Sony Pictures Television
Sony Pictures Television Inc. (or SPT) is an American television production and distribution studio founded in 2002 as the successor to Columbia TriStar Television. Based in Culver City, it is a division of Sony Entertainment's Sony Pictures Entertainment and a unit of the Japanese conglomerate Sony.
Columbia Pictures
In the 2000s, Sony broadened its release schedule by backing Revolution Studios, the production/distribution company headed by Joe Roth. On October 25, 2001, CTT and CTTD merged to form Columbia TriStar Domestic Television. On September 16, 2002, Columbia TriStar Domestic Television was renamed to Sony Pictures Television. Also in 2002, Columbia broke the record for biggest domestic theatrical gross, with a tally of $1.575 billion, coincidentally breaking its own record of $1.256 billion set in 1997, which was raised by such blockbusters as "Spider-Man", "Men in Black II" and "XXX". The studio was also the most lucrative of 2004, with over $1.338 billion in the domestic box office with movies such as "Spider-Man 2", "50 First Dates", and "The Grudge", and in 2006, Columbia, helped with such blockbusters as: "The Da Vinci Code", "The Pursuit of Happyness", "Casino Royale", and "Open Season", not only finished the year in first place, but it reached an all-time record high sum of $1.711 billion, which was an all-time yearly record for any studio until Warner Bros. surpassed it in 2009.