COLUMBIA PICTURES (1960-99): THE YEARS OF COCA-COLA AND OTHER OWNERS

Making a long story short:

From 1960s to 1999 Columbia Pictures had an ambigious identity after the deaths of president Harry Cohn in 1958 and his nephew the following year (1959). Close to bankrupt, Columbia merged with Screen Gems in 1968 (that name retired totally in 1974) and a partnership in Warner Bros. (1972) in order to survive. Saved by hiring Spielberg for “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” and then by Aaron Spelling productions, Columbia was bought by Coca Cola in 1982 who also started TriStar Pictures at the same time. In the mid 1980s, a new studio head from Britain tried to defy the Hollywood studio...