Amblin Entertainment is an American film and television production company founded by director and producer Steven Spielberg and film producers Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall in 1981. The company's headquarters are located on the backlot of Universal Studios in Universal City, California. Despite not owned by Sony pictures, but they have produced and worked on few films distributed by Sony Pictures' divisions: Columbia Pictures and TriStar Pictures.
Overview of the Company
Amblin is named after Spielberg's first commercially released film, Amblin' (1968), a short independent film about a man and woman hitchhiking through the desert. The film, which cost $15,000 to produce, was shown for Universal Studios and won Spielberg more directing roles. Although Amblin is an independent production company, Universal distributes many Amblin productions, and Amblin operates out of a building on the Universal lot.
Its logo features the silhouette of E.T. riding in the basket on Elliott's bicycle flying in front of the moon from the 1982 movie, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial.
In addition to various Spielberg films, Amblin has produced movies by other directors such as Joe Dante (Gremlins, Small Soldiers, Gremlins 2: The New Batch, Innerspace), Robert Zemeckis (the Back to the Future trilogy, Who Framed Roger Rabbit), Brian Levant (the Flintstones duology), Matthew Robbins (*batteries not included), Barry Levinson (Young Sherlock Holmes), Penelope Spheeris (the 1994 film remake of The Little Rascals), Brad Silberling (Casper), Don Bluth (An American Tail, The Land Before Time), Clint Eastwood (The Bridges of Madison County, Flags of Our Fathers, Letters from Iwo Jima, Hereafter), Gil Kenan (Monster House), Martin Campbell (The Mask of Zorro, The Legend of Zorro), Richard Donner (The Goonies), Jan de Bont (Twister), Barry Sonnenfeld (the Men in Black trilogy), Martin Scorsese (the remake of Cape Fear), Joe Johnston (Jurassic Park III), J. J. Abrams (Super 8), The Coen Brothers (True Grit), and Simon Wells (An American Tail: Fievel Goes West, We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story, Balto).
Most of these directors are close friends of Spielberg, who has an executive producer or producer credit on many but not all of the films that Amblin's produced and were not directed by Spielberg. Amblin's most critically acclaimed production is Schindler's List (1993), which was nominated for twelve Academy Awards, winning seven, including Best Picture. A companion study guide for it, Facing History, was prepared through a grant from Amblin and Universal.
Amblin's television series credits include Amazing Stories, Tiny Toon Adventures, seaQuest DSV, Animaniacs, Earth 2, Pinky and the Brain, ER, Freakazoid!, Back to the Future, Family Dog, The Spooktacular New Adventures of Casper, Fievel's American Tails, The Land Before Time and Men in Black: The Series. The animated title Fievel's American Tails and others were produced by Amblin's animation division Amblimation, which was active from 1991 until 1995. Another studio which has distributed many Amblin productions is Warner Bros. Entertainment. DreamWorks (which was co-founded by Spielberg) has distributed a number of Amblin productions since 1994.
The Walt Disney Studios has also collaborated with Amblin in such films as Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Arachnophobia, Noises Off, A Far Off Place, War Horse, Lincoln, The Hundred-Foot Journey, Bridge of Spies, and The BFG.
Logo Sequence
The Amblin Entertainment logo used until 2015.
The logo has a moon zooming out where the silhouettes of Elliot and E.T. (from E.T. The Extra Terrestrial) fly in and stop in front of the moon. Then a pair of two lines colored red and blue, surround the moon, then "AMBLIN" appears, via shadow effect, and finally "ENTERTAINMENT" fades in below.
In 2015, The logo now has been updated with CGI, but with differences, the camera zooms out past the moon, Elliott and E.T. turning to the right, "AMBLIN" fades in along with "ENTERTAINMENT".
Sony Pictures Filmography
| Title | Release Date | U.S Distributor | International Distributor | Other Production Companies |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hook | 11th December 1991 | TriStar Pictures | ||
| Men in Black | 2th July 1997 | Columbia Pictures | Parkes/MacDonald Productions | |
| The Mask of Zorro | 17th July 1998 | TriStar Pictures | ||
| Men in Black II | 4th July 2002 | Columbia Pictures | Parkes/MacDonald Productions | |
| The Legend of Zorro | 28th October 2005 | Columbia Pictures | Spyglass Entertainment Tornado Productions | |
| Memoirs of a Geisha | 9th December 2005 | Columbia Pictures | DreamWorks | Red Wagon Productions Spyglass Entertainment |
| Monster House | 21st July 2006 | Columbia Pictures | ImageMovers Relativity Media | |
| The Adventures of Tintin | 21st December 2011 | Paramount Pictures | Columbia Pictures | The Kennedy/Marshall Company WingNut Films Nickelodeon Movies |
| Men in Black 3 | 25th May 2012 | Columbia Pictures | Parkes/MacDonald ImageNation Media Magik Entertainment Hemisphere Media Capital | |
| Guardian of the Nature: The Phoenix and the Wildlife | 27th September 2019 | Columbia Pictures | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer | Sony Pictures Animation 1492 pictures WingNut Films Playtone |
| The Last Knight | 24th January 2020 | Columbia Pictures | Sony Pictures Animation Village Roadshow Pictures Reilance Entertainment Imagine Entertainment | |
| Heroes of the 95 | 25th September 2020 | Columbia Pictures | DreamWorks | Sony Pictures Animation Reilance Entertainment Lakeshore Entertainment |