Searchlight Pictures, a privately owned company headquartered in the US and a subsidiary of Walt Disney Studios, was founded in 1994, with approximately 190 employees, and reported $66.8M in revenue as of 2025. The company specializes in entertainment, functioning as an American film production and distribution company and the specialized independent and specialty film division of The Walt Disney Studios, a segment of Disney Entertainment. Originally founded on April 29, 1994, by Tom Rothman as "Fox Searchlight Pictures" under 20th Century Fox, the studio relocated its administrative headquarters from Century City to the Walt Disney Studios lot in Burbank, California, following The Walt Disney Company’s acquisition of 21st Century Fox in 2019. The "Fox" prefix was formally dropped in January 2020 to legally differentiate the brand from Fox Corporation. The studio operates within prestige cinema, managing a global footprint that has amassed dozens of Academy Awards and multiple Best Picture winners, including Slumdog Millionaire, 12 Years a Slave, Birdman, The Shape of Water, and Nomadland.
Former Searchlight Pictures executive Terence Sheridan joined JustWatch's Los Angeles office as Senior VP of Media Strategy on May 26, 2026. This development followed reports on May 16, 2026, that Jordan Firstman’s “Club Kid” sparked a bidding war at the Cannes Film Festival, with Searchlight Pictures among A24, Netflix, Focus Features, and MUBI pursuing the Un Certain Regard dramedy after its world premiere. Earlier, on April 15, 2026, Disney’s Searchlight Pictures acquired distribution rights for some regions to the horror film “Monitor,” which premiered at SXSW and focuses on a disturbing video spreading online to target viewers. Previously, on March 23, 2026, Searchlight Pictures announced its film "Rental Family" would be available for digital purchase starting March 31 on platforms including Apple TV, SF Anytime, and Viaplay.
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Searchlight Pictures offers 2 products in the media and telecoms services industry. Searchlight Pictures's product portfolio comprises of entertainment content rights.
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Searchlight Pictures's revenues were less than $100M in 2025. All the revenue comes from entertainment rights and distribution.
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