In 2001, Sony Pictures considered selling off its visual effects facility Sony Pictures Imageworks but after failing to find a suitable buyer, having been impressed with the CGI sequences of Stuart Little 2 and seeing the box office successes of DreamWorks Animation's Shrek and Disney/Pixar's Monsters, Inc., SPI was reconfigured to become an animation studio.

[5] Before the establishment of SPA, Columbia Pictures distributed a few animated films from 1959 to 2002 that were produced by outside studios, including 1001 Arabian Nights, Hey There, It's Yogi Bear!, The Man Called Flintstone, American Pop, Heavy Metal, Care Bears Movie II: A New Generation, Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, and Eight Crazy Nights.

The same day, they also announced an "Alternative" division aimed at producing adult animated content, headed by Katie Baron and Kevin Noel.

In addition to Tartakovsky's films Black Knight and Fixed, the division's TV shows are set to include Superbago, a co-production with Stoopid Buddy Stoodios that was originally greenlit as a feature film; and Hungry Ghosts, a series based on the Dark Horse graphic novel by Anthony Bourdain and Joel Rose.

Band of Misfits were acquired by Sony Pictures Animation to be released under their banner while others, such as Goosebumps and Peter Rabbit, were made with no involvement from the studio.

SPA's parent company Sony Pictures had partnered in 2007 with Aardman Animations to finance, co-produce and distribute feature films.

In 2012, SPA released Hotel Transylvania, which grossed over $350 million worldwide and launched a successful franchise with three sequels and a TV series.

[16] As of June 2024[update], the studio is working on projects such as a musical comedy K-Pop: Demon Hunters in 2025,[17][18] a sports film from Stephen Curry and Erick Peyton of Unanimous Media titled Goat on February 13, 2026,[19] and Fixed and Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse, both of which will be released on unspecified dates, as well other projects in development, including an animated Ghostbusters spin-off film,[20][21] another Tartakovsky project titled Black Knight,[22] Tao, a China-set science-fiction adventure film directed by The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part story artist Emily Dean,[23] Tut, an afro-futuristic coming-of-age story set in ancient Egypt directed by Hair Love creator Matthew A. Cherry,[24] an untitled project directed by Matt Braly,[25] and an animated film adaptation based on the science fiction podcast Bubble (a co-production with Point Grey Pictures and Matt Tolmach Productions).