1919 - 1950

1919
United Artists, a joint venture between four of the leading figures of early Hollywood – actress Mary Pickford, wrier-director-actor Charles Chaplin, actor Douglas Fairbanks, director D.W. Griffith – and former Treasure secretary William McAdoo, was officially incorporated in Hollywood, California. UA’s first film is His Majesty, The American, a vehicle for Douglas Fairbanks.

1920s
United Artists produces twenty-films, including such favourites as Pollyanna, The Three Musketeers, The Mark of Zorro, Robin Hood, The General, The Gold Rush and The Thief of Baghdad.

1930s
Newly-formed Twentieth Century Pictures (later Twentieth Century Fox) begins supplying four films per year which United Artists distribute. UA’s output includes such classics as City Lights, The Front Page, A Star is Born, Stagecoach, Modern Times, and the original Scarface, starring James Cagney.

1940s
UA’s output includes Charlie Chaplin’s anti-Nazi film The Great Dictator, classic adaptations of Daphne Du Maurier’s Rebecca and William Shakespeare’s Henry V, and Howard Hawks’ Oscar-winning western Red River.

1950s
United Artists produces its first runaway hit, the Humphrey Bogart-Katherine Hepburn classic African Queen, the original Moulin Rouge, the classic western High Noon, actor Charles Laughton’s directorial debut The Night of the Hunter, Around the World in Eighty Days, Sidney Lumet’s 12 Angry Men, The Sweet Smell of Success and Billy Wilder’s Some Like It Hot.

1960's

1960 UA produces four bona fide classics in a single year: Elmer Gantry, The Alamo, The Apartment and The Magnificent Seven.

1961 UA’s output includes West Side Story, Judgment at Nuremberg, and Marilyn Monroe’s final completed film, The Misfits.

1962 United Artists produces the first James Bond film, Dr No, launching one of the most successful film franchises in history, encompassing more than twenty films over the next five decades.

1963 As well as releasing From Russia With Love, The Great Escape and Tom Jones, UA launches another popular franchise as Peter Sellers stars as Inspector Jacques Clouseau in Blake Edwards’ classic comedy The Pink Panther.

1964 UA helps bring British pop combo The Beatles to the US with A Hard Day’s Night, and launches the big-screen career of Clint Eastwood with Sergio Leone’s spaghetti western, A Fistful of Dollars, while A Shot in the Dark, and Goldfinger further the studio’s popular Pink Panther and James Bond franchises.

1965 UA’s run of success continues with The Greatest Story Ever Told, For a Few Dollars More, Thunderball, and the second Beatles film, Help!

1967 United Artists wins the Best Picture Academy Award for In the Heat of the Night. The same year, UA releases The Graduate, You Only Live Twice, and How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.

1968 UA’s output includes The Thomas Crown Affair, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and Yellow Submarine.

1969 United Artists produces Woody Allen’s first feature film, Take the Money and Run, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, and the first X-rated film to win the Oscar for Best Picture, Midnight Cowboy.

1970's

1971
UA continues its association with Woody Allen with Bananas, produces another smash hit musical in Fiddler on the Roof, and adds Diamonds Are Forever to the growing James Bond series.

1972
UA produces Bernardo Bertolucci’s highly controversial Last Tango in Paris, Woody Allen’s hilarious Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex (But Were Afraid to Ask) and Robert Altman’s The Long Goodbye.

1973
United Artists takes over distribution of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s film output, launching a partnership which would continue over the next three decades. The same year, UA produces Woody Allen’s Sleeper and James Bond’s eighth adventure, Live and Let Die.

1975
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest becomes the first film to win all five major Oscars: Best Actor (Jack Nicholson), Best Actress (Louise Fletcher), Best Director (Milos Forman), Best Screenplay, and Best Picture.

1976
UA wins the Best Picture Oscar again, this time for Rocky – and wins four major Oscars for Sidney Lumet’s Network. Other films include the sci-fi caper Logan’s Run and Stephen King’s first screen adaptation, Carrie.

1977
UA makes it a Best Picture hat-trick as Woody Allen’s Annie Hall sweeps the Oscars, while The Spy Who Loved Me becomes one of the biggest films of the year.

1978
Jon Voight and Jane Fonda win Best Actor and Best Actress Oscars for Hal Ashby’s classic Vietnam War drama Coming Home, while Invasion of the Body Snatchers puts the frighteners on audiences, Interiors marks a new direction for Woody Allen, and Ralph Bakshi brings The Lord of the Rings to the big screen for the first time.

1979
UA’s triumphant decade continues with Woody Allen’s classic Manhattan, Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now, Hal Ashby’s Being There, a new James Bond adventure (Moonraker) and a smash hit sequel, Rocky II.

1980's

1980
UA produces Sam Fuller’s classic World War II memoir The Big Red One and William Friedkin’s controversial Cruising, but is almost bankrupted by the budget-busting Heaven’s Gate, ultimately leading MGM to buy the studio and distribute all future film output through the MGM/UA brand.

1981
One of the first specialty film divisions, United Artists Classics, is launched, focusing largely on foreign and independent film releases, and re-releases of classic films from the UA library.

1983
While UA’s blockbuster franchises continue with such films as Rocky III, Curse of the Pink Panther and Octopussy, WarGames captures the imagination of a public gripped by fear of an accidental nuclear war.

1988
Barry Levinson’s Rain Man wins Oscars for Best Actor (Dustin Hoffman), Best Director, Best Screenplay and Best Picture, while the controversial Child’s Play launches UA’s first horror franchise.

1990's

UA focuses on its successful franchises, releasing Rocky V, Son of the Pink Panther, Goldeneye and Tomorrow Never Dies, launches Angelina Jolie’s career in Hackers, and enjoys a runaway hit by remaking La Cage Aux Folles as The Birdcage.

2000s

2001
MGM/UA strikes a distribution deal with 20th Century Fox.

2002
Cementing its relationship with emerging directorial talent – an ideal pursuit for a company founded by filmmakers – UA produces Michael Winterbottom’s 24 Hour Party People, Mike Leigh’s All or Nothing, and the most successful documentary ever made, Bowling for Columbine.

2004
Metro-Goldwyn Mayer Inc. (and its subsidiaries, including UA) is acquired by a consortium that includes Providence Equity Partners, TPG, Sony Corporation of American and Comcast. The distribution film rights in the US for both MGM and UA films were assigned to Sony Pictures Entertainment as part of the transaction.

2005
Working on behalf of United Artists, Sony Pictures Classics released the film Capote. Phillips Seymour Hoffman wins the Oscar for Best Actor for his role as Truman Capote.

2006
United Artists is revived as United Artists Entertainment LLC, a joint venture between MGM, actor-producer Tom Cruise and his long-time producing partner, Paula Wagner, who will serve as the studio’s Chief Executive Officer. Almost ninety years after its formation, United Artists has come full circle, with an actor and a producer at the helm.

2007
United Artists releases its first film, Robert Redford’s Lions for Lambs, in which Meryl Streep and Tom Cruise co-star with Redford. Bryan Singer’s World War II thriller Valkyrie also completed production and is set to be released in 2008.