Walt Disney Studios (division)
The Walt Disney Studios is a major division of the Disney Entertainment business segment of The Walt Disney Company[4] best known for housing its multifaceted film studio divisions. Founded on October 16, 1923, and based mainly at the namesake studio lot in Burbank, California, it is the seventh-oldest global film studio and the fifth-oldest in the United States, a member of the Motion Picture Association (MPA)[5] and one of the "Big Five" major film studios.[6]
Formerly
Buena Vista Motion Pictures Group (1998–2007)
- Buena Vista Motion Pictures Group (1998–2007)
October 16, 1923
8 (2019)
Worldwide
Alan Bergman (chairman)
The Walt Disney Studios has prominent film production companies including Walt Disney Pictures, Walt Disney Animation Studios, Pixar, Marvel Studios, Lucasfilm, 20th Century Studios and Searchlight Pictures. Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures distributes and markets the majority of the content produced by these studios for both theatrical exhibition and the company's streaming services. In 2019, Disney posted an industry record of $13.2 billion at the global box office.[7] The studio owns eight of the top ten highest-grossing films of all time worldwide, and several of the highest-grossing film franchises of all time.
Background
Walt Disney Productions began production of their first feature-length animated film in 1934. Taking three years to complete, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, premiered in December 1937 and became the highest-grossing film of that time by 1939.[8] In the 1940s, Disney began experimenting with full-length live-action films, with the introduction of hybrid live action-animated films such as The Reluctant Dragon (1941) and Song of the South (1946).[9] That same decade, the studio began producing nature documentaries with the release of Seal Island (1948), the first of the True-Life Adventures series and a subsequent Academy Award winner for Best Live-Action Short Film.[10][11]
Walt Disney Productions had its first fully live-action film in 1950 with the release of Treasure Island, considered by Disney to be the official conception for what would eventually evolve into the modern-day Walt Disney Pictures.[12] By 1953, the company ended their agreements with such third-party distributors as RKO Radio Pictures and United Artists and formed their own distribution company, Buena Vista Distribution.[13] Disney Productions purchased in 1959 the Golden Oak Ranch for feature films and television series productions complimenting its main Burbank studio.[14]