The Sony Pictures Studios are a television and film studio complex located in Culver City, California at 10202 West Washington Boulevard and bounded by Culver Boulevard (south), Washington Boulevard (north), Overland Avenue (west) and Madison Avenue (east). The facility is owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment and houses the division’s film companies Columbia Pictures and TriStar Pictures. The complex was the original studios of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer from 1924 to 1986. In addition to films shot at the facility, several television shows have been broadcast live or taped there. The lot, which is open to the public for daily studio tours, currently houses a total of sixteen separate sound stages.
While director Thomas H. Ince was filming at Ballona Creek in 1915, Harry Culver, the founding father of Culver City, persuaded Ince to move his studio “Inceville” from Pacific Palisades to Culver City. During that time, Ince co-founded Triangle Film Corporation and the Triangle Studios was opened in the form of a Greek colonnade – the entrance to the studios. The colonnade still stands fronting Washington Boulevard and is a Culver City historical landmark.
Ince added a few stages and an Administration Building before selling out to his partners D.W. Griffith and Mack Sennett. Ince relocated down the street and built the Culver Studios at that location. In 1918, Triangle Studios was sold to film producer Samuel Goldwyn. Goldwyn also added a few sound stages before selling his shares in Goldwyn Studios.
In 1989, Warner Communications acquired Lorimar. That year, Sony hired producers Jon Peters and Peter Guber to run the company’s newly acquired Columbia Pictures unit, even though they had a contract with Warner Bros. To resolve this issue, Warner sold their Lorimar lot to Columbia, among other deals. Columbia had been sharing with Warner Bros. their studio lot in Burbank in a partnership called the Burbank Studios beginning in 1972. Sony sold its interest in the Burbank Studios as a result of the Guber-Peters issue.
Sony acquired the property, first renamed Columbia Studios, in poor condition and thereafter invested $100 million to renovate the studio complex. The property underwent a three-year comprehensive plan as it transitioned to the 45 acres (0.18 km2) Sony Pictures Studios complex. They painted and upgraded the buildings, many of which still bore the names of MGM film luminaries such as Clark Gable, Judy Garland, Rita Hayworth and Burt Lancaster. They erected new walls around the lot and restored the ironwork gates. They also added nostalgic art deco and false fronts on Main Street, plus hand-painted murals of Columbia film posters. As well as all that, the MGM logo was removed from Filmland Building in 1992.
The Sony Pictures Studios has one of the best post-production facilities available and is open to the public for tours. The studio continues to record TV sitcoms such as Rules of Engagement. The long-running game shows Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune and its spin-offs are taped at Sony. The revival of American Gladiators was also taped there.