Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Signs New Deal With Universal

After decades of working together, Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Partners is making its partnership with Universal Pictures even more rock solid. According to an announcement, Amblin and Universal have announced “a new multiyear deal” that will see the studio begin to co-finance movies produced by the label. As noted by The Hollywood Reporter, the previous deal between Universal and Amblin saw the Spielberg-owned company financing their own movies and then letting Universal have the option to distribute.

“Universal is my ancestral studio home, and this next chapter in our longstanding partnership will provide Amblin with the creative flexibility and autonomy that I know will allow us to succeed together in the future,” Spielberg said in a statement. “I’m eternally grateful to our entire team at Amblin for their work and dedication over the years, and also thankful to Donna [Langley] and everyone at Universal for their commitment and partnership, as we all look forward to our next adventure together.”

“We’re excited to evolve our partnership with Steven and cement our creative legacy together that has resulted in so many iconic Universal films over the last half-century,” Donna Langley, chairman and chief content officer, NBCUniversal Studio Group, added. “Steven and the team at Amblin have been outstanding partners and we look forward to this next chapter.”

Since Amblin began back in the 1980s they’ve been a key pillar of Universal Pictures’ library of movies. From movies that Spielberg himself directed like E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial and Jurassic Park to the films he produced like Back to the Future and The Flinstones, the partnership goes back decades and the fact that it will remain so for the foreseeable future is at least one thing film fans can take solace in knowing it’s not moving around. Last year’s Oscar-nominated The Fabelmans was their most recent collaboration, with this August’s The Last Voyage of the Demeter next to be released. 

This new deal between Universal and Amblin appears to only be for theatrical feature films as Spielberg’s company previously announced a deal with Netflix to produce feature films for the streamer.