Swank Motion Pictures
Encyclopedia
Swank Motion Pictures, Inc. is an international non-theatrical motion picture distributor and licensor. Founded in 1937, it is a business privately owned
and operated by the Swank family. Swank Motion Pictures is one of the world's largest non-theatrical distributors of motion pictures
for public performance. Headquartered in St. Louis
, Swank also maintains sales offices in New York
and Paris
, with an international shipping and distribution facility located near Chicago
.
Swank represents major Hollywood and independent movie studios
to distribute movies licensed for public performance to non-theatrical venues.
as a “portable projection service.” This period predated such familiar entertainment standards as color film, 35mm slides
, audiotape
and television
. The company’s projection service consisted of providing short entertainment films and slides, the motion picture projector, sound system and lantern slide projector. These services, along with the equipment operators, were provided at locations requested by customers, where they were conducting meetings. These local organizations, civic groups, schools and churches relied on Swank to “set up and run the show” for their entertainment. Over the years the needs for equipment and the actual movie have separated and, in turn, so did the company. The two divisions became known as Swank Motion Pictures and Swank Audio Visuals. Swank Motion Pictures provided the licensed movie content while Swank Audio Visuals provided the audiovisual equipment. The audiovisual division gradually migrated to working primarily with hotels as an in-house audiovisual service. Swank Audio Visuals was sold by the Swank family in the 2000’s. Swank Motion Pictures, Inc. continues to distribute licensed motion pictures to non-theatrical markets both domestically and internationally.
On-Board Movies
Swank HealthCare
Movie Licensing USA
Residence Life Cinema
Digital Campus
Motorcoach Movies
Swank Films Distribution France
Swank Filmverleih, Germany
Privately held company
A privately held company or close corporation is a business company owned either by non-governmental organizations or by a relatively small number of shareholders or company members which does not offer or trade its company stock to the general public on the stock market exchanges, but rather the...
and operated by the Swank family. Swank Motion Pictures is one of the world's largest non-theatrical distributors of motion pictures
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
for public performance. Headquartered in St. Louis
St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...
, Swank also maintains sales offices in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
and Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, with an international shipping and distribution facility located near Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
.
Swank represents major Hollywood and independent movie studios
Independent film
An independent film, or indie film, is a professional film production resulting in a feature film that is produced mostly or completely outside of the major film studio system. In addition to being produced and distributed by independent entertainment companies, independent films are also produced...
to distribute movies licensed for public performance to non-theatrical venues.
Studios Represented
- Walt Disney PicturesWalt Disney PicturesWalt Disney Pictures is an American film studio owned by The Walt Disney Company. Walt Disney Pictures and Television, a subsidiary of the Walt Disney Studios and the main production company for live-action feature films within the Walt Disney Motion Pictures Group, based at the Walt Disney...
- Paramount PicturesParamount PicturesParamount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...
- Warner Bros.Warner Bros.Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...
- Sony PicturesSony Pictures EntertainmentSony Pictures Entertainment, Inc. is the television and film production/distribution unit of Japanese multinational technology and media conglomerate Sony...
- Universal StudiosUniversal StudiosUniversal Pictures , a subsidiary of NBCUniversal, is one of the six major movie studios....
- DreamWorks PicturesDreamWorksDreamWorks Pictures, also known as DreamWorks, LLC, DreamWorks SKG, DreamWorks II Distribution Co., LLC, DreamWorks Studios or DW Studios, LLC, is an American film studio which develops, produces, and distributes films, video games and television programming...
- New Line CinemaNew Line CinemaNew Line Cinema, often simply referred to as New Line, is an American film studio. It was founded in 1967 by Robert Shaye and Michael Lynne as a film distributor, later becoming an independent film studio. It became a subsidiary of Time Warner in 1996 and was merged with larger sister studio Warner...
- LionsgateLions Gate EntertainmentLions Gate Entertainment Corporation is a North American entertainment company. The company was formed in Vancouver, British Columbia in 1997, and is headquartered in Santa Monica, California...
- MGM
- Touchstone PicturesTouchstone PicturesTouchstone Pictures is an American film production label and is one of several film labels of the Walt Disney Motion Pictures Group. Established in 1984, its releases typically feature more mature themes and darker tones than those that are released under the Walt Disney Pictures banner.Touchstone...
- Hollywood PicturesHollywood PicturesHollywood Pictures is one of The Walt Disney Company's several alternate movie divisions. Like Disney's Touchstone Pictures brand, it produces films for a more mature adult audience than Walt Disney Pictures.-History:...
- Columbia PicturesColumbia PicturesColumbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production and distribution company. Columbia Pictures now forms part of the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group, owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment, a subsidiary of the Japanese conglomerate Sony. It is one of the leading film companies...
- Tri Star PicturesTriStar PicturesTriStar Pictures, Inc. is an American film production/distribution studio and subsidiary of Columbia Pictures, itself a subdivision of the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group, which is owned by Sony Pictures...
- The Weinstein CompanyThe Weinstein CompanyThe Weinstein Company is an American film studio founded by Bob and Harvey Weinstein in 2005 after the brothers left the then-Disney-owned Miramax Films, which they had co-founded in 1979...
- Focus FeaturesFocus FeaturesFocus Features is the art house films division of NBC Universal's Universal Pictures, and acts as both a producer and distributor for its own films and a distributor for foreign films....
- Miramax FilmsMiramax FilmsMiramax Films is an American entertainment company known for distributing independent and foreign films. For its first 14 years the company was privately owned by its founders, Bob and Harvey Weinstein...
- Overture FilmsOverture FilmsOverture Films, LLC is an American film production and distribution company. It is a subsidiary of Liberty Media ....
- Summit EntertainmentSummit EntertainmentSummit Entertainment LLC is an independent film studio headquartered in Santa Monica, California with international offices in London.-History:...
- Warner Independent PicturesWarner Independent PicturesWarner Independent Pictures was the specialty division of film studio Warner Bros. Entertainment. Established in August 2003, its first release was 2004's Before Sunset...
- Paramount ClassicsParamount VantageParamount Vantage is the specialty film division of Paramount Pictures , charged with producing, purchasing, distributing and marketing films, generally those with a more "art house" feel than films made and distributed by its parent company.Paramount Classics was launched in 1998 and...
- Paramount VantageParamount VantageParamount Vantage is the specialty film division of Paramount Pictures , charged with producing, purchasing, distributing and marketing films, generally those with a more "art house" feel than films made and distributed by its parent company.Paramount Classics was launched in 1998 and...
- Fine Line FeaturesFine Line FeaturesFine Line Features was the speciality films division of New Line Cinema. It produced, purchased, distributed and marketed films of a more "indie" flavor than its parent company...
- HBO
- Hallmark Hall of FameHallmark Hall of FameHallmark Hall of Fame is an anthology program on American television, sponsored by Hallmark Cards, a Kansas City based greeting card company. The second longest-running television program in the history of television, it has a historically long run, beginning in 1951 and continuing into 2011...
- United ArtistsUnited ArtistsUnited Artists Corporation is an American film studio. The original studio of that name was founded in 1919 by D. W. Griffith, Charles Chaplin, Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks....
- National GeographicNational Geographic ChannelNational Geographic Channel, also commercially abbreviated and trademarked as Nat Geo, is a subscription television channel that airs non-fiction television programs produced by the National Geographic Society. Like History and the Discovery Channel, the channel features documentaries with factual...
- THINKFilmTHINKFilmTHINKFilm is a privately held production and distribution company founded in September 2001. It has been a division of David Bergstein’s Capitol Films since 2006. Bergstein also serves as the company’s chairman...
- Magnolia PicturesMagnolia PicturesMagnolia Pictures is an American film distributor, and is a holding of 2929 Entertainment, owned by Todd Wagner and Mark Cuban. Magnolia was formed in 2001 by Bill Banowsky and Eamonn Bowles, and specializes in both foreign and independent films....
- Newmarket FilmsNewmarket FilmsNewmarket Films is an American film production and distribution company which is a subsidiary of Newmarket Capital Group. It was founded in 1994.-Brief summary:...
- First Look StudiosFirst Look StudiosFirst Look Studios was an independent American film studio that specialized in home video releases of films and TV series. It purchased the Blockbuster subsidiary, DEJ Productions, in 2005...
- First Independent Pictures
- Monterey Media
- And other independent studios
Public Performance Licensing
Swank Motion Pictures provides both public performance licensing rights and licensed movies to numerous non-theatrical markets.- Public performance: any performance, display, exhibition, showing, etc. of a copyrighted piece of work that occurs outside of a home.
- Non-theatrical: any venue, other than a theater, that is outside of the home.
Non-theatrical Venues
- U.S. colleges and universities
- Worldwide cruise lines
- Parks and Recreation Facilities
- K-12 schools
- Libraries
- Correctional facilities
- Museums
- Film Societies
- Restaurants
- Bars
- Churches, synagogues and other faith-based organizations
- Businesses
- Tradeshows and conventions
- Healthcare facilities
- American military hospitals
- Motor coaches
- Amtrak trains
- Clubs
- Camps and other outdoor venues
History
Swank Motion Pictures, Inc. was founded in 1937 by Mr. P. Ray Swank and began operations in St. LouisSt. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...
as a “portable projection service.” This period predated such familiar entertainment standards as color film, 35mm slides
35 mm film
35 mm film is the film gauge most commonly used for chemical still photography and motion pictures. The name of the gauge refers to the width of the photographic film, which consists of strips 35 millimeters in width...
, audiotape
Magnetic tape sound recording
The use of magnetic tape for sound recording originated around 1930. Magnetizable tape revolutionized both the radio broadcast and music recording industries. It did this by giving artists and producers the power to record and re-record audio with minimal loss in quality as well as edit and...
and television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
. The company’s projection service consisted of providing short entertainment films and slides, the motion picture projector, sound system and lantern slide projector. These services, along with the equipment operators, were provided at locations requested by customers, where they were conducting meetings. These local organizations, civic groups, schools and churches relied on Swank to “set up and run the show” for their entertainment. Over the years the needs for equipment and the actual movie have separated and, in turn, so did the company. The two divisions became known as Swank Motion Pictures and Swank Audio Visuals. Swank Motion Pictures provided the licensed movie content while Swank Audio Visuals provided the audiovisual equipment. The audiovisual division gradually migrated to working primarily with hotels as an in-house audiovisual service. Swank Audio Visuals was sold by the Swank family in the 2000’s. Swank Motion Pictures, Inc. continues to distribute licensed motion pictures to non-theatrical markets both domestically and internationally.
Divisions of Swank Motion Pictures, Inc.
Swank Motion PicturesOn-Board Movies
Swank HealthCare
Movie Licensing USA
Residence Life Cinema
Digital Campus
Motorcoach Movies
Swank Films Distribution France
Swank Filmverleih, Germany