Paramount Pictures

American film studio, one of the original majors and among the oldest still operating. Founded as a distribution company by W.W. Hodkinson in 1914, it was acquired by Famous Players-Lasky in 1916 and became the distribution arm and eventually the name of that combine. Paramount distributed many of the silent era's biggest hits, including The Sheik (1921), and survived the transition to sound to remain a major studio for a century.