Paramount Pictures is a major American motion-picture studio. The studio traces its history to 1912 when theater owner Adolph Zukor founded the Famous Players Film Company in New York City. In 1914, Zukor began releasing films through a film distribution company called Paramount Pictures. In 1916, Famous Players merged with the Jesse L. Lasky Company, which produced films in Hollywood, to form the Famous Players-Lasky Corporation. The corporation consolidated its production and distribution divisions and became known as Paramount Pictures.
The studio became extremely successful with such stars as Douglas Fairbanks, Sr.; Mary Pickford; and Rudolph Valentino; and the director Cecil B. DeMille. In 1927, Paramount released the silent film Wings, a war melodrama starring Clara Bow. The film won the first Academy Award for best picture. In the 1930’s, the studio continued its success with such stars as Bing Crosby, Marlene Dietrich, the Marx Brothers, and Mae West. Paramount also distributed Fleischer Studios’ popular Popeye and Betty Boop animated series.
Successful films produced or released by Paramount during the 1950’s and 1960’s included Sunset Blvd. (1950), Shane (1953), White Christmas (1954), The Ten Commandments (1956), Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961), and True Grit (1969). In the 1970’s, Paramount released The Godfather (1972), which set box-office records, and its acclaimed sequel, The Godfather, Part II (1974). The studio’s other popular series included the Star Trek films, which began in 1979; the “Indiana Jones” films, which began with Raiders of the Lost Ark in 1981; and the Mission Impossible films, which began in 1996. In 1997, Paramount co-distributed (with Twentieth Century Fox ) Titanic, one of the most commercially successful films in movie history. In 2008, the studio released the blockbuster Iron Man, based on the comic book superhero.
In 1966, Gulf + Western Industries, Inc. acquired Paramount. In 1994, the studio was purchased by Viacom Inc. From 2006 to 2008, Paramount distributed films for the film studio DreamWorks SKG.
See also ABC ; Viacom Inc.
