Orion Classics

Orion Classics
Company type	Label
Industry	Motion pictures
Founded	1982;42 years ago (original); May 21, 2018;6 years ago (relaunch)
Founders	Michael Barker ; Tom Bernard ;
Fate	Merged into The Samuel Goldwyn Company (original)
Headquarters	Los Angeles, California , United States
Key people	Sam Wollman (senior VP acquisitions, MGM); Chris Ottinger; (MGM president of worldwide television and acquisitions); John Hegeman (Orion Pictures president);
Owner	Amazon MGM Studios
Parent	Orion Pictures

Last updated October 29, 2024

Orion Classics started in 1982 as the distribution label for the then independent film production company Orion Pictures, now owned by Amazon MGM Studios. It was relaunched in May 2018.

The original focus of 1980-era Orion Classics was on acquiring independent and foreign films for North American distribution, as headed by Michael Barker, Tom Bernard, and Marcie Bloom. In addition it aimed to produce some arthouse films of its own. It was launched when Barker, Bernard and Donna Gigliotti moved from UA Classics, a United Artists specialty division. Among its most notable films were Babette's Feast , Pedro Almodóvar's Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown , Jim Jarmusch's Mystery Train and Richard Linklater's Slacker .

Since its relaunch Orion Classics has released Mike P. Nelson's The Domestics and Jim Cummings' The Wolf of Snow Hollow , among others.

History

Orion Classics was formed by Orion Pictures in 1982 as an autonomous division for specialty films. United Artists Classics executives, Tom Bernard, Michael Barker and Donna Gigliotti, having a dispute with its parent United Artists left to fill Orion Classics' executive ranks, thus mirroring Orion Pictures' formation. With the UA Classics executives, the division had built in connection with the art house film community. While the three executives had different titles and responsibilities they acted as all having the same responsibilities.^[2]

The division took on the early UA Classics modus operandi of frugal marketing spending and strict staggered releasing with few prints. Thus 10 to 50 prints would be made based on its potential success with an average marketing budget of $225,000 would be first released in New York City before moving on to other metropolitan areas and given time to find its position.^[2]

The team was able to get French filmmaker Eric Rohmer to switch from UA Classics to Orion. He was then the source of its first film and box office hit with Pauline at the Beach in July 1983. Thus Orion Classics released four out of five of Rohmer's 1980s films and investing in a few of them. Orion's last acquisition in 1983 was its first independent US movie, Strangers Kiss (1984).^[2]

In August 1983, the company had indicated that they would be into production of its own material by late 1984 or early 1985. However, Orion Pictures was having more box office failures then successes thus those plans were put on hold.^[2]

In late 1991, when Orion Pictures was in serious financial trouble, Barker, Bernard, and Bloom left Orion Classics, taking the rights to the highly anticipated Merchant Ivory Productions adaptation of Howards End with them; at the invitation of former Orion president Mike Medavoy, who was now relocated at TriStar Pictures, the three set up Sony Pictures Classics, with Howards End as the company's first release.

In the mid-1990s, Metromedia acquired Orion, and merged the classics division into the Samuel Goldwyn Company. Both Orion and SGC were sold to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1997, with the latter's function of producing and/or distributing independent films being assumed by MGM's United Artists division.

Relaunch

In May 2018, it was announced that Orion Classics would be revived as a multiplatform distribution label, with 8 to 10 films being released per year. Orion Classics will be MGM's method of getting into the day-and-date theatrical-VOD business. The label's first film is Mike P. Nelson's The Domestics , which was released in theaters on June 28, 2018, and on VOD and digital the next day.^[1]

Film library

Title	Release Date
Heads I Win, Tails You Lose	1982
The Pool Hustlers	1982
Beyond the Door	September 5, 1982
Pauline at the Beach	July 29, 1983
Carmen	October 20, 1983
Scrubbers	January 31, 1984
Privates on Parade	April 13, 1984
Sugar Cane Alley	April 13, 1984
Another Country	June 29, 1984
Strangers Kiss	August 13, 1984
Old Enough	August 24, 1984
Full Moon in Paris	September 7, 1984
Swann in Love	September 14, 1984
Where the Green Ants Dream	February 8, 1985
My New Partner	March 8, 1985
MacArthur's Children	May 17, 1985
Henry IV	June 28, 1985
Dim Sum: A Little Bit of Heart	August 9, 1985
Came a Hot Friday	October 4, 1985
Colonel Redl	October 4, 1985
Ran	December 20, 1985
A.K.	January 29, 1986
My Beautiful Laundrette	March 7, 1986
A Great Wall	May 30, 1986
The Green Ray	August 29, 1986
Restless Natives	September 12, 1986
The Sacrifice	November 1986
El Amor brujo	December 23, 1986
One Woman or Two	February 6, 1987
Devil in the Flesh	May 22, 1987
Jean de Florette	June 26, 1987
Rita, Sue and Bob Too	July 17, 1987
End of the Line	August 28, 1987
Dancing in Water	September 18, 1987
Manon of the Spring	November 5, 1987
Au Revoir Les Enfants	December 1987
A Month in the Country	February 19, 1988
Babette's Feast	March 4, 1988
Wings of Desire	May 6, 1988
Loose Connections	July 8, 1988
Boyfriends and Girlfriends	July 15, 1988
Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown	November 11, 1988
Field of Honor	January 20, 1989
Murmur of the Heart	February 3, 1989
Chocolat	March 10, 1989
The Reader	April 21, 1989
The Music Teacher	July 7, 1989
Mystery Train	November 7, 1989
Camille Claudel	December 21, 1989
Too Beautiful for You	March 2, 1990
Monsieur Hire	April 20, 1990
Jesus of Montreal	May 25, 1990
May Fools	June 22, 1990
Wait Until Spring, Bandini	June 29, 1990
Life and Nothing But	September 14, 1990
Leningrad Cowboys Go America	November 2, 1990
Cyrano de Bergerac	December 1, 1990
Open Doors	March 8, 1991
Love Without Pity	May 31, 1991
My Father's Glory	June 14, 1991
Europa Europa	June 28, 1991
Slacker	July 5, 1991
My Mother's Castle	July 26, 1991
Opera	September 6, 1991
The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe	September 27, 1991
Rhapsody in August	December 20, 1991
Raise the Red Lantern	March 13, 1992
A Woman's Tale	May 1, 1992
The Adjuster	May 29, 1992
A Tale of Springtime	July 17, 1992
Rain Without Thunder	February 5, 1993
Boxing Helena	September 3, 1993
Nostradamus	September 16, 1994
Bar Girls	April 7, 1995
Jeffrey	August 18, 1995
Theremin: An Electronic Odyssey	August 24, 1995
Maybe, Maybe Not	July 12, 1996
Ed's Next Move	September 27, 1996
Trees Lounge	October 11, 1996
Prisoner of the Mountains	January 31, 1997
This World, Then the Fireworks	July 11, 1997
One Man's Hero	September 24, 1999
The Domestics	June 28, 2018
Unlovable	November 1, 2018
Jinn	November 15, 2018
Clara's Ghost	December 6, 2018
Maine	December 14, 2018
All These Small Moments	January 17, 2019
Valley Girl	May 8, 2020
The Wolf of Snow Hollow	October 9, 2020
Nada é por Acaso	October 9, 2020

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References

1 2 McClintock, Pamela (May 21, 2018). "MGM Relaunches Orion Classics as Multiplatform Distribution Label". The Hollywood Reporter . Retrieved May 21, 2018.
1 2 3 4 Tzioumakis, Yannis (2012). "Orion Classics (1983 to 1997)". Unknown: Classics Divisions, Specialty Labels and American Independent Cinema. Edinburgh University Press. pp. 65–78. ISBN 9780748649594 . Retrieved April 11, 2019.

External links

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[thr-1] 1 2 McClintock, Pamela (May 21, 2018). "MGM Relaunches Orion Classics as Multiplatform Distribution Label". The Hollywood Reporter . Retrieved May 21, 2018.

[Unknown-2] 1 2 3 4 Tzioumakis, Yannis (2012). "Orion Classics (1983 to 1997)". Unknown: Classics Divisions, Specialty Labels and American Independent Cinema. Edinburgh University Press. pp. 65–78. ISBN 9780748649594 . Retrieved April 11, 2019.

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