky Feature Play Company, followed by acquisition of Paramount Pictures distribution house)
• independent, 1922–1966 (company adopts distribution division's name)
• Gulf and Western Industries, 1966–1989 (purchased by Gulf+Western)
• Paramount Communications, 1989–1994 (Gulf+Western changes name after selling nonentertainment assets)
• Viacom, 1994–2005 (Viacom purchases Paramount)
• Viacom, 2006–present (Viacom splits into two companies: "new" Viacom—with Paramount Pictures, MTV, BET, and other cable channels—and CBS Corporation—which includes CBS Paramount Television)

Universal Pictures

• independent, 1912–1946 (founded as public company via merger of Carl Laemmle's Independent Motion Picture Co., Pat Powers's Powers Picture Co., Adam Kessel and Charles Baumann's Bison Life Motion Pictures, Mark Dintenfass's Champion Film Co., William Swanson's Rex Picture Co., and the Nestor Film Co.)
• independent as Universal-International, 1946–1952 (merges with International Pictures)
• Decca, 1952–1962 (purchased by Decca)
• MCA, 1962–1990 (MCA purchases Decca)
• Matsushita Electric, 1990–1995 (Matsushita purchases MCA)
• Seagram, 1995–2000 (purchased by Seagram from Matsushita)
• Vivendi, 2000–2004 (Vivendi purchases Seagram)
• General Electric, 2004–present (purchased by GE from Vivendi and merged with NBC to form NBC Universal)

Metro–Goldwyn–Mayer (merged into Sony/Columbia)

• Loew's Incorporated, 1924–1959 (founded via merger of Loew's-owned Metro Pictures with Goldwyn Pictures and Louis B. Mayer Productions; controlling interest in Loew's purchased by William Fox in 1929; Fox forced to sell off interest in 1930; Loew's cedes operational control to studio management in 1954)
• independent, 1959–1981 (fully divested by Loew's; purchased by Edgar Bronfman Sr. in 1967; purchased by Kirk Kerkorian in 1969)
• independent as MGM/UA, 1981–1992 (Kerkorian purchases United Artists and merges it into MGM; purchased by Ted Turner in 1986; repurchased by Kerkorian seventy-four days later; purchased by Giancarlo Parretti in 1990)
• Crédit Lyonnais, 1992–1997 (Parretti in default, his bank forecloses on MGM/UA)
• independent as MGM/UA, 1997–2005 (repurchased by Kerkorian)
• Sony/Comcast/4 private equity firms, 2005–present (purchased by Sony, backed by cable company Comcast and private investment firms—Providence Equity Partners, in fact, currently owns the greatest number of shares—and merged into Sony/Columbia; see above for further detail)​

United Artists (merged into MGM)

• independent, 1919–1967 (founded by Charles Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks, D. W. Griffith, and Mary Pickford; operational control by Arthur Krim and Robert Benjamin from 1951; fully purchased by Krim and Benjamin in 1956)
• Transamerica, 1967–1981 (purchased by Transamerica)
• MGM/UA, 1981–present (purchased by Kirk Kerkorian from Transamerica and merged into MGM; see above for further detail)

RKO Radio Pictures (defunct 1960–80, dormant 1993–97)

• RCA/investment consortium, 1928–1935 (founded as public company via merger of Film Booking Offices of America studio and Keith-Albee-Orpheum theater chain; majority ownership by RCA from ca. 1930)
• independent, 1935–1955 (half of RCA's interest purchased by Floyd Odlum, control split between RCA, Odlum, and Rockefeller brothers; controlling interest purchased by Odlum in 1942; controlling interest purchased by Howard Hughes in 1948; Hughes interest purchased by Stolkin-Koolish-Ryan-Burke-Corwin syndicate in 1952; interest repurchased by Hughes in 1953; fully purchased by Hughes in 1954)
• General Tire and Rubber, 1955–1984 (purchased by General Tire and Rubber—coupled with General Tire's broadcasting operation as RKO Teleradio Pictures; production and distribution halted in 1957; movie business dissolved in 1959 and RKO Teleradio renamed RKO General; RKO General establishes RKO Pictures as production subsidiary in 1981)
• GenCorp, 1984–1987 (reorganization creates holding company with RKO General and General Tire as primary subsidiaries)
• Wesray Capital, 1987–1989 (spun off from RKO General, purchased by Wesray—controlled by William E. Simon and Ray Chambers—and merged with amusement park operations to form RKO/Six Flags Entertainment)
• independent, 1989–present (split off from Six Flags, purchased by Dina Merrill and Ted Hartley, and merged with Pavilion Communications; no films produced or distributed from 1993 through 1997)

Other significant, formerly independent entities

• Artisan Entertainment – Purchased in 2003 by Lions Gate Entertainment
• Castle Rock Entertainment – Purchased in 1994 by Turner Broadcasting System; TBS in 1996 merged with Time Warner
• DreamWorks SKG – Purchased in 2006 by Viacom (parent company of Paramount)
• The Samuel Goldwyn Company – Purchased in 1996 by John Kluge/Metromedia International; purchased in 1997 by MGM
• Miramax Films – Purchased in 1993 by the Walt Disney Company
• New Line Cinema – Purchased in 1994 by Turner Broadcasting System; TBS in 1996 merged with Time Warner
• October Films – Purchased in 1997 by Universal; purchased in 1999 by Barry Diller and merged with Gramercy Pictures into USA Films; USA in 2001 acquired by Vivendi (then parent company of Universal) and merged with Good Machine and Universal Focus into Focus Features
• Orion Pictures – Purchased in 1988 by Kluge/Metromedia; purchased in 1997 by MGM
• Pixar – Purchased in 1986 by Steve Jobs; purchased in 2006 by the Walt Disney Company
• Tri-Star Pictures – Consolidated in 1987 into Columbia (one of the partners in the joint venture that created it)

Ver además

• Big Four – the four major music corporations: Universal Music Group, Sony BMG Music Entertainment, Warner Music Group, and EMI; formerly the Big Six, but Universal acquired PolyGram in 1998, and Sony and BMG merged in 2004

Fuentes

• Cook, David A. (2000). Lost Illusions: American Cinema in the Shadow of Watergate and Vietnam, 1970–1979 (Berkeley, Los Angeles, and London: University of California Press). ISBN 0-520-23265-8
• Eames, John Douglas (1985). The Paramount Story (New York: Crown). ISBN 0-517-55348-1
• Finler, Joel W. (1988). The Hollywood Story (New York: Crown). ISBN 0-517-56576-5
• Hirschhorn, Clive (1983). The Universal Story (London: Crown). ISBN 0-517-55001-6
• Hirschhorn, Clive (1999). The Columbia Story (London: Hamlyn). ISBN 0-600-59836-5
• Jewell, Richard B., with Vernon Harbin (1982). The RKO Story (New York: Arlington House/Crown). ISBN 0-517-54656-6
• Schatz, Thomas (1998 [1989]). The Genius of the System: Hollywood Filmmaking in the Studio Era (London: Faber and Faber). ISBN 0-571-19596-2
• Thomas, Tony, and Aubrey Solomon (1985). The Films of 20th Century-Fox (Secaucus, N.J.: Citadel). ISBN 0-8065-0958-9

Santiago Cervera fue un destacado violinista español, que nació en Benetuser, Valencia en 1938 y falleció en 1999. http://www.elpais.com/articulo/cultura/ORQUESTA_FILARMoNICA_DE_BERLiN/violinista/Berlin/elpepicul/19990409elpepicul_5/Tes

9/4/99

Santiago Cervera, violinista de la Filarmónica de Berlín. Su muerte a los 60 años, casi en secreto, ha sido en cierto modo coherente con su trayectoria. Había un pacto de silencio implícito entre los filarmónicos berlineses en todo lo concerniente a contar cualquier mínimo detalle de su vida y milagros. Natural de Benetúser (Valencia), Cervera pertenecía a una familia acomodada, lo que le permitió tomar clases de los más relevantes profesores de violín y hasta llegó a visitar al violonchelista Pablo Casals en Puerto Rico. Sorprendentemente, un día se desprendió de su instrumento echándolo al fuego de la chimenea familiar. Deambuló después como un clochard bajo los puentes de París, hasta que una turista alemana en la capital francesa le redimió por amor, llevándoselo a Berlín.Por unos pocos marcos compró un nuevo violín y, a las primeras de cambio, tras un intensivo entrenamiento, concurrió a las audiciones de la Filarmónica de Berlín, obteniendo una plaza fija de inmediato. Con Karajan grabó, entre otras, las sinfonías de Beethoven y Brahms. Un desengaño amoroso le llevó a refugiarse por momentos en el alcohol, pero Karajan, ante una copa de vodka, le aseguró su continuidad en la orquesta pasase lo que pasase. Con Abbado fue poco a poco retirándose. Tenía etapas extraordinarias y otras más conflictivas, cuentan sus compañeros de atril con respeto y admiración. Es difícil sacarles más. Su fallecimiento también a ellos les ha cogido por sorpresa. La Filarmónica de Berlín se ha quedado sin su representante español.

http://hemeroteca.abc.es/nav/Navigate.exe/hemeroteca/madrid/abc/1956/04/25/062.html

Santiago Cervera. Única actuación extraordinario violinista. 25/4/56

http://hemeroteca.abc.es/nav/Navigate.exe/hemeroteca/madrid/abc/2001/06/03/317.html

http://books.google.es/books?id=MZJDEJBpec8C&pg=PR4-IA93&lpg=PR4-IA93&dq=%22Santiago+Cervera%22+violinista&source=bl&ots=v-IeqL0d0r&sig=9LYNTaz-0kbYPkV8mtWWiT7yuBg&hl=es&ei=UMqkS9vAIdTz_Abas9D4DQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=10&ved=0CCMQ6AEwCQ#v=onepage&q=%22Santiago%20Cervera%22%20violinista&f=false

http://hemeroteca.lavanguardia.es/preview/1963/01/19/pagina-32/33538961/pdf.html

19/1/63 Artículo elogioso sobre actuación de Cervera, firmado por Monsalvatge en La Vanguardia

http://hemeroteca.lavanguardia.es/preview/1955/01/06/pagina-16/32780752/pdf.html

6/1/55 Anuncio de concierto de Cervera en el Palau de la Música

http://ca.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joan_Massi%C3%A0_i_Prats Viquipedia profesor de Cervera