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'Orion Pictures Corporation' was an American movie production company, formed in 1978 as a joint venture between Warner Bros. Pictures and three former top-level executives of United Artists. UA co-chairmen Arthur Krim and Robert Benjamin along with chief executive officer Eric Pleskow had resigned after disputes with UA's then parent, Transamerica. Orion's first films included ''10'', ''Time After Time'', ''Caddyshack'', ''Arthur'', ''Excalibur'', ''Monty Python's Life of Brian'', and ''A Little Romance''.

Contents

History

Orion Classics

Late 1980s-early 1990s financial problems

Divestitures

Just prior to MGM sale

Sale to MGM

Orion's library

External links

History

In 1982, Orion merged with Filmways, Inc. (which had produced well-remembered TV shows in the late 1960s, such as ''The Beverly Hillbillies'', ''Green Acres'', ''Mister Ed'' and ''The Addams Family'', but was a second-string studio by the late 1970s and mainly interesting for its ownership of American International Pictures), and became an independent company, in addition to entering television production and distribution. It also introduced a new logo, featuring an animated depiction of the constellation Orion.
During the 1980s, its output included Woody Allen films, Hollywood blockbusters such as the first ''Terminator'' film and the ''RoboCop'' films, comedy movies such as ''UHF'' and ''Something Wild'' and Academy Award winners such as ''Amadeus'' and ''Platoon''. ''Dances with Wolves'' and ''The Silence of the Lambs'' would also earn many Academy Awards in the early 1990s for Orion. In 1986, billionaire John Kluge invested in the company as a favor to Krim, and by 1988 his Metromedia organization had become majority owner.

Orion Classics

In 1983, Orion Pictures introduced art-house division Orion Classics, luring away Michael Barker, Tom Bernard, and Marcie Bloom, who had previously run United Artists Classics. The subsidiary presented mostly foreign-language films such as ''Babette's Feast'' and Pedro Almodovar's ''Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown'' and U.S. independent films such as Jim Jarmusch's ''Mystery Train'' and Richard Linklater's ''Slacker.''

Late 1980s-early 1990s financial problems

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Orion had severe financial problems, and declared bankruptcy in 1992. The studio entered into a profit sharing deal to secure distribution of the film version of ''The Addams Family'' that meant it saw little of the profit while the company's other lucrative properties such as the Terminator franchise went to other studios (''The Addams Family'' would eventually be distributed in the U.S. by Paramount Pictures, with Orion retaining international rights).
''Silence of the Lambs'' was almost rejected due to lack of funding, and several other projects in production at the time, such as ''Blue Sky'', ''Car 54, Where Are You?'' and ''Clifford'', had their releases delayed by three years (from 1991 to 1994) because of the bankruptcy filing. Orion was eventually able to exit bankruptcy in 1996, but few of the films released during the four years under bankruptcy protection made much of a critical or commercial impact.

Divestitures

As a result of Orion's financial troubles, its television division was sold to ABC and became ABC Productions (which produced the television series ''The Commish'' and ''My So-Called Life''), although Orion continued to retain ownership of all its television output up to the time of the bankruptcy. The company's financial troubles also prompted the trio of Michael Barker, Tom Bernard, and Marcie Bloom to leave Orion Classics, taking the rights to the highly anticipated Merchant Ivory Productions adaptation of ''Howards End'' with them; at the invite of former Orion president Mike Medavoy, who was now relocated at Tri-Star Pictures, the three set up Sony Pictures Classics, with ''Howards End'' as the company's first release.

Just prior to MGM sale

Towards its sale to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1997, Orion produced very few films, and primarily released films from other producers, including LIVE Entertainment. Orion Classics, minus its founders, continued to acquire popular art-house films such as ''Boxing Helena'' before Metromedia fused the subsidiary with The Samuel Goldwyn Company in 1996.

Sale to MGM

In 1997, Metromedia sold Orion (as well as The Samuel Goldwyn Company and Motion Picture Corporation of America) to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, with the deal finalized in late 1998. Orion remains an in-name-only subsidiary of MGM.

Orion's library

Almost all of Orion's releases from 1982 onward, as well as most of the AIP and Filmways backlogs and all the television output originally produced and distributed by Orion Television, now bear the MGM name. However, in most cases, the 1980s Orion logo is retained—or added on, in the case of the Filmways and AIP libraries. Orion releases produced by the Hemdale Film Corporation are included in MGM's library as well, although MGM did not acquire these films (which included ''The Terminator'' and ''Platoon'') until it bought the Epic Productions library that owned the Hemdale library—this has since been incorporated into the Orion library. MGM does not own all of Orion's releases, however. Most ancillary rights to Orion's back catalog from the 1978–1981 joint venture period remains under the control of Warner Bros., with the exception of ''Monty Python's Life of Brian'', now owned by the late George Harrison's Handmade Films and the Python production company; and two films produced by American Zoetrope, ''Hammett'' and ''The Escape Artist'', now owned by Paramount Pictures. Also, two Saul Zaentz films originally released by Orion are now owned by Warner Bros.: ''The Unbearable Lightness of Being'' and ''Amadeus''. Also, ''First Blood'', which was produced by Carolco Pictures, currently belongs to successor company StudioCanal; ''Up the Creek'' and ''¡Three Amigos!'' belong to HBO (although television rights and all international rights to the latter film are held by MGM).

External links

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