Imagine Entertainment, Universal Pictures, Dreamworks

As with most big Hollywood films, producing A Beautiful Mind was definitely a team effort.

First off, you've got Imagine Entertainment involved, which is no surprise: that's director Ron Howard's production company with his partner, Brian Grazer. (If you want to see a completely fictionalized take on those two, by the way, be sure to check out their guest stint on Arrested Development—it's good fun.)

Imagine is no little mom and pop shop; they've been responsible for films of all sizes and shapes, including The Dark Tower (2017), Frost/Nixon (2008), and…the Curious George movies? Well, it's good to keep your interests diverse, right?

Then there's Universal Pictures, one of the big daddies of production companies. They've been around forever (which means they've had their hands in buckets of films you'd know), but just to give you a small sample, there's:

• The Fast and The Furious (2001) and sequels
• Bridget Jones's Diary (2001) and sequels
• Fifty Shades Freed (again, diverse interests, it seems)
• Pitch Perfect 3 (2017)

And the resume goes on and on. So, no surprise they were involved in this crazy successful and award-winning film, too.

And then, finally, there's DreamWorks, which is Steven Spielberg's production powerhouse with Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen. They're young compared to a shop like Universal (born in 1994), but they've already had some pretty big successes. Ever heard of Amistad (1997)? American Beauty (1999)? The Girl on the Train (2016)? Yeah, we thought so.

Bottom line: a lot of heavy hitters contributed to the making of this film. It's no wonder it was such a critical and box office darling, with that kind of backup.