 | |
| Product type | Animation (1921–1946) Television (1948–1974) Film (1998–present) |
|---|---|
| Owner | M. J. Winkler Productions (1921–1933) Columbia Pictures (1933–1974) Sony Pictures Entertainment (1998–present) |
| Country | United States |
| Introduced | 1921; 104 years ago (1921)(animation division) November 1948; 77 years ago (1948-11)(television division) December 8, 1998; 26 years ago (1998-12-08)(film division) |
| Discontinued | 1946; 79 years ago (1946)(animation division) May 6, 1974; 51 years ago (1974-05-06)(television division) |
Screen Gems is an American film production label ofSony Pictures Entertainment, a subsidiary of Japanese conglomerate,Sony Group Corporation.[1]Screen Gems has served several different purposes for its parent companies over the decades since its incorporation, initially as a cartoon studio that was active from 1921 to 1946, then a television studio that was active from November 1948 to May 6, 1974, and later on as a film studio that was founded on December 8, 1998.Screen Gems currently serves as a film production division of Sony that specializes in genre films, mainly horror.[2]
Screen Gems is currently one of the five live-action labels of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group, alongsideColumbia Pictures,TriStar Pictures,Sony Pictures Classics, and3000 Pictures.
| Formerly | M.J. Winkler Pictures (1921–1926) Winkler Pictures (1926–1931) The Charles Mintz Studio (1931–1933) |
|---|---|
| Industry | Animation |
| Founded | 1921; 104 years ago (1921) |
| Founder | Margaret J. Winkler |
| Defunct | November 1946; 79 years ago (1946-11) |
| Fate | Shut down |
| Successor | Sony Pictures Animation (content production) |
| Headquarters | , |
Key people | Margaret J. Winkler Charles Mintz Frank Tashlin Dave Fleischer Henry Binder Ray Katz |
| Products | Short films |
Production output | Animation |
| Parent | Columbia Pictures (1939–1946) |
When producerPat Sullivan came toHarry Warner to sign a contract with him on his andOtto Messmer's seriesFelix the Cat, he declined and instead told his soon-to-be former secretaryMargaret J. Winkler that she should form her own company and take control of the distribution of the series. Winkler formed M.J. Winkler Productions and soon also took control ofMax andDave Fleischer's seriesOut of the Inkwell. By 1923 she and Sullivan were arguing, and that same year the Fleischer Brothers formed their own distribution company named Red Seal. Winkler saw an unreleased short calledAlice's Wonderland, a cartoon produced and directed byWalt Disney, and became impressed with the short. The two agreed to make a series about the cartoon. In 1924,Charles Mintz married Winkler, and the latter's career began to decline. Mintz quickly assumed Winkler's role in the company, later rebranding it Winkler Pictures.
In 1925 Winkler's renewal contract for the Felix shorts was written, yet Winkler declined to renew due to her dispute with Sullivan. The following year theAlice Comedies stopped being distributed by Winkler. After Mintz become involved with the progress it was clear that Disney was unhappy with the production costs on cartoons, and he asked Disney andUb Iwerks to develop a new character. The result wasOswald the Lucky Rabbit, the first animated character forUniversal Pictures.[3] In February 1928, when the character proved more successful than expected, Disney sought to meet with Mintz over the budget, wanting to spend more on the cartoons. Mintz refused, and hired away all ofWalt Disney Studios's animators except Iwerks, Les Clark, and Johnny Cannon, who all refused to leave Disney. He moved the production of the Oswald cartoons to Winkler Pictures, along with Margaret Winkler's brother, George. After losing the Oswald contract toWalter Lantz, Mintz focused onKrazy Kat (a character from a comic strip by cartoonistGeorge Herriman), which was the output of a Winkler-distributed property.
M.J. Winkler Productions became known as Winkler Pictures after Mintz took over in 1926 and partnered withColumbia Pictures for distribution in 1929. In 1931, when the studio moved from New York to California, it was renamed The Charles Mintz Studio.[4]
The Charles Mintz studio became known as Screen Gems in 1933. The name was originally used in 1933, whenColumbia Pictures acquired a stake in Charles Mintz's animation studio.[5] The name was derived from an early Columbia Pictures slogan, "Gems of the Screen"; itself a takeoff on the song "Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean".[6] Mintz was nominated for twoAcademy Awards for Best Short Subject. His first nomination was in 1935 forHoliday Land, and he was nominated again in 1937 forThe Little Match Girl. For about a decade,Charles Mintz producedKrazy Kat,Scrappy, and theColor Rhapsody animated short series Columbia Pictures. Also, between 1936 to 1940, several Color Rhapsody films were subcontracted toUb Iwerks with the use of his ownanimation studio.
The studio's color cartoons were well received, while some other cartoons were not, mainly the laterKrazy Kat andScrappy shorts. Animator Isidore Klein was particularly frustrated with theKrazy Kat cartoons as it bear little resemblance to Herriman's comic strip by the mid-1930s (despite attempting to make a more faithful cartoon with the 1936 shortLil' Ainjil, which Klein was disappointed by the final product).[7] Furthermore, Columbia gave Mintz strict financial obligations where they advance a certain amount of money, resulting in Mintz repeatedly runningover budget.[8] In 1939, after becoming indebted to Columbia and suffering from declining health, Mintz relinquished ownership of his studio and the Screen Gems name to Columbia to settle longstanding financial problems.[9] He would later pass away on December 30, 1939, from a heart attack. BothKrazy Kat andScrappy’s series ended that year and were replaced by thePhantasy andFable cartoons in which they were both featured in.
By 1940, Columbia would oversee management of the studio following ownership. The studio's production manager, Jimmy Bronis, became the general manager but was shortly replaced by Mintz's brother-in-law, George Winkler. The following year, in March 1941, Columbia hiredFrank Tashlin, previously a writer forWalt Disney Productions and director forLeon Schlesinger Productions, as the studio's producer.[10][11] Tashlin had a profound effect to the studio as he planned to revitalize it to greater heights. He would hire a large number of displaced animators from the 1941Disney animators' strike, which included artists such as Phil Duncan, Grant Simmons,Volus Jones, William Shull, Howard Swift,John Hubley, Zack Schwartz, Basil Davidovich and returning animators such asEmery Hawkins andRay Patterson. He would also direct the shortThe Fox and the Grapes. Based on theAesop fable of the same name, the short would inadvertently spawn Columbia's most successful characters withThe Fox and the Crow, a comic duo of a refined Fox and a street-wise Crow.
Later in October, Columbia reorganized the studio by dismissing all of its Mintz-era staff (includingArthur Davis,Manny Gould,Lou Lilly, Sid Marcus, Ben Harrison and Winkler).[12] Wrinker was replaced by Ben Schwalb as general manager, and would later replace Tashlin as producer in April 1942.[13] Tashlin would delegated directorial duties to Bob Wickersham and Alec Geiss,[12][14] the latter of which was described for having memorable scene acting according to Hawkins.[13] He would continue to have close involvement as he would act as a creative supervisor for their cartoons.
Tashlin's stay at Screen Gems, despite proving to be an influential figure to the studio, would be short-lived, as he would later leave in June following an argument with Columbia higher-ups.[13][15] When interviewed by Michael Barrier, he said that the management "can't stay happy long when things are going well, so we ended up in another fracas and I left."[10] He would soon return toLeon Schlesinger Productions, joining several ex-Columbia artists who successfully made the transition. Meanwhile, Schwalb was replaced byDave Fleischer, previously the co-founder and head supervisor ofFleischer Studios. Fleischer had already been hired as an executive producer in April of that year, with him producing the 1942 WWII shortSong of Victory under Tashlin's supervision. But by the end of the year, he would ultimately take full control of studio amidst Tashlin's absence. To further increase cartoon production, Hubley and animator Paul Sommer were teamed up as co-directors, though Hubley would later leave when he was enlisted into theUnited States Army.[16]
Hubley described Fleischer as being very detached from his employees, calling him "one of the world's intellectual lightweights", and that he fancied himself as a good editor by editing completed cartoons in a way that broke continuity.[17] He was later fired in late-1943 and was succeeded by a revolving door of producers.[11] Initially, Fleischer was replaced by studio musician Paul Worth,[18] who was then replaced byThree Stooges producerHugh McCollum after Worth was convicted offorgery,[19] and then by ex-Schlesinger assistants Ray Katz and Henry Binder. Geiss was also fired following a series of poorly received cartoons, with his role of director given to Howard Swift. The studio would also create several more recurring characters around this time, includingTito and His Burrito,Flippy and Flop, Igor Puzzlewitz,Willoughby Wren,Professor Small and Mr. Tall and an adaptation ofAl Capp's comic seriesLi'l Abner, with varying levels of success.
Tashlin's departure had an immediate effect to the studio in a direction standpoint, with animation historians noting that the quality of there cartoons had declined soon after. Film historianLeonard Maltin claimed that after Tashlin left, the studio "tried to maintain some spirit on-screen, with varying results. Screen Gems cartoons of the 1940s feature some of the least endearing cartoon characters ever created, and suffer from misguided story direction."[20] Hubley later told Barrier that he disliked his work at the studio and that Columbia "hated" the cartoons they were making.[17] Capp was also reportedly displeased with the quality of theLi'l Abner cartoons, which was discontinued after five cartoons.[21]
In addition to Tashlin's departure, several of the more daring ex-Disney animators that he hired also left for other studios, including Duncan, Davidovich, Schwartz, Hawkins and Patterson. Columbia was unable to find anymore experienced artists who were willing to stay for the long-term, however the studio did manage to gain some leverages.Bob Clampett was brought in as a gag writer before setting up his own brief animation studio forRepublic Pictures, while Warner writersMichael Maltese andTedd Pierce were said to have moonlighted for a few cartoons.[22][23] Sid Marcus also returned as a director in 1944 whileAlex Lovy was brought in to take Sommer and Wickersham's place as director.
Screen Gems was, in an attempt to keep costs low, the last American animation studio to stop producing black and white cartoons. The final black-and-white Phantasy shorts appeared in 1946, over three years after the second-longest holdouts (Famous Studios and Schlesinger Productions), with the subsequent shorts being produced inCinecolor. Columbia, still dissatisfied with the studio's output, decided to shut its doors for good in November, while continuing to release a backlog of shorts until 1949.[24] The studio name was later repurposed for a television division, while the former Seward Street facility, which Screen Gems occupied since 1940, was taken over byWalter Lantz Productions in 1947.[25]
Following the studio's closure, Columbia agreed to distribute new cartoons fromUnited Productions of America.[26] Founded in 1941 during the wake of the Disney animator's strike, UPA deviated from the typical realistic style seen from other animation studios, instead prioritizing a newer, flatter artstyle based onlimited animation and unique storytelling over slapstick and gags. Hubley and Schwartz had previously experimented with this type of style in their Screen Gems cartoons, and would be involved with the studio's early development.
UPA's shorts, which includedGerald McBoing-Boing and theMr. Magoo series, were major critical and commercial successes, leaving a profound influence to the animation industry by the 1950's. Following UPA, a deal withHanna-Barbera was made in 1957, which lasted until 1967.
The Screen Gems cartoons were regarded as ones of varying quality, comparable to those produced byFamous Studios andTerrytoons. The studio - especially in its later period - was noted for their mismanagement of talent and attempts at aping the success of other animation studios. The shorts produced by Katz and Binder in particular were criticized for being "pale carbons of the Warner Brothers shorts,"[27] to the point of creating characters strikingly similar in appearance toSylvester the Cat andDaffy Duck.[28]
In spite of the studio's affairs, the Screen Gems' cartoons were still moderately successful, with three more cartoons achievingAcademy Awards nominations. However, Screen Gems never achieved a level of success comparable toWalt Disney Productions,Warner Bros. Cartoons,Walter Lantz Productions and theMGM Cartoon Studio.
In 1999,Columbia TriStar International Television producedTotally Tooned In- a syndicated TV package showcasing Columbia's classic cartoon library. With the aid of animation historianJerry Beck, Columbia restored and remastered the majority of the color Screen Gems cartoons (as well as all the UPA cartoons) from their original 35mm elements. The show aired in several international markets before making its American television debut onAntenna TV on January 8, 2011. They would later be aired onToon In With Me on theMeTV Network in November 2021.[29] Despite these restoration efforts,Sony Pictures Home Entertainment has no current plans to release these shorts on DVD or Blu-ray. Since CPE Holdings, Inc. became dormant on May 9, 2024,Sony Pictures Releasing now owns the theatrical distribution on behalf ofColumbia Pictures, whileSony Pictures Television owns the television distribution on behalf of CPT Holdings, Inc. to the majority of the color Screen Gems cartoons (as well as all the UPA cartoons) library.
All series were distributed by Columbia unless otherwise noted.[30]
 Final logo, used from 1965 to 1974. This logo was designed byChermayeff & Geismar.[31] | |
| Company type | Subsidiary |
|---|---|
| Industry | Television production Television syndication |
| Predecessor | Pioneer Telefilms |
| Founded | November 1948; 77 years ago (1948-11) |
| Founder | Ralph Cohn |
| Defunct | May 6, 1974; 51 years ago (1974-05-06) |
| Fate | Renamed asColumbia Pictures Television |
| Successors | Studio: Columbia Pictures Television Library: NBCUniversal Syndication Studios (pre-1948Universal Pictures library only) Warner Bros. Television Studios (pre-1969Hanna-Barbera library only) |
| Headquarters | , |
Area served | Worldwide |
| Parent | Columbia Pictures |
Ralph Cohn, the son of Columbia co-founderJack Cohn and nephew of Columbia headHarry Cohn, founded Pioneer Telefilms, a television commercial production company, in 1947. Ralph later wrote a 50-page memo arguing that Columbia should be the first major film studio to move into television. Although Harry wasn't convinced by the suggestion, Columbia invested $50,000 acquiring Pioneer and reorganized it as Screen Gems.[32] The studio started its new business in New York on April 15, 1949.[33]
By 1951, Screen Gems became a full-fledged television studio by producing and syndicating several popular shows(seebelow). Within a few months, Ralph Cohn had sold a half-hour dramatic anthology concept to theFord Motor Company which becameFord Theatre, which was one of the first times a major Hollywood movie studio had produced content for television. They also produced seven episodes of the first season ofCavalcade of America.[34][35]
The name "Screen Gems," at the time, was used to hide the fact that the film studio was entering television production and distribution. Many film studios saw television as a threat to their business, thus it was expected that they would shun the medium. However, Columbia was one of a few studios who branched out to television under a pseudonym to conceal the true ownership of the television arm. That is until 1955, when Columbia decided to usethe woman from its logo under the Screen Gems banner, officially billing itself as a part of "the Hollywood studios of Columbia Pictures", as spoken in announcements at the end of some Screen Gems series.
By 1952, the studio had produced a series of about 100 film-record coordinated releases for television under the brand "TV Disk Jockey Toons" in which the films "synchronize perfectly with the records".[36]
In 1954, the studio started producingFather Knows Best on CBS andThe Adventures of Rin Tin Tin on ABC, which became their biggest successes at the time.[32]
On July 1, 1956, studio veteranIrving Briskin stepped down as stage manager of Columbia Pictures and formed his own production company Briskin Productions, Inc. to release series through Screen Gems and supervise all of its productions.[37] On December 10, 1956, Screen Gems expanded into television syndication by acquiring Hygo Television Films (a.k.a. Serials Inc.) and its affiliated company United Television Films, Inc. Hygo Television Films was founded in 1951 by Jerome Hyams, who also acquired United Television Films in 1955 that was founded by Archie Mayers.[38]
During that year, the studio began syndicating Columbia Pictures' theatrical film library to television, including the series of two-reel short subjects starringThe Three Stooges in 1957. Earlier on August 2, 1957, they also acquired syndication rights to "Shock Theater", a package ofUniversal Pictures horror films (later shifted toMCA TV), which was enormously successful in reviving that genre.[39] The company also distributed Universal Pictures' other films (pre-1948 sound films) around that time.[40]
From 1958 to 1974, under President John H. Mitchell and Vice President of ProductionHarry Ackerman, Screen Gems delivered TV shows and sitcoms:Dennis the Menace,The Donna Reed Show,Hazel,Here Come the Brides,Mr. Smith Goes to Washington,Gidget,Bewitched,I Dream of Jeannie,The Flying Nun,The Monkees,The Girl with Something Extra andThe Partridge Family.
It was also the first distributor forHanna-Barbera Productions, an animation studio founded byWilliam Hanna andJoseph Barbera after leavingMetro-Goldwyn-Mayer, and was also the distributor of theSoupy Sales show. The company also entered a co-production deal withCanada'sCTV Television Network and produced several shows, many of which were filmed or taped inToronto for distribution to Canadian stations (Showdown,The Pierre Berton Show).[citation needed] The company even expanded as far asAustralia, opening Screen Gems Australia to produce shows for that country's networks, includingThe Graham Kennedy Show for theNine Network.[41]
In the late 1950s, Screen Gems also entered into ownership and operation of television stations. Stations owned by Screen Gems over the years included KCPX (Salt Lake City; nowKTVX, owned byNexstar Media Group),WVUE-DT (New Orleans; now owned byGray Television),WAPA-TV (San Juan; now owned by the Hemisphere Media Group),WNJU (Linden, NJ; nowTelemundo/NBCUniversal O&O), and several radio stations as well, including 50,000-watt clear channelWWVA (Wheeling, WV; now owned byiHeartMedia). As a result, in funding its acquisitions, 18% of Screen Gems' shares was spun off from Columbia and it became a publicly traded company on the NYSE until 1968. Screen Gems also provided technical assistance and partial control of a private television station inVenezuela,Canal 11 Televisión, which existed from 1966 to 1968.[42][43]
In 1963, William Dozier, who was one of the top Screen Gems employees, and senior vice president of production left to start Greenway Productions, with a non-exclusive agreement with the studio for joint distribution of its TV productions.[44] Even though none of Greenway's shows went to SG, Greenway immediately struck a deal with rival television producer20th Century-Fox Television in 1964.[45]
In 1963, Screen Gens entered music publishing with the purchase ofDon Kirshner'sAldon Music with Kirshner named head of the Columbia-Screen Gems music division. Four years later, he departed Screen Gems after coming into conflict withThe Monkees over their desire to play on their records.Lester Sill replaced Kirshner, and remained head of music publishing until 1985. Screen Gems-Columbia Music was sold to EMI for $23.5 million in 1976.
From 1964 to 1969, former child starJackie Cooper was Vice President of Program Development. He was responsible for packaging series (such asBewitched) and other projects and selling them to the networks.
For the 1965–1966 season, Screen Gems announced that they would sign three big creative programmers to develop new series, which was announced in June 1964. Among them was writerSidney Sheldon, directorHy Averback, and writerDavid Swift.[46]
In 1965, Columbia Pictures acquired a fifty per cent interest in the New York-based commercialproduction company EUE, which was incorporated into Screen Gems and renamedEUE/Screen Gems. The studios were sold in 1982 to longtime Columbia Pictures executive George Cooney shortly after Columbia Pictures was sold toThe Coca-Cola Company.
On December 23, 1968, Screen Gems merged with its parent company Columbia Pictures Corporation and became part of the newly formed Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. for $24.5 million.[47]
In the following year, formerABC vice president of programmingLeonard Goldberg joined Screen Gems, displacing Jackie Cooper as vice president of program development.[48] Goldberg failed to receive the same level of success as Cooper. His shows all tanked after one season, with the exception ofThe Partridge Family, and he abruptly left after three years, with the most notable other production of Goldberg's tenure at Screen Gems being the 1971 television movieBrian's Song. He then formed a production company with producerAaron Spelling.[49]
In 1971,Douglas S. Cramer, former executive VP in charge of production atParamount Television, set up a SG-affiliated production firm, The Douglas S. Cramer Company, to produce projects for feature films and TV projects via Columbia Pictures.[50] In 1972,David Gerber, who had left20th Century Fox Television, set up a SG-affiliated production company to produce his own projects with that company. The most notable of these productions wasPolice Story, an NBC police crime drama.[49] In 1973, Allan Blye andChris Bearde via Blye-Bearde Productions signed an independent production agreement with Screen Gems to develop their own projects.[51] Also that year, Harry Ackerman, who was vice president of production left the studio to start his own production company to be affiliated withParamount Television.[52]
On May 6, 1974, Screen Gems was renamed toColumbia Pictures Television as suggested by then-studio presidentDavid Gerber, who succeeded Art Frankel as his studio president.[53] The final notable production from this incarnation of Screen Gems before the name change was the 1974miniseriesQB VII. Columbia was, technically, the last major studio to enter television by name.
Changes in corporate ownership of Columbia Pictures came in 1982, when Coca-Cola bought the company. In the mid-1980s, Coca-Cola reorganized its television holdings to create Coca-Cola Television, merging CPT with the television unit of Embassy Communications as Columbia/Embassy Television, although both companies continued to use separate identities for a few years. Following the formation of Columbia Pictures Entertainment, Inc., it andTri-Star Television were merged to create a new Columbia Pictures Television.Merv Griffin Enterprises was also integrated into Coca-Cola Television.[54] CPT also ranColex Enterprises, a joint venture withLBS Communications that distributed most of the Screen Gems library and operated from 1984-1987.[55]
In 1985, the Screen Gems name was brought back byColumbia Pictures Television to distribute classic television series from its vaults to first-run syndication.[56]
On December 18, 1987, Coca-Cola spun off its entertainment holdings, selling them to Tri-Star Pictures, Inc. for $3.1 billion. Tri-Star was renamed as Columbia Pictures Entertainment, Inc.[57] In 1989,Sony Corporation of Japan purchased Columbia Pictures Entertainment. On August 11, 1991, Columbia Pictures Entertainment was renamed asSony Pictures Entertainment as a film production-distribution subsidiary and subsequently combined CPT with a revived TriStar Television on February 21, 1994 to formColumbia TriStar Television. The name "Screen Gems" was also utilized for a syndicated hour-long program for classic television calledScreen Gems Network that first aired in 1999 and ran until 2002.[58]
The television division is presently known asSony Pictures Television.
Television programs produced and/or syndicated by Screen Gems:
Note: (*) = Currently owned byWarner Bros. Entertainment via subsidiaryTurner Entertainment Co.
Note: All of these are currently owned by Warner Bros. Entertainment via subsidiary Turner Entertainment Co.
 Logo and byline used since 1999 and 2014, respectively | |
| Company type | Division[1] |
|---|---|
| Industry | Film |
| Predecessor | Triumph Films |
| Founded | December 8, 1998; 26 years ago (1998-12-08)[62] |
| Headquarters | 10202 West Washington Boulevard,, |
Area served | Worldwide |
Key people | Ashley Brucks (President) |
| Parent | Sony Pictures Entertainment |
| Subsidiaries | Scream Gems |
On December 8, 1998, Screen Gems was resurrected as a fourth speciality film-producing arm of Sony's Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group. It was created afterTriumph Films closed.[62] Screen Gems produces and releases "films that fall between the wide-release films traditionally developed and distributed by Columbia Pictures and those released bySony Pictures Classics".[63] Many of its releases are of the horror,[2] thriller, action, drama, comedy and urban genres, making the unit similar toDimension Films (part ofLantern Entertainment),Hollywood Pictures andSearchlight Pictures (divisions ofThe Walt Disney Company), andRogue Pictures (when it was formally owned byRelativity Media and before that,Universal Pictures).
As of 2023,Resident Evil: The Final Chapter (2016) is Screen Gems' highest-grossing film with over $300 million worldwide in box office earnings.
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