Universal Studios was founded in Chicago in 1912 by Carl Laemmle. In 1914 he bought a 230-acre ranch at the east end of the San Fernando Valley for $165,000, which was to be the world's first film studio created expressly for the production of feature-length films.
Lankershim Township presented Laemmle with a solid gold key to open the gate of Universal City on March 15, 1915. For this grand opening Laemmle invited thousands of guests to Universal City. It marked the emergence of Hollywood as America's premier center of filmmaking. It was also the beginning of an industry that would have an incredible and overwhelming impact on the world.
The first of Universal's films were silent and were made popular largely through the talent of one of Hollywood's all-time great actors, Lon Chaney. The dollars Chaney brought in at the box office were instrumental in putting Universal on its feet. He was the most popular figure of the Silent Era and is most acclaimed for The Hunchback of Notre Dame.
A reproduction of the great Notre Dame Cathedral was built on the Universal lot, along with sets depicting wild west towns and street scenes that had an illusion of being anywhere in the world. For the first 50 years Universal hardly ever shot film outside of its own 230-acre lot. In November of 1946 Universal merged with International Pictures to become Universal-International, with Universal Pictures Company remaining as the parent organization.
Decca Records acquired 28 percent of Universal-International in 1950 for $3.8 million. Within two years Decca had won controlling interest of the film company.
In 1961 MCA bought up Decca, which by that time held about 90 percent control of Universal-International. The following year, under MCA, Universal-International reverted to its old name of International. The studio had by this time expanded its back lot to more than 400 acres. By the middle of the 1970s MCA had turned the back lot into one of America's largest tourist attractions. More than 4 million people a year were coming to the hotel, restaurants, amphitheater, sets, and sound stages where movies were being made.
During this time Universal was also producing blockbuster movies, including Airport, Earthquake, Jaws, National Lampoon's Animal House, and Coal Miner's Daughter. The success of these films provided the money for Universal to speculate with the Hollywood theme park and other markets.
In 1990 Universal began operation of the Universal Studios Florida theme park in Orlando. By 1994 Seagram's diversification into entertainment had already begun with the purchase of a 15-percent stake in Time Warner Inc. In 1995 Bronfman persuaded his father, Edgar Bronfman Sr., and his uncle, Charles Bronfman, to sell Seagram's 25-percent stake in DuPont Co. for $8.8 billion to finance Seagram's acquisition of an 80-percent stake in Universal (then called MCA Inc.) from Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. Ltd.
In June 2000, Seagram was sold to French water utility and media company Vivendi, which owned StudioCanal; the conglomerate then became known as Vivendi Universal. Afterward, Universal Pictures acquired the United States distribution rights of several of StudioCanal's films, such as David Lynch's Mulholland Drive (2001) and Brotherhood of the Wolf (2001) which became the second-highest-grossing French language film in the United States since 1980. Universal Pictures and StudioCanal also co-produced several films, such as Love Actually (2003) a $40 a million-budgeted film that eventually grossed $246 million worldwide. In late 2000, the New York Film Academy was permitted to use the Universal Studios backlot for student film projects in an unofficial partnership.
Burdened with debt, in 2004 Vivendi Universal sold 80% of Vivendi Universal Entertainment (including the studio and theme parks) to General Electric (GE), parent of NBC. The resulting media super-conglomerate was renamed NBCUniversal, while Universal Studios Inc. remained the name of the production subsidiary. After that deal, GE owned 80% of NBC Universal; Vivendi held the remaining 20%, with an option to sell its share in 2006.
In late 2005, Viacom's Paramount Pictures acquired DreamWorks SKG after acquisition talks between GE and DreamWorks stalled. Universal's long-time chairperson, Stacey Snider, left the company in early 2006 to head up DreamWorks. Snider was replaced by then-Vice Chairman Marc Shmuger and Focus Features head David Linde. On October 5, 2009, Marc Shmuger and David Linde were ousted, and their co-chairperson jobs were consolidated under former president of worldwide marketing and distribution Adam Fogelson becoming the single chairperson. Donna Langley was also upped to co-chairperson. In 2009, Stephanie Sperber founded Universal Partnerships & Licensing within Universal to license consumer products for Universal.
GE purchased Vivendi's share in NBCUniversal in 2011.
GE sold 51% of the company to cable provider Comcast in 2011. Comcast merged the former GE subsidiary with its own cable-television programming assets, creating the current NBCUniversal. Following Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approval, the Comcast-GE deal was closed on January 29, 2011. In March 2013, Comcast bought the remaining 49% of NBCUniversal for $16.7 billion. |
