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Established in 1989, by Disney CEO Michael Eisner and studio chief Jeffrey Katzenberg, Hollywood Pictures was founded to increase the film output of the Walt Disney Studios, and release films similar to those of Touchstone Pictures.
Established in 1989, by Disney CEO Michael Eisner and studio chief Jeffrey Katzenberg, Hollywood Pictures was founded to increase the film output of the Walt Disney Studios, and release films similar to those of Touchstone Pictures.
Oct 17, 2024 · Hollywood Pictures was a film division of The Walt Disney Company that was established on February 1, 1989, initially to finance and distribute B-movies and smaller-budget films, and to create internal competition with the company's other adult-oriented label, Touchstone Pictures.
- Overview
- History
Hollywood Pictures was one of the Walt Disney Company's several alternate movie divisions. Like Disney's Touchstone Pictures brand, it produced films for a more mature adult audience than Walt Disney Pictures.
Because of the success of Disney's mature film division Touchstone Pictures, yet another Disney film label was established as Hollywood Pictures in 1990. Danny Elfman composed the fanfare for the opening logo. The company's first release was Arachnophobia.
While then-Disney chief Michael Eisner at first intended Hollywood Pictures to be a full-fledged studio, like Touchstone, in recent years its operations have been scaled back and its management has been merged with the flagship Walt Disney Pictures studio.
Towards the ending of the 1990s, the majority of Hollywood Pictures releases were films that got overall negative reviews, among which was An Alan Smithee Film: Burn Hollywood Burn, which won the Razzie Award for Worst Movie of 1998, with the negative stigma of the banner being likely the main reason as to why Hollywood Pictures would become eventually retired just a few years later, in 2001.
Despite this, the banner has managed to release some acclaimed titles, including its most profitable film to date, The Sixth Sense, which grossed over $200 million at the North American box office.
After being dormant since 2001, the brand was re-activated for low-budget genre films, similar to Dimension Films (once a Disney division itself, now part of The Weinstein Company) or Sony Pictures' Screen Gems (part of Columbia Pictures), News Corporation's Fox Atomic (part of Fox Searchlight Pictures), and Relativity Media's Rogue Pictures (distributed by former parent Universal Studios). The first film released by the resurrected Hollywood was the 2006 horror film, Stay Alive.
This wouldn't however last very long, as after Bob Iger replaced Michael Eisner as CEO of the Walt Disney Company, in late 2005, he decided to instead focus more on reinforcing brand recognition throughout the Disney brand itself, instead of relying on other distribution labels, which was what Eisner had done through Touchstone and Miramax. This lead to the permanent retirement of Hollywood Pictures in April 27, 2007. The final film to be distributed by Hollywood Pictures was The Invisible.
- Benjamin Hale
- The Origin of Movies. The origin of movies and motion pictures began in the late 1800’s, with the invention of “motion toys” designed to trick the eye into seeing an illusion of motion from a display of still frames in quick succession, such as the thaumatrope and the zoetrope.
- The First Movie. In 1872, Edward Muybridge created the first movie ever made by placing twelve cameras on a racetrack and rigging the cameras to capture shots in quick sequence as a horse crossed in front of their lenses.
- 1900s Movies. The 1900’s were a time of great advancement for film and motion picture technology. Exploration into editing, backdrops, and visual flow motivated aspiring filmmakers to push into new creative territory.
- 1910s Hollywood. The Squaw Man 1914. According to industry myth, the first movie made in Hollywood was Cecil B. DeMille’s The Squaw Man in 1914 when its director decided last-minute to shoot in Los Angeles, but In Old California, an earlier film by DW Griffith had been filmed entirely in the village of Hollywood in 1910.
Hollywood Pictures was originally founded by Disney's then-Chairman and CEO Michael Eisner and fellow executive Jeffrey Katzenberg in 1989 to take advantage of a gap left by several other film companies at the time either having gone under or suffering from serious turmoil.
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Hollywood Pictures was an American film production label of Walt Disney Studios, founded and owned by The Walt Disney Company.
