 Final corporate logo used from 2024 to 2025 | |
| Formerly |
|
|---|---|
| Company type | Subsidiary |
| Industry |
|
| Predecessor |
|
| Founded | 1991; 35 years ago (1991) |
| Defunct | August 7, 2025; 6 months ago (2025-08-07) |
| Fate | Merged withSkydance Television and consolidated intoParamount Television Studios |
| Successors | Paramount Television Studios (TV library) Paramount Pictures (film library) |
| Headquarters | , U.S. |
| Owner | Paramount Skydance |
| Parent | MTV Entertainment Group |
| Divisions |
|
Showtime/MTV Entertainment Studios (also known asMTV Entertainment Studios and formerlyMTV Production Development from 2003 until 2018 andMTV Studios from 2018 until 2021) was an Americanfilm andtelevisionproduction anddistribution company and was the film and television production arm of theMTV Entertainment Group, itself a subsidiary of theParamount Media Networks division ofParamount Skydance. It primarily produces content aimed at adolescent and adult audiences, includingoriginal productions for thenamesake cable channel and its siblings, ortheatrical films released throughParamount Pictures.
MTV Entertainment Studios was formed in 2021[citation needed] as a consolidation of the originalMTV Productions founded in 1991, the formerMTV Films group established in 1996, theMTV Production Development/MTV Studios group of 2003, and the relaunchedMTV Studios of 2018.[1]
In 2023, MTV Entertainment Studios merged with fellow Paramount subsidiary Showtime's production businesses internally to becomeShowtime/MTV Entertainment Studios and in 2025 was consolidated into a revivedParamount Television Studios.[2]
MTV Productions was founded in 1991. It went into expansion two years later, withDoug Herzog serving as president, to produce content for theatrical releases, broadcast television and cable, syndication, and the international marketplace.[3] MTV then signed a two-picture deal withGeffen Pictures.[4] MTV Productions also tried for an entertainment strip calledReal Time, to be distributed byViacom Enterprises, and scheduled on air for the 1994–95 season, but never materialized.[5]
Joe's Apartment, based on a short aired onMTV, would be the only film to come out of the Geffen Film deal due to the 1994 acquisition ofParamount Pictures by MTV's parent companyViacom. It was later released on July 26, 1996, and grossed $4.6 million on a $13 million budget, making it a box office bomb.[6] Since its acquisition by Viacom, Paramount Pictures began to distribute material from MTV andNickelodeon.[7] AfterThe Arsenio Hall Show was cancelled, Paramount began distributing and producing MTV'sThe Jon Stewart Show for the syndication market.[8]
TheParamount Television Group and MTV Productions signed a deal to develop projects commissioned by MTV in 1994, and gave Paramount the right of first refusal on projects developed by MTV.[9]
In the 1997–98 television season, MTV Productions, in conjunction withParamount Network Television, debuted theNBC comedyJenny, theUPN (then-sister ofMTV) comedyHitz, and theWB dramaThree. None of these lasted more than one season.[10]
By 1995, David Gale was named head ofMTV Films.[11]
MTV developed its first feature film in collaboration with Paramount Pictures,Beavis and Butt-Head Do America. Based on MTV's animated seriesBeavis and Butt-Head, the film grossed $63.1 million on a $12 million budget.[12]
On August 21, 1998, MTV Films releasedDead Man on Campus, which starredTom Everett Scott andMark-Paul Gosselaar. It got negative reviews, and was a box office bomb, grossing $15.1 million on a $14 million budget.[13] MTV Films' next feature project,200 Cigarettes, released on February 26, 1999, and was also a box office bomb, grossing $6.8 million on a $6 million budget.[14]
In 2001,Zoolander was released under theVH1 Films label, and grossed $60.7 million on a $28 million budget.[15]
On August 21, 2006,Nickelodeon Movies,Comedy Central Films, and MTV Films became labels of the Paramount Motion Pictures Group. Less than eleven years later,Paramount Players was created in 2017 as a division of Paramount's Motion Pictures Group and it consists of MTV Films, Nickelodeon Movies, andBET Films.[citation needed]
In June 2018, MTV announced it had rebranded its production & development division MTV Production Development and had it relaunched as a newly production unit dedicated to produce programming for other networks & streaming services alongside producing revivals from the MTV programming library under the nameMTV Studios, the newly rebranded production division would develop & produce revivals or re-imaginings of classic series from MTV's programming library, such as its animated seriesDaria andAeon Flux alongside its unscripted television seriesThe Real World andMade.[1] Over the next two years, MTV Studios would launch its "MTV Documentary Films" label for producing and acquiring documentary features[citation needed], while MTV Films would be folded into MTV Studios in 2020.[citation needed]
In 2021, MTV Studios becameMTV Entertainment Studios, now encompassing content for, and based on, all brands within theMTV Entertainment Group.[citation needed]
In March 2022, MTV Entertainment Studios established an overall TV partnership with Emmy-winning producer, director & executive producer of the studios' productionMayor of KingstownAntoine Fuqua and his production banner Hill District Media to produce scripted & unscripted television content with MTV Entertainment Studios alongside its production partner 101 Studios would serve as co-producers for the partnership with Fuqua for its scripted & unscripted content.[16]
In February 2023 when MTV Entertainment Studios' parent Paramount Global interrogated Showtime's streaming platforms into its streaming service Paramount+ (which MTV Entertainment Studios had released its content into the service), MTV Entertainment Studios announced it had merged with Showtime's production operations and its unitShowtime Studios alongside its leadership team into forming a combined entity renaming the production subsidiary to Showtime/MTV Entertainment Studios withNina L. Diaz continued leading the merged production entitly Showtime/MTV Entertainment Studios as its President of Content and CCO & would serve as Head of Scripted at the merged production unit as it retained the MTV Entertainment Studios and Showtime Studio names whilst Keith Cox continued serving as president of Scripted at the merged production unit Showtime/MTV Entertainment Studios.[17][18]
A month later in March of that year after MTV Entertainment Studios merged with Showtime's production unit Showtime Studios, Showtime/MTV Entertainment Studios had partnered with film and TV producer Lashan Browning to form a new joint-venture full-service production subsidiary named Antoinette Media that would produce unscripted & scripted television series such asLove & Hip-Hop Atlanta with Showtime/MTV Entertainment Studios under the MTV Entertainment Studios name would co-produce with the new production subsidiary Antoinette Media.[19]
On August 7, 2025, as part ofParamount Global'smerger withSkydance Media, Showtime/MTV Entertainment Studios merged withSkydance Television to formParamount Television Studios; the new company continued to use the MTV Entertainment Studios and Showtime Networks labels for the time being.
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