When United Artists first formed in 1919 by DW Griffiths, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks and Charlie Chaplin it was a noble attempt by Hollywood’s biggest talents to control their own destinies. Rather than relying on the industry’s big titans for their livelihoods, these stars were going to be self sufficient. From the beginning, however, United Artists seemed doomed by a lack of operating capital and the talent’s inability to produce the previously agreed upon pictures. The company nobly carried on, however, despite its limitations.
By the 1960’s, United Artists was firmly hanging on. Its lack of operating capital made it a leaner operation than its competitors, a benefit in the television era that was ravaging Hollywood. The studio had even acquired part of Warner Bros.’ Looney Tunes catalog that had been carelessly sold off by Jack Warner. The conglomerization fad that was resulting in Hollywood studios getting snapped up seemingly weekly put United Artists in the sights of Transamerica, an insurance company famous for its pyramid shaped skyscraper in San Francisco.
The relatively small United Artists operation was a good fit for Transamerica, which was mostly known for being an insurance company. Transamerica was expecting its newly purchased studio to produce modestly budgeted base hits rather than lavishly produced home runs. This policy served the studio well; when it did get home runs, they were massively profitable, like Rocky, which was produced for next to nothing yet became a huge hit. The studio even produced the successful James Bond franchise. It would be the company’s deviation from its conservative formula that would be its undoing, however.
The studio made a huge bet on Michael Cimino’s Heaven’s Gate, a sprawling, incomprehensible mess whose production spiraled out of control. Michael Cimino’s career was ruined and United Artists fell out of favor with Transamerica. The studio was sold off to the zombie remains of MGM.
