Paramount Pictures: History and Key Facts

Paramount Pictures Corporation, commonly known as Paramount Pictures or simply Paramount, is an American film production and distribution company and the flagship namesake subsidiary of Paramount Skydance. Founded on May 8, 1912, it is the sixth-oldest global film studio and the second-oldest in the United States behind Universal Pictures, and it is one of the Big Five studios located within the city limits of Los Angeles.

In 1916, film producer Adolph Zukor put 24 actors and actresses under contract and honored each with a star on the logo. In 1967, the number of stars was reduced to 22 and their hidden meaning was dropped. In 2014, Paramount Pictures became the first major Hollywood studio to distribute all of its films in digital form only. The company's headquarters and studios are located at 5555 Melrose Avenue, Hollywood, California.

The most commercially successful film franchises from Paramount Pictures include Star Trek, Indiana Jones, Top Gun, Mission: Impossible, and Transformers. Additionally, the studio's library includes many notable films such as The Greatest Show on Earth, The Ten Commandments, Love Story, The Godfather, Grease, Ghost, Forrest Gump, Titanic and Saving Private Ryan, with four of the nine films winning the Academy Award for Best Picture, and all of them were among the highest-grossing films of all time, with Titanic breaking the record during its initial release. Paramount Pictures is a member of the Motion Picture Association (MPA), and is currently one of seven film studios of Paramount Skydance Studios, alongside a 49% stake in Miramax, a 50% stake in United International Pictures, Paramount Players, a revival of Republic Pictures, and Skydance Animation.

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