Sony Pictures - Definition and Overview

Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE) is the television and film production unit of Japan-based corporate giant Sony.

Corporate Structure

Headquartered in Culver City, California, SPE is comprised of various studios and entertainment brands including Columbia Pictures and GSN.

List of holdings

• Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE): Reported group sales in 2003 of $6.7 billion dollars.
  • Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group: With a library of more than 4,000 films (including 12 Academy Award for Best Picture winners), as of 2004 this unit of Sony distributes about 22 films a year under its various studio brands in 67 countries. The group owns studio facilites in the United States, Hong Kong, Madrid, Mexico, the United Kingdom, Brazil and Japan. In addition to the below company-owned brands, Columbia Tristar also has a contract to distribute films for independent Revolution Studios.
    • Columbia Pictures: Founded in 1920 by Harry Cohn, Sony acquired the studio in 1989 from The Coca-Cola Company for $4.3 billion.
      • TriStar Pictures
    • Sony Pictures Classics (SPC): Specializes in acquiring distribution rights to independent and art films as well as producing lower-budget productions geared to limited audiences.
    • Screen Gems: Originally Columbia's animation division and later a popular television production company best known for TV's Bewitched and The Partridge Family, Sony revived the Screen Gems brand to develop mid-priced movies (production budget of between $20 million and $50 million) in specific genres such as science fiction, horror, black cinema and franchise films.
    • Triumph Films: The label Sony uses for its low-budget or direct to video films.
  • MGM: Sony acquired the legendary Hollywood studio in September 2004.
    • United Artists: The label Sony uses for future film legends after September 2004.
    • Orion Pictures
  • Columbia Tristar Home Entertainment: Manufactures and distributes the Sony film library in DVD and video cassette forms to global markets.
  • Sony Pictures Television Group: The successor-in-interest to Columbia's television division (first Screen Gems, later Columbia Pictures Television, Coca-Cola Television, and Columbia/Tri-Star Television), as of 2004 the unit was producing 60 titles for various television outlets globally. Contains a library that includes more than 35,000 episodes of more than 270 television series and 22,000 game show episodes under the Columbia TriStar Television brand, and the television rights to the Embassy Pictures library (including The Graduate and The Lion in Winter), this is the television studio behind such popular series as Seinfeld, King of Queens, Days of Our Lives and The Young and the Restless.
    • Sony Pictures Television International
  • Sony Pictures Consumer Products
  • Sony Pictures Digital
    • Sony Pictures Imageworks
    • Sony Pictures Animation
    • Sony Online Entertainment
    • Sony Pictures Digital Networks
      • SPiN
      • SoapCity
      • Screenblast
      • Advanced Platform Group APG
      • The Wireless Services Group
  • Sony Pictures Studios: The actual physical buildings, land and movie-making equipment properties in Culver City, California. Includes 22 sound stages, ranging in size from 7,600 to 43,000 square feet (700 to 4,000 m²)
    • Sony Pictures Studios Post Production Facilities
    • Worldwide Product Fulfillment
  • Game Show Network: (joint venture with Liberty Media)
  • Movielink: (joint venture with MGM, Paramount Pictures, Universal Studios, and Warner Bros.)

External link

• Official web site (http://www.sonypictures.com/)