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Amblin Entertainment

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This article is about the production company. For the parent company, see Amblin Partners. For the television division, see Amblin Television.
"Amblin" redirects here. For the movie in which the company was named after, see Amblin'.

Amblin' Entertainment, Inc.
FormerlyAmblin Productions (1980–1984)
Company typeSubsidiary
IndustryFilm
Founded1980; 44 years ago (1980)
Founders
Headquarters
Universal City, California
,
U.S.
Area served
Worldwide
Key people
ProductsMotion pictures
ServicesFilm production
ParentAmblin Partners (2015–present)
Websiteamblin.com/movie/
The original Amblin Entertainment logo appeared in some of the company's films during their ending credits and in some cases, the beginning of the movie. This logo was first shown with Gremlins (1984).

Amblin' Entertainment, Inc.,[1] formerly named Amblin Productions, is an American film production company founded by director and producer Steven Spielberg, and film producers Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall in 1980.[2] Its headquarters are located in Bungalow 477 of the Universal Studios backlot in Universal City, California. It distributes all of the films from Amblin Partners under the Amblin Entertainment banner.[3]

History

Amblin is named after Steven Spielberg's first commercially released film, Amblin' (1968), a short independent film about a man and woman hitchhiking through the desert. Costing $15,000 to produce, it was shown for Universal Studios and won Spielberg more directing roles.[4]

The company was established a year later, in 1969, and it was properly incorporated in 1970.[5][6] On July 14, 1975, Spielberg signed a four-picture agreement with Universal Pictures to produce its feature films through his Amblin label, aiming to build upon the success of its first two theatrical pictures, The Sugarland Express and Jaws.[7] Although Amblin is an independent production company, Universal distributes many Amblin productions, and Amblin operates out of a building on the Universal lot.[8]

Amblin produced its first film, Continental Divide, in 1981, with Spielberg serving as executive producer.[9] The following year, Spielberg and Marshall caught the attention of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), for which they both produced Poltergeist with Amblin, but under the name Steven Spielberg Productions. The same year, Spielberg and Kennedy produced E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial with Amblin uncredited (with Spielberg also directing it), which ended up being the highest-grossing film of the year.[10]

In 1983, Spielberg produced Twilight Zone: The Movie with Amblin (with Marshall credited as an executive producer), but the company was uncredited. Amblin went on to produce a number of successful films throughout the 1980s, such as Gremlins, Innerspace, Batteries Not Included, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, and the Back to the Future trilogy.[11] Gremlins was the first film to use the company's logo, which features the silhouette of Elliott flying in his bicycle with E.T. in the basket in front of the moon, from E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial.

In 1985, Spielberg and Don Bluth started a partnership to produce animated feature films. The only two films that were made from the Spielberg-Bluth deal were An American Tail (1986) and The Land Before Time (1988).[12]

On November 5, 1986, Walt Disney Pictures and Amblin Entertainment teamed up to make Who Framed Roger Rabbit, its first collaboration of such after collaborations working with Universal Pictures and Warner Bros. Pictures, which had a pre-existing joint deal. The film was directed by Robert Zemeckis, and it was slated for a G-rated feature, but it was upped to a PG-rated feature under the Touchstone Pictures label.[13]

In 1987, Amblin Entertainment had named Brad Globe, former head of Lorimar's marketing division, as vice president of marketing at the production company, and Globe himself would be joined by two special consultants, which were Martin J. Lewy and Gerry Lewis, and will work closely with the marketing department of the companies that released Amblin's product.[14]

In 1989, a dispute over film-making budgets caused Spielberg and Bluth to part ways. Amblin established their own animation unit, Amblimation, which was headquartered in London.[15] The only three films that were released under the Amblimation banner were An American Tail: Fievel Goes West (1991), We're Back: A Dinosaur's Story (1993) and Balto (1995).[16] The Amblimation label was shut down in 1997 and most of the studio staff was transferred to DreamWorks Animation, which Spielberg co-founded in 1994.[17] Two more films were in development at the time Amblimation was shut down. The first was an animated film adaptation of the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical Cats which was cancelled following the studio's closure in 1997. The other was an animated film adaptation of a book written by William Steig, Shrek!, which was picked up by DreamWorks Animation and made into the 2001 animated film Shrek.

The same year, Amblin signed a deal with Turner Network Television to produce television films.[18]

In 1991, founding partner Frank Marshall left the company after 10 years.[19] The next year, Kathleen Kennedy left the company.[20]

In 1992, Amblin launched a visual effects studio Amblin Imaging, headed by visual effects pioneer John Gross. It was later shut down in 1995.[21]

In 1993, Walter Parkes and Laurie MacDonald joined the company.[22]

On June 21, 2021, it was announced that Amblin Entertainment signed a deal with Netflix to release multiple new feature films for the streaming service. Under the deal, Amblin is expected to produce at least two films a year for Netflix for an unspecified number of years. It is possible that Spielberg may even direct some of the projects.[23]

Film library

Main article: List of Amblin Entertainment films

Film series

Years Title Distributor
1984–present Gremlins Warner Bros. Pictures
1985–1990 Back to the Future Universal Pictures
1986–1999 An American Tail
1988–2016 The Land Before Time
1988–1993; 2013 Who Framed Roger Rabbit Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
1993–present Jurassic Park Universal Pictures
1996–2024 Twister Universal Pictures
Warner Bros. Pictures
1997–2019 Men in Black Sony Pictures Releasing
1998–2005 The Mask of Zorro

Theme park attractions

While Amblin has never had its own theme park, theme parks have made rides based on Amblin films and co-productions.

References

  1. ^ "Amblin' Entertainment, Inc". Dun & Bradstreet. Retrieved 20 April 2024.
  2. ^ "AMBLIN' ENTERTAINMENT, INC". OpenCorporates. 2022-11-07. Retrieved 2022-11-12.
  3. ^ "About Us | Amblin". Amblin Official Site. Archived from the original on 2019-05-04. Retrieved 2019-06-03.
  4. ^ "Big Directors Small Films: Steven Spielberg's Amblin'". /Film. 2008-12-28. Archived from the original on 2019-06-04. Retrieved 2019-06-04.
  5. ^ "Steven Spielberg". IMDb. Retrieved 2021-06-23.
  6. ^ "System Outage Message :: California Secretary of State".
  7. ^ "Spielberg, Universal Sign Four-Picture Agremeent". Los Angeles Times. 1975-07-14.
  8. ^ Lang, Brent; Rainey, James (2015-12-16). "Steven Spielberg, Jeff Skoll Bring Amblin Partners to Universal". Variety. Archived from the original on 2015-12-22. Retrieved 2019-06-04.
  9. ^ Continental Divide (1981) - IMDb, retrieved 2020-09-30
  10. ^ "Kathleen Kennedy". IMDb. Retrieved 2020-09-30.
  11. ^ "Steven Spielberg". IMDb. Retrieved 2020-09-30.
  12. ^ "ANIMATED SPIELBERG". Los Angeles Times. 1985-08-11. Retrieved 2020-06-01.
  13. ^ "Disney And Amblin Teaming On 'Rabbit'". Variety. 1986-11-05. pp. 4, 22.
  14. ^ "Amblin names Globe to marketing team". Variety. 1987-10-14. p. 26.
  15. ^ Hofmeister, Sallie (1994-10-17). "Hollywood Falls Hard for Animation". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on 2020-09-03. Retrieved 2020-09-22.
  16. ^ Longsdorf, Amy. "ANIMATION REALLY KEEPS STEVEN SPIELBERG MOVING". mcall.com. Retrieved 2020-06-01.
  17. ^ "Film: The Man Who Would Be Walt". archive.nytimes.com. Archived from the original on 2018-08-05. Retrieved 2020-09-22.
  18. ^ "Amblin, Turner Reach Deal for TV Movies". Los Angeles Times. 1989-12-14. Retrieved 2020-06-01.
  19. ^ "Steve Hooks Duo". Variety. 1991-01-14. Retrieved 2020-09-30.
  20. ^ Marx, Andy (1992-12-17). "Marshall, Kennedy in pact at Par". Variety. Retrieved 2020-09-30.
  21. ^ "Muse VFX - About Us". www.musevfx.com. Retrieved 2020-06-01.
  22. ^ O'Steen, Kathleen; Brodie, John (1993-11-10). "Aerial duo to Amblin". Variety. Archived from the original on 2020-09-23. Retrieved 2020-09-22.
  23. ^ Lang, Brent (2021-06-21). "Steven Spielberg's Amblin Partners, Netflix Forge Film Deal in Sign of Changing Hollywood". MSN. Retrieved 2021-06-21.
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