| Formerly | The Zanuck/Brown Company (1972–1988) |
|---|---|
| Company type | Private |
| Industry | Production company |
| Founded | July 10, 1972 |
| Founders | David Brown Richard D. Zanuck |
| Headquarters | Beverly Hills, California |
Key people | (CEO) Lili Fini Zanuck |
| Products | Motion Pictures, New Media |
The Zanuck Company (formerly The Zanuck/Brown Company) is an American motion picture production company. It is responsible for such blockbusters as Jaws , The Sting , Cocoon , Driving Miss Daisy , Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Alice in Wonderland .
In 1972, after a successful partnership at both 20th Century Fox and Warner Bros., Richard D. Zanuck and David Brown, left to form their own production company, The Zanuck/Brown Company. [1] Later that year, Zanuck/Brown signed a five-year production deal with Universal Pictures. [2]
In 1974, Zanuck/Brown produced The Sting , starring Paul Newman, Robert Redford, and Robert Shaw. The film won seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture. [3]
In 1975, Zanuck/Brown produced Jaws , directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Roy Scheider, Robert Shaw, and Richard Dreyfuss. The film, which won three Academy Awards, became the first summer blockbuster. It was number 1 at the box office for fourteen consecutive weeks and made history as the first motion picture to gross more than $100 million. [4]
In 1979, Lili Fini Zanuck joined the company and was instrumental in developing many of its future film projects. [5]
In 1980, The Zanuck/Brown Company moved to 20th Century-Fox [6] where it produced The Verdict , starring Paul Newman and James Mason, followed by Cocoon , directed by Ron Howard and starring Hume Cronyn, Brian Dennehy, Steve Guttenberg, Jessica Tandy, and Linda Harrison. [7] On April 20, 1983, after he spent three years working at 20th Century-Fox, feeling it was "unhappy" with the agreement, the duo had moved to Warner Bros., and the new Zanuck-Brown agreement enabled the organization to produce two and a half films per year and the team will go directly to then-Warner Bros. executive Robert A. Daley. [8] After three years working at Warner Bros., the duo shifted ties to production studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), for an overall production agreement whereas the upcoming Z/B projects gave them access to MGM's slate. [9]
In 1988, Richard Zanuck partnered with producer/financier Jerry Perenchio and rebranded as The Zanuck Company.
In 1989, The Zanuck Company produced Warner Bros.' Driving Miss Daisy , starring Morgan Freeman, Jessica Tandy, and Dan Aykroyd. [10] The film won four Academy Awards, including Best Picture. [11]
In 1998, The Zanuck Company produced Paramount and DreamWorks' Deep Impact , starring Morgan Freeman, Robert Duvall, and Vanessa Redgrave. [12] Other hits followed such as DreamWorks and 20th Century Fox's Road to Perdition , starring Paul Newman, Tom Hanks, and Daniel Craig, 20th Century Fox's Planet of the Apes , starring Mark Wahlberg, Tim Roth, and Helena Bonham Carter, and Columbia Pictures' Big Fish , starring Ewan McGregor, Albert Finney, and Jessica Lange, the latter two films being directed by Tim Burton. [13] [14]
Other productions by The Zanuck Company are Warner Bros.' Charlie and the Chocolate Factory , Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (co-produced with DreamWorks), Dark Shadows , and Alice in Wonderland , all of which were directed by Tim Burton and star Johnny Depp. [15]
In 2010, Alice in Wonderland became the first motion picture from The Zanuck Company to exceed $1 billion at the box office. [16]
| Release date | Title | Director | Distributor | Notes | Budget | Box office (worldwide) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| July 18, 1973 | Sssssss | Bernard L. Kowalski | Universal Pictures | first film | $1.03 million | $1 million |
| December 19, 1973 | Willie Dynamite | Gilbert Moses | N/A | |||
| December 25, 1973 | The Sting | George Roy Hill | winner of the Academy Award for Best Picture; co-production with Bill/Phillips Productions Inducted into the National Film Registry in 2005 | $5.5 million | $159.6 million | |
| March 30, 1974 | The Sugarland Express | Steven Spielberg | $3 million | $12 million | ||
| May 17, 1974 | The Black Windmill | Don Siegel | co-production with Siegel Films | $1.5 million | N/A | |
| August 16, 1974 | The Girl from Petrovka | Robert Ellis Miller | N/A | |||
| May 21, 1975 | The Eiger Sanction | Clint Eastwood | co-production with The Malpaso Company | $9 million | $14.2 million | |
| June 20, 1975 | Jaws | Steven Spielberg | Inducted into the National Film Registry in 2001 | $472 million | ||
| July 15, 1977 | MacArthur | Joseph Sargent | $16.3 million | |||
| June 16, 1978 | Jaws 2 | Jeannot Szwarc | $30 million | $208 million | ||
| Release date | Title | Director | Distributor | Notes | Budget | Box office (worldwide) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| June 13, 1980 | The Island | Michael Ritchie | Universal Pictures | $22 million | $15.7 million | |
| December 18, 1981 | Neighbors | John G. Avildsen | Columbia Pictures | $8.5 million | $29.9 million | |
| December 8, 1982 | The Verdict | Sidney Lumet | 20th Century Fox | $16 million | $54 million | |
| June 21, 1985 | Cocoon | Ron Howard | $17.5 million | $85.3 million | ||
| November 8, 1985 | Target | Arthur Penn | Warner Bros. | co-production with CBS Theatrical Films | $12.9 million | $9.02 million |
| November 23, 1988 | Cocoon: The Return | Daniel Petrie | 20th Century Fox | last film released under the Zanuck-Brown name | $17.5 million | $25 million |
| December 15, 1989 | Driving Miss Daisy | Bruce Beresford | Warner Bros. | first film released under the name of The Zanuck Company; winner of the Academy Award for Best Picture | $7.5 million | $145.8 million |
| Release date | Title | Director | Distributor | Notes | Budget | Box office (worldwide) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| December 22, 1991 | Rush | Lili Fini Zanuck | MGM/UA Distribution Co. | co-production with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer | $17 million | $7.2 million |
| October 29, 1992 | Rich in Love | Bruce Beresford | $18 million | $2.2 million | ||
| May 6, 1994 | Clean Slate | Mick Jackson | N/A | $7.4 million | ||
| December 1, 1995 | Wild Bill | Walter Hill | co-production with United Artists | $30 million | $2.1 million | |
| April 26, 1996 | Mulholland Falls | Lee Tamahori | co-production with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, PolyGram Filmed Entertainment and Largo Entertainment | $29 million | $11.5 million | |
| August 2, 1996 | Chain Reaction | Andrew Davis | 20th Century Fox | co-production with Chicago Pacific Entertainment | $50 million | $60.2 million |
| May 8, 1998 | Deep Impact | Mimi Leder | Paramount Pictures (North America) DreamWorks Pictures (International) | co-production with Amblin Entertainment and The Manhattan Project | $80 million | $349.5 million |
| March 19, 1999 | True Crime | Clint Eastwood | Warner Bros. | co-production with Malpaso Productions | $55 million | $16.6 million |
| Release date | Title | Director | Distributor | Notes | Budget | Box office (worldwide) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| March 5, 2010 | Alice in Wonderland | Tim Burton | Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures | co-production with Walt Disney Pictures, Roth Films and Team Todd | $150–200 million | $1.025 billion |
| April 2, 2010 | Clash of the Titans | Louis Leterrier | Warner Bros. Pictures | co-production with Legendary Pictures and Thunder Road Pictures | $125 million | $493.2 million |
| May 11, 2012 | Dark Shadows | Tim Burton | co-production with Village Roadshow Pictures, Infinitum Nihil and GK Films | $150 million | $245.5 million | |
| May 30, 2014 | Maleficent | Robert Stromberg | Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures | co-production with Walt Disney Pictures and Roth Films | $180–263 million | $758.5 million |
| September 15, 2015 | Hidden | The Duffer Brothers | Warner Bros. Pictures | uncredited; co-production with Vertigo Entertainment | N/A | $310,273 |
| Release date | Title | Director | Network | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| July 9, 1987 | Barrington | Richard Compton | CBS | as The Zanuck/Brown Company; co-production with New World Television |
| August 21, 1992 | Driving Miss Daisy | Will Mackenzie | co-production with Warner Bros. Television | |
| 2004 | Dead Lawyers | Paris Barclay | Sci-Fi | co-production with Sony Pictures Television |
| May 16, 2015 | Bessie | Dee Rees | HBO | co-production with HBO Films and Flavor Unit Entertainment |