UNIVERSAL PICTURES 100th Anniversary Fun Facts and Statistics

 

• Universal Pictures founder Carl Laemmle came up with the name Universal for his film company after seeing a passing delivery wagon

• Traffic in Souls was the first feature length film released by Universal in 1913

• At the advent of motion pictures, tickets cost five cents which is how the theatre name ‘nickelodeon' originated

• Universal City, CA officially opened on 15 March 1915

• Universal produced and distributed over 9,000 silent era "entertainment" films - including serials - between 1912 and 1929

• Universal's first ‘talkie' film was ‘Melody of Love' which was released in 1928

• Famous cartoon character Mickey Mouse made his debut at a Universal owned theatre in 1928

• Universal Pictures was first listed on the Stock Exchange in 1925

• Universal's longest running TV series is ‘Alfred Hitchcock's presents' which ran for 361 episodes

• E.T holds the record for the most weekends at #1 (16 weeks). It also holds the record for the most weekends in the top 10 (44 weeks)

• ‘Creature from the Black Lagoon' was Universal's first entry into the 3-D market in 1954

• Universal Pictures has won 149 Academy Awards and received 690 nominations

• Universal Pictures first Best Picture Academy Award was won for All Quiet on the Western Front in 1930

• When the Universal Studios Tour opened to the general public in 1964, the cost of admission for one adult was $2.50

• The collage in The Café of the Universal Studios Commissary consists of 172 movie posters, the earliest from Imitation of Life (1934)

• Universal Pictures most expensive film was King Kong which cost $207m

• Universal Pictures highest grossing film of all time is E.T: The Extra Terrestrial

• Stephen Spielberg named his mechanical shark in Jaws ‘Bruce'

• The sound of the knife stabbing actress Janet Leigh in the famous shower scene in Psycho was created by plunging a knife into a casaba melon

• Elizabeth Taylor made her feature film debut in Universal's ‘There's One Born Every Minute' in 1942

• Universal's film vaults hold 5,000 feature films and over 40,000 hours of episodic television

• A school, zoo and hospital have all existed at one time on the Universal Studios lot

And in the last year....

• 545,309 guest and visitor passes were issued for Universal Studios

• 57,956 people and vehicles passed through Gate One

• 347 TV episodes were shot on the Universal lot, 112 episodes being for Foley

• Universal's Costume Department rented 198,190 items and the Property Department received 22,804 orders, placing 346,282 items