Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc.
Type
Subsidiary
Founded
Los Angeles, California, U.S. (May 1919 as C.B.C.
Film Sales, renamed Columbia Pictures in 1924)
Headquarters
Culver City, California, U.S.
Industry
Motion pictures
Owner(s)
Independent (privately held) (1919-1926)
Independent (publicly traded) (1926-1982)
Coca-Cola Co. (1982-1987)
Columbia Pictures Entertainment, Inc. (publicly
traded) (1987-1989)
Sony (1989-present)
Parent
Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group
Website
www.sonypictures.com
Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. (CPII) is an American
film production and distribution company. It was one of
the so-called Little Three among the eight major film
studios of Hollywood’s Golden Age.
Today, as part of the Columbia TriStar Motion Pic-
ture Group—owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment, a
subsidiary of the Japanese conglomerate Sony—it is one
of the leading film companies in the world, a member of
the so-called Big Six. It has no connection with CBS
(Columbia Broadcasting System).
The studio, founded in 1919 as Cohn-Brandt-Cohn
Film Sales by brothers Jack and Harry Cohn and Joe
Brandt, released its first feature film in August 1922. It
adopted the Columbia Pictures name in 1924 and went
public two years later. In its early years a minor player
in Hollywood, Columbia began to grow in the late 1920s,
spurred by a successful association with director Frank
Capra.
With Capra and others, Columbia became one of the
primary homes of the screwball comedy. In the 1930s,
Columbia’s major contract stars were Jean Arthur and
Cary Grant (who was shared with RKO Pictures). In the
1940s, Rita Hayworth became the studio’s premier star
and propelled their fortunes into the late 1950s. Rosalind
Russell, Glenn Ford, and William Holden also became
major stars at the studio.
In 1982, the studio was purchased by Coca-Cola; that
same year it launched Tri-Star Pictures as a joint ven-
ture with HBO and CBS. Five years later, Coca-Cola di-
vested Columbia, which merged with Tri-Star. After a
br