American Dreamworks/SKG Studios

DreamWorks/SKG Studios is a relative newcomer to the movie studio industry. Steven Spielberg and

Jeffrey Katzenberg, along with David Geffen founded this company in 1994. "The Peacemaker", released in 1997 was this studio's first movie.

In its short history DreamWorks/SKG has released films that have set box office earnings records and won numerous movie industry awards. There are several factors that have contributed to this. One factor is that this studio partners with Walt Disney Studios. DreamWorks/SKG makes the movies and then Walt Disney Studios takes over by marketing and distributing the films, through their already well established distribution networks. Also, DreamWorks has co-produced movies with many of the older and more established studios, making good use of these studios years of movie-making experience. They have co-produced movies Paramount, Universal, Warner Brothers and Sony. "Saving Private Ryan" was a co-production between DreamWorks/SKG and Paramount. This film was released in 1998 and was the highest grossing film of that year.

DreamWorks Animation (DWA) was the animation division of DreamWorks/SKG. When DWA was spun off and became a separate company in 2004, Jeffrey Katzenberg became its CEO. DreamWorks/SKG Studios then became DreamWorks Studios. In 2007 Stacey Snider joined DreamWorks as CEO and co-chair with Spielberg and Geffen. This move again represents a move by DreamWorks to make good use of other resources in the movie industry to increase the studios success. Snider had extensive experience at Universal Studios and a track record for releasing box-office hits.

Jurassic Park, Saving Private Ryan, ET: the Extraterrestrial and Schindler's List are some of the most successful movies made by DreamWorks Studios. Each of these movies was either directed or produced by founding DreamWorks partner Steven Spielberg. Saving Private Ryan was released in 1998 and was the top box office earner for that year. These four movies have won Academy Awards, as well as Golden Globe and BAFTA awards. BAFTA is the British Academy of Film and Television Arts and is the British equivalent of America's Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.