Brief Introduction
Synopsis:
Walter Elias “Walt” Disney was born on December 5, 1901, in Hermosa, Illinois. He and his brother Roy co-founded Walt Disney Productions, which became one of the best-known motion-picture production companies in the world. Disney was an innovative animator and created the cartoon character Mickey Mouse. He won 22 Academy Awards during his lifetime, and was the founder of theme parks Disneyland and Walt Disney World.
History:
1980s
By the 1980s, The Walt Disney Company’s collection of film units emerged as one of Hollywood’s “Big Six” film studios, mostly due to newly designed efforts in branding strategies, a resurgence of Walt Disney Pictures‘ animated releases and unprecedented box office successes, particularly from Touchstone Pictures. The Walt Disney Productions film division was incorporated on April 1, 1983 as Walt Disney Pictures. In April 1983, Richard Berger was hired by Disney CEO Ron W. Miller as film president. Touchstone Films was started by Miller in February 1984 as a label for their PG-rated films with an expected half of Disney’s 6 to 8 movies yearly slate would be released under the label. Berger was pushed out as a new CEO was appointed for Walt Disney Productions later in 1984, as Michael Eisner brought his own film chief, Jeffrey Katzenberg.
Organized in 1985, Silver Screen Partners II, L.P. financed films for Disney with $193 million in funding. In January 1987, Silver Screen III began financing movies for Disney with $300 million raised, the largest amount raised for a film financing limited partnership by E.F. Hutton.
In April 1988, Touchstone became a unit of Walt Disney Pictures with newly appointed head Ricardo Mestres. With several production companies getting out of film production or closing shop by December 1988, Walt Disney Studios announced the formation of Hollywood Pictures division, which would only share marketing and distribution with Touchstone, to fill the void. Walt Disney Television and Touchstone Television were grouped together under Garth Ancier as president of network television for The Walt Disney Studios on April 18, 1989.
Late in the 1980s, Disney purchased a controlling stake in one of Pacific Theatres‘ chain leading to Disney’s Buena Vista Theaters and Pacific to renovate the El Capitan Theatre and the Crest by 1989. The Crest was finished first while El Capitan opened with the premiere of The Rocketeer film on June 19, 1991.
In July 2006, Disney announced a shift in its strategy of releasing more Disney-branded (i.e. Walt Disney Pictures) films and fewer Touchstone titles. The move was expected to reduce the Group’s work force by approximately 650 positions worldwide. After being transferred to various other division groups since they were acquired in 2004, The Muppets Studio was incorporated into the Walt Disney Studios’ Special Events Group in 2006. In April 2007, Disney retired the Vista brand, renaming Buena Vista Motion Pictures Group and Buena Vista Pictures Distribution as Walt Disney Motion Pictures Group and Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, respectively. Hollywood Pictures was also retired as well. In July 2007, Disney CEO Bob Iger banned the depiction of smoking and tobacco products from Walt Disney Pictures-branded films, as well as limiting such depictions in Touchstone and Miramax films.
On February 9, 2009, DreamWorks Studios entered a 7-year, 30-picture distribution deal with the studio’s Touchstone Pictures banner starting in 2011. The deal also includes co-funding by Disney to DreamWorks for production. In late 2009, Miramax Films, a formerly independent Disney film unit, was transferred to The Walt Disney Studios until its sale in 2010 to Film yard Holdings. The Kingdom Comics unit’s creatives/executives moved its deal to an independent Monsterfoot Productions.
2010s
After The Walt Disney Company‘s acquisition of Marvel Entertainment in 2009, Disney began distributing Marvel Studios‘ films in 2012, acquiring the distribution rights for The Avengers and Iron Man 3 from Paramount Pictures in October 2010. Marvel Studios, however, remained a division of Marvel Entertainment during that time, working in conjunction with Walt Disney Studios for distribution and marketing.
In May 2011, Disney India and UTV Motion Pictures agreed to co-produce Disney-branded family films with both handling creative function and UTV producing, marketing and distributing the films. In 2011, Disney fired Marvel Studios‘ marketing department taking over marketing of their films beginning with the 2012 film The Avengers.
On October 30, 2012, Lucas film agreed to be purchased by The Walt Disney Company and a new Star Wars trilogy was announced and was finalized on December 4. Later that year on December 4, Disney agreed to have Netflix as its exclusive U.S. subscription television service for first run Walt Disney Pictures, Walt Disney Animation Studios, Pixar Animation Studios, Marvel Studios and Disney nature feature films starting in 2016 to replace its agreement ending in 2015 with Starz.
In April 2013, The Walt Disney Studios laid off 150 workers including staff from its marketing and home entertainment units. In December of that year, Disney purchased the distribution and marketing rights to future Indiana Jones films from Paramount Pictures, while Paramount will continue distributing the first four films and receive “financial participation” from the additional films. The studio and Shanghai Media Group Pictures signed a multi-year movie development agreement, before the March 6, 2014 announcement, in which Chinese themes would be incorporated into Disney branded movies. In March 2015, Iger expanded the studio’s smoking and tobacco prohibition to include all films released by the studio—including PG-13 rated films and below—unless such depictions are historically pertinent.
Production
Walt Disney Pictures is a film banner that encompasses the release of its own live-action productions, in addition to films produced by the company’s animation studios, mainly Walt Disney Animation Studios and Pixar Animation Studios. Marvel Studios—acquired through Disney’s purchase of Marvel Entertainment in 2009—produces superhero films based on Marvel Comics characters, including the Marvel Cinematic Universe franchise. Lucas film—acquired by Disney in 2012—develops and produces films including those in the Star Wars and Indiana Jones franchises. Disney nature is an independent film genre label devoted to nature documentary productions.
In 1993, Disney acquired Miramax Films and its Dimension Films genre label, with the former division operating as an autonomous unit until 2009, and the Dimension label becoming absorbed by The Weinstein Company in 2005. By 2009, Miramax was folded into the Walt Disney Studios, and continued to serve as distribution label until it was sold by Disney to Film yard Holdings in 2010. From 2007 to 2010, Disney and Image Movers ran a joint motion capture animation facility; Image Movers Digital.
Distribution
Main articles: Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, Touchstone Pictures, and Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment
All film productions mentioned above are distributed theatrically by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures and on home media platforms by Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment. Another film banner, Touchstone Pictures, releases films for more mature audiences including films produced by DreamWorks Studios and was formerly an active production unit.
Disney Music Group
Main article: Disney Music Group
Disney Music Group is a music production group led by Ken Bunt, that consists of two record labels—Walt Disney Records and Hollywood Records—and multiple publishing entities that handle Disney’s music.
Disney Theatrical Group
Main article: Disney Theatrical Group
Disney Theatrical Group is the division producing live theatrical and stage events. It is currently under the leadership of Thomas Schumacher. The Disney Theatrical Productions division has been responsible for the production of many different musicals, touring events, ice shows and other live theatrical events. Their shows include: Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King, Aida, Tarzan, Mary Poppins, Newsies and numerous incarnations of Disney on Ice.
On December 21, 1937, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the first full-length animated film, premiered in Los Angeles. It produced an unimaginable $1.499 million, in spite of the Depression, and won a total of eight Oscars. During the next five years, Walt Disney Studios completed another string of full-length animated films, Pinocchio (1940), Fantasia (1940), Dumbo (1941) and Bambi (1942).
Cinderella was released in 1950, followed by a live-action film called Treasure Island (1950), Alice in Wonderland (1951), Peter Pan (1953), Lady and the Tramp (1955), Sleeping Beauty (1959) and 101 Dalmatians (1961).
Disney’s last major success that he produced himself was the motion picture Mary Poppins (1964), which mixed live action and animation.
Movies released in 2000s
- Snow dogs
- Return to Neverland
- 102 Dalmatians
- Remember the Titans
- Disney’s the kid
- Inc.
- Lillo and Stitch
- Treasure Planet
- The Jungle Book 2
- Finding Nemo
- Pirates of the Caribbean
- Cars
- Wall-E
- Bolt
- Hannah Montana : The Movie
Movies released in 2010
- Tangled
- African cats
- Oceans
- Alice in Wonderland
- Sleeping Beauty
- Tron: Legacy
- Prince of Persia : Sands of Time
- The Muppets
- Cars 2
Future Movies to be released
- Beauty and the Beast – March 17, 2017
- Moana – November 23, 2016
- Pirates of the Caribbean – May 26, 2017
- Toy Story 4 – June 15, 2018
- The Incredibles 2 – June 21, 2019
- Mary Poppins returns – December 25, 2018
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