CBS Films is an American film production and distribution company founded in 2007 as a division of CBS Corporation and is considered a mini-studio.

 

CBS Films will distribute, develop and produce four to six $50 million budget movies a year.

 

Background

CBS made a brief move into film production in 1967, creating Cinema Center Films.This unprofitable unit was closed in 1972; today the distribution rights to the Cinema Center library rest with Paramount Pictures for home video (via CBS Home Entertainment) and theatrical release, and with CBS Television Distribution for TV distribution (most other ancillary rights remain with CBS).

 

It released such films as The Reivers (1969), starring Steve McQueen, and the musical Scrooge (1970), starring Albert Finney.In 1979 CBS launched a new theatrical films division, which was officially named CBS Theatrical Films the following year. While this was in operation, CBS entered into a joint venture with Columbia Pictures and HBO called Tri-Star Pictures. CBS eventually dropped out of the venture in 1985,and CBS Theatrical Films came to an end that same year.In 2000, CBS was bought by Viacom, which also owned Paramount Pictures.

 

Company history

In March 2007, following the 2006 split from Viacom and Paramount, CBS Corp. launched CBS Films with the hiring of Bruce Tobey as head of business affairs, legal, finance and video distribution. Amy Baer was hired in September 2007 as president and CEO for CBS Films. With CBS owning a cable movie channel, this division was created to make content for the channel. In November 2009, CBS signed with Sony Pictures for a three year deal for international distribution.

 

The Company's launch seemed to well timed to its executives with the closure or restructuring of many film companies including the formerly prominent Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Miramax Films and Warner Independent Pictures. Also that CBS will be able to well market its films with all its parent corporaton's advertising channels from broadcast to billboards.

 

The studio released its first film, Extraordinary Measures, on January 22, 2010[citation needed] and flopped. CBS Films released its second film, a romantic comedy The Back-up Plan, in April 2010 with so-so results. Opening over the five-day Thanksgiving weekend, "Faster," its third film and the Dwayne Johnson action flick was weak at the box office with a $12 million start.In August, the Company purchased distribution rights for the first time for the remake movie, The Mechanic. CBS moved to replace Bruce Tobey, chief operations officer, with Wolfgang Hammer in November 2010.

 

After releasing five films and only one gross over $30 million, CBS Films's revenue are lower than expected. Effectively after its March 2011 release, CBS halts its film slate and moves to acquire films at film festivals. Baer also is released after the ended of her contract in October with a trio of senior executives left to head up the division.

 

On April 23, 2012, CBS Films named Hammer and Terry Press Co-Presidents. Press, who had been consulting for the studio since 2010, oversees creative, distribution, marketing and physical production. Hammer will oversees all business, finance, legal affairs and acquisitions, including financed, co-financed and completed projects for the division.

 

Filmography

The pay-cable rights to the new CBS Films' library are held by CBS's premium cable network Showtime.Sony also has foreign theatrical and home entertainment distribution rights for all CBS Films products.

Title	Release Date	Genre	Director	Starring	Co-produced with	Budget	Gross (worldwide)
Extraordinary Measures	January 22, 2010	Drama	Tom Vaughan	Brendan Fraser Harrison Ford	Double Feature Films	$30 million	$15,134,168
The Back-up Plan	April 23, 2010	Romantic comedy	Alan Poul	Jennifer Lopez Alex O'Loughlin	Escape Artists	$35 million	$77,477,008
Faster	November 24, 2010	Action	George Tillman, Jr.	Dwayne Johnson Billy Bob Thornton	TriStar Pictures Castle Rock Entertainment State Street Pictures	$24 million	$35,542,923
The Mechanic	January 28, 2011	Action-thriller	Simon West	Jason Statham Ben Foster	Millennium Films Nu Image	$40 million	$51,070,807
Beastly	March 4, 2011	Fantasy romance	Daniel Barnz (Also writer)	Vanessa Hudgens Alex Pettyfer	N/A	$17 million	$28,834,009
The Woman in Black	February 3, 2012	Horror-thriller	James Watkins	Daniel Radcliffe	Hammer Film Productions Alliance Films Cross Creek Pictures	$13 million	$127,730,736
Salmon Fishing in the Yemen	March 9, 2012	Comedy-drama	Lasse Hallström	Ewan McGregor Emily Blunt Kristin Scott Thomas	Lionsgate BBC Films UK Film Council Kudos Pictures		$29,618,434
The Words	September 7, 2012	Romance-Thriller	Brian Klugman Lee Sternthal (Also writers)	Bradley Cooper Olivia Wilde Zoe Saldana	Animus Films Benaroya Pictures Serena Films Waterfall Media
Seven Psychopaths	October 12, 2012	Black comedy	Martin McDonagh (Also writer)	Colin Farrell Sam Rockwell Woody Harrelson Christopher Walken Tom Waits Abbie Cornish Olga Kurylenko	Blueprint Pictures Film4 Productions British Film Institute
The To Do List	February 14, 2013	Comedy	Maggie Carey (Also writer)	Aubrey Plaza Rachel Bilson Bill Hader	3 Arts Entertainment The Mark Gordon Company
Last Vegas	December 20, 2013	Comedy	Jon Turteltaub	Robert De Niro Michael Douglas Morgan Freeman	Mandate Pictures
My Fair Lady	2012	Musical	John Madden	Carey Mulligan	Toledo Productions
To the Wonder	2012	Romantic drama	Terrence Malick (Also writer)	Ben Affleck Rachel McAdams Rachel Weisz	FilmNation Entertainment Redbud Pictures
The Keep	2012	Horror	Niels Arden Oplev
7500	2013	Horror-thriller	Takashi Shimizu	Leslie Bibb
American Assassin	2013	Action-thriller	Jeffrey Nachmanoff	Chris Hemsworth Bruce Willis	Di Bonaventura Pictures Bedford Falls Productions Nick Wechsler Productions
Gambit	2013	Comedy-Crime	Michael Hoffman	Colin Firth Cameron Diaz Alan Rickman	Momentum Pictures FilmNation Entertainment
Who Gets Bob?	TBA	Romantic comedy
Cell 211	TBA	Prison film			Hwy 61 Films
Freaky Monday	TBA	Comedy			Gunn Films
Sleeper Spy	TBA	Thriller	Jeff Wadlow
Gunsmoke	TBA	Action-adventure
It Takes a Village	TBA	Comedy	Keenan Ivory Wayans (Also writer)		TriStar Pictures Warner Bros. Pictures
Consent to Kill	TBA	Action	Antoine Fuqua
Get a Job	TBA	Comedy	Dylan Kidd	Alison Brie Anna Kendrick Bryan Cranston	N/A
Ends of the Earth	TBA	Action-thriller	Derek Lee Clif Prowse	N/A	Automatik Entertainment Téléfilm Canada
Deus Ex: Human Revolution	TBA	Sci-fi thriller			Square Enix Eidos Montreal