Paramount Television And Paramount Home Entertainment example essay topic

The Dream In the early twentieth century, film maker and producer Adolph Zukor met Jesse Lasky, owner of Jesse L. Lasky Feature Play Company. The two men admired each others previous work and, in 1916, decided to combine forces. They created Paramount pictures and had one of the most familiar slogans in the film industry, "If it's a Paramount Picture it's the Best Show in Town". Proving their slogan true they started turning out more than two pictures per week. During it's peak in the silent film making era, Paramount was making 5 million dollars a year more than other production companies such as Warner, Fox, and Universal. (Paramount) Paramount Pictures has come a long way since the silent film era.

Now owned by Viacom, they have expanded their enterprise from simple movies to state of the art motion pictures, television shows, and other forms of home entertainment such as VHS and DVD. They have been an important driving force in film and television, and have been impacting our entertainment industry for almost 90 years. Paramount engages in many activities, and has influenced telecommunications and films through these. Paramount is comprised of three separate entities, which work together and individually to produce revenue for Paramount and Viacom. Paramount has increased its revenue by profiting from all of its many sources of income, which have helped the company to remain a leader in the film industry.

Paramount's many activities, including movies, television shows, home entertainment, and theme parks have rocketed Paramount to huge success. Some of Paramount's box office hits include Titanic, which is the all time box office leader, Mission Impossible, Ghost, Forrest Gump, and many film collections such as The Godfather and Indiana Jones. Paramount also teamed up with other Viacom owned companies such as Nick Movies to produce Rugrats in Paris: the Movie and Snow Day. (Viacom) Paramount did not only focus on movies, it branched out and stirred up the television industry also. Paramount's Television history is "Home to award-winning comedies, the most successful franchise in syndication history, and a library of classic shows" (Viacom) and boasts over 55,000 hours of programming.

The Paramount Television group has also created hits such as Melrose Place, Beverly Hills 90210, and the infamous Star Trek franchise. In addition to movies and television, Paramount has made their motion pictures available for home use through their Paramount Home Entertainment group. This group has provided households all over the world with the classics and the box office hits, and even Nickelodeon shows like Blues Clues and Rugrats. Another fun experience Paramount has provided for their viewers is theme parks. Paramount has theme parks all over the United States, including a Star Trek theme park in Las Vegas. (Viacom) Entertainment is not all Paramount has provided for the telecommunications and film industry.

Since the company began, the decisions it has made have influenced others in the industry. Even though they may not have always been the most profitable movie making company, they have always been interested in broadening their horizons, and the sky was the limit. Not long after Paramount was created "Zukor decided to maintain his company's supremacy in the industry. He began a theater-buying campaign that amassed single houses and entire circuits... By 1930, the firm's movie-house division had grown to include almost 2,000 units and was named Publix Theaters" (Huet tig). Paramount helped establish the neighborhood movie theater, along with providing hundreds of award winning quality movies to view.

Paramount has also contributed to the competitive aspect of the movie industry, forcing actors and directors to do their best work. Stated by Joseph Younger man in his book My Seventy Years at Paramount Studios and the Directors Guild of America, he says "If you did a good job, unless you were an actor or a director or a special producer, once you worked at Paramount it was very secure" (75-76). An actor's job was never secure, so they had to keep working hard and producing better performances. This kept the talent market competitive and made movies much more enjoyable.

Viacom, a large media corporation, merged with Paramount in 1994 and now owns Paramount and all of its productions. Paramount is divided into three components, Paramount Pictures, Paramount Television, and Paramount Home Entertainment. Paramount Pictures creates and produces movies for theater viewing, while Paramount Home Entertainment mass produces these movies for individual household viewing. Paramount Television supplies programming in over 125 countries, in 30 different languages, and contains six units of production.

The six units are Paramount Network Television, Spelling Television, Viacom Productions, Big Ticket Television, Paramount Domestic Television, and Paramount International Television. (Viacom) Paramount is a very large corporation that continues to grow each and every day. The income Paramount was receiving in 1990 was around 1.86 billion (paramount) and they are now bringing in more than 5.5 billion a year (Viacom). This is of great significance to Viacom, because Paramount Pictures alone makes up 13.5% of their annual revenue. The 13.5% does not include Paramount Television or Paramount Home Entertainment. Both of these companies bring in their own respectable revenue, contributing to the billions Viacom makes each year.

The Viacom Company as a whole makes at least 7 billion dollars a year in revenue from the various Paramount productions, which is why it is clear Paramount is still a very successful in their industry. (PBS) Paramount embodies the classic American dream. A young immigrant comes to America with forty dollars in his pocket, and a dream in his head, and creates one of the most powerful and successful production companies in history. This production company that began with a dream brought us our own chances to imagine far away lands full of adventure, love, good fortune, and even the occasional danger. Through films like Forrest Gump, Titanic and Indiana Jones we laughed, cried, and gripped the edge of our seats as we were whisked away into this land of enchantment.

Movies and Television shows have always had the ability to take something that was not real, and make into something everyone wants. Paramount has mastered the art of amazement with their skilled writing, acting, and movie making and their ability to continue to stretch the limits of telecommunications and film. Paramount is not just about money, it's about people. One man had the dream, now everyone can experience it.

Bibliography

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Economic Control of the Motion Picture Industry. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. Mira bile, L. (Ed.) (1990) Telecommunications and Film in International Directories of Company Histories (Vol.
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