Premier Exhibitions Inc NASDAQ: PRXI is an Atlanta, Georgia-based company that organizes traveling exhibitions.
Its two most prominent exhibits are artifacts from the RMS Titanic (for which it is the sole legal guardian of the artifacts) and BODIES... The Exhibition in which it displays cadavers arranged in lifelike poses via plastination from the Dalian Medical University (through its Dalian Medical University Plastination Company subsidiary)[1] in China.
It has multiple exhibits of both bodies and Titanic running at the same time in different venues. In 2008 it entered into a 10-year lease for more than 36,000 square feet (3,300 m2) at the Luxor Las Vegas for exhibits of Titanic and bodies there.[2]
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The company has it roots in the Florida-based RMS Titanic Inc. founded in 1987 by Titanic Ventures Limited Partnership, run by two partners, John Joslyn and George Tulloch. These co-partners led the $6 million expedition to the ship that brought the world its first televised video of the famous luxury liner in her final resting place two and a half miles beneath the surface of the Atlantic Ocean. This historic expedition was the first to recover and restore artifacts from the ocean floor. In order to recover these artifacts, John and his team of scientific and salvage experts successfully completed 32 dives to Titanic’s final resting place in the North Atlantic to 12,500 feet in the “Nautile”, the twenty-million-dollar French institute’s deep-diving submersible chartered by Titanc Ventures Limited Partnership in a partnership with Ifremer, the French Research Institute for Exploitation of the Sea. [3][4]This is the greatest number of deep-sea dives ever completed for any televised project.[5] [6] The company had an OTC ticker symbol of SOST.[7] In 1994 it won a Virginia court order to get salvor-in-possession rights to the ship.
Tulloch (August 6, 1944 - January 21, 2004), who had built up the largest BMW dealership in the United States and had an American Financial background, was chosen to partner with Ifremer.[8] In 1992, the company, through a reverse merger, formed into RMS Titanic Inc. Tulloch conducted operations on the Titanic in 1993, 1994, 1996, and 1998.[9]
John Joslyn operates the Titanic Museum Attractions in Pigeon Forge, Tn. and Branson, Mo.[10]
As a result of the 32 successful dives to Titanic's final resting place in the North Atlantic, a television documentary was born, “Return to the Titanic….LIVE”, hosted by Telly Savalas and shown in 27 countries worldwide in 1987. This documentary remains the second highest rated syndicated special of all time. The highlight being the supposed live opening of the assistant purser's safe on television. [11]
RMS Titanic and Premier continue to be involved in litigation over the matter.[12]
In 1999 Founder, Arnie Geller Atlanta, Georgia ,John Joslyn Los Angeles, California, G. Michael Harris Belleair, Florida, and music promoter Joseph B. Marsh (who handled tours for Janet Jackson, David Copperfield, and Fleetwood Mac led a takeover and ousting of Tulloch.[13]
Arnie Geller was installed as President and CEO of the company.[14]
In October 2004 the company changed its name to Premier Exhibitions and changed its ticker symbol to initially to PXHB on the OTC after it branched out with the Bodies exhibition after it acquired the The Universe Within Touring Company, LLC.[15]
The Body exhibits is now the primary money maker for the firm with presenting 19 separate human anatomy exhibitions at 33 venues while the Titanic is on exhibit at 15 locations in 2009.[15]
In 2009 the company reported that 19% of its revenue comes from Titanic and 67% from Bodies with the rest among its other exhibitions.[16]
The Body exhibits have generated considerable controversy over their appropriateness and questioning the practice of selling cadavers for public display without family permission.[1]
The company changed its ticker symbol again to PRXI when it was listed on NASDAQ.
In 2008/2009 Mark Sellers of Chicago-based Sellers Capital which owns 16 percent of the company forced Arnie Geller out. Sellers wanted to sell the 5,500 Titanic artifacts valued at $100 million. The courts have rejected the proposal since they are not Premiers' to sell.[17]
In 2009 its other exhibits include "Dialog in the Dark" in which visitors pass through an exhibit totally without light.[18] and Star Trek: The Exhibition.[19]