The Magic of Universal Pictures

The Universal Pictures was founded by Mark Dintenfass, Charles O. Baumann, Carl Laemmle, Adam Kessel, Pat Powers, William Swanson, Jules Brulatourm and David Horsley in the year 1912. The studio’s founder member Carl Laemmle was elected its first President. The Laemmle’s held control over Universal till 1936 after which it was taken over by Standard Capital Corporation. Till 1942 the Universal studios main stay was low budget films. 

Presently Universal Pictures is one of the oldest picture studios still in production, the other studios being Paramount Pictures, Nordisk Film, Pathe, and Gaumont Films. The studio has produced some all time great and highest grossing movies like Jurassic Park, Jaws, and E.T. The Extra Terrestrial, all three directed by Steven Spielberg.

Presently the Universal Pictures is owned by Comcast, a subsidiary of NBC Universal. The company has become one of the major studios in the world and has established studios/ theme Parks in Hollywood, Orlando, Singapore and Japan. The studio in Orlando is a theme park and television series production house. It was opened in July 7, 1990. The Universal Pictures Theme park’s direct competition is Walt Disney World and both are always in a race to better each other. The Universal Studios in Los Angeles is credited with giving rise to the slogan of Entertainment Capital of LA. The theme park has lots of film themed rides and live shows.

Universal Studios Japan opened on March 21, 2001. Situated in Osaka city of Japan, it is one of the three theme parks which set a record of highest number of visitors in the first year. The number of visitors was 11,000 million. This park, like many others, faces the problem of preservation of soil from contamination caused due to the previously dumped waste by surrounding industries.

Almost every child’s dream holiday destination or favourite destination is the Sentosa Island due to the Resorts World Sentosa and the second theme park of the Universal Studios. This theme park of Universal Studios boasts of 7 theme zones like, Madagascar, Ancient Egypt and The Lost World.

Universal Studios has over 7 units, and a joint venture, namely, Universal Animation Studios, Universal Parks & Resorts, Universal Studios Home Entertainment, Illumination Entertainment, Working Title Films, Focus Features, and the joint venture, United International Pictures.

The magic of Universal Pictures is universal!! It will be interesting to see how the new players like World Pictures Australia with its movie, ‘My Cornerstone’, due for release in April 2014, directed by Stanley Joseph, with an interesting cross over Australian-Indian story competes with the established giants of the entertainment industry.