| The Zanuck Company | |
| Former Name: | The Zanuck/Brown Company (1972–1988) |
| Type: | Private |
| Location: | Beverly Hills, California |
| Industry: | Production company |
| Founders: | David Brown Richard D. 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 executive Robert A. Daley.[8] After three years working at Warner Bros., the duo shifted ties to production studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 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 1994, The Zanuck Company produced Paramount's Deep Impact, starring Morgan Freeman, Robert Duvall, and Vanessa Redgrave.[12] Other hits followed such as DreamWorks' 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, 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 | $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 | $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 | 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) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| April 7, 2000 | Rules of Engagement | William Friedkin | Paramount Pictures | co-production with Scott Rudin Productions and Seven Arts Pictures | $60 million | $71.7 million | |
| July 27, 2001 | Planet of the Apes | Tim Burton | 20th Century Fox | $100 million | $362.2 million | ||
| July 12, 2002 | Reign of Fire | Rob Bowman | Buena Vista Pictures | co-production with Touchstone Pictures and Spyglass Entertainment | $60 million | $82.2 million | |
| Road to Perdition | Sam Mendes | DreamWorks Pictures (North America) 20th Century Fox (International) | $80 million | $181 million | |||
| December 10, 2003 | Big Fish | Tim Burton | Sony Pictures Releasing | co-production with Columbia Pictures and The Jinks/Cohen Company | $70 million | $123.2 million | |
| July 15, 2005 | Charlie and the Chocolate Factory | Warner Bros. Pictures | co-production with Plan B Entertainment and Village Roadshow Pictures | $150 million | $475 million | ||
| December 21, 2007 | Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street | Paramount Pictures (North America) Warner Bros. Pictures (International) | co-production with DreamWorks Pictures and Parkes/MacDonald Productions | $50 million | $153.4 million | ||
| December 19, 2008 | Yes Man | Peyton Reed | Warner Bros. Pictures | co-production with Village Roadshow Pictures and Heyday Films | $70 million | $223.2 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 |