Columbia Pictures and Universal Pictures are both film production and distribution subsidiaries of larger media conglomerates that allow them to benefit from synergies across different business units. Columbia Pictures, owned by Sony Entertainment, has produced popular teen comedies like Superbad and social films. Universal Pictures, owned by Comcast and General Electric, has particularly found success distributing the American Pie franchise of R-rated teen comedies. Their parent company ownership allows both studios to heavily market and widely distribute films, helping teen comedy genres find large audiences and box office revenues.

1. RESEARCH INTO INSTITUTIONS
Brett Tinnion

2. COLUMBIA PICTURES
• Columbia Pictures is a subsidiary company to a multi-million dollar company – Sony
Entertainment. The Key people of this company are Doug Belgrade and Matt Tolmach
these are both presidents of the company. The companies headquarters is in Culver City,
California, USA. Sony Entertainment own different companies that are all forms of different
media which allows them to use cross-media convenrgence, they own – music, video
games and TV programmes. Columbia Pictures make films for lots of different genres for
example they have made – Superbad, Ghost Rider, The Pursuit of Happiness, Hitch, The
Damned United and Spiderman, they produces lots of different films for all target audiences
to make there films appeal to a mass audience and therefore make more revenue.
Columbia Pictures HQ

3. TEEN COMEDIES MADE BY COLUMBIA PICTURES
• Columbia Pictures made the Teen Comedy Superbad, this was distributed by Columbia
Pictures and produced by Apatow Productions, it cost $20,000,000 however it made
$169,871,719. Superbad made millions of dollars due to the distribution by Columbia
Pictures, because they are a subsidiary company to a multi million dollar Media
conglomerate it allows them to spend more on marketing the film and therefore makes the
audience more aware of the release. Also, it allows them to distribute the films to more
cinemas and allows them to sell more DVD’s. The other Teen Comedies they produce are
the Social Network and 21 Jump Street.

4. UNIVERSAL PICTURES
• Universal Pictures is also a subsidiary company to a multi-million dollar media conglomerate
General Electric and Comcast. General Electric also own NBC Network and also healthcare
companies. They own many media companies which allows them to use synergy which is where
all aspects of the company work together to promote a brand. Universal Pictures headquarters is
in Universal City, California. The key people of the organisation are Carl Laemmie who is the
founder and also Ronald Meyer who is president and chief operating officer. In the year 2011 the
revenue of the company was $4,239 billion. Universal Pictures have produced and distributed
many multi-million dollar films in the past for example the American Pie Franchise, Ted, Kick-
Ass, Fast and Furious, Hot Fuzz and 8 Mile. They produce films from a wide variety on genres to
maximise profits and also to market their films to a mass audience.

5. TEEN COMEDIES MADE BY UNIVERSAL PICTURES
• The American Pie Franchise was distributed by Universal, the first film of the franchise was
produced by Summit Entertainment, the Naked Mile was produced by Rogue Pictures and
The Book of Love was produced by Capital Arts Entertainment. American Pie is considered
by many as the flagship of Teen Comedies - The 8 films in the series had a budget of $145
million and in box office they generated $980 million. Universal have also created films
such as Role Models and Knocked Up. These Teen Comedy films have been successful
because Universal is a subsidiary company so they can use over areas of the
conglomerate to promote the film and create a hype about the release and therefore make
more people want to go and see it, also they have more financial power to pay for the film
to be played in more cinemas. The Teen Comedies made by Universal Pictures have bigger
budgets and have made more money than smaller companies like Film 4 who produced the
Inbetweeners Movie which had a budget of £3,500,000 and made £41,800,000, which in
comparison to the first American Pie which had a budget of $11,000,000 and made
$235,483,004 is not a lot.

6. WHAT COMPANY WOULD DISTRIBUTE MY
PRODUCT?
• I believe Universal Pictures would be the best company to distribute my Teen Comedy film
this is because they are a subsidiary company to a multi-million dollar media conglomerate
which would allow them to use cross media convergence to promote my product - General
Electric could use their television network NBC to run adverts on my film and also could
have special sneak peaks of the film. Universal Pictures also have experience on the
demographics of my genre because they have released the biggest Teen Comedies of all
time - American Pie, this would allow them to already know how to market this specific
genre and would therefore make people want to go and see the film and would therefore
mean a maximise in profits for the company. Universal also can spend more money on the
budget of the film, because they are a multi-million dollar media company, which would
make the film better. Also it would allow Universal to distribute my film more frequently and
easily. I believe Universal would distribute my film because they only have limited number
of Teen Comedies so having more would make the company reach out to a wider audience
and furthermore maximise profits.
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