Trimark Pictures

Trimark Pictures

Formerly	Vidmark Entertainment (1984–1989)
Company type	Subsidiary
Industry	Film
Founded	August 1984;40 years ago (1984-08)(as Vidmark Entertainment) June 23, 1989;35 years ago (1989-06-23)(as Trimark Pictures)
Founder	Mark Amin
Defunct	March 12, 2001;23 years ago (2001-03-12)
Fate	Merged with Lionsgate
Headquarters	Santa Monica, California, United States
Key people	Mark Amin (Chairman & CEO)
Products	Motion Pictures
Parent	Vidmark, Inc. (1985–1995) Trimark Holdings (1995–2000) Lions Gate Entertainment (2000–2001)
Divisions	Trimark Interactive [1] Trimark Television Kidmark Entertainment Trimark Home Video
Subsidiaries	CinemaNow (formerly) Trimark Ultra Sports

Trimark Pictures was an American ^[1] production company that specialized in the production and distribution of television and home video motion pictures. ^[2] The company was formed in 1984 by Mark Amin as Vidmark Entertainment with Vidmark Inc. (later Trimark Holdings Inc.) established as the holding company. ^[3] As a small studio, Trimark produced and released theatrical, independent, television and home video motion pictures. The logo features a triangle with a profile of a tiger's head.

Among the company's many releases are Peter Jackson's 1992 film Dead Alive , which they chose to release theatrically due to Jackson's possessing a following. ^[4] They are well known for releasing films considered to be controversial for the time period, as in the case with the 1999 film Better Than Chocolate , as some newspapers refused to carry advertisements for the film that featured the word "lesbian" as part of a critic blurb. ^[5]

Background

Vidmark Entertainment was formed in August 1984 and began operating as a domestic home video distributor in early 1985. In April 1986, Vidmark Entertainment signed a deal with ABC Video Enterprises, to distribute six titles on videocassette. ^[6] In 1987, Vidmark began distributing and sub-licensing motion pictures for international distribution. That year, the company entered theatrical distribution and production with the acquisition of four films and completion of its first in-house productions, namely American Gothic , That's Adequate , Silent Memory and Born of Fire. ^[7]

Vidmark Entertainment entered motion picture production in 1988 with the feature Demonwarp.

Trimark picked up its first film, Warlock , a 1989 film starring Julian Sands which was a major theatrical hit with fans of such films. Trimark eventually made the sequel Warlock: The Armageddon in 1993. Trimark also saw success in other familiar film series the studio produced and distributed. Leprechaun , released in 1993 starring a young Jennifer Aniston and Warwick Davis as the sinister leprechaun grossed over $10 million during its theatrical run. One theatrical sequel and four direct to video sequels eventually followed. Other Trimark productions included The Dentist , a major hit on HBO, Return of the Living Dead III and Pinocchio's Revenge . Trimark also made the dramatic Eve's Bayou , starring Samuel L. Jackson, which received critical acclaim. Trimark also released the miniseries Storm of the Century on home video. On June 29, 1990, Vidmark Entertainment began trading on NASDAQ with the ticker symbol VDMK. ^[8]

On December 31, 1991, Vidmark acquired International Broadcast Systems, Ltd. for $1.6 million and renamed the company as Trimark Television. In June 1992, Vidmark, Inc. changed its name to Trimark Holdings, Inc. to reflect Trimark's diversification of its distribution streams. In March 1993, the company formed Trimark Interactive to expand into the emerging market for interactive software and multimedia. Trimark Interactive's assets were sold to Graphix Zone in March 1997.

In June 2000, Trimark was acquired by Lions Gate Entertainment for approximately $50 million in stock and cash including taking on $36 million in debt., ^[9] with Amin becoming the single largest shareholder of Lions Gate. Trimark was folded into Lions Gate on March 12, 2001.

In 2001, Mark Amin founded Sobini Films, and is its CEO.

In late 2017, Lionsgate launched a channel for Roku streaming players using the Vidmark name and a modified variant of their late 1980s logo, with Lionsgate-owned movies, including some from the original Vidmark and Trimark, amongst the selection. ^[10]

Filmography

Year	Title	Release Date	Distribution		Notes
			Theatrical	Direct to video
1988	Demonwarp	March 18	No	Yes
	Body Beat	November 30	No	Yes
1989	Going Overboard	May 12	Yes	No
	A Fool and His Money	September 24	Yes	No
	High Stakes	November 17	Yes	No
1990	The Sleeping Car	February 9	No	Yes
	The Amityville Curse	June 6	No	Yes
	Solar Crisis	July 14	Yes	No
	Spirits	September 15	No	Yes	distribution only; produced by Cinema Group
	Mob Boss	September 16	No	Yes	distribution only; produced by American Independent
	Backstreet Dreams	September 29	Yes	No
	Frankenstein Unbound	November 2	Yes	No	co-production with 20th Century Fox
1991	Warlock	January 11	Yes	No
	Black Magic Woman	April 17	No	Yes
	Servants of Twilight	May 31	Yes	No
	Kickboxer 2	June 14	Yes	No
	Whore	October 4	Yes	No
	Dolly Dearest	October 18	Yes	No
	And You Thought Your Parents Were Weird	November 15	Yes	No
	All-American Murder	December 1	No	Yes
1992	Into the Sun	January 31	Yes	No
	The Psychic	May 20	Yes	No
	Interceptor	October 1	Yes	No
	Prototype	December 23	No	Yes
1993	Leprechaun	January 8	Yes	No
	Dead Alive	February 12	Yes	No
	American Kickboxer 2	August 4	No	Yes
	Blink of an Eye	August 26	No	Yes
	Warlock: The Armageddon	September 24	Yes	No
	Thunder in Paradise	September 27	No	Yes
	Deadfall	October 8	Yes	No
	Return of the Living Dead III	October 29	Yes	No
	Philadelphia Experiment II	November 12	Yes	No
	Cyborg 2: Glass Shadow	November 24	No	Yes
1994	Death Wish V: The Face of Death	January 14	Yes	No	distribution only; produced by 21st Century Film Corporation
	Silent Tongue	February 25	Yes	No
	Leprechaun 2	April 8	Yes	No
	Return to Two Moon Junction	May 11	Yes	No
	Trading Mom	May 13	Yes	No
	Freefall	May 25	No	Yes	distribution only; produced by Nu Image
	Love Is a Gun	June 1	No	Yes
	Curse of the Starving Class	September 13	No	Yes
	Criminal Passion	September 21	Yes	No
	Running Free	October 5	No	Yes
	Frank and Jesse	October 28	Yes	No
	Dangerous Touch	November 2	No	Yes
	Hong Kong '97	November 9	No	Yes
	Love and a .45	November 23	Yes	No
	The Stoned Age	December 5	Yes	No
	Federal Hill	December 9	Yes	No
1995	Payback	January 10	Yes	No
	Night of the Running Man	January 19	Yes	No
	Swimming with Sharks	April 21	Yes	No
	Heatseeker	June 27	Yes	No
	Leprechaun 3	June 27	No	Yes
	A Kid in King Arthur's Court	August 11	Yes	No	co-produced by Walt Disney Pictures
	Separate Lives	September 8	Yes	No
	Kicking and Screaming	October 6	Yes	No
	The Doom Generation	October 25	Yes	No
1996	Evolver	February 10	Yes	No	co-production with A Band Apart
	True Crime	March 12	No	Yes
	Two Guys Talkin' About Girls	June 18	No	Yes	aka At First Sight
	Crimetime	August 4	Yes	No
	Sometimes They Come Back... Again	September 3	No	Yes
	Pinocchio's Revenge	October 7	No	Yes
	The Dentist	October 18	No	Yes
1997	Meet Wally Sparks	January 31	Yes	No
	Leprechaun 4: In Space	February 25	No	Yes
	Kama Sutra: A Tale of Love	February 28	Yes	No
	Frankenstein and Me	March 18	No	Yes
	Nothing Personal	April 25	Yes	No
	Ripe	May 2	Yes	No
	Sprung	May 16	Yes	No
	Box of Moonlight	July 25	Yes	No
	First Love, Last Rites	September 10	Yes	No
	Trucks	October 29	No	Yes
	Eve's Bayou	November 7	Yes	No	Inducted into the National Film Registry in 2018
1998	Star Kid	January 16	Yes	No
	The Curve	January 24	Yes	No
	Chairman of the Board	March 13	Yes	No
	Chinese Box	April 17	Yes	No
	Billy's Hollywood Screen Kiss	July 24	Yes	No
	A Kid in Aladdin's Palace	July 28	No	Yes
	Carnival of Souls	August 21	Yes	No	limited release
	Phoenix	September 4	Yes	No	distribution only; produced by Lakeshore Entertainment
	Cube	September 11	Yes	No
	Trance	September 18	Yes	No
	Slam	October 7	Yes	No
	The Landlady	November 10	No	Yes
	The Dentist 2	December 11	No	Yes
	Hitman Hart: Wrestling with Shadows	December 20	No	Yes
	Another Day in Paradise	December 30	Yes	No
1999	King Cobra	April 27	No	Yes
	The Sex Monster	May 5	Yes	No
	The Simple Life of Noah Dearborn	May 9	No	Yes
	Twice Upon a Yesterday	May 28	Yes	No
	Diplomatic Siege	June 10	No	Yes
	Better Than Chocolate	August 13	Yes	No
	Sometimes They Come Back... for More	September 7	No	Yes
	The Delivery	September 16	No	Yes	Dutch film; international distribution only; produced by Two Independent Film and Veronica
	Romance	September 17	Yes	No
	Atomic Train	September 21	No	Yes
	Warlock III: The End of Innocence	October 12	No	Yes
	Joe the King	October 15	Yes	No
	Tail Lights Fade	December 3	Yes	No
	Turbulence 2: Fear of Flying	December 27	No	Yes
2000	Beautiful People	February 18	Yes	No
	Cut	March 2	No	Yes
	Leprechaun in the Hood	March 28	No	Yes
	The Last September	April 21	Yes	No
	Held Up	May 12	Yes	No
	Cord	May 23	No	Yes
	Flypaper	June 27	No	Yes
	History Is Made at Night	July 11	Yes	No
	The Perfect Tenant	July 25	No	Yes
	Attraction	September 20	No	Yes
	Uninvited Guest	September 22	No	Yes
	The Bogus Witch Project	October 10	No	Yes
	Faust: Love of the Damned	October 12	Yes	No
	Shriek If You Know What I Did Last Friday the 13th	October 17	No	Yes
	After Alice	October 24	No	Yes
	The Stepdaughter	October 31	No	Yes
	What's Cooking?	November 17	Yes	No
	The Sr. Francisville Experiment	December 5	No	Yes
	South of Heaven, West of Hell	December 15	Yes	No
	XChange	December 20	No	Yes
2001	Skipped Parts	January 4	Yes	No
	Killer Bud	March 13	No	Yes
	After the Storm	March 20	No	Yes
	Turbulence 3: Heavy Metal	May 13	No	Yes
	Blood Surf	June 26	No	Yes

List of distributed video games

Release Date	Title	Platform	Notes
1994	National Lampoon's Blind Date	Windows, Mac OS
November 23, 1994	Air Havoc Controller	Windows
1995	The Hive	Windows, PlayStation
1995	White Men Can't Jump	Jaguar
Cancelled	Warlock	Jaguar

References

1. "MobyGames Profile-Trimark Interactive".
2. Jeffrey, Don (May 30, 1992). "Vidmark reports strong sales in 3rd qtr, but profits down, a third, are weak". Billboard (p 51). Retrieved 21 April 2014.
3. Levison, Louise (2013). Filmmakers and Financing: Business Plans for Independents. Focal Press. p. 120. ISBN   9780240820996.
4. Konow, Peter (2012). Reel Terror: The Scary, Bloody, Gory, Hundred-Year History of Classic Horror Films. St. Martin's Griffin. p. 479. ISBN   9780312668839.
5. Jenni Olson, Bruce Vilanch (2004). The Queer Movie Poster Book. Chronicle Books. p. 122. ISBN   9780811842617.
6. "Vidmark Acquires Six ABC Telefilms; Eyes 'Moonlighting'". Variety . 1986-04-02. p. 39.
7. Bierbaum, Tom (1987-08-12). "HV Outfit Vidmark On Theatrical Scene With Pickups, In-Houser". Variety . pp. 20, 22.
8. "Vidmark stock trading". Variety . 1990-07-04. p. 6.
9. "Lions Gate, Trimark set to merge". 5 June 2000.
10. "Vidmark | Movies & TV | Roku Channel Store". Roku. Retrieved February 22, 2018.