British Cinema

There are 3 types of production company's:

1. Indie
2. Subsidiary 
3. Conglomerate

An independent film or indie film is a film production resulting in a feature film that is produced mostly or completely outside of the major film studio system. It is not owned by anyone.

A subsidiary production company is a company who is more than 50% controlled and owned by another company, usually referred to as the parent company or conglomerate. This conglomerate holds a controlling interest in the subsidiary company. 

A conglomerate is a company that owns companies, which are called subsidiaries. 

Analysing:

You would think that Working Title is a conglomerate however it is a subsidiary, which again owns it own subsidiaries such as Working Title Australia and WT 2. A producer can be both subsidiary and conglomerate. 

Some production companies are on a very big scale and are known globally. These are known as the Big 6 and are all conglomerates. 

• Disney
• Columbia
• 20th Century Fox
• Paramount
• Warner Bros
• Universal Pictures

All of these 5 conglomerates dominate the worldwide film industry and a company such as Working Title is for example a subsidiary of NBC Universal. Some people think that it should be called the Big 7 and that Lionsgate should be part of it, due to the bis success that it has had lately.

Working title is for example a subsidiary of NBC Universal who are owned by Comcast. Besides Working Title, NBC Universal also owns Universal Pictures.
Studio Canal are originally a French company, who also have a subsidiary called Studio Canal UK also known as optimum releasing.   These 2 companies have worked on distribution and production for several Warp films.


There are 3 steps in a film cycle:

1. Production
2. Distribution
3. Exhibition 

When a conglomerate owns many small subsidiaries, which do different things such as distribution, production or exhibition, it is known as vertical integration.