Boxoffice - August 2019

new co-chairmen in 1951. Their business plan was
to fund independent producers; unlike other top
distributors, United Artists never actually owned a
studio facility. In their first year, United Artists released
two enduring (and profitable) classics: John
Huston’s The African Queen and Fred Zinnemann’s
High Noon.
Krim and Benjamin consolidated their power
when Chaplin sold his 25 percent stake in the
company to them for $1.1 million in 1955; the
next year, Mary Pickford sold her shares for $3
million. The company went public in 1957—and
it continued to attract top producers and directors:
Stanley Kramer, Billy Wilder, Otto Preminger,
Burt Lancaster, Stanley Kubrick, and super-producers
Harold and Walter Mirisch, among others.
In 1959, the company also launched a television
division that produced such hits as “The Fugitive,”
“Gilligan’s Island,” and “The Patty Duke Show.”
United Artists earned consecutive Best Picture
Oscars in 1955 and 1956 with Marty and Around
the World in 80 Days, followed by Billy Wilder’s
The Apartment in 1960, Robert Wise and Jerome
Robbins’s West Side Story in 1961, Tony Richardson’s
Tom Jones in 1963, Norman Jewison’s In the
Heat of the Night in 1967, and John Schlesinger’s
X-rated Midnight Cowboy in 1969. In 1962, the
company launched one of the most successful and
enduring franchises in movie history, the James
Bond series, with Dr. No, followed by such spy hits
as From Russia with Love, Goldfinger, and Thunderball.
The early ’60s also introduced another popular
franchise, the Pink Panther comedies starring
Peter Sellers.
In 1967, Transamerica Corporation bought
98 percent of UA’s stock and installed David and
Arnold Picker as heads of the company. Their reign
was short-lived: Krim and Benjamin returned to
the top in 1970.
A landmark alliance was established in 1973
when United Artists began overseeing sales and
distribution of MGM’s films in North America.
The decade also marked a singular achievement for
UA, as it earned the Oscar for Best Picture in three
consecutive years: One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
in 1975, Rocky in 1976, and Annie Hall in 1977.
Turbulence followed those triumphs. Battles
with Transamerica chief John R. Beckett prompted
Krim, Benjamin, and president Eric Pleskow
to leave United Artists and form Orion Pictures.
The new regime at United Artists enjoyed major
critical successes with Woody Allen’s Manhattan
and Martin Scorsese’s Raging Bull. But they also
backed the latest project from Oscar-winning Deer
Hunter director Michael Cimino, Heaven’s Gate,
which became one of the costliest flops in motion
picture history. Its
failure led Transamerica
to sell UA to Kirk
Kerkorian’s Tracinda
Corporation, which
also owned MGM.
The two brands were
merged as MGM/UA
Entertainment Company
in 1981.
From the 1980s
onward, United
Artists went through
a dizzying succession
of ownership changes.
In 1985, Ted Turner’s
Turner Broadcasting
System bought MGM/
UA primarily for its
film library; as part
of the deal, UA was
promptly sold back to
Kerkorian, who named
his new production
company (minus the MGM library) MGM/UA
Communications Company.
Despite hits like Moonstruck, Best Picture Oscar
winner Rain Man, and the Bond film The Living
Daylights, the new MGM/UA was hemorrhaging
money. In 1990, Italian financier Giancarlo
Parretti bought the company and combined it with
CLASSIC AD
Boxoffice, March 11, 1936
RUBY ANNIVERSAERY
In 1959, Boxoffice celebrated
UA’s 40th year with a
special 24-page section that
included a detailed history
and congratulatory messages
from Gregory Peck, John
Wayne, Stanley Kramer,
and many other Holywood
luminaries.
AUGUST 2019
43