Carolco Pictures

Last updated

Carolco Pictures, Inc.
Company type Public
Nasdaq:  CRLC
Industry Entertainment
FoundedMarch 30, 1976;49 years ago (1976-03-30) (as Anabasis Investments) in Boca Raton, Florida, United States [1]
Founders Mario Kassar [1]
Andrew G. Vajna [1]
DefunctDecember 22, 1995;30 years ago (1995-12-22)
FateBankruptcy, assets and name now owned by StudioCanal
Successors
Headquarters Beverly Hills, California [1] ,
United States
Key people
 Mario Kassar (chairman & CEO)
Products Motion pictures
Divisions Carolco Television Productions
Carolco Home Video
Subsidiaries Orbis Communications
The IndieProd Company
Website www.carolcofilms.com

Carolco Pictures, Inc. was an American independent film studio that was founded by Mario Kassar and Andrew G. Vajna in 1976. [1] Kassar and Vajna ran Carolco together until 1989, when Vajna left to form Cinergi Pictures. Carolco hit its peak in the 1980s and early 1990s, with blockbuster successes including the first three films of the Rambo franchise, Field of Dreams , Total Recall , Terminator 2: Judgment Day , Basic Instinct , Universal Soldier , Cliffhanger and Stargate . Nevertheless, Carolco was losing money overall, requiring a corporate restructuring in 1992. The film Cutthroat Island was produced as a resurgence for Carolco, but it instead lost them $147 million, and Carolco eventually went bankrupt in 1995. [2]

Contents

History

Studio formation and early years

Carolco Pictures was founded through the partnership of two film investors, Mario Kassar and Andrew Vajna. [1] 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. [4]

Their goal was to focus on film sales, with their first venture being The Sicilian Cross ; [5] 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, [6] 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." [7]

1980s success boom

Carolco's first major success was First Blood (1982), an adaptation of David Morrell's novel of the same name. Kassar and Vajna took a great risk buying the film rights to the novel (for $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 (1981). The risk paid off after First Blood made $120 million worldwide, and placed Carolco among the major players in Hollywood. [8]

On May 15, 1984, Carolco Pictures signed an agreement with then-up-and-coming film distributor and fledging studio Tri-Star Pictures, with Tri-Star distributing Carolco's films in North America; HBO (a partner in the Tri-Star venture) handled pay cable television rights, and Thorn EMI Video (later, HBO/Cannon Video) handled North American home video distribution rights. The first film to be released under the agreement was Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985). [9]

The First Blood sequel was timed for the 10th anniversary of the United States' exit from the Vietnam War; that event garnered publicity for the new film, which also became a hit. [8] Tri-Star and Carolco quickly renewed their partnership in 1986, which called for Tri-Star to distribute upcoming Carolco productions, including Rambo III , in a new multi-feature agreement. [10] TriStar would release the majority of Carolco's films from that point on in the United States and some other countries until 1994.

The release of the two Rambo sequels were so instrumental to Carolco's financial success that the studio began to focus 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. [11]

In January 1986, Carolco attempted to acquire troubled studio Orion Pictures—which had distributed First Blood for Carolco—via a corporate raid by Vajna and Kassar for control of their board. [12] The takeover failed by May, when Metromedia acquired a controlling interest in Orion. That same year, Carolco hired tax attorney Peter Hoffman as their newest president and CEO, and he opted to provide financial backing to assist Carolco's growth. [2] [13]

Also in the same year, Carolco entered the home video distribution business; they purchased independent video distributor International Video Entertainment (IVE), which was in financial distress and nearly bankrupt, and Carolco intended to reorient the company. The transaction was finalized in 1987. [14] This resulted in Carolco paying $43 million to HBO/Cannon Video (successor to Thorn-EMI Video) in exchange for the video rights to two of Carolco's upcoming releases, Angel Heart and Extreme Prejudice , allowing Carolco to relicense the pictures to IVE. [15] IVE merged with another distributor, Lieberman, and became LIVE Entertainment in 1988. [16] In addition to IVE, Carolco was also rumored to have been interested in acquiring Media Home Entertainment from Heron Communications, but the sale fell through. [17] [18]

Throughout the remainder of the 1980s, Carolco expanded into various other business sectors to further capitalize on the Rambo films and their other offerings. This included video retail holdings, [19] licensing of their IP, [20] an international division (which included deals with John Carpenter, Alive Films, and Canada's Alliance Entertainment Corporation), [21] [22] [23] and television production and distribution via the buyout of independent syndicator Orbis Communications. [24] In addition to its own library, Carolco also held the television rights to the films of Hemdale Film Corporation (including The Terminator and The Return of the Living Dead ), Alive Films (including Kiss of the Spider Woman ), HBO Premiere Films (including The Glitter Dome ), and future subsidiary The Vista Organization. [25]

In 1989, they purchased some assets from the bankrupt De Laurentiis Entertainment Group (DEG), including their production facility in Wilmington, North Carolina. [26] [27] In doing so, Carolco also obtained the production rights to Total Recall —an adaptation of Philip K. Dick's novelette, We Can Remember It for You Wholesale—which had been in development limbo for a number of years, and Schwarzenegger convinced Kassar and Vajna to pursue the project while letting him star and obtain creative influence. [28] [29] [30] The resulting film, directed by Paul Verhoeven, was later released in 1990, grossing $261.4 million on a $48–80 million budget. [31]

"After Rambo, we were trying to become a major studio. I felt that was the wrong direction. My feelings were very negative and it caused a lot of friction between Mario, myself, and Peter (Hoffman), who was by then Mario's right hand. I disagreed with where they wanted to go, and Peter played our egos against each other. He wanted to be a partner."

—Andrew G. Vajna explaining his reason for departing Carolco to Entertainment Weekly [2]

By late 1989, disagreements between Vajna and Kassar had grown over the direction of Carolco; Kassar and Hoffman desired to further expand the company into a larger studio, while Vajna felt their expansion had become overly rapid. [2] [4] In November, Vajna formed his own studio, Cinergi Pictures, with The Walt Disney Company's Hollywood Pictures as a distribution partner. The following month, Vajna sold his shares of Carolco to Kassar for $106 million, increasing the latter's ownership of Carolco to 62%. [32]

Early 1990s

In 1990, Pioneer Electric Corporation of Japan acquired a share in Carolco. [33]

Also in 1990, Carolco acquired the rights to produce a sequel to The Terminator from Hemdale; the company already had the television rights to the original film courtesy of its television distribution deal with Hemdale. The company re-hired Terminator director James Cameron (who had worked as a screenwriter on Rambo II) and Arnold Schwarzenegger to star in a multi-million-dollar budgeted sequel, Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991). Terminator 2 was the highest-grossing film of the year and the most successful film in Carolco's history. [34] Halfway through the year, Carolco formed a joint venture with New Line Cinema to form Seven Arts, a distribution company which primarily released much of Carolco's low-budget output. [35] In 1991, syndicator Orbis Communications was renamed to Carolco Television, to better emphasize the Carolco connection. [36] Also around this time, Carolco Home Video was established, with LIVE Entertainment as an output partner.

By 1990, Carolco purchased the theatrical film rights to Spider-Man from producer Menahem Golan via his studio, 21st Century Film Corporation, on the basis that he would serve as an executive producer. [37] Golan had previously tried and failed to produce a Spider-Man film for his bankrupt studio, the Cannon Group, and selling the theatrical rights to Carolco—along with the home video rights to Columbia Pictures, and the television rights to Viacom—was his way of raising funds to revive production. [37] [38] Carolco subsequently began pre-production on the Spider-Man film, and James Cameron was quickly hired as the writer and director. [39] [40] In 1993, towards the end of filming True Lies , Variety carried the announcement that Carolco received a completed screenplay from Cameron. [41] 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. [42] Cameron stalwart Arnold Schwarzenegger was frequently linked to the project as the director's choice for Doctor Octopus, and future Titanic star Leonardo DiCaprio was considered for the titular role, Peter Parker. [43] [44] [45]

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, [46] and entered into a deal with actor and filmmaker Robert Redford to make three pictures that would be released through Seven Arts; only one of them, The Dark Wind , would be released through Seven Arts as part of the deal, while the other two would be released by other distributors amidst Carolco's financial troubles. [47]

Decline and collapse

The early 1990s recession caused production and marketing costs to increase, and while Carolco's high profile releases were successful—such as Total Recall, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, and Basic Instinct —Carolco was beginning to lose money, since the increased costs began to outstrip box office receipts. [48] The studio had commonly mixed their blockbuster releases with their low-budget arthouse films, most of which were unprofitable. Carolco was also criticized for overspending on their high-budget films through reliance on star power and far-fetched deals (Schwarzenegger received a then-unheard-of $10–14 million for his work on Total Recall and Terminator 2; Stallone received similar salaries for his roles). By the end of 1991, despite Terminator 2's box office success, Carolco posted a $265.1 million loss. [48] Losses of partnerships also threatened Carolco's stability and drove it towards bankruptcy. [49]

In 1992, Carolco underwent a corporate restructuring, invested in by a partnership of Rizzoli-Corriere della Sera of Italy, Le Studio Canal+ of France, Pioneer, and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM). Each partner helped infuse up to $60 million into Carolco's stock and another $50 million for co-financing deals. [4] MGM also agreed to distribute their films domestically after Carolco's previous deal with TriStar expired. [50] The restructuring also involved Carolco reducing their staff and overhead; reducing major debts the studio owed to creditors and banks; and divesting its shares in LIVE Entertainment to a group of investors led by Pioneer. [48] [51] LIVE was later renamed Artisan Entertainment, and was bought by Lions Gate Entertainment in 2003. Cutbacks at Carolco also forced them to make a deal with TriStar over the funding of the Stallone-led action film Cliffhanger : Carolco sold full distribution rights in North America, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, Germany, and France to TriStar in exchange for half of the film's budget. [52] While Cliffhanger became a major box-office success, Carolco saw little revenue from the film since it ended up becoming a minority owner. [53] In October 1993, Carolco was able to complete a merger with The Vista Organization. [54]

Carolco's attempt to make more of its specialties proved to be more strenuous: their plans for a Spider-Man film with James Cameron, which had an projected budget of $50 million, [55] were forced to be shelved, following a period of litigation; [56] in April 1993, Menahem Golan filed a lawsuit against Carolco to revoke his contract with them, since Cameron had Golan's executive producer name omitted from the film credits. [56] In February 1994, Carolco filed a separate lawsuit against Columbia Pictures and Viacom, in an effort to gain their home video and television rights to Spider-Man, but the suit backfired, when Columbia and Viacom counter-sued Carolco. [56] In 1995, Carolco, Golan, Columbia, Viacom, and Marvel were all sued by MGM, who believed they should have inherited the film rights, upon acquiring the Cannon Group and 21st Century Films. [56] [57] Since the court did not rule in Carolco's favor, the Spider-Man film rights were reverted to Marvel and eventually sold to Columbia. [56] [57]

By May 1994, Carolco had two big-budget films scheduled for production: Crusade, a Schwarzenegger-led film based on a script by Walon Green and with Paul Verhoeven attached as director, and Cutthroat Island , a Michael Douglas-led swashbuckler film with Renny Harlin attached as director. [52] [58] At that point, the studio's financial losses and debts had worsened to the point they could only barely afford to finance one major project. Carolco decided to push forward with Cutthroat Island as their comeback film while cancelling Crusade, since the latter's projected budget reached $100 million, and during a meeting with Carolco executives, Verhoeven refused to guarantee that it would not further increase. [52] [58] [59]

Early in Cutthroat Island's production, Michael Douglas dropped out and was replaced by the less-bankable Matthew Modine. Geena Davis, cast as the female lead through Renny Harlin—her husband at the time—was already an established A-lister but was coming off 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 film, Carolco sold off the rights to several films in production, including Last of the Dogmen , Stargate and Showgirls . [60] [61] [62] [63] [64] In October 1994, Carolco ran out of funds and Pioneer invested another $8 million. [33] In April 1995, Carolco announced that it was unable to make interest payments on $55 million of debt. [65] In November, Carolco filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Cutthroat Island was released the following month and became a major box-office disaster, earning $16 million on a finalized $90-100 million budget. [66] [67]

Bankruptcy and aftermath

Without the expected box office returns, Carolco was forced to liquidate. The company agreed to sell its assets to 20th Century Fox for $50 million. [68] But when Canal+ made a $58 million bid for the library in January 1996, Fox, which by then lowered their offer to $47.5 million, dropped their deal. [69] During the bankruptcy proceedings, Carolco's finances underwent an investigation by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), which claimed that from 1988 to 1990, Peter Hoffman had arranged for Carolco to commit to deferred compensation and tax evasion, as a method to maintain the studio's operations and to preserve his own salary. [13] [70] Hoffman consequently was to be charged with four counts of felony tax evasion, but in 1997, he was acquitted of two of the charges, he plead guilty to tax misdemeanor, and agreed to pay a $5,000 fine. [71] [72]

While Mario Kassar and Andrew Vajna had no direct involvement with Hoffman's fraudulent activities, they collectively owed the IRS $109.7 million in back taxes and penalties from the studio's underpayments; [13] [73] the overdue taxes were later settled in 2002, with Vajna agreeing to pay $6.5 million and Kassar agreeing to pay $45 million. [74] In 1998, Kassar and Vajna regrouped to establish C2 Pictures, an intended successor to both Carolco and Cinergi, and they went on to produce Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines and Basic Instinct 2 , among other films. Concurrently, Hoffman proceeded to manage Seven Arts Pictures until 2014, when he received further criminal charges for defrauding the state of Louisiana's tax credit system. [72] [75]

2015–2017: Resurrection of Carolco brand

Film producer Alexander 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. [76] [77] However, on April 7, 2016, it was announced that both Bafer and Kassar had left the company, Kassar taking with him one of Carolco's planned projects, a remake of the 1999 Japanese horror film Audition which he was producing. Investor Tarek Kirschen was then inducted as Carolco's CEO. [78] In 2017, StudioCanal and Carolco reached an agreement whereby StudioCanal would have sole control of the Carolco name and logo and the Carolco Pictures company would be renamed Recall Studios. That agreement settled a legal dispute over the Carolco mark brought by StudioCanal. [79] [80] The arrangement took effect on November 29 of that year.

Carolco's library

After its bankruptcy, the assets of Carolco were 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. [81] The ancillary rights to Carolco's library (up to 1995 with certain exceptions) are held by French production company StudioCanal, since its parent company, Canal+ Group, owned a stake in Carolco, eventually buying out its partners. [82] [83]

On September 17, 1991, Multimedia Entertainment acquired Carolco's television business, which included television distribution unit Orbis Communications and the telefilm subsidiary Carolco Television Productions, [84] but did not include the television distribution rights to Carolco's film library.

Those rights would instead be licensed to Spelling Entertainment's Worldvision Enterprises in 1992 in order to pay off debt. [85] In North America, with certain exceptions, those rights are held by Paramount Television Studios through Trifecta Entertainment & Media as the successor to Spelling/Worldvision. All other rights in terms of home video were (and for a majority of the library, still are) licensed to Lionsgate under an ongoing deal with StudioCanal. Lionsgate, in turn, licensed those rights in Canada to Entertainment One (which in turn was acquired by Lionsgate in 2023), although theatrical rights to most of the library were split between Sony Pictures (for Cliffhanger ), and Rialto Pictures (for the rest of the library not already retained by its original distributors or passed on to other companies).[ citation needed ] The video rights to most titles previously released by Lionsgate in North America are now held outright by StudioCanal, and sublicensed to Kino Lorber.[ citation needed ]

Showgirls was sold in pre-production to United Artists and Chargeurs (now known as Pathé); both studios retained the film.[ citation needed ]

StudioCanal itself held full distribution rights in France, Germany, Australia, Ireland, and the United Kingdom. In other territories, StudioCanal licensed home video rights to Universal Pictures Home Entertainment until StudioCanal's global distribution deal with Universal expired in January 2022. [86]

Filmography

1970s

Release dateTitleNotes
March 30, 1976 Street People financing; produced by Aetos Produzioni; distributed by Agora Cinematografica in Italy and American International Pictures in North America
July 9, 1976 A Small Town in Texas financing; produced and distributed by American International Pictures
July 28, 1976 Futureworld financing; produced and distributed by American International Pictures
October 8, 1976 The Cassandra Crossing financing; produced by ITC Entertainment; distributed by Embassy Pictures
March 23, 1977 The Domino Principle
March 31, 1977 The Eagle Has Landed financing; produced by ITC Entertainment; distributed by Columbia Pictures
August 5, 1977 March or Die
March 30, 1979 The Silent Partner distributed by EMC
May 11, 1979 Winter Kills financing; distributed by Embassy Pictures
May 30, 1979The Fantastic Sevenfinancing; produced by Martin Poll
September 1979 The Sensuous Nurse financing

1980s

Release dateTitleNotes
March 28, 1980 The Changeling distributed by Associated Film Distribution
August 15, 1980 The Kidnapping of the President financing; distributed by Crown International Pictures
September 5, 1980 Agency financing; distributed by Jensen Farley Pictures
September 9, 1980 Suzanne financing; distributed by 20th Century Fox
September 15, 1980 Shōgun financing; distributed by Paramount Pictures
December 14, 1980 Tribute financing; distributed by 20th Century Fox
February 1, 1981 Caboblanco financing; distributed by AVCO Embassy Pictures
March 23, 1981 The High Country financing; distributed by Crown International Pictures
April 10, 1981 The Last Chase financing; distributed by Crown International Pictures
July 30, 1981 Escape to Victory with Lorimar; distributed by Paramount Pictures
September 25, 1981 Carbon Copy financing; produced by Hemdale Film Corporation and RKO Pictures, distributed by AVCO Embassy Pictures
December 18, 1981 Your Ticket Is No Longer Valid financing
February 12, 1982 The Amateur produced in association with Tiberius Film Productions; distributed by 20th Century Fox
October 22, 1982 First Blood distributed by Orion Pictures
January 1985Superstitionwith Panaria, distributed by Almi Pictures
May 22, 1985 Rambo: First Blood Part II first film under distribution pact with TriStar Pictures
March 6, 1987 Angel Heart distributed by TriStar Pictures
April 24, 1987 Extreme Prejudice
October 23, 1987 Prince of Darkness international distribution only; with Alive Films, Larry Franco Productions and Haunted Machine Productions; distributed by Universal Pictures in the U.S.
March 18, 1988 Pound Puppies and the Legend of Big Paw with The Maltese Companies; distributed by TriStar Pictures
May 25, 1988 Rambo III [87] distributed by TriStar Pictures
June 17, 1988 Red Heat
November 4, 1988 They Live international distribution only; with Alive Films and Larry Franco Productions; distributed by Universal Pictures in the U.S.
November 11, 1988 Iron Eagle II distributed by TriStar Pictures
December 2, 1988 Watchers with Concorde Pictures, Centaur Films, Rose & Ruby Productions and Canadian Entertainment Investors No. 2 and Company; distributed by Universal Pictures
January 13, 1989 DeepStar Six distributed by TriStar Pictures
April 7, 1989 Pathfinder subtitled version of a film made in Norway
May 19, 1989 Food of the Gods II distributed by Concorde Pictures
August 4, 1989 Lock Up distributed by TriStar Pictures
September 29, 1989 Johnny Handsome
October 27, 1989 Shocker international distribution only; with Alive Films and Universal City studios; distributed by Universal Pictures in the U.S.
December 22, 1989 Music Box distributed by TriStar Pictures

1990s

Release dateTitleNotes
February 23, 1990 Mountains of the Moon distributed by TriStar Pictures
March 29, 1990 Welcome to Spring Break home media and television distribution in North America only, distributed by Columbia Pictures and Overseas Filmgroup internationally
June 1, 1990 Total Recall distributed by TriStar Pictures
August 10, 1990 Air America
September 21, 1990 Narrow Margin
November 2, 1990 Jacob's Ladder
December 19, 1990 Hamlet Foreign distribution with Warner Bros., Icon Productions, and Nelson Entertainment
February 8, 1991 L.A. Story distributed by TriStar Pictures
March 1, 1991 The Doors with Bill Graham Films and Imagine Entertainment; distributed by TriStar Pictures
April 25, 1991 The Punisher home media and television distribution [88] in North America only, distributed by New World Pictures and 20th Century Fox internationally
July 3, 1991 Terminator 2: Judgment Day with Lightstorm Entertainment and Le Studio Canal+; distributed by TriStar Pictures
August 15, 1991 Bloodmoon North American home media distribution only [89] ; with Village Roadshow Pictures
March 20, 1992 Basic Instinct with Le Studio Canal+; distributed by TriStar Pictures
July 10, 1992 Universal Soldier [90] with Centropolis Entertainment; distributed by TriStar Pictures
October 9, 1992 Reservoir Dogs international distribution only; with Live Entertainment; distributed by Miramax in the U.S.
December 25, 1992 Chaplin with Le Studio Canal+; distributed by TriStar Pictures
May 28, 1993 Cliffhanger
August 26, 1994 Wagons East last Carolco film to be distributed by TriStar Pictures.
October 28, 1994 Stargate with Le Studio Canal+, distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
September 8, 1995 Last of the Dogmen with Savoy Pictures
September 22, 1995 Showgirls with United Artists and Chargeurs [91]
December 22, 1995 Cutthroat Island distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, last film to be released by Carolco

Seven Arts Pictures

Release dateTitleNotes
September 14, 1990 Repossessed distributed by New Line/Seven Arts
September 28, 1990 King of New York distributed by New Line/Seven Arts
February 1, 1991 Queens Logic distributed by New Line/Seven Arts; with New Visions Pictures
May 10, 1991 Sweet Talker distributed by New Line/Seven Arts; with New Visions Pictures
May 17, 1991 Dice Rules distributed by New Line/Seven Arts
August 23, 1991 Defenseless distributed by New Line/Seven Arts; with New Visions Pictures
September 20, 1991 Rambling Rose distributed by New Line/Seven Arts
October 25, 1991 Get Back distributed by New Line/Seven Arts; with Majestic Films and Allied Filmmakers
November 1991 The Dark Wind distributed by New Line/Seven Arts; with Le Studio Canal+
June 21, 1992 Aces: Iron Eagle III distributed by New Line/Seven Arts
June 26, 1992 Incident at Oglala distributed by Miramax after closure of Seven Arts banner
August 21, 1992 Light Sleeper distributed by New Line division Fine Line Features; last picture to be made under the Seven Arts banner
October 9, 1992 A River Runs Through It distributed by Columbia after closure of Seven Arts banner; with Allied Filmmakers [92]
July 30, 1993 Tom and Jerry: The Movie distributed by Miramax after closure of Seven Arts banner; with Turner Pictures and Live Entertainment

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