Castle Rock Entertainment, New Line Cinema and Turner Entertainment Co. (including most of the pre-May 1986 MGM library, and US and Canadian distribution rights to the RKO Radio film library) in 1996 by Time Warner (Now Warner Bros. Discovery). Now Warner Bros. and its subsidiaries make Cartoons/Movies based on Hanna-Barbara Characters. DreamWorks Pictures – purchased by Viacom; then owners of both Paramount Pictures and CBS Corporation in 2006; distributed the films from 2005 to 2011; reformed as an independent with The Walt Disney Company distributing the live-action films under their Touchstone Pictures banner until 2016; now a label after being reorganized as Amblin Partners of which NBCUniversal owns a stake. Lucasfilm – purchased in 2012 by The Walt Disney Company. Marvel Studios/Marvel Entertainment – purchased in 2009 by The Walt Disney Company. Pixar Animation Studios – purchased in 2006 by The Walt Disney Company. The Samuel Goldwyn Company – purchased in 1996 by John Kluge/Metromedia International; purchased in 1997 by MGM. History The majors before the Golden Age In 1909, Thomas Edison, who had been fighting in the courts for years for control of fundamental motion picture patents, won a major decision. This led to the creation of the Motion Picture Patents Company, widely known as the Trust. Comprising the nine largest U.S. film companies, it was "designed to eliminate not only independent film producers but also the country's 10,000 independent [distribution] exchanges and exhibitors." Though its many members did not consolidate their filmmaking operations, the New York–based Trust was arguably the first major North American movie conglomerate. The independents' fight against the Trust was led by Carl Laemmle, whose Chicago-based Laemmle Film Service, serving the Midwest and Canada, was the largest distribution exchange in North America. Laemmle's efforts were rewarded in 1912 when the U.S. government ruled that the Trust was a "corrupt and unlawful association" and must be dissolved. On June 8, 1912, Laemmle organized the merger of his production division, IMP (Independent Motion Picture Company), with several other filmmaking companies, creating the Universal Film Manufacturing Company in New York City. By the end of the year, Universal was making movies at two Los Angeles facilities: the former Nestor Film studio in Hollywood, and another studio in Edendale. The first Hollywood major studio was in business. In 1918, four brothers—Harry, Albert, Sam, and Jack Warner—founded the first Warner Bros. Studio on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood. On April 4,