New Designation Signifies ‘I Was Really a Producer of This Film’

LOS ANGELES â€" All six major film studios in Hollywood have now agreed to use a special “producer’s mark” in on-screen credits to distinguish producers who have done a substantial amount of producing work on a movie.

Walt Disney Studios, Warner Brothers and Paramount Pictures joined an arrangement that already included 20th Century Fox, Sony Pictures and Universal Pictures. The Producers Guild of America, which administers the program, announced the three studios’ inclusion on Thursday, and said 50 films had already used the designation. The idea is to distinguish the more actively engaged producers in a film from others credited as producers.

The mark consists of the letters “p.g.a.” after a producer’s name, which is preceded by the words “produced by.” It is awarded only when requested by a producer and after a review by the guild. The producers guild has long advocated use of the mark as a way to sort through the proliferation of producers’ credits. Studios were initially slow to adopt it, partly from fear of slowing or complicating the final stages of their production process.

Fox, Sony and Universal adopted the mark last year under a program that permitted them to drop out if a fourth studio did not join within two years.