Editing Universal Pictures (section)

===MCA takes over===
[[File:2004-04-04 - 10 - Universal Studios.jpg|thumb|200px|Ceremonial gate to Universal Studios Hollywood (the theme park attached to the studio lot)]]
In the early 1950s, Universal set up its own distribution company in [[France]]. In the late 1960s, the company also started a production company in [[Paris]], '''Universal Productions France S.A.''', although sometimes credited by the name of the distribution company, '''Universal Pictures France'''. Except for the two first films it produced, [[Claude Chabrol]]'s ''Le scandale'' (English title ''[[The Champagne Murders]]'', 1967) and [[Romain Gary]]'s ''Les oiseaux vont mourir au Pérou'' (English title ''Birds in Peru''), it was only involved in French or other European co-productions, including [[Louis Malle]]'s ''[[Lacombe, Lucien]]'', [[Bertrand Blier]]'s ''Les Valseuses'' (English title ''[[Going Places (1974 film)|Going Places]]'', 1974), and [[Fred Zinnemann]]'s ''[[The Day of the Jackal (film)|The Day of the Jackal]]'' (1973). It was only involved in approximately 20 French film productions. In the early 1970s, the unit was incorporated into the French [[Cinema International Corporation]] arm.

By the late 1950s, the motion picture business was again changing. The combination of the studio/theater-chain breakup and the rise of television saw the reduced audience size for cinema productions. The [[MCA Inc.|Music Corporation of America]] (MCA), the world's largest talent agency, had also become a powerful television producer, renting space at [[Republic Studios]] for its [[Revue Productions]] subsidiary. After a period of complete shutdown, a moribund Universal agreed to sell its 360-acre (1.5&nbsp;km<sup>2</sup>) studio lot to MCA in 1958 for $11&nbsp;million, renamed [[Revue Studios]]. MCA owned the studio lot, but not Universal Pictures, yet was increasingly influential on Universal's products. The studio lot was upgraded and modernized, while MCA clients like [[Doris Day]], [[Lana Turner]], [[Cary Grant]], and director [[Alfred Hitchcock]] were signed to Universal contracts.

The long-awaited takeover of Universal Pictures by MCA, Inc. happened in mid-1962 as part of the MCA-[[Decca Records]] merger. As a final gesture before leaving the talent agency business, virtually every MCA client was signed to a Universal contract. In 1963, MCA formed '''Universal City Studios, Inc'''., merging the motion pictures and television arms of the formerly Universal Pictures Company and Revue Studios (which was officially renamed as [[Universal Television]]). And so, with MCA in charge, Universal became a full-blown, A-film movie studio, with [[leading actors]] and directors under contract; offering slick, commercial films; and a [[Studio Tour|studio tour]] subsidiary launched in 1964.

Television production made up much of the studio's output, with Universal heavily committed, in particular, to deals with NBC (which much later merged with Universal to form NBC Universal; [[#NBC Universal|see below]]) providing up to half of all prime time shows for several seasons. An innovation during this period championed by Universal was the made-for-television movie. In 1982, Universal became the studio base for many shows that were produced by [[Norman Lear]]'s [[Tandem Productions]]/[[Embassy Television]], including ''[[Diff'rent Strokes]]'', ''[[One Day at a Time (1975 TV series)|One Day at a Time]]'', ''[[The Jeffersons]]'', ''[[The Facts of Life (TV series)|The Facts of Life]]'', and ''[[Silver Spoons]]'' which premiered on [[NBC]] that same fall.

At this time, [[Hal B. Wallis]], who had recently worked as a major producer at Paramount, moved over to Universal, where he produced several films, among them a lavish version of [[Maxwell Anderson]]'s ''[[Anne of the Thousand Days]]'' (1969) and the equally lavish ''[[Mary, Queen of Scots (1971 film)|Mary, Queen of Scots]]'' (1971).<ref>{{Cite news |last=Page |first=Tim |date=October 8, 1986 |title=Hal B. Wallis, Film Producer, is Dead |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1986/10/08/obituaries/hal-b-wallis-film-producer-is-dead.html |access-date=March 28, 2022 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> Although neither could claim to be a big financial hit, both films received Academy Award nominations, and ''Anne'' was nominated for [[Academy Award for Best Picture|Best Picture]], [[Academy Award for Best Actor|Best Actor]] ([[Richard Burton]]), [[Academy Award for Best Actress|Best Actress]] ([[Geneviève Bujold]]), and [[Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor|Best Supporting Actor]] ([[Anthony Quayle]]). Wallis retired from Universal after making the film ''[[Rooster Cogburn (film)|Rooster Cogburn]]'' (1975), a sequel to ''[[True Grit (1969 film)|True Grit]]'' (1969), which Wallis had produced at Paramount. ''Rooster Cogburn'' co-starred [[John Wayne]], reprising his Oscar-winning role from the earlier film, and [[Katharine Hepburn]], their only film together. The film was only a moderate success.

In 1983, Universal Pictures launched an independent film arm designed to release specialty films, Universal Classics, and the division has sights on separation.<ref>{{Cite news|date=March 2, 1983|title=Classics "On Line" with Universal As Unit Has Sights on Separation|page=8|work=[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]}}</ref> In 1987, Universal Pictures, [[Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer|MGM/UA Communications Co.]], and [[Paramount Pictures]] teamed up to market feature film and television products to China. Consumer reach was measured in terms of the 25 billion admission tickets that were clocked in China in 1986, and Worldwide Media Sales, a division of the New York-based Worldwide Media Group, had been placed in charge of the undertaking.<ref>{{Cite news |date=June 3, 1987 |title=MGM/UA, Par, Universal Team To Market U.S. Products In China |page=6 |work=[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]}}</ref>

In the early 1980s, the company had its own pay television arm Universal Pay Television (a.k.a. Universal Pay TV Programming, Inc.), which spawned in 1987, an 11-picture cable television agreement with then-independent film studio [[New Line Cinema]].<ref>{{Cite news |date=June 10, 1987 |title=New Line, Universal Pay TV Sign Cable Deal For Theatrical Pics |page=46 |work=[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]}}</ref>

In the early 1970s, Universal teamed up with [[Paramount Pictures|Paramount]] to form [[Cinema International Corporation]], which distributed films by Paramount and Universal outside of the US and Canada. Although Universal did produce occasional hits, among them ''[[Airport (1970 film)|Airport]]'' (1970), ''[[The Sting]]'' (1973), ''[[American Graffiti]]'' (also 1973), ''[[Earthquake (1974 film)|Earthquake]]'' (1974), and a big box-office success which restored the company's fortunes: ''[[Jaws (film)|Jaws]]'' (1975), Universal during the decade was primarily a television studio. When [[Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer]] purchased [[United Artists]] in 1981, MGM could not drop out of the CIC venture to merge with United Artists overseas operations. However, with future film productions from both names being released through the MGM/UA Entertainment plate, CIC decided to merge UA's international units with MGM and reformed as [[United International Pictures]]. There would be other film hits like ''[[Smokey and the Bandit]]'' (1977), ''[[Animal House]]'' (1978), ''[[The Jerk]]'' (1979), ''[[The Blues Brothers (film)|The Blues Brothers]]'' (1980), ''[[The Four Seasons (1981 film)|The Four Seasons]]'' (1981), ''[[E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial]]'' (1982), ''[[The Breakfast Club]]'' (1985), ''[[Back to the Future]]'' (also 1985), ''[[An American Tail]]'' (1986), ''[[The Land Before Time (film)|The Land Before Time]]'' (1988), ''[[Field of Dreams]]'' (1989), ''[[Jurassic Park (film)|Jurassic Park]]'' (1993) and [[Casper (film)|''Casper'']] (1995), but the film business was financially unpredictable with some films like [[The Thing (1982 film)|''The Thing'']] (1982), ''[[Scarface (1983 film)|Scarface]]'' (1983), ''[[Dune (1984 film)|Dune]]'' (1984), [[Howard the Duck (film)|''Howard the Duck'']] (1986), [[The Last Temptation of Christ (film)|''The Last Temptation of Christ'']] (1988) or ''[[Waterworld]]'' (1995), which turned out to be big box office disappointments despite their high budget; however, these films became cult films in later years.{{cn|date=April 2025}} UIP began distributing films by start-up studio [[DreamWorks Pictures|DreamWorks]] in 1997 due to the founders' connections with Paramount, Universal, and Amblin Entertainment. In 2001, MGM dropped out of the UIP venture and went with [[20th Century Fox]]'s international arm to handle the distribution of their titles, an ongoing arrangement. UIP nearly lost its connection with Universal Pictures in 1999 when Universal started Universal Pictures International to take over the assets of [[PolyGram Filmed Entertainment]] and wanted UPI to distribute their films starting in 2001.<ref>{{Cite web|last1=Carver|first1=Benedict|last2=Dawtrey|first2=Adam|date=February 10, 1999|title=U to start int'l distrib|url=https://variety.com/1999/film/news/u-to-start-int-l-distrib-1117491165/|access-date=January 9, 2022|website=Variety|language=en-US}}</ref> Only a small handful of films were released theatrically by Universal Pictures International, up until the release of the film ''[[Mickey Blue Eyes]]''. UIP then took over the theatrical distribution inventory of future films planned to be released by Universal Pictures International, such as ''[[The Green Mile (film)|The Green Mile]]'' and ''[[Angela's Ashes (film)|Angela's Ashes]]''.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Groves|first=Don|date=October 8, 1999|title='Eyes' to close UPI slate|url=https://variety.com/1999/film/news/eyes-to-close-upi-slate-1117756456/|access-date=January 9, 2022|website=Variety|language=en-US}}</ref> On October 4, 1999, Universal renewed its commitments to United International Pictures to release its films internationally through 2006.<ref>{{Cite web|last1=Dawtrey|first1=Adam|last2=Petrikin|first2=Chris|date=October 4, 1999|title=A Universal appeal|url=https://variety.com/1999/biz/news/a-universal-appeal-1117756256/|access-date=January 9, 2022|website=Variety|language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=Petrikin|first=Chris|date=October 15, 1999|title=U, Par extend UIP pact|url=https://variety.com/1999/film/news/u-par-extend-uip-pact-1117756685/|access-date=January 9, 2022|website=Variety|language=en-US}}</ref>