Amblin Entertainment
| Production company logo | |
| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Film, television |
| Founded | 1981 |
| Headquarters | , |
Key people | Steven Spielberg Kathleen Kennedy Frank Marshall |
| Products | Motion pictures |
| Services | Film production |
Amblin Entertainment is an American film and television production company founded by director and producer Steven Spielberg and film producers Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall in 1981. Amblin is only a production company, and has never distributed its own movies, nor has it fully financed its productions, needing the help of the studios that distributed it. Its logo features the silhouette of E.T. riding in the basket on Elliott's bicycle flying in front of the moon from the movie, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial.
Amblin is named after Spielberg's first commercially released film, Amblin' (1968), a short independent film about a man and woman hitchhiking through the desert. The film, which cost $15,000 to produce, was shown for Universal Studios and won Spielberg more directing roles. Although Spielberg owns shares in both Amblin and DreamWorks, it is Universal that distributes many Amblin productions and Amblin operates out of a building on the Universal lot.
In addition to various Spielberg films, Amblin has produced movies by other directors including Joe Dante (Gremlins, Small Soldiers, Gremlins 2: The New Batch, Innerspace), Robert Zemeckis (the Back to the Future trilogy, Who Framed Roger Rabbit), Brian Levant (the Flintstones duology), Penelope Spheeris (the 1994 film remake of The Little Rascals), Brad Silberling (Casper), Don Bluth (An American Tail, The Land Before Time), Clint Eastwood (The Bridges of Madison County, Flags of Our Fathers, Letters from Iwo Jima - the Amblin logo does not appear on Eastwood's films, or on Schindler's List), Gil Kenan (Monster House), Martin Campbell (The Mask of Zorro, The Legend of Zorro), Richard Donner (The Goonies), Jan de Bont (Twister), Barry Sonnenfeld (the Men in Black trilogy), Martin Scorsese (Cape Fear), Joe Johnston (Jurassic Park III), J. J. Abrams (Super 8) and Simon Wells (An American Tail: Fievel Goes West, We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story and Balto).
The majority of these directors are close friends of Spielberg, who has an executive producer or producer credit on many but not all of Amblin's non-Spielberg films (his name does not appear on the credits of Small Soldiers, The Little Rascals or Cape Fear, for which he was an uncredited executive producer.). Amblin's most critically acclaimed production is Schindler's List (1993). The film was nominated for twelve Academy Awards and won seven, including Best Picture. A companion study guide, Facing History, was prepared through a grant from Amblin and Universal.
Amblin's television series credits include Amazing Stories, Tiny Toon Adventures, seaQuest DSV, Animaniacs, Earth 2, Pinky and the Brain, ER, Freakazoid, Back to the Future, Family Dog, The Spooktacular New Adventures of Casper, Fievel's American Tails and The Land Before Time. Fievel's American Tails and others were produced by Amblin's animation division Amblimation, which was active from 1991 until 1995. Another studio which has distributed many Amblin productions is Warner Bros. Entertainment. DreamWorks (which was co-founded by Spielberg) has distributed a number of Amblin productions since 1994. The Walt Disney Motion Pictures Group has also collaborated with Amblin in such films as Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Arachnophobia, Noises Off, A Far Off Place and War Horse (which is a DreamWorks production but released by Disney`s Touchstone Pictures as part of a 30-picture distribution deal between Disney and DreamWorks) . In 2011 in partnership with Twentieth Century Fox the Terra Nova television series was released.
Motion pictures
| Title | Release Date | Main Studio 1 | Main Studio 2 | Other Production Companies | Budget | Gross |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Continental Divide | 09-18-1981 | Universal Pictures | unknown | unknown | ||
| E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial | 06-11-1982 | Universal Pictures | $10.5 million | $792,910,554 | ||
| Gremlins | 06-08-1984 | Warner Bros. | $11 million | $153,083,102 | ||
| Fandango | 01-25-1985 | Warner Bros. | $4 million | $91,666 | ||
| The Goonies | 06-07-1985 | Warner Bros. | $19,000,000 | $61,389,680 | ||
| Back to the Future | 07-03-1985 | Universal Pictures | U-Drive Productions | $19 million | $381,109,710 | |
| Young Sherlock Holmes | 12-04-1985 | Paramount Pictures | $18,000,000 (estimated) | |||
| The Color Purple | 12-18-1985 | Warner Bros. | The Guber-Peters Company | $15 million | $142,000,000 | |
| The Money Pit | 03-26-1986 | Universal Pictures | U-Drive Productions | $24 million | $54,999,651 (worldwide) | |
| An American Tail | 11-21-1986 | Universal Pictures | Sullivan Bluth Studios U-Drive Productions |
$84,542,002 | ||
| Harry and the Hendersons | 06-05-1987 | Universal Pictures | U-Drive Productions | $16 million | $49,998,613 (worldwide) | |
| Innerspace | 07-01-1987 | Warner Bros. | $25,893,810 (domestic) | |||
| Empire of the Sun | 12-09-1987 | Warner Bros. | $35 million | $66.24 million | ||
| *batteries not included | 12-18-1987 | Universal Pictures | $25 million (est.) | $65,088,797 | ||
| Who Framed Roger Rabbit | 06-22-1988 | Touchstone Pictures | Silver Screen Partners Walt Disney Feature Animation |
$70,000,000 | $329,803,958 | |
| The Land Before Time | 11-18-1988 | Universal Pictures | Lucasfilm Sullivan Bluth Studios U-Drive Productions |
$12.5 million | $84,460,846 | |
| Dad | 10-27-1989 | Universal Pictures | Ubu Productions | $19 million | $27,503,037 | |
| Back to the Future Part II | 11-22-1989 | Universal Pictures | U-Drive Productions | $40 million | $331,950,002 | |
| Always | 12-22-1989 | Universal Pictures | United Artists | U-Drive Productions | $29.5 million | |
| Joe Versus the Volcano | 03-09-1990 | Warner Bros. | $45 million | $39,404,261 (USA) | ||
| Back to the Future Part III | 05-25-1990 | Universal Pictures | U-Drive Productions | $40 million | $244,527,583 | |
| Gremlins 2: The New Batch | 06-15-1990 | Warner Bros. | $50 million | $41,482,207 (United States) | ||
| Arachnophobia | 07-18-1990 | Hollywood Pictures | Tangled Web Productions | $31 million | $53,208,180 | |
| A Brief History of Time | 10-16-1991 | Triton Pictures | Anglia Television Channel Four Films NBC Tokyo Broadcasting System |
N/A | N/A | |
| Cape Fear | 11-13-1991 | Universal Pictures | Cappa Films TriBeCa Productions |
$35 million | $182,291,969 | |
| An American Tail: Fievel Goes West | 11-22-1991 | Universal Pictures | unknown | $65,435,625 | ||
| Hook | 12-11-1991 | TriStar Pictures | $70 million | $300,854,823 | ||
| Noises Off...* | 03-20-1992 | Touchstone Pictures | Nothing On Productions Touchwood Pacific Partners |
$19 million | $2,280,148 | |
| A Far Off Place* | 03-12-1993 | Walt Disney Pictures | Touchwood Pacific Partners | unknown | $12,890,752 | |
| Jurassic Park | 06-11-1993 | Universal Pictures | $63 million | $914,691,118 | ||
| We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story | 11-24-1993 | Universal Pictures | unknown | $9,315,576 (USA) | ||
| A Dangerous Woman* | 12-03-1993 | Universal Pictures | Gramercy Pictures (distributing label) Island World Rollercoaster Productions | |||
| Schindler's List | 12-15-1993 | Universal Pictures | ||||
| The Flintstones | 05-27-1994 | Universal Pictures | Hanna-Barbera Productions | |||
| The Little Rascals* | 08-05-1994 | Universal Pictures | King World Productions | |||
| Little Giants* | 10-14-1994 | Warner Bros. | ||||
| Casper | 05-26-1995 | Universal Pictures | The Harvey Entertainment Company | |||
| The Bridges of Madison County* | 06-02-1995 | Warner Bros. | Malpaso Productions | |||
| To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar* | 09-08-1995 | Universal Pictures | ||||
| How to Make an American Quilt* | 10-06-1995 | Universal Pictures | ||||
| Balto | 12-22-1995 | Universal Pictures | ||||
| Twister | 05-17-1996 | Warner Bros. | Universal Pictures | Constant c Productions | ||
| The Trigger Effect* | 08-30-1996 | Universal Pictures | Gramercy Pictures (distributing label) | |||
| The Lost World: Jurassic Park | 05-19-1997 | Universal Pictures | ||||
| Men in Black | 07-02-1997 | Columbia Pictures | Parkes/MacDonald Productions | |||
| Small Soldiers* | 07-10-1998 | DreamWorks | Universal Pictures | |||
| The Mask of Zorro | 07-17-1998 | TriStar Pictures | ||||
| Saving Private Ryan | 07-24-1998 | DreamWorks | Paramount Pictures | Mark Gordon Productions The Mutual Film Company | ||
| In Dreams* | 01-15-1999 | DreamWorks | ||||
| The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas* | 04-28-2000 | Universal Pictures | Hanna-Barbera Productions | |||
| A.I.: Artificial Intelligence | 06-29-2001 | DreamWorks | Warner Bros. | Stanley Kubrick Productions | ||
| Jurassic Park III | 07-18-2001 | Universal Studios | ||||
| Minority Report | 06-21-2002 | 20th Century Fox | DreamWorks | Blue Tulip Productions Cruise/Wagner Productions | ||
| Men in Black II | 07-04-2002 | Columbia Pictures | Parkes/MacDonald Productions | |||
| Catch Me If You Can | 12-25-2002 | DreamWorks | Kemp Company Parkes/MacDonald Productions Splendid Pictures | |||
| The Terminal | 06-18-2004 | DreamWorks | Parkes/MacDonald Productions | |||
| War of the Worlds | 06-29-2005 | DreamWorks | Paramount Pictures | Cruise/Wagner Productions | ||
| The Legend of Zorro | 10-28-2005 | Columbia Pictures | Spyglass Entertainment Tornado Productions | |||
| Memoirs of a Geisha | 12-09-2005 | Columbia Pictures | DreamWorks | Red Wagon Productions Spyglass Entertainment | ||
| Munich | 12-23-2005 | Universal Pictures | DreamWorks Pictures | Alliance Atlantis Barry Mendel Productions The Kennedy/Marshall Company Peninsula Films | ||
| Monster House | 07-21-2006 | Columbia Pictures | ImageMovers Relativity Media | |||
| Flags of Our Fathers | 10-20-2006 | Warner Bros. | DreamWorks | Malpaso Productions | ||
| Letters from Iwo Jima | 12-20-2006 | Warner Bros. | DreamWorks | Malpaso Productions | ||
| Hereafter | 10-15-2010 | Warner Bros. | Malpaso Productions The Kennedy/Marshall Company | |||
| Super 8 | 06-10-2011 | Paramount Pictures | Bad Robot Productions | |||
| The Adventures of Tintin | 12-21-2011 | Paramount Pictures | Columbia Pictures | The Kennedy/Marshall Company WingNut Films Nickelodeon Movies | ||
| War Horse | 12-25-2011 | DreamWorks | Touchstone Pictures | The Kennedy/Marshall Company | ||
| Men in Black III | 05-25-2012 | Columbia Pictures | ||||
| Lincoln | 2012 | DreamWorks SKG | Touchstone Pictures | Imagine Entertainment, The Kennedy/Marshall Company, Parkes/MacDonald Productions | ||
| Cloud Atlas | October 2012 | Warner Bros. | ||||
| Robopocalypse | 07-4-2013 | DreamWorks SKG | Touchstone Pictures 20th Century Fox |
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| Jurassic Park IV | TBA-2013 | Universal Pictures | Relativity Media | |||
| The 39 Clues | TBA-2014 | Universal Pictures | DreamWorks SKG Touchstone Pictures |
Walden Media Scholastic Media |
- Asteriked films indicate that Steven Spielberg is uncredited or uninvolved.
Television shows
Live-action
With DreamWorks Television
- On the Lot (2007)
- The Talisman (2009, miniseries)
With Universal Television
- Amazing Stories (1985–1987)
- Harry and the Hendersons (1991–1993, as MCA TV)
- seaQuest DSV (1993–1996)
- Earth 2 (1994–1995)
- Fudge (1995-1996 as MTE, 1996-1997 as Universal)
With Warner Bros. Television
- ER (1994–2009) production with Constant C Productions
With Paramount and Lucasfilm
- The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles (1992–1996)
With 20th Century Fox Television
- Terra Nova (2011-)
Animated
With Universal Animation Studios
- Back to the Future: The Animated Series (1991–1992)
- Fievel's American Tails (1992, also with Nelvana)
- The Spooktacular New Adventures of Casper (1996–1998)
- The Land Before Time (2007–)
With Warner Bros. Television Animation
- Tiny Toon Adventures (1990–1995)
- The Plucky Duck Show (1992)
- Animaniacs (1993–1998)
- Freakazoid! (1995–1997)
- Pinky and the Brain (1995–1998)
- Pinky, Elmyra & the Brain (1998–1999)
With Universal, WB and Nelvana
- Family Dog (1993)
Theme park attractions
While Amblin has never had its own theme park, theme parks have made rides based upon Amblin films and co-productions.
- Back to the Future: The Ride, a simulator ride at Universal Studios Japan. Also existed at Universal Studios Florida and Universal Studios Hollywood.
- The Gremlins Ride, a ride at Movieworld.
- Jurassic Park: The Ride, a water ride at Universal Studios Hollywood.
- Mickey's Toontown, a land at Disneyland and Tokyo Disneyland, based upon the film Who Framed Roger Rabbit.
Roger Rabbit cartoon shorts
- Tummy Trouble (1989)
- Roller Coaster Rabbit (1990)
- Trail Mix-Up (1993)