Carolco Pictures

Carolco Pictures, Inc.

Former type	Motion pictures
Industry	Entertainment
Successor	C2 Pictures
Founded	1976
Founders	Mario F. Kassar Andrew G. Vajna
Defunct	1996
Headquarters	United States
Products	Motion pictures
Revenue	Unknown
Net income	Unknown

Carolco Pictures, Inc. was an American independent film production company that, within a decade, went from producing such blockbuster successes as Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Total Recall, and the first three films of the Rambo series to being bankrupted^[1] by box office bombs such as Cutthroat Island and Showgirls. The company's trademarks were purchased by another interest who renamed its established company under the Carolco name.^[2]

History

Early years

The company was founded through the partnership of two film investors, Mario Kassar and Andrew Vajna. The two were hailed by Newsweek as some of the most successful independent producers.^[3] By the age of 25, Vajna went from wig-maker to the owner of two Hong Kong theaters. Then, Vajna ventured into the production and distribution of feature films. One of Vajna's early productions was a 1973 martial-arts film entitled The Deadly China Doll which made $3.7 million worldwide from a $100,000 budget. Vajna was already a film sales agent in the Middle East by the time he turned 18.^[4]

Their goal was to focus on film sales; eventually it went into financing low-budget films. Their earliest films were produced by American International Pictures and ITC Entertainment with Carolco's financial support,^[5] and co-produced with Canadian theater magnate Garth Drabinsky. The name "Carolco" was purchased from a defunct company based in Panama, and according to Kassar, "it has no meaning."^[6]

Rise

One of the first Anabasis/Carolco films was First Blood (1982), an adaptation of David Morrell's novel. Kassar and Vajna took great risk to buy the film rights to the novel (for a $385,000), and used the help of European bank loans to cast Sylvester Stallone as the lead character, Vietnam War veteran John Rambo, after having worked with him on the John Huston film Escape to Victory. The risk paid off after First Blood made $120 million worldwide, and placed Carolco among the major players in Hollywood.^[7]

The sequel Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985), was timed for the 10th anniversary of the United States' bailout from Vietnam; that event garnered publicity for the new film, which also became a hit.^[7]

The release of the two Rambo films were so instrumental to Carolco's financial success that the studio focused more on big-budget action films, with major stars such as Stallone (who later signed a ten-picture deal with the studio) and Arnold Schwarzenegger attached. These films, aimed at appealing to a worldwide audience, were financed using a strategy known as "pre-sales", in which domestic and foreign distributors invested in these marketable films in exchange for local releasing rights.^[8]

Also in 1985, Carolco started a distribution deal with then-fledging production company TriStar Pictures which started with the film Rambo: First Blood Part II. TriStar released a majority of Carolco's films from that point on in the U.S. and some other countries until 1994.

Carolco entered home video distribution as well. Independent video distributor International Video Entertainment (IVE) was going through financial difficulties and was near bankruptcy. In 1986, Carolco purchased IVE in the hopes of "turning the company around". The deal was finalized a year later.^[9] IVE merged with another distributor, Lieberman, and became LIVE Entertainment in 1988.^[10]

On August 28, 1987, Carolco acquired television syndicator Orbis Communications for $15.4 million and initiated television production and distribution. They also purchased the former De Laurentiis Entertainment Group production facility in Wilmington, North Carolina,^[11] and established Carolco Home Video, with LIVE Entertainment as output partner.

Jose Menendez was a member of the Board of Directors of Carolco until August 1989, when he and his wife were murdered by their sons Lyle and Erik Menendez.

Vajna sold his share of Carolco in 1989 due to increasing differences between Kassar over the direction of the company. That November, Vajna formed Cinergi Pictures, with The Walt Disney Company as distribution partner.

1990–1994

In 1990, Carolco acquired the rights to the Terminator franchise from Hemdale Film Corporation. The company re-hired Terminator director James Cameron (who had worked as a screenwriter on Rambo) and Arnold Schwarzenegger to star in a multi-million-dollar budgeted sequel, Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991). It was the highest-grossing film of the year and the most successful film in Carolco's history. Halfway through the year, Carolco entered into a joint venture with New Line Cinema to start Seven Arts Pictures, a distribution company which primarily released much of Carolco's low-budget output.^[12]

Carolco struggled for some years to secure the rights to Spider-Man, a property that Cameron was keen to produce as a film. Plans fell through, although it would eventually be made as a Sam Raimi film for Columbia Pictures. Toward the end of shooting True Lies, Variety carried the announcement that Carolco had received a completed screenplay from Cameron.^[13] This script bore the names of Cameron, John Brancato, Ted Newsom, Barry [sic] Cohen and "Joseph Goldmari", a typographical scrambling of Menahem Golan's pen name, "Joseph Goldman," with Marvel executive Joseph Calimari.^[14] (Golan had previously, and unsuccessfully, tried to produce a Spider-Man film for his own studio, Cannon Films.) The script's text was identical to what Golan had submitted to Columbia the previous year, with the addition of a new 1993 date. Cameron stalwart Arnold Schwarzenegger was frequently linked to the project as the director's choice for Dr. Octopus.^[15][16] As late as 1995, Internet industry sources such as Baseline Hollywood still listed both Neil Ruttenberg (author of one of the 1990 "Doc Ock" variations submitted to Columbia), and Cameron as co-writers.^[17]

Carolco also attempted to make Bartholomew vs. Neff, a comedy film that was to have been written and directed by John Hughes and would have starred Sylvester Stallone and John Candy.^[18]

Decline and collapse

Though Carolco made several successful films through the 1990s, including Total Recall, Terminator 2: Judgment Day (T2), and Basic Instinct, the studio was gradually losing money as the years went on. Carolco mixed blockbusters with small-budget arthouse films which were not profitable. In addition, the studio was criticized for overspending on films through reliance on star power and far-fetched deals (Schwarzenegger received then-unheard-of $10–14 million for his work on Recall and T2; Stallone also had similar treatment). Losses of partnerships also threatened the studio's stability and sent it teetering towards bankruptcy.^[19]

In 1992, Carolco went under a corporate restructuring invested by a partnership of Rizzoli-Corriere della Sera of Italy, Le Studio Canal+ of France, Pioneer Electric Corporation of Japan, and MGM. Each partner helped infuse up to $60 million into the studio's stock and another $50 million for co-financing deals. MGM also agreed to distribute Carolco product domestically after a previous deal with TriStar expired.^[20] In 1993, Carolco was forced to sell its shares in Live Entertainment to a group of investors led by Pioneer;^[21] it was later renamed Artisan Entertainment, which was bought by Lions Gate Entertainment.

Cutbacks at Carolco also forced the studio to make a deal with TriStar over the funding of the Stallone action film Cliffhanger: Carolco would have to sell full distribution rights in North America, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, Germany, and France to TriStar in exchange for half of the film's budget.^[22] Although a major box-office success, Carolco saw little revenue from Cliffhanger since it ended up becoming a minority owner in the film.^[23] Carolco's attempt to make more of its specialties proved to be more strenuous: the studio had to shelve Crusade, an upcoming Schwarzenegger vehicle based on a script by Walon Green and with Paul Verhoeven attached as director, in 1994 when the budget exceeded $100 million.^[22] However, Carolco was able to complete a merger with The Vista Organization in late October 1993.^[24]

Carolco attempted a comeback with the big-budget swashbuckler Cutthroat Island, with Michael Douglas in the lead. Douglas dropped out early in its production, and was replaced by the less-bankable Matthew Modine. Geena Davis, cast as the female lead through her ties with then-husband, the director Renny Harlin, was already an established A-lister, but was coming off of a string of flops. MGM hoped to advertise Cutthroat Island based on spectacle rather than cast. In an attempt to raise more financing for the projected $90–100 million film, Carolco sold off the rights to several films in production, including Stargate and Showgirls.^[25] In November 1995, Carolco filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Cutthroat Island was released that Christmas, and became a box-office disaster. Carolco agreed to sell its assets to 20th Century Fox for $50 million.^[26] But when Canal+ made a $58 million bid for the library in January 1996, Fox, which by then lowered their purchase price to $47.5 million, dropped their deal.^[27]

Out of the ashes rose a new partnership between Carolco's owner (Mario Kassar) and Cinergi's owner (Andrew G. Vajna) in 1998. The duo formed C2 Pictures and produced Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines and Basic Instinct 2 among other films.

Resurrection of Carolco brand

Film producer Alex Bafer purchased the Carolco name and logo years later. On January 20, 2015, Bafer renamed his production company Carolco Pictures, formerly known as Brick Top Productions. Bafer then recruited Mario Kassar as the chief development executive of the new Carolco. One of its first projects is a remake of the 1999 Japanese horror film Audition, which is being produced by Kassar.^[28][2]

Carolco's library today

After its bankruptcy, the assets of Carolco were later sold off to other companies, most already sold during Carolco's existence. In March 1996, Canal+ purchased the library in bankruptcy court for a value of approximately $58 million.^[29] Today, the ancillary rights to Carolco's library (up to 1993) are held by French production company StudioCanal, since its parent company, Canal+ Group, owned a stake in Carolco (eventually buying out its partners).

On September 17, 1991, Multimedia Entertainment acquired assets of Carolco's television distribution unit Orbis Communications. Included were first-run syndication rights to The Joker's Wild and John Davidson's hosted version of The $100,000 Pyramid and TV movies.^[30]

In 1992, Carolco licensed television rights to Spelling Entertainment in order to pay off debt.^[31] In the United States and Canada, with certain exceptions, television rights are now held by Paramount Television, with distribution handled by Trifecta Entertainment & Media. All other rights in terms of home video are licensed to Lionsgate under an ongoing deal with StudioCanal. Lionsgate, in turn, licenses those rights in Canada to Entertainment One, although theatrical rights to most of this library are currently split between Sony Pictures and Rialto Pictures (the latter company acting on behalf of StudioCanal). In Japan, the rights in terms of home video are licensed to Warner Home Video under an ongoing deal with StudioCanal in 2012 until expired on April 30, 2014.

In Europe, StudioCanal themselves hold full distribution rights in France, Germany, Ireland and the United Kingdom, in other territories, StudioCanal licenses those rights to various local distributors.

In Asia, Africa and Oceania, Universal Studios who jointly own StudioCanal with the Canal+ Group, own all the distribution rights in those regions or license them out to their local distributors.

The Orbis Communications library is now held by Universal Television, with the exception of the Orbis-distributed Live Aid concert, whose rights are currently held by Warner Music Group and Movin' On, which is now owned by the Peter Rodgers Organization.

Films made by Seven Arts Pictures (a joint venture with New Line Cinema) are also owned by StudioCanal, with the same distribution partners as with the Carolco library.

The rights to Showgirls are divided between Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer for North America and Pathé in all other regions.

Filmography

1970s

1980s

1990s

References

Citations

Further reading

• Prince, Stephen (2000) A New Pot of Gold: Hollywood Under the Electronic Rainbow, 1980-1989. University of California Press, Berkeley/Los Angeles, California. ISBN 0-520-23266-6

External links

• Carolco Pictures at the Internet Movie Database