Paramount is a broadcasting network that features premium entertainment.
Although it was formerly a movie studio, it has since evolved with the times.
It now has its own streaming platform with shows exclusive to the network.
Considering the history and success of Paramount, you may wonder who owns it.
Who Owns Paramount?
National Amusements is the owner of Paramount.
It is the group with the biggest number of shares in Paramount Global.
Since it owns the most shares, it has the majority to make decisions for the company.
National Amusements, itself, is a theater company and mass media company.
It’s a private company that has several brands or businesses under its ownership.
Paramount Global is one of its biggest.
However, some of the other businesses, or corporations, that it owns are:
- Showcase Cinemas
- Cinema de Lux
- UCI
- Showcase Cinema de Lux
- Multiplex Cinemas
- Paramount Global
It’s worth mentioning that Paramount currently exists as Paramount Global.
The subsidiary has gone through several mergers and splittings, along with name changes, before becoming Paramount Global.
Who Owns National Amusements?
While National Amusements might own Paramount Global, you may wonder who owns National Amusements.
National Amusements is a private company.
Its owner is the Redstone family.
They started the National Amusements corporation by starting up their own chain of movie theaters.
They saw success and grew.
Along with developing more movie theaters, they also stretched into media production by acquiring Viacom which became CBS.
Paramount Global is its main media production branch.
Who Owns Paramount Pictures?
National Amusements is also the owner of Paramount Pictures.
It owns Paramount Global which includes Paramount Pictures.
Paramount Pictures is one of the oldest movie studios in the industry.
It got its start in the early 1900s as a simple distribution company.
Eventually, it merged with directors who had some interesting ideas about making movies.
The movie studio started to produce films that would change and revolutionize the industry.
Whenever there’s been a major shifting point in the industry, Paramount Pictures was there to bring it in.
Its reputation for producing blockbuster films has likely aided its success when so many other studios failed and disappeared from history.
What Are Some Famous Paramount Movies?
Paramount was there when the movie industry first began to take off.
With its infamous logo of a mountain beneath 22 stars, it began to produce films that audiences flocked to theaters to see.
It also introduced the first iteration of famous movie stars.
Back in the early days of movie production, each movie star had a contract with a particular studio.
They weren’t allowed to make films with other movie studios.
Because of that, many actors served to make their particular studio wealthy and famous.
That isn’t the case anymore.
Actors are able to choose what studios they want to work with.
During the initial heyday of movies, however, Paramount produced some of the world’s most famous movies.
Here are some of the studio’s biggest films.
1. The Sheik
One of Paramount’s earliest hits was The Sheik.
It was released in 1921 and featured Rudolph Valentino and Agnes Ayres.
It was a romantic drama based on a book of the same name.
It had a budget of $200,000 and ended up making more than $1 million at the box office.
Besides being a great payday for Paramount, it also launched Valentino’s career.
He became one of the first male sex symbols.
He also found himself at risk of being typecast for the same sort of role.
To avoid that, he tried to take on roles that were very different from the part he played in the film.
His last film before he died, ironically, was The Son of the Sheik in which he played both the father and son.
The film made Paramount a household name and allowed it a firm footing in the movie industry.
2. Wings
Wings was a massive film for Paramount in many ways.
For one, it was expensive to make.
It cost the studio around $2 million to film.
That’s because it used real airplanes from the United States military.
Wings is a romantic action film that features the Battle of Saint-Mihiel in World War I.
It showed realistic air fights that many movies would use as a standard for such fights moving forward.
Part of the reason it was successful was due to its inclusion of real pilots who fought during the war.
Another reason for its success was that it featured Clara Bow.
Bow was Paramount’s biggest star at the time, and they wanted her part of the film.
Part of the script had to be rewritten to include a character that she could play.
The result was a success.
Not only was it a box office success, in that it earned over $3.8 million, but it also won the first Academy Award for Best Picture.
The Academy Awards got its start in 1929, and since the film came out that year, it was able to get nominated.
The film ended up earning several nominations, but its most prestigious was the award for Best Picture.
It cemented Paramount in history for producing the first film to win an Academy Award.
Besides being the first film to win Best Picture, it also remains the only silent picture to win Best Picture.
3. Interference
Another one of Paramount’s most important movies was Interference.
The film came out in 1928 and was Paramount’s first “talkie,” a film with sound.
It hadn’t started that way, however.
The film was originally shot as a silent movie.
Then Paramount decided to remake it as a talkie.
They also decided to release the silent version for movie theaters that hadn’t yet gotten the technology to run talking films.
The movie itself is a drama.
It’s about a woman who discovers that her first husband, who supposedly died during World War I, is actually alive.
She schemes to blackmail her current husband and things turn from bad to worse.
The film wasn’t too beloved by audiences.
Although some viewers enjoyed the film, there were a few technical problems that interfered with it.
As an example, the disc during one part of the film ended up skipping.
As such, it repeated the line, “Another one of those damn postcards,” over and over even after the action on the screen had moved past that point.
The film didn’t win any great accolades or awards, but it did give Paramount its first real taste of exploring the world of talking films.
This experience would help Paramount go on to make far more successful talking films and make the successful transition into a new era.
4. Sunset Boulevard
One of the most famous films in history is Sunset Boulevard.
It’s named after a street of the same name that runs through Hollywood.
The film, which was released in 1950, was about a silent actress planning her comeback in talking pictures.
She meets a hack writer who sees an opportunity and decides to help her with her script.
The film essentially shows the worst of what Hollywood becomes for stars who were unable to transition to the new world of movies.
While the success of the film among critics was solid, it didn’t perform that well in rural communities.
That said, movie critics and historians alike consider the movie to be one of the most important and prestigious films ever made.
Besides making the film, Paramount is also referenced throughout the film.
It also has a few cameos from some of Paramount’s biggest stars from the silent age.
The movie played an important role in acknowledging the history of films and those left behind.
5. White Christmas
When the holidays begin, many families end up watching White Christmas.
Whether it’s a Christmas Eve tradition or just something the family puts on at some point, the movie is a quintessential Christmas film.
It also was one of the first films to use Technicolor, which means it wasn’t black and white.
White Christmas is a musical film about a group of performers who decide to come together to help the owner of a failing hotel.
The hotel owner happens to be the former commander of two of the performers from World War II.
It starred some of Paramount’s biggest stars like Bing Crosby, Rosemary Clooney, and Danny Kaye.
It also featured some of the holiday’s famous songs like White Christmas and Count Your Blessings.
The movie almost didn’t get one of its titular stars, however.
Crosby originally intended to stay off of the project.
His wife, Dixie Lee, had recently passed, and he wanted to spend time with his sons.
After some time, he returned to the project and it proceeded.
Danny Kaye was also not the original choice for his role.
The studio wanted to bring in Fred Astaire as he and Crosby had filmed two other movies together in association with Irving Berlin.
Astaire rejected the offer after he read the script.
He even requested to end his contract with Paramount.
Donald O’Connor was then offered the part.
He accepted it, but then he had to give up the role after he became ill.
The studio finally offered the part to Danny Kaye.
Paramount introduced quite a few technologies with this particular film.
They were using VistaVision to shoot the film, which was brand new technology.
They were also using Technicolor to add color to the film.
Finally, they were debuting the Perspecta technology which was a sound system for motion pictures.
Their gambles paid off.
The movie was a success among audiences.
It ended up earning $12 million at the box office.
It has since become a staple holiday film for many families.
6. The Ten Commandments
Another hallmark of movie history also came from Paramount.
It was The Ten Commandments.
The film is an epic biblical drama that features the life of Moses and his deliverance of the Hebrew people from Egypt.
The film has two parts.
The first part depicted Moses’s early life while the second half was devoted to his return to Egypt as the Deliverer.
The Ten Commandments broke many records for Paramount.
Not only was it one of the most expensive films to make at the time, but it also featured one of the biggest outdoor sets.
It was filmed on location as well as in Paramount’s famous studio.
Despite being expensive to make, the film performed incredibly well at the box office.
It would go on to win a few awards, and The Ten Commandments is still highly regarded as one of the most important, prestigious films in movie history.
It also marked the final film from Cecil DeMille before he died.
7. Star Trek: The Original Series
Paramount didn’t just produce films.
In the 1960s, they also got started in the television industry.
With the invention of the television set, American families were able to start watching entertainment at home.
Paramount was quick to jump on this venture by producing many beloved television shows.
One of its most famous, and lasting, productions was Star Trek.
Star Trek: The Original Series got its start in 1966 and ran for three seasons before they eventually canceled it.
At the time, Star Trek gained some popularity, but it wasn’t nearly as big when it first aired compared to how popular it is today.
A large part of that is also due to the other shows and films that came out that further expanded the universe.
The original Star Trek series featured the characters of Captain Kirk, Doctor McCoy, and Mr. Spock.
They were all aboard the starship called The Enterprise with a mission to explore the stars and establish contact with beings of a particular development stage.
The show dealt with social issues and was able to present them in a way that made them approachable.
It also showed the first on-screen interracial kiss between a man and a woman.
Star Trek would go on to further challenge media representations and diversity.
Thanks to Paramount, the franchise is still alive and thriving today.
8. Psycho
Paramount had a history of producing great romances and dramas.
They also proved that they could produce extraordinary horror films by working with the famous director, Alfred Hitchcock.
In 1960, Hitchcock came out with a movie called Psycho.
Upon its initial release, critics weren’t too moved by it.
However, once the general audience got to watch it, it received a positive reception.
It forced critics to examine the film again.
Psycho has since become Hitchcock’s most popular film.
Some even consider it his greatest.
The movie is about a woman who stops by a motel for the evening.
She ends up going missing, and her boyfriend, sister, and a detective come to the motel to investigate.
The film introduced a new level of violence to audiences.
Some also consider the film one of the earliest in the slasher genre.
The film’s success saw several sequels, remakes, and even television series made.
At the very least, it makes people a bit more aware whenever they shower in a hotel.
9. The Godfather Trilogy
The Godfather Trilogy is a series of films depicting the rise and fall of a mafia family.
It was a gritty film that gave a Hollywood version of what life as a mafioso was like.
Many regard it as Marlon Brando’s greatest film.
The movies were box office hits, and they introduced the gangster genre.
That genre is alive and well to this day.
10. Titanic
A final film that is easily among Paramount’s greatest is Titanic.
It made sensational stars out of Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio.
The plot revolved around the tragic sinking of the RMS Titanic.
While the characters of Jack and Rose were fictional, their love story served as the backdrop of a story of what might have happened during the final days that the Titanic was at sea.
The movie remains one of the most famous in recent times.
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