I know that alot of production companies by eachother over. Recently we were talking about the fact that Sony might have aquired a big label (was it Paramount? I can't find the thread through searching). I know all the "indie" distributing labels have slowly been picked up as subsidiaries of other companies. How big is too big? Picking up all these smaller labels must have a net effect on a company's financial numbers. Indies don't pull in that much, but distribution is still expensive, and locating small films is a full time job too. There have been some big bidding wars recently at Cannes and Sundance, and there is no guarantee the movies are going to break even. That's not to say it must be a direct correlation, perhaps larger companies look to distribute smaller films to draw new viewers towards their bigger productions? Anyways, what's the concensus here on production and distribution conduct? Is there more potential with all this merging or will it clean out the indie scene?

It was MGM.

Thanks. That's massive. Sony just purchased MGM, which I'm sure has a million subsidiaries too. Just seems to me like all movies are going to eventually come out of about two or three big companies, and I''m not sure if that is good for either film or for the monetary value of the companies. On the other hand, big companies can do projects like no one else, and making alot of money off of one movie can be used to start a hundred smaller projects. So I'm still straddling the fence on where this could go.

http://boxofficemojo.com/studio/

List of studios. Keep in mind, that the studios listed are not all independant. WB owns New Line if i'm not mistaken. Sony owns MGM, Buena Vista owns Miramax ... stuff like that.

The way MGM has been going the past decade, it's not what it once was. Besides the DVD library, the real thing of value they bought was Bond.

10+ inches