Industry | Film |
---|---|
Founded | July 1992 |
Founder | Tom Cruise Paula Wagner |
Defunct | August 2008 |
Fate | Partnership dissolved |
Successor | TC Productions |
Headquarters | United States |
Owner | Tom Cruise Paula Wagner |
Cruise/Wagner Productions, also abbreviated as C/W Productions, was an American independent film production company. It was founded by actor Tom Cruise and his agent Paula Wagner in July 1992. [1] [2] [3] Wagner had been representing Cruise for eleven years before the formation of C/W Productions. [2] [3] The company has grossed more than $2.9 billion in box office proceeds since its inception. [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9]
Cruise/Wagner Productions was formed to give Cruise more creative freedom over his film projects and to give him the opportunity to produce and direct motion pictures. [3] In October 1992, Cruise/Wagner Productions signed an exclusive three-year multi-picture financing and distribution deal with Paramount Pictures. [10] [11] The deal was renewed and expanded several times over the next fourteen years. In August 2006 Sumner Redstone, chairman of Viacom (parent company of Paramount Pictures) terminated that relationship citing Cruise's comments in the media about psychiatry, anti-depressants and Brooke Shields' handling of postpartum depression, and his taking up Scientology. [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [12] However, the termination may have been more about money than anything else. [9] [13] [14] Within a week, Daniel Snyder, owner of the Washington Redskins and two hedge funds, secured financial backing to buy the company. [7] [12] [15] [16]
In November 2006, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) came to Cruise/Wagner with a deal that gave them a percentage of the ownership in United Artists (UA) in an effort to revive the floundering production company. [4] [9] This deal fell apart when Wagner left the studio in August 2008. [17] [18] [19] [20]
Year | Title | Director | Distributor | Budget | Box office | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1996 | Mission: Impossible | Brian De Palma | Paramount Pictures | $80 million | $457.7 million | Installment of the Mission: Impossible franchise. |
1998 | Without Limits | Robert Towne | Warner Bros. | $25 million | $777,423 | |
2000 | Mission: Impossible 2 | John Woo | Paramount Pictures | $125 million | $546.4 million | Installment of the Mission: Impossible franchise. |
2001 | The Others | Alejandro Amenábar | StudioCanal | $17 million | $209.9 million | |
Vanilla Sky | Cameron Crowe | Paramount Pictures | $68 million | $203.4 million | Remake of Open Your Eyes. | |
2002 | Narc | Joe Carnahan | $6.5 million | $12.6 million | ||
Minority Report | Steven Spielberg | 20th Century Fox | $102 million | $358.4 million | ||
2003 | Shattered Glass | Billy Ray | Lionsgate Films | $6 million | $2.9 million | |
The Last Samurai | Edward Zwick | Warner Bros. | $140 million | $456.8 million | ||
2004 | Suspect Zero | E. Elias Merhige | Paramount Pictures | $27 million | $11.4 million | |
2005 | War of the Worlds | Steven Spielberg | $132 million | $603.9 million | Remake of The War of the Worlds. | |
Elizabethtown | Cameron Crowe | $45 million | $52 million | |||
2006 | Ask the Dust | Robert Towne | — | $2.5 million | ||
Mission: Impossible III | J. J. Abrams | $150 million | $398.5 million | Installment of the Mission: Impossible franchise. | ||
2007 | Lions for Lambs | Robert Redford | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (United States) 20th Century Fox (International) | $35 million | $63.2 million | |
2008 | The Eye | David Moreau and Xavier Palud | Paramount Pictures Lionsgate Films | $12 million | $56.7 million | Remake of The Eye. |
Death Race | Paul W. S. Anderson | Universal Pictures | $45–65 million | $76 million | Installment of the Death Race franchise. | |
Valkyrie | Bryan Singer | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (United States) 20th Century Fox (International) | $75–90 million | $201.5 million | ||
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film and television production and distribution company and the namesake division of Paramount Global. It is the sixth-oldest film studio in the world, the second-oldest film studio in the United States, and the sole member of the "Big Five" film studios located within the city limits of Los Angeles.
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, Inc., is an American media company specializing in film and television production and distribution. Founded on April 17, 1924 and based in Beverly Hills, California, it is owned by the Amazon MGM Studios subsidiary of Amazon.
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Sumner Murray Redstone was an American billionaire businessman and media magnate. He was the founder and chairman of the second incarnation of Viacom, chairman of CBS Corporation, and the majority owner and chairman of the National Amusements theater chain. Through National Amusements, Redstone, up until his death, was, and his family remains, majority voting shareholder of mass media conglomerate ViacomCBS which is in turn, the parent company of the Paramount Pictures film studio, the CBS television network, and various cable networks. According to Forbes, as of April 2020, he was worth US$2.6 billion.
Orion Releasing, LLC is an American film production and distribution company co-owned by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Amazon through Amazon MGM Studios. In its original operating period, the company produced and released films from 1978 until 1999 and was also involved in television production and syndication throughout the 1980s until the early 1990s. It was formed in 1978 as a joint venture between Warner Bros. and three former senior executives at United Artists. From its founding until its buyout by MGM in the late 1990s, Orion was considered one of the largest mini-major studios.
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