Formerly |
|
---|---|
Company type | Subsidiary |
Predecessor | Casablanca Filmworks |
Founded | 1975 |
Founders | Peter Guber |
Defunct | 1999 |
Fate | Acquired by Seagram and folded into Universal Pictures; most of the pre-spring 1996 library sold to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Some of its North American distribution assets sold to USA Networks |
Successors | Studio: Universal Pictures USA Films Focus Features PolyGram Entertainment Library: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (pre-April 1996 films with exceptions) Universal Pictures (post-March 1996 films with exceptions and some pre-March 1996 films) |
Owner | |
Parent |
|
Divisions | PolyGram Television PolyGram Video PolyGram Visual Programming |
1912 | Universal Pictures is founded |
---|---|
1926 | NBC is founded |
1928 | Walter Lantz Productions is established |
1943 | MCA Inc. establishes Revue Studios (later Universal Television) |
1953 | NBC begins first compatible color broadcasts, preceding other networks by nine years |
1956 | NBC's first peacock logo debuts |
1963 | American Cable Systems is founded |
1964 | Universal Studios Hollywood opens |
1967 | NBC broadcasts the first Super Bowl |
1968 | American Cable Systems rebrands to Comcast |
1972 | Comcast began trading on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) |
1975 | Universal releases Jaws |
1980 | PolyGram renames Casablanca Record & Filmworks to PolyGram Pictures MCA Videocassette‚ Inc. (later Universal Pictures Home Entertainment) is established |
1982 | Universal releases E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial |
1984 | Walter Lantz Productions' assets are sold to Universal Telemundo is founded |
1985 | Universal releases Back to the Future |
1986 | General Electric buys RCA for $6.4 billion, including NBC and a stake in A&E |
1989 | NBC relaunches Tempo Television as CNBC |
1990 | Universal Studios Florida opens Law & Order premieres on NBC Sky Television and British Satellite Broadcasting merge to form British Sky Broadcasting Universal Cartoon Studios (later Universal Animation Studios) is established |
1993 | Universal releases Jurassic Park |
1994-1995/96 | DreamWorks Animation is founded |
1996-1997 | NBC and Microsoft replace America's Talking with MSNBC |
1997 | Barry Diller purchases Universal's domestic television assets |
1998 | Seagram acquires PolyGram Filmed Entertainment Universal Television is renamed Studios USA Television |
1999 | PolyGram Filmed Entertainment is folded into Universal Pictures Universal Studios Florida expands to become Universal Orlando Resort Law & Order: Special Victims Unit premieres on NBC |
2001 | Grand opening of Universal Studios Japan Universal releases The Fast and the Furious Vivendi purchases Studios USA |
2002 | NBC acquires Telemundo and Bravo Studios USA assets are folded into Universal Focus Features is formed Comcast acquires AT&T Broadband for $44.5 billion |
2003 | Universal becomes the first studio with five summer releases breaking the $100 million mark |
2004 | GE and Vivendi merge NBC and Universal into NBCUniversal |
2005 | The Office premieres on NBC Comcast sets up a joint-venture with PBS, Sesame Workshop & HIT Entertainment to form PBS Kids Sprout Comcast & Time Warner Cable jointly acquire Adelphia Cable assets for $17.6 billion |
2006 | USA Network begins 13-year streak as #1 cable network in total viewers |
2007 | Illumination is founded |
2010 | Universal releases Illumination's first film Despicable Me |
2011 | Vivendi divested in NBCU; Comcast buys 51% of NBCU from GE, turning it into a limited liability company NBCUniversal Archives is founded |
2012 | Universal celebrates its 100th anniversary NBCUniversal divests its A&E Networks minority stake |
2013 | Comcast buys GE's remaining 49% of NBCU Comcast/NBCU assumes full ownership of Sprout |
2014 | Comcast attempts to acquire Time Warner Cable for $45.2 billion NBCUniversal reaches a new long-term deal with WWE |
2016 | NBCU acquires DreamWorks Animation |
2017 | Sprout relaunches as Universal Kids |
2018 | Comcast acquires Sky after a heated bidding war with 21st Century Fox |
2019 | NBCU acquires Cineo Lighting |
2020 | NBCU launches Peacock DreamWorks’s Trolls World Tour is releasing on Video on Demand |
2021 | Grand opening of Universal Beijing Resort |
2023 | Universal releases M3GAN, The Super Mario Bros. Movie, Fast X, Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken, Oppenheimer, and Five Nights at Freddy's are becoming highest-grossing films |
PolyGram Filmed Entertainment (formerly known as Filmworks, Casablanca Records & Filmworks, PolyGram Films and PolyGram Pictures or simply PFE) was a film production company founded in 1975 as an American film studio, which became a European competitor to Hollywood within two decades, but was eventually sold to Seagram Company Ltd. in 1998 and was folded a year later. Among its most successful and well known films were The Deep (1977), Midnight Express (1978), An American Werewolf in London (1981), Flashdance (1983), Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994), Dead Man Walking (1995), The Big Lebowski (1998), Fargo (1996), The Usual Suspects (1995), The Game (1997), Barney's Great Adventure (1998) and Notting Hill (1999).