[8] Originally dealing in photographic apparatus, the company began producing short films in 1897 to promote its make of camera-projector.

[9] From 1905 to 1914, its Cité Elgé studios (from the normal French pronunciation of the founder's initials L-G) in La Villette, France were the largest in the world.

[citation needed] In 1909 the company participated in the Paris Film Congress, a failed attempt by European producers to create a cartel similar to that of the MPPC in the United States.

Along with its competitor Pathé Frères, Gaumont dominated the motion picture industry in Europe until the outbreak of World War I in 1914.

After World War I, Gaumont suffered economic losses owing to increased competition from American Hollywood productions.

The company was purchased by the French corporation Havas in 1938, was renamed Société Nouvelle des Etablissements Gaumont, and reopened its film production studio.

[10] During the later years of World War II, Gaumont was affected by the financial ruin of France's economy as well as the physical destruction of its facilities.

[10] In 1970, media tycoon and French old money heir multimillionaire Nicolas Seydoux started managing Gaumont and becomes a vice-president at the company.

Although he had a significant number of box-office hits, Alain Poiré had his place in danger, following the failure of Rum Runners, which was a costly production.

Ambitious producer Jean-Pierre Rassam intended to acquire Gaumont with Seydoux and Toscan du Plantier and had promised various projects to bail out the company, but the balance sheet of his company Ciné qua non did not play into this his favor between the budget overruns or commercial failures of the films Chinese in Paris, Don't Touch the White Woman!

René Bonnell, Gaumont's distribution director from 1978 to 1982, explains that Seydoux had to coexist a Tuscan du Plantier, who arrived in 1976-1977 and who wanted to change everything, with a more traditional Poiré.

Concerning Toscan, that the economic balance of his interventions was proven, but he was the essential complement, young, open, to a house which needed this touch of madness.

[27] Intouchables is the highest-grossing foreign-language movie (any language other than English) beating the previous record of $275 million by the Japanese Spirited Away.

As part of the acquisition, Gaumont now owns the entire Malle collection, including Ascenseur pour l'échafaud, Atlantic City, and Au Revoir les Enfants.

Lionsgate said it had partnered with international entertainment executives Paul Presburger, William Pfeiffer and Clifford Werber to launch Globalgate.

The office was to focus on development and production of premiere drama programming, according to film producer and new manager Sabine de Mardt.

The company also began production in its American unit Gaumont International Television on two series: Hannibal and Hemlock Grove.

[citation needed] The latest redesign is from 2010, and takes up the principle of the halo of petals: the red daisy has twelve irregular petals which take the form of a luminous halo around the letter G. The logo, made by Lorène Bruant for the Les Quatre Lunes agency, is inspired by the praxinoscope to create dynamism and adopts a tailor-made, sans-serif typography.

[40] Designed for the screen again by the Bronx agency, it is soundtracked by the first bars of the well-known aria (cavatina) Casta Diva from the opera Norma composed by Vincenzo Bellini.