| Type | Production company Film distributor |
|---|---|
| Industry | Motion picture / television entertainment |
| Founded | 1971[1][2] |
| Founder(s) | Rayland Jensen |
| Headquarters | Park City, Utah, United States |
| Owner(s) | Schick (1971–1980)[1] Taft Broadcasting (1980-1987)[3] Independent (2000-present)[4] |
| Website | http://www.sunnclassicpicturesinc.com |
Sunn Classic Pictures, also known as Schick Sunn Classic Pictures is an independent[4] U.S.-based film distributor, founded in 1971.[1][2] The company was notable for family films and documentaries, and was bought by Taft Broadcasting in 1980.
Sunn Classic was located in Park City, Utah,[5] with offices in nearby Salt Lake City;[3] its company name added an extra "n" to the word "Sun" for legal reasons.[2] The founder, Rayland Jensen, previously handled distribution of American National Enterprises' 1968 release, Alaskan Safari, which spent five years at the North American box office.[1] In 1971, Jensen began his new company at the request of employees from the Schick razor company,[1] at the time a subsidiary of Warner-Lambert.[6]
During its tenure, Sunn Classic spent US$85,000 in pre-production research on each of its films, conducting phone surveys and interviews with potential viewers. According to Bruce A. Austin, "Sunn identified as its market working-class families who rarely went to the movies more than twice a year". In the midst of the research, it released films with an MPAA rating of G, and in heavily-marketed limited engagements. Through a process called four wall distribution (or "four-walling"), the company would rent out theaters to show its films in, and earned all of the box office receipts.[2][7]
Sunn Classic specialized in family entertainment such as 1974's The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams,[4][7] and its subsequent spin-off television series on the NBC network.[1] By 1977, domestic sales for Grizzly Adams reached upwards of US$24 million; another Sunn release, In Search of Noah's Ark, made US$26 million.[2] Among its other titles were 1977's The Lincoln Conspiracy[2] and 1979's In Search of Historic Jesus.[8] The company also ran a television unit in tandem with its film department.[3]
Later that decade, Rayland Jensen also served time at a rival company called TriStar Pictures (not to be confused with the Sony Pictures subsidiary of the same name).[4] Jensen and another fellow employee, Clair Farley, formed Jensen Farley Pictures; one of their early releases was 1981's Private Lessons.[9]
In July 1980,[10] the company and two Schick divisions were purchased by Cincinnati-based Taft Enterprises[11] for over US$2.5 million.[3][10] Eventually, the new owner christened Sunn Classic as Taft International Pictures.[8] However, after Carl Lindner, Jr. purchased Taft &restructured it into Great American Broadcasting, it shut down. By the 2000s, the media and property assets of the original Sunn Classics were under new management.[4]