Is it normal for a movie to have a lot of production companies?

[Olivia Bauer]

I've changed my mind on Everyone's Hero. I'm gonna review it.
Well one thing about it bugged me as soon as I started to research it.

The film was produced by IDT Entertainment, partially outsourced to Reel FX, and distributed by 20th Century Fox.

Is this... Normal? Kinda seems like a "too many cooks" situation to me.

[Pacman000]

It's normal. Beginning with United Artists in the late 40's/early 50's the major studios started to focus on finance and distribution, not production.  As budgets have grown they've tried to get more companies on board to split the risk.

Look at the opening to any movie made since the late 60's; you should see at least two companies: A distributor and a production company. Disney seems to be the one exception; they started their own distribution company in the early 50's. I could probably write a mini essay on this, but I haven't got the time right now. Maybe later.

[LilCerberus]

The most notorious story I recall, would be the one behind the post production, release, and re-release of Billy Jack (1971) http://www.badmovies.org/movies/billyjack/ , but considering my own experiences, it wouldn't surprise me if this were common...

[stine.greta]

I guess it's normal, the majority of the films that I have seen is associated with 2 or more film studio.