The United Artists Story (2000-2022)

At the turn of the new millennium, with UA no longer in the position it was once in to directly compete with the other major and more mainstream fare studios, it decided to repurpose itself as more of an "art house" studio. This strategy yielded some acclaimed success particularly with "pick ups" like the international war drama "No Man's Land", Michael Moore's documentary "Bowling For Columbine" and the docudrama "Hotel Rwanda" among a few others but it was not enough to truly make the company seem relevant again. When Sony Pictures Entertainment, the parent company of Columbia Pictures, began a multi-film distribution association with MGM in the mid 2000's, UA was pushed aside even further. By the end of the decade, it would be in the exact same position as MGM. No longer able to produce, fully distribute or even market its own films, every new UA film would be released usually through either MGM or Sony Pictures Classics.

In 2006, it seemed like things would be looking up for UA when major box office star Tom Cruise and his production partner Paula Wagner bought an ownership stake in and set up an exclusive production deal with the company. Literally bringing UA back to its founding roots in the Chaplin/Fairbanks/Griffith/Pickford days, this seemed like a "can't miss" situation that could very much revitalize the struggling UA. Unfortunately, out of the only two films that resulted from this association, "Lions For Lambs" flopped entirely and "Valkyrie" scored critical praise but low box office attendance. Dissatisfied with the results, Cruise and Wagner would soon resign from their respective producer and CEO positions. With no major financial backers left to vouch for the company and with it essentially laying dormant after 2010, MGM allowed UA to "die" once again.

Towards the late 2010's, in an effort to increase their production/release slate and to have convenient labels to release smaller, lower budget fare through, MGM decided to revive several long defunct companies whose film and television libraries they already owned the rights to. These included The Samuel Goldwyn Company, Orion Pictures, American International Pictures and of course, UA. Now existing for the third time under the name United Artists Releasing, this latest version of UA was merely acting as a "silent partner" in handling the theatrical and streaming releases of most of MGM's, Orion's and AIP's outputs and had no official productions of its own. UA Releasing would end up having the shortest lifespan of all. When Amazon acquired MGM in 2021, they (Amazon) eventually decided they wanted to merge MGM into themselves as one large multimedia company. They also felt that the MGM name alone was recognizable and iconic enough for theatrical film distribution which Amazon was beginning to want to emphasize after the box office success of MGM's "Creed III" (their first film produced entirely under Amazon's ownership). Therefore, most of these smaller companies that MGM owned were considered excessive and redundant. In March 2023, Amazon folded UA Releasing into MGM, essentially killing UA for the third time. How many other movie companies can say they came into and went out of existence three times?

From 2000-2022, UA, in some form or another, was involved in the production, distribution and release of a total of 81 films. They are all listed here. UA may be gone once again but it left behind an outstanding cinematic legacy of hundreds of films, many of which are considered among the greatest of all time. It literally jump started the entire independent film movement and gave countless young aspiring filmmakers a chance to get their personal projects made and released. Especially during its peak years in the 1950's and 1960's, it proudly put its name on the kinds of daring, topical films that the major studios would probably have never considered distributing. While most of the final batch of UA releases basically came and went, at least the company closed its illustrious history on a high note with the critically acclaimed and Academy Award winning (for Best Adapted Screenplay) "Women Talking" as its final official release.

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