Revolution Studios

Last updated
Revolution Studios Distribution Company, LLC
Revolution Studios
Company type Subsidiary
Industry Film
Television
FoundedJanuary 12, 2000;24 years ago (2000-01-12) (as film studio)
March 30, 2001;23 years ago (2001-03-30) (as television studio)
Founder Joe Roth
Headquarters
10877 Wilshire Blvd St., Los Angeles, California, United States
Key people
Scott Hemming (CEO) [1]
Products Motion pictures
Television series
Parent Content Partners LLC [2]
Website Official Website

Revolution Studios Distribution Company, LLC, operating as Revolution Studios, is an American independent motion picture and television studio headed by Chief Executive Officer Scott Hemming, founded in 2000, and based in Los Angeles, California. [3]

Contents

The company focuses primarily on the distribution, remake, and sequel rights to titles in its library, which it continues to add to through acquisitions and new productions.

Company history

On January 12, 2000, after a successful run at Walt Disney Studios, and his time at 20th Century Fox and Caravan Pictures, Joe Roth left Disney, to create a yet-unnamed venture. [4] On February 17, 2000, Roth signed an agreement with actress Julia Roberts to star in their films as well as producing through their Shoelace Productions banner. [5]

On June 7, 2000, Roth officially decided to name his new venture Revolution Studios and announced that Tomcats was the first film to be produced by the studio. [6] On the same day, Revolution Studios entered into an agreement with Sony Pictures Entertainment—which also owned a stake in the company—to distribute and market Revolution Studios' films. Roth owned the controlling interest in Revolution Studios. Other equity owners included Hollywood executives Todd Garner, Rob Moore, Tom Sherak and Elaine Goldsmith-Thomas, as well as Starz Entertainment and 20th Century Fox. The company's title was named after the song of the same name by The Beatles, of which Roth is a fan of. [6] Starz owned exclusive cable distribution rights, with broadcast television licenses going to Fox. [6]

Soon afterwards, the company expanded into television production, under the moniker Revolution Television, with Queens Supreme as its first product, [7] followed by a deal with American Girl. [8]

On January 5, 2005, Revolution Studios signed a television syndication distribution deal with Debmar-Mercury to market their library to syndication. [9]

Coinciding with the end of its six-year distribution deal with Sony in 2007, Revolution Studios turned its attention to exploiting the remake, sequel and television rights to films in its library. Roth suddenly decided to move into a producing deal with Sony Pictures to start his own production company. [10]

In August 2006, Revolution Studios announced that it had licensed to Universal Pictures the sequel rights to its comic-book-inspired hit Hellboy (2004). [11] Universal released Hellboy II: The Golden Army in the United States in 2008.

Revolution Studios produced a sitcom based on its comedy feature Are We There Yet? , which ran from June 1, 2010 to March 2, 2013 on TBS, [12] as well as a sitcom adaptation of Anger Management , which ran from June 28, 2012 to December 22, 2014 on FX. [13]

In June 2014, Roth announced that he had sold Revolution Studios to funds managed by Fortress Investment Group for roughly $250 million. Roth continues to serve as a strategic adviser and develops television projects for the Revolution Studios through a first-look deal. Concurrent with the sale, former Chief Operating Officer Vince Totino was promoted to CEO, and former finance executive Scott Hemming was named COO. [3]

After the sale, the newly recapitalized Revolution Studios began adding to its library through a series of acquisitions. In October 2014, Revolution Studios acquired the foreign rights and copyrights of Morgan Creek Productions. [14]

In October 2015, Revolution Studios acquired Cross Creek Pictures' 50% interests in feature films Black Swan and The Ides of March . [15] Later that month, Revolution Studios purchased the eight-film Cold Spring Pictures film library, including the 2009 Academy Award nominee and Golden Globe Award winner Up in the Air . [16]

Also in 2015, Revolution Studios announced a partnership with Universal Pictures Home Entertainment to produce non-theatrical sequels, prequels, or other spinoffs based on the titles in Revolution Studios' library. [17]

In June 2016, Revolution Studios expanded its library to 126 films when it acquired worldwide rights to five films produced by Graham King's GK Films: Hugo , The Tourist , Edge of Darkness , The Rum Diary and The Young Victoria . The rights were previously held by Dallas-based Tango Films. [18] In January 2017, Revolution Studios returned to film production with their release XXX: Return of Xander Cage , [19] the company's first film since 2007's The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep . [20]

In January 2017, Content Partners LLC and its affiliate CP Enterprises acquired Revolution Studios from investment funds managed by affiliates of Fortress Investment Group for an undisclosed price. [21]

Corporate partnerships

In October 2014, Revolution Studios forged a global licensing pact with Miramax, wherein the latter company would sell the worldwide television and digital distribution rights to Revolution Studios' library. Miramax has been handling U.S. sales of the Revolution Studios library since June 2012. [22]

In May 2016, Revolution Studios announced that it had made a seven-figure investment for a stake in Spanish-language digital services company Latin Everywhere, agreeing to license Spanish-dubbed versions of its library titles to Latin Everywhere's video streaming platform Pongalo (Spanish for "play it"). [23]

In October 2019, Revolution Studios signed a worldwide television and digital distribution deal with Sony Pictures Television, covering the Revolution Studios and Morgan Creek libraries. [24]

Films

Here is a list of films independently produced by Revolution Studios:

Theatrical films

Release DateTitleNotesBudgetGross (worldwide)
March 30, 2001 Tomcats [25] co-production with Eagle Cove Entertainment$11 million$23,430,766
June 1, 2001 The Animal [25] co-production with Happy Madison Productions $47 million$84,772,742
July 20, 2001 America's Sweethearts [25] co-production with Face Productions, Roth-Arnold Productions and Shoelace Productions$46 million$138,191,428
November 2, 2001 The One [25] co-production with Hard Eight Pictures $49 million$72,689,126
December 28, 2001 Black Hawk Down [26] co-production with Jerry Bruckheimer Films and Scott Free Productions $92 million$172,989,651
May 10, 2002 The New Guy [27] $13 million$31,167,388
August 2, 2002 The Master of Disguise [28] co-production with Happy Madison Productions $16 million$43,411,001
August 9, 2002 XXX co-production with Original Film [26] $70 million$277,448,382
September 13, 2002 Stealing Harvard [29] co-production with Imagine Entertainment $25 million$14,277,032
November 1, 2002 Punch-Drunk Love [29] co-production with New Line Cinema $25 million$24,665,649
December 13, 2002 Maid in Manhattan [26] co-production with Red OM Films$55 million$154,906,693
January 24, 2003 Darkness Falls [30] co-production with Distant Corners$11 million$47,488,536
March 7, 2003 Tears of the Sun [30] co-production with Cheyenne Enterprises $75 million$86,468,162
April 11, 2003 Anger Management [26] co-production with Happy Madison Productions $75 million$195,745,823
May 9, 2003 Daddy Day Care [26] co-production with Davis Entertainment $69 million$164,433,867
June 13, 2003 Hollywood Homicide [30] $75 million$51,142,659
August 1, 2003 Gigli [30] co-production with City Light Films and Casey Silver Productions$75 million$7,266,209
October 24, 2003 Radio [30] co-production with Tollin/Robbins Productions $35 million$53,293,628
November 26, 2003 The Missing [30] co-production with Imagine Entertainment $60 million$38,364,277
December 19, 2003 Mona Lisa Smile co-production with Red OM Films$65 million$141,337,989
December 25, 2003 Peter Pan [30] co-production with Universal Pictures (USA/Canada/UK/Ireland/Australia/New Zealand/France/South Africa), Columbia Pictures (International), Red Wagon Entertainment and Allied Stars Ltd.$130 million$121,975,011
April 2, 2004 Hellboy [26] co-production with Lawrence Gordon Productions and Dark Horse Entertainment$66 million$99,318,987
April 23, 2004 13 Going on 30 [30] $37 million$96,455,697
June 23, 2004 White Chicks [26] co-production with Wayans Bros. Entertainment$37 million$113,086,475
August 6, 2004 Little Black Book [30] $35 million$22,034,832
September 24, 2004 The Forgotten [30] co-production with The Jinks Cohen Company$42 million$117,592,831
November 24, 2004 Christmas with the Kranks [30] co-production with 1492 Pictures $60 million$96,572,480
January 21, 2005 Are We There Yet? [30] co-production with Cube Vision $32 million$97,918,663
February 25, 2005 Man of the House [30] $40 million$21,577,624
April 29, 2005 XXX: State of the Union [26] co-production with Original Film $87 million$71,022,693
September 9, 2005 An Unfinished Life [30] co-production with Miramax Films, Initial Entertainment Group and The Ladd Company $30 million$18,618,284
October 14, 2005 The Fog [30] $18 million$46,201,432
October 21, 2005 The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio [30] co-production with DreamWorks Pictures and ImageMovers $12 million$689,028
November 23, 2005 Rent [30] co-production with 1492 Pictures and Tribeca Productions $40 million$31,670,620
February 17, 2006 Freedomland [30] co-production with Scott Rudin Productions$30 million$14,655,628
April 7, 2006 The Benchwarmers [30] co-production with Happy Madison Productions $33 million$64,957,291
June 23, 2006 Click [30] co-production with Columbia Pictures, Happy Madison Productions and Original Film $82.5 million$237,681,299
July 14, 2006 Little Man [30] co-production with Wayans Bros. Entertainment$64 million$101,595,121
August 11, 2006 Zoom [30] co-production with Team Todd Films and Boxing Cat Films $35 million$12,506,188
December 20, 2006 Rocky Balboa [30] co-production with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Columbia Pictures $24 million$155,721,132
April 4, 2007 Are We Done Yet? [30] co-production with RKO Pictures and Cube Vision $28 million$58,388,068
April 13, 2007 Perfect Stranger [30] $60 million$73,090,611
April 27, 2007 Next [30] co-production with Saturn Films, Virtual Studios and Initial Entertainment Group, distributed by Paramount Pictures $70 million$76,066,841
August 8, 2007 Daddy Day Camp [30] co-production with TriStar Pictures, Davis Entertainment and Blue Star Entertainment$6 million$18,197,398
September 7, 2007 The Brothers Solomon [30] co-production with Carsey-Werner Productions, theatrically distributed by Screen Gems $10 million$1,035,056
October 12, 2007 Across the Universe [30] co-production with Team Todd$45 million$29,367,143
December 25, 2007 The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep [30] co-production with Walden Media, Beacon Pictures and Ecosse Pictures$40 million$103,071,443
January 20, 2017 XXX: Return of Xander Cage [31] co-production with Paramount Pictures, One Race Films and Roth/Kirschenbaum Films $85 million$338,678,346

Direct-to-video films

Release DateTitleNotes
October 28, 2006 Hellboy: Sword of Storms co-production with Film Roman
March 17, 2007 Hellboy: Blood and Iron co-production with Film Roman
January 29, 2019Benchwarmers 2: Breaking Ballsco-production with Universal 1440 Entertainment
February 5, 2019 Grand-Daddy Day Care co-production with Universal 1440 Entertainment

Television

Start DateEnd DateTitleNetworkNotesSeasonsEpisodes
January 10, 2003May 16, 2003 Queens Supreme [32] CBS as Revolution Television; co-production with Red Om Films, Shoelace Productions, Shadowland Productions, CBS Productions and Spelling Television 113
June 2, 2010March 1, 2013 Are We There Yet? [33] TBS co-production with 5914 Productions, Ltd., Cube Vision and Debmar-Mercury 3100
April 11, 2011June 3, 2011 Drew Carey's Improv-A-Ganza [34] GSN as Revolution Television; co-production with Three Foot Giant Productions and International Mammoth Television140
November 29, 2011July 23, 2012 Una Maid en Manhattan [35] Telemundo co-production with Sony Pictures Television 1163 [36]
June 28, 2012December 22, 2014 Anger Management [37] FX co-production with Mohawk Productions, Estevez/Sheen Productions, Twisted Television, Debmar-Mercury and Lionsgate Television 2100

Television movies/specials

Release DateTitleNetworkNotes
November 23, 2004 Samantha: An American Girl Holiday [38] The WB as Revolution Television; co-production with Red Om Films, American Girl and Warner Bros. Television
November 29, 2005 Felicity: An American Girl Adventure [39]
November 26, 2006 Molly: An American Girl on the Home Front [40] Disney Channel
January 27, 2019 Rent: Live [41] Fox co-production with Marc Platt Productions, Sony Pictures Television and 20th Century Fox Television

See also

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