TKO MORE LIKE RKO

Background of RKO Studios

RKO stands for Radio-Keith-Orpheum which was created in October of 1928. The studio was created when the Keith-Albee-Orpheum theatre chain and Joseph P. Kennedy's Film Booking Offices of America were merged together and brought under the control of the Radio Corporation of America (RCA). David Sarnoff planned and supervised merge to create the studio, eventually giving the studio to Floyd Odlum. In its creation, RKO Studios was one of the Big Five in Hollywoods Golden Age

and was very successful. Overall, the creation of the studio under David Sarnoff was to compete with the introduction and rising popularity of movies with sound and talking. Its first few decades were successful but as time progressed, their popularity fell. In 1957 RKO Studios ceased production due to disarray and a decline in work and eventually dissolved in 1959. Eventually in 1981 the studio was revived by broadcaster RKO General and was eventually sold in 1989 becoming a small independent company under the new title RKO Pictures LLC.

Shining Stars

While RKO Studios is rarely heard of today producing new films, they did, however, produce some of the most famous and influential films in history: Citizen Kane and King Kong. They also helped coproduce other very popular films like It's a Wonderful Life and Notorious, even helping Walt Disney is making Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Fantasia. Some other movies they produced were Little Women, The Body Snatcher and the live action of The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Along with some very influential and popular movies they also had very well-known actors from that time working with them. They produced musicals starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers while also having actors like Katharine Hepburn, Robert Mitchum, and Cary Grant. RKO Studios also had some producers and directors working with them as well like Val Lewtons. While they were very prosperous in Old Hollywood they were sadly unable to find the same success in today world.

Get With The Times 

As mentioned in the first paragraph, RKO Studios in now a smaller independent studio and doesn't produce well know movies anymore.  The last movies that the studio released were A Late Quartet which got good reviews and was well liked in 2012 and Barely Lethal which flopped and did not succeed in 2015. One of the more well known recent releases by the studio is Are We There Yet? which was very comedic but didn't receive good reviews as well. Overall, RKO Studios is not what it used to be ad doesn't show any signs of returning to its former glory.