Universal Studios (also known as Universal Pictures), is a motion picture studio, owned by Comcast, and one of the six major movie studios. It is one of the longest-lived motion picture studios to be located outside of Hollywood. It is a division of American media conglomerate NBCUniversal.
Founded in 1912 by Carl Laemmle, Mark Dintenfass, Charles Baumann, Adam Kessel, Pat Powers, William Swanson, David Horsley, and Jules Brulatour, it is the oldest movie studio in the United States of America. It is also the third oldest in the world that is still in continuous production; the first being Gaumont Pictures, the second oldest is Pathé and the fourth oldest is Paramount Pictures. On May 11, 2004, the controlling stake in the company was sold by Vivendi Universal to General Electric, parent of NBC. The resulting media super-conglomerate was renamed NBC Universal, while Universal Studios Inc. remained the name of the production subsidiary. In addition to owning a sizable film library spanning the earliest decades of cinema to more contemporary works, it also owns a sizable collection of TV shows through its subsidiary NBCUniversal Television Distribution. It also acquired rights to several prominent filmmakers' works originally released by other studios through its subsidiaries over the years. Selected clips and footage shot by Universal Studios are available for purchase from the NBCUniversal Archives.
Its production studios are at 100 Universal City Plaza Drive in Universal City, California. Distribution and other corporate offices are in New York City.
Universal Studios is a Member of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA).
Read more about Universal Studios: Universal's Library, Universal Studios Franchises, Production Deals
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“The appetite for power, even for universal power, is only insane when there is no possibility of indulging it; a man who sees the possibility opening before him and does not try to grasp it, even at the risk of destroying himself and his country, is either a saint or a mediocrity.”
—Simone Weil (1909–1943)