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For the Japanese film company within the Sony corporation, see Sony Pictures Entertainment Japan.
Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc.
Company typeSubsidiary of Sony[1]
IndustryEntertainment
FoundedDecember 21, 1987; 36 years ago (December 21, 1987) as Columbia Pictures Entertainment or Tri-Star Pictures Entertainment.[2] renamed Sony Pictures Entertainment on August 7, 1991; 33 years ago (August 7, 1991)
Headquarters10202 West Washington Blvd., Culver City, California, United States
Area served
Worldwide
Key people
Michael Lynton
(Chairman and CEO)
Products
RevenueIncrease US$ 8.302 billion (FY2015)[3]
Decrease US$ 341 million (FY2015)[3]
OwnerSony
ParentSony Entertainment Inc.
Websitesonypictures.com

Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc. (SPE) is the American entertainment subsidiary of Sony Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Japanese multinational technology and media conglomerate Sony.[4]

Based in Culver City, California, it encompasses Sony's motion picture, television production and distribution units. Its group sales in March 31, 2016 has been reported to be of $8.3 billion.[3]

Throughout the years, SPE has produced, distributed, or co-distributed successful franchises such as Spider-Man, Men in Black, Underworld, and Resident Evil.[5]

Sony Pictures Entertainment is a member of the Motion Picture Association of America.[6]

History

On September 1, 1987, The Coca-Cola Company announced plans to spin-off its assets of Columbia Pictures, which they had owned since 1982. Under this arrangement, Coca-Cola would sell their entertainment assets to Tri-Star Pictures, of which they owned 39.6%. Tri-Star would be renamed to Columbia Pictures Entertainment, Inc. (CPE), with Coca-Cola owning 49%, its shareholders owning 31%, and Tri-Star's shareholders owning 20%.[7][8] A new company was formed in early 1988 with the Tri-Star name to take over the studio's production operations.[9]

On September 28, 1989, Sony obtained an option to purchase all of The Coca-Cola Company's stock in CPE for $27 per share.[10] The next day, Sony also announced that it reached an agreement with Guber-Peters Entertainment Company, Inc. (NASDAQ: GPEC; formerly Barris Industries, Inc.) to acquire CPE for $200 million when Sony hired Peter Guber and Jon Peters to be its co-chairmen.[11] This was all led by Norio Ohga, who was the president and CEO of Sony during that time.

The hiring of Guber and Peters by Sony to run Columbia was conflicted by a previous contract the producers had signed at Warner Bros. Time Warner's chairman, Steve Ross, threatened Sony with a lawsuit for breach of contract. The lawsuit would be subsequently dropped when Sony sold half-interest in Columbia House and cable distribution rights to Columbia's feature films, TV movies, and miniseries to Warner Bros. Said agreement also saw Columbia sell its 35% interest in the Burbank Studios, and acquired Lorimar Studios, previously the MGM lot, from Warner Bros.[12][13]

On October 31, 1989, Sony completed a friendly takeover bid for the rest of shares (51%) of CPE, which was a public company listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: KPE), and acquired 99.3% of the common stock of the company. On November 8, 1989, Sony completed the acquisition by a "short-form" merger of its wholly owned subsidiary Sony Columbia Acquisition Corporation into CPE under Delaware law. Sony also completed a tender offer for shares of common stock of the Guber-Peters Entertainment Company on November 6, 1989 and acquired the company on November 9, 1989. The acquisition cost Sony $4.9 billion ($3.55 billion for shares and $1.4 billion of long-term debt) and was backed (financed) by five major Japanese banks Mitsui, Tokyo, Fuji, Mitsubishi and Industrial Bank of Japan.[14][15][16] The company was renamed Sony Pictures Entertainment on August 7, 1991.[17][18]

Sony has since created numerous other film production and distribution units, such as creating Sony Pictures Classics for art-house fare, by forming Columbia TriStar Pictures (also known as the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group) by merging Columbia Pictures and TriStar Pictures in 1998, revitalizing Columbia's former television division Screen Gems. It expanded its operations on April 8, 2005, when a Sony-led consortium acquired the legendary Hollywood studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, in a US$4.8 billion leveraged buyout, through the holding company MGM Holdings Inc.[19][20][21]

On June 4, 2008, SPE's wholly owned group 2JS Productions B.V. acquired Dutch production company 2waytraffic N.V., famous for Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? and You Are What You Eat for £114.3 million ($223.2 million in US dollars).

In 2011, the Sony Pictures computer network was breached and approximately one million user accounts associated with the SonyPictures.com website were leaked.[22]

On November 18, 2012, Sony Pictures announced it has passed $4 billion with the success of releases: Skyfall, The Amazing Spider-Man, 21 Jump Street, Men in Black 3, Hotel Transylvania, Underworld: Awakening, The Vow, and Resident Evil: Retribution.[5] On November 21, 2013, SPE and Sony Entertainment's CEO Michael Lynton announced that SPE will shift emphasis from movies to television by cutting its 2014 film slate.[23][24][25][26] It was also announced on the same day, that there will be more Spider-Man sequels and spin-offs.[27]

On January 22, 2014, SPE folded its technology unit into its various cores of its businesses.[28] In April, Sony Pictures arranged a film financing deal worth $200 million with LStar Capital, the credit venture of Lone Star Capital and CitiBank, half in debt and the other in equity to fund most of SPE's film slate for several years. SPE was originally considering a $300 million deal with Blue Anchor Entertainment, led by Bloom Hergott partner John LaViolette and former investment banker & producer Joseph M. Singer, and backed by Longhorn Capital Management and Deutsche Bank, which was held up by regulatory matters.[29] On February 6, 2014, Sony Pictures Entertainment, through their legal name "Columbia TriStar Warner Filmes de Portugal Ltda.", announced that they will close their offices in Portugal on March 31.[30]

On November 20, 2015, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment announced that they will release Ultra HD Blu-ray Disc releases. The first set will be in early 2016 and will include film and television content.[31]

Main article: Sony Pictures Entertainment hack

In November 2014, the Sony Pictures computer network was compromised by a group of hackers named Guardians of Peace, disabling many computers.[32] Later the same week, five of Sony Pictures' movies were leaked, including some not yet released (such as Fury and Annie), as well as confidential data about 47,000 current and former Sony employees.[33][34][35] Film historian Wheeler Winston Dixon suggested that the hack, which exposed the inner workings of the studio, was "not a pretty picture," and served as a "wake-up call to the entire industry."[36] The hack also revealed some other plans, like a partnership with Marvel Studios for the inclusion of the superhero Spider-Man in Captain America: Civil War.[37] On December 16, the hackers issued a warning to moviegoers, threatening to attack anyone who sees The Interview during the holidays and urging people to "remember the 11th of September 2001".[38] On December 17, 2014 Sony cancelled the previously planned December 25 release of The Interview in response to hacker threats.[39]

On February 24, 2015, Tom Rothman was named chairman of SPE's motion picture group to replace Amy Pascal.[40][41]

On April 16, 2015, WikiLeaks published over 30,287 documents, 173,132 e-mails, and 2,200 corporate e-mail addresses of Sony Pictures' employees. WikiLeaks said in a press release that the content of the leaks were "newsworthy and at the center of a geo-political conflict" and belonged "in the public domain". Sony Pictures later condemned the hack and subsequent leaks, calling it a "malicious criminal act", while also criticizing WikiLeaks for describing the leaked content as public domain.[42][43]

Corporate structure

Headquartered in Culver City, California, USA, SPE comprises various studios and entertainment brands, including Columbia Pictures, Screen Gems, TriStar Pictures and GSN.

Senior management team

List of holdings

Motion Pictures and Home Entertainment

  • Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group:[44] 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.[46] The group owns studio facilities in the United States, Hong Kong, Madrid, Mexico, the United Kingdom, Brazil and Japan. In addition to the company-owned brands below, Sony Pictures also has a contract to distribute select films by MGM and UA.
    • Columbia Pictures: Founded in 1924 by Harry Cohn, Sony acquired the studio in 1989 from The Coca-Cola Company for $3.4 billion.[14][15]
    • TriStar Pictures: Formed in 1982 as a joint venture between Columbia Pictures, HBO, and CBS. Became part of Columbia Pictures Entertainment in December 1987 and the Sony ownership in 1989. Was relaunched in 2004 as a marketing and acquisitions unit that specializes in genre and independent films.
    • Screen Gems: Originally Columbia's animation division and later a television production company best known for TV's Bewitched and The Partridge Family, as well as bringing The Three Stooges short subjects to TV in 1958. 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.
    • Sony Pictures Classics (SPC): Specializes in acquiring North American distribution rights to art-houseindependent and foreign films as well as producing lower-budget productions geared to limited audiences.[46]
    • Sony Pictures Imageworks[47]
    • Sony Pictures Animation
    • Sony Pictures Releasing: Founded in 1994[48] as Triumph Releasing Corporation. The unit handles distribution, marketing and promotion for films produced by Sony Pictures Entertainment; including Columbia Pictures, TriStar Pictures, Screen Gems, Sony Pictures Classics, among others.
      • Sony Pictures Releasing International (formerly Columbia TriStar Film Distributors International)
        • Sony Pictures India, production house established by Sony to release Indian movies and distribute Hollywood movies, released under Columbia Pictures.
        • Monumental Pictures: A Russian motion picture studio formed on February 2, 2006 as a joint venture between Sony Pictures Entertainment and Russia-based Patton Media Group producing and releasing Russian language films in Russia, the CIS, and Mongolia.
    • Sony Pictures Home Entertainment: Manufactures and distributes the Sony film library on Blu-ray Disc, DVD, and UMD forms to global markets.
    • Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions (SPWA): A Sony division which acquires and produces about 60 films per year for a wide variety of distribution platforms, especially for non-theatrical markets. It had been called Worldwide SPE Acquisitions, Inc. until September 2010.

Television

Production and distribution
International production
  • 2waytraffic: Acquired by Sony in 2008, this television production company owns a number of formats, most notably including Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?.
  • Electric Ray: Founded by Karl Warner with SPT in January 2014.[49]
  • Floresta
  • Gogglebox Entertainment
  • Huaso: A Chinese joint venture production company launched in 2004 by Sony Pictures Television International and Hua Long Film Digital Production Co., Ltd. of the China Film Group in Beijing.[50]
  • Lean-M Producers Center: A Russian production company founded in 2000 by Timur Weinstein, Vyacheslav Murugov and Oleg Osipov. In 2007, SPTI acquired a majority stake in Lean-M, with an additional 16% on April 13, 2009 [51] and the remainder in 2010.
  • Left Bank Pictures: A UK production company founded by Andy Harries, Francis Hopkinson, and Marigo Kehoe in 2007. Majority stake acquired by SPT in 2012.
  • Playmaker Media: An Australian production company acquired by SPT in 2014.[52]
  • Silver River Productions
  • Starling
  • Stellify Media: A joint venture between SPT, Kieran Doherty, and Matt Worthy launched in 2014 for Northern Ireland.[53]
  • Teleset
  • Victory Television: A UK television production company that was founded in 2011; a joint-venture with Victoria Ashbourne.
Television networks
USA
International

Other Sony Pictures operations

Entrance to SPE main lot in Culver City
  • Sony Pictures Cable Ventures, Inc.
  • 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 Entertainment Japan (SPEJ): The company plans, produces, manufactures, sells, imports, exports, leases, broadcasts and distributes movies, TV programs, videos and audio-visual software in Japan. The company web site says it was established on February 10, 1984,[60] predating Sony's acquisition of Columbia Pictures Entertainment by 5 years. SPEJ was formed in 1991 through the merger of Columbia TriStar Japan, RCA-Columbia Pictures Video Japan, and Japan International Enterprises.[61] Based in Tokyo, Japan.
  • Sony Pictures Europe: Offices located at 25 Golden Square, London, England
  • Sony Pictures Studios Post Production Facilities
  • Worldwide Product Fulfillment

References

  1. ^ "OUR BUSINESSES". Sony.
  2. ^ Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc.: Private Company Information
  3. ^ a b c "Consolidated Financial Results for the Fiscal Year Ended March 31, 2016" (PDF). Tokyo, Japan: Sony. 28 April 2016. p. 6. Retrieved 28 April 2016.
  4. ^ "Sony Pictures Entertainment" About Sony Pictures sonypictures.com, Retrieved on January 28, 2016
  5. ^ a b ‘Skyfall’s $669.2M Global Helps Sony Pictures Post Best Ever $4B Worldwide
  6. ^ "Motion Picture Association of America - About Us". MPAA. Retrieved 27 May 2012.
  7. ^ Dick, Bernard F. (1992) "Columbia Pictures: Portrait of a Studio" (p. 46). The University Press of Kentucky. ISBN 0-8131-1769-0.
  8. ^ "New York Department of State Division of Corporations - Entity Search: Columbia Pictures Entertainment, Inc". Retrieved 5 August 2013.
  9. ^ "State of New York Division of Corporations - Entity Search: Tri-Star Pictures, Inc". Retrieved 5 August 2013.
  10. ^ "Sony to Buy Columbia, Says Americans Will Run Studio : 1st Sale of Film Maker to Japanese". latimes.com. 27 September 1989. Retrieved 24 September 2012.
  11. ^ "Funding Universe - Columbia Tristar". Retrieved 24 September 2012.
  12. ^ Warner, Sony settle suit over producers (November 17, 1989). Los Angeles: Associated Press.
  13. ^ Medavoy, Mike and Young, Josh (2002). You're Only as Good as Your Next One: 100 Great Films, 100 Good Films, and 100 for Which I Should Be Shot (p. 210). New York City: Atria Books
  14. ^ a b Rudolph B (1994) So many dreams so many losses. Time vol. 144, no. 22 (November 28, 1994)
  15. ^ a b Griffin N, Masters K (1996) Hit and Run: How Jon Peters and Peter Guber Took Sony for a Ride in Hollywood. (Simon & Schuster, ISBN 0-684-83266-6)
  16. ^ Nathan, J. (1999) Sony: The Private Life. (Houghton Mifflin, ISBN 0-395-89327-5, ISBN 0-618-12694-5)
  17. ^ She Holds Torch for Sony Pictures Entertainment, latimes.com
  18. ^ "Funding Universe - Sony Corporation". Retrieved 24 September 2012.
  19. ^ Sony will purchase MGM in a deal worth about $5 billion, CNN, September 14, 2004.
  20. ^ MGM Disclosure Statement page 424 (Appendix D: Audited Financial Statement. March 2009, page 6), October 7, 2010
  21. ^ Sony Consolidated Financial Statements for the year ended March 31, 2008
  22. ^ "Sony Pictures Website Hacked, 1 Million Accounts Exposed". mashable.com.
  23. ^ DAVID LIEBERMAN "Deadline" Sony Pictures Vows To Cut Costs $250M+ Through 2016 deadline.com, Retrieved on November 22, 2013
  24. ^ DAVID LIEBERMAN "Deadline" Sony Pictures To Shift Emphasis From Movies To TV, Will Cut Film Output For 2014 deadline.com, Retrieved on November 22, 2013
  25. ^ NELLIE ANDREEVA "Deadline" From Pariah To Company MVP: The Quiet Rise Of Sony’s Television Division deadline.com, Retrieved on November 22, 2013
  26. ^ DAVID LIEBERMAN "Deadline" Sony TV Execs Talk Up Global Opportunities deadline.com, Retrieved on November 22, 2013
  27. ^ DAVID LIEBERMAN "Deadline" Sony Pictures Plans More Spider-Man Sequels And Spinoffs – But Still No Marvel Reunion deadline.com, Retrieved on November 22, 2013
  28. ^ "Deadline" Layoffs Hit Sony Pictures As SPE Absorbs Technology Unit deadline.com, Retrieved on January 24, 2014
  29. ^ Fleming, Mike, Jr (April 8, 2014). "Sony Closes Slate Co-Fi Deal With Lone Star Capital, CitiBank". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved October 31, 2014.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  30. ^ Eurico de Barros "DN Artes"Columbia Tristar Warner closes offices in Portugal dn.pt, Retrieved on May 12, 2015
  31. ^ "Sony Pictures Becomes Second Studio to Announce Ultra HD Films on Disc". Variety. Retrieved 2015-11-20.
  32. ^ "Hack at Sony Pictures shuts computer system". LA Times.
  33. ^ "Sony movies leak online after hack attack". Torrentfreak. Retrieved November 30, 2014.
  34. ^ "Hackers Pirate Sony Films and Leak Studio Salaries". New York times.
  35. ^ http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-switch/wp/2014/12/19/lawsuits-against-sony-pictures-could-test-employer-responsibility-for-data-breaches/
  36. ^ MEG JAMES, RYAN FAUGHNDER, December 13, 2014, Los Angeles Times, Fallout from Sony hack may alter how Hollywood conducts business, Retrieved December 14, 2014
  37. ^ Spider-Man may appear in 'Captain America 3' mashable.com
  38. ^ "Sony Hackers Threaten Movie Theaters". USA Today. December 16, 2014.
  39. ^ "Sony pulls 'The Interview'; the Internet reacts". CNBC. December 18, 2014.
  40. ^ "Deadline" Tom Rothman Replaces Amy Pascal At Sony Pictures; Michael Lynton Contract Extended deadline.com, Retrieved on 24 February 2015
  41. ^ "Bloomberg" Sony Names Former Fox Film Chief Tom Rothman to Replace Pascal bloomberg.com, Retrieved on 24 February 2015
  42. ^ "Los Angeles Times" [1] latimes.com, Retrieved on April 16, 2015
  43. ^ Anousha Sakoui "Yahoo! Finance" [2] finance.yahoo.com, Retrieved on April 17, 2015
  44. ^ a b "Sony Pictures - Divisions". sonypictures.com. Retrieved 7 June 2015.
  45. ^ Steve Mosko upped to chairman of Sony Pictures Television RYAN FAUGHNDER latimes.com September 28, 2015, Retrieved on September 28, 2015
  46. ^ a b c Sony Pictures – Corporate Factsheet
  47. ^ "Sony Pictures Imageworks". imageworks.com.
  48. ^ SONY PICTURES RELEASING CORPORATION businessprofiles.com, Retrieved on January 20, 2014
  49. ^ NANCY TARTAGLIONE "Deadline" Sony Pictures Television, Karl Warner Launch UK Production Outfit Electric Ray deadline.com, Retrieved on January 21, 2014
  50. ^ "PRNewswire" Sony Pictures Television International Forms First Fully Government Approved Television and Film Production Joint Venture in the People's Republic of China, prnewswire.com, Retrieved on September 30, 2012
  51. ^ CCC director sold shares of Sony Pictures Television series producer. Retrieved on February 28, 2012
  52. ^ Cynthia Littleton "Variety"Sony Pictures Television Acquires Australia’s Playmaker Media variety.com, Retrieved on February 8, 2015
  53. ^ NANCY TARTAGLIONE "Deadline"Sony Pictures Television Launches Northern Ireland Production Company Stellify Media deadline.com, Retrieved on March 20, 2014
  54. ^ The Anime Biz – By Ian Rowley, with Hiroko Tashiro, Chester Dawson, and Moon Ihlwan, BusinessWeek, June 27, 2005.
  55. ^ Animax Asia – Corporate Profile – Animax-Asia official website.
  56. ^ Sony closes CSC deal, ups Kate Marsh tbivision.com, Retrieved on August 20, 2014
  57. ^ SONY PICTURES TELEVISION CLOSES FILM1 DEAL sonypicturestelevision.com, Retrieved on July 26, 2015
  58. ^ Sony buys Viasat channels from MTG www.digitaltveurope.net, Retrieved on February 11, 2015
  59. ^ Affiliated Companies (Outside Japan) Sony Corporation
  60. ^ Sony Pictures Online SPEJ – Company Profile, Sony Pictures Entertainment (Japan), Inc. official website.
  61. ^ History of Columbia Pictures Part 3, Sony Pictures Entertainment Japan (in Japanese)
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