Walt Disney Motion Pictures Group
 Walt Disney Studios Logo |
|
| Type | Subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company |
|---|---|
| Industry | Film |
| Founded | 1923 |
| Headquarters | Burbank, California, U.S. |
| Products | Motion pictures |
| Parent | The Walt Disney Company |
| Divisions |
Walt Disney Animation Studios DisneyToon Studios Disneynature Touchstone Pictures Hollywood Pictures DreamWorks Pictures Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment |
| Subsidiaries |
Walt Disney Pictures Pixar Animation Studios |
| Website | The Walt Disney Studios |
Walt Disney Studios, officially known as Walt Disney Motion Pictures Group, Inc. and formerly known as Buena Vista Motion Pictures Group[citation needed]) is a corporation which develops scripts and oversees theatrical production for The Walt Disney Company's production companies and imprints. The Group, one of Hollywood's major film studios, is based at the Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, California.
Walt Disney Studios is a member of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA).[1]
Production Studios
It includes:
History
The Group in its current form was initiated in 1998 by then Studio Chairman Joe Roth in order to centralize the various production units and to make live-action film production within Disney more cost-efficient.[citation needed]
The name Buena Vista comes from the much older company Buena Vista Distribution, a company founded by Walt Disney as a subsidiary to distribute his films and short subjects in 1953. That name in turn came from the street name South Buena Vista Street in Burbank where the Walt Disney Studios complex was, and still exists today.[citation needed]
In 2003, headlines were made as the first ever PG-13 certificate film was released under the Walt Disney Pictures imprint – Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, a film based on the famous Disneyland attraction. Although non-Disney branded imprints and divisions of the studio have released films with certificates PG-13 (the first being Adventures in Babysitting in 1987) and as high as R (the first being Down and Out in Beverly Hills in 1986). Disney had from the start of its Touchstone imprint until the release of the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy a very strict approach to violence and other possibly mature elements in Disney-branded live-action films. Nevertheless, ever since the success of Pirates of the Caribbean, Walt Disney Pictures has produced more PG-13 branded films.[citation needed]
Film director M. Night Shyamalan, who had done The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, Signs and The Village with Disney clashed with the Group's executives during pre-production of his 2006 film, Lady in the Water. Shyamalan left the studio after Nina Jacobson and others became, in Shyamalan's eyes, overly critical of his script, which would eventually be produced by Warner Bros. Shyamalan is quoted in a book about the difficult period that he "had witnessed the decay of her creative vision right before his own wide-open eyes. She didn't want iconoclastic directors. She wanted directors who made money." In her own defense, Jacobson said, "in order to have a Hollywood relationship more closely approximate a real relationship, you have to have a genuine back and forth of the good and the bad. Different people have different ideas about respect. For us, being honest is the greatest show of respect for a filmmaker."[2]
In July 2006 Disney announced a shift in 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, including that of its then President Nina Jacobson.[3]
In April 2007, Disney retired the Buena Vista brand.[4]
On February 9, 2009, DreamWorks SKG entered a 5-year, 30-picture distribution deal with the Touchstone Pictures division starting in 2011.[5]
On 31 December 2009, The Walt Disney Company purchased Marvel Entertainment for $4 billion. Both Marvel and Disney have stated that the merger would not affect any preexisting deals with other film studios for the time being,[6] although Disney said they will consider distributing future Marvel Studios projects with their own studios once the current deals expire.[7] On 18 October 2010, Disney bought the distribution rights for The Avengers and Iron Man 3 from Paramount Pictures.[8]
References
- ^ "Motion Picture Association of America - About Us". MPAA. http://www.mpaa.org/about. Retrieved 27 May 2012.
- ^ Los Angeles Times (June 23, 2006): "Book Tells of Breakup with Disney"
- ^ "The Walt Disney Company and Affiliated Companies – Corporate Press Releases – THE WALT DISNEY STUDIOS MOVES TO INCREASE ITS DISNEY BRANDED OUTPUT STRATEGY July 18, 2006". http://corporate.disney.go.com/news/corporate/2006/2006_0718_studio_moves.html. Retrieved February 24, 2008.
- ^ Fixmer, Andy (April 25, 2007). "Disney to Drop Buena Vista Brand Name, People Say". Bloomberg Television. http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a0MG17nO.PG8&refer=home. Retrieved August 8, 2007.
- ^ "Disney, DreamWorks set long-term distribution deal". reuters.com. February 9, 2009. http://www.reuters.com/article/2009/02/09/us-disney-dreamworks-idUSTRE5185PV20090209. Retrieved 23 May 2012.
- ^ Vejvoda, Jim (August 31, 2009). "The Disney/Marvel Deal: What It Means for Movies". Ign.com. http://movies.ign.com/articles/101/1019890p1.html. Retrieved 23 May 2012.
- ^ Fixmer, Andy; Sarah Rabil (September 1, 2009). "Disney’s Marvel Buy Traps Hollywood in Spider-Man Web (Update2)". Bloomberg. http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aU_kuPju0Ngo. Retrieved 23 May 2012.
- ^ Kim Masters (18 October 2010). "Disney to Distribute Marvel's 'The Avengers,' 'Iron Man 3'". The Hollywood Reporter. http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/disney-distribute-marvels-avengers-iron-31061. Retrieved 18 October 2010.
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