Carolco Pictures, Inc. was an American independent film studio that existed from 1976 to 1995, founded by Mario Kassar and Andrew G. Vajna.[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, the company was losing money overall, and it required a corporate restructuring in 1992. The 1995 film Cutthroat Island was produced as a comeback for the studio, but it instead lost them $147 million, and the company was quickly brought to an end.[2]
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| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Entertainment |
| Founded | March 30, 1976[1] |
| Founders | Mario Kassar[1] Andrew G. Vajna[1] |
| Defunct | December 22, 1995 |
| Fate | Bankruptcy, assets and name now owned by StudioCanal |
| Successors |
|
| Headquarters | Los Angeles, California[1], |
Key people | Mario Kassar (Chairman & CEO) |
| Products | Motion pictures |
| Divisions | Carolco Television Productions |
| Subsidiaries | Orbis Communications The IndieProd Company |
| Website | www.carolcofilms.com |
History
Early years
The company 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]
Rise
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 entered into a long-term 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 TV rights, and Thorn EMI Video (later, HBO/Cannon Video) handled North American home video distribution rights. The first film under the agreement was Rambo: First Blood Part II.[9] TriStar released the majority of Carolco's films from that point on in the U.S. and some other countries until 1994.
The sequel Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985), 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 would eventually renew their partnership in 1986, which called for Tri-Star to distribute upcoming Carolco product, including Rambo III, in a new multi-feature agreement.[10]
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.[11]
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.[12] 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.[13] IVE merged with another distributor, Lieberman, and became LIVE Entertainment in 1988.[14]
Fueled by the success of Rambo and their other offerings, Carolco expanded into various other business sectors over the next few years. This included video retail holdings,[15] licensing of their IP,[16] an international division (which included deals with John Carpenter and Alive Films, as well as Canada's Alliance Entertainment Corporation),[17][18][19] and television production and distribution via the buyout of independent syndicator Orbis Communications.[20] 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.[21]
Carolco also attempted to buy troubled film distributor Orion Pictures and home video distributor Media Home Entertainment, but these deals failed.[22][23] They also purchased the former De Laurentiis Entertainment Group production facility in Wilmington, North Carolina.[24]
Vajna sold his share of Carolco in December 1989 for $106 million to Kassar[25] due to increasing disagreement with Kassar over the direction of the company.[4] That November, Vajna formed Cinergi Pictures, with The Walt Disney Company as a distribution partner. Kassar's ownership of the company increased to 62%.[25]
1990–1994
In 1990, Pioneer Electric Corporation of Japan acquired a share in Carolco.[26]
Also in 1990, Carolco acquired the rights to make 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.[27] Halfway through the year, Carolco formed a joint venture with New Line Cinema to found Seven Arts, a distribution company which primarily released much of Carolco's low-budget output.[28] In 1991, syndicator Orbis Communications was renamed to Carolco Television, to better emphasize the Carolco connection.[29] 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.[30] Golan had previously tried and failed to produce a Spider-Man film for his former studio, the Cannon Group, and selling the film 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.[30][31] Carolco subsequently began pre-production on the Spider-Man film, and James Cameron was quickly hired as the writer and director.[32][33] In 1993, towards the end of filming True Lies, Variety carried the announcement that Carolco received a completed screenplay from Cameron.[34] 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.[35] 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.[36][37][38]
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.[39]
Decline and collapse
Though Carolco made several successful films in the early 1990s, including Total Recall, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, and Basic Instinct, Carolco was gradually losing money as the years went on. Carolco mixed blockbusters with small-budget arthouse films which were not profitable. In addition, Carolco was criticized for overspending on 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 also had similar treatment). Losses of partnerships also threatened Carolco's stability and drove it towards bankruptcy.[40]
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 the studio's stock and another $50 million for co-financing deals.[4] MGM also agreed to distribute Carolco products domestically after a previous deal with TriStar expired.[41] In 1993, Carolco was forced to sell its shares in LIVE Entertainment to a group of investors led by Pioneer;[42] it was later renamed Artisan Entertainment, which was bought by Lions Gate Entertainment in 2003. Cutbacks at Carolco also forced Carolco 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.[43] Although a major box-office success, Carolco saw little revenue from Cliffhanger since it ended up becoming a minority owner in the film.[44]
Carolco’s plans for a Spider-Man film with James Cameron, which had an estimated budget of $50 million,[45] were forced to be shelved, following a period of litigation; in April 1993, Menahem Golan filed a lawsuit against the studio to revoke his contract with them, since Cameron had Golan’s executive producer name omitted from the film credits.[46] 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.[46] In 1995, Carolco, Golan, Columbia, Viacom, and Marvel were all subsequently sued by MGM, who believed they should have inherited the film rights, upon acquiring the Cannon Group and 21st Century Films.[46][47] Since the court did not rule in Carolco’s favor, these lawsuits led to the studio losing an additional amount of money, while the Spider-Man film rights were reverted to Marvel and eventually sold to Columbia.[46][47]
Carolco's attempt to make more of its specialties proved to be more strenuous: Carolco had to shelve Crusade, an upcoming Schwarzenegger film based on a script by Walon Green and with Paul Verhoeven attached as director, in 1994 when the budget exceeded $100 million.[43] However, Carolco was able to complete a merger with The Vista Organization in late October 1993.[48]
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 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 Last of the Dogmen, Stargate and Showgirls.[49][50][51][52][53] In October 1994, Carolco ran out of funds and Pioneer invested another $8 million.[26] In April 1995, Carolco announced that it was unable to make interest payments on $55 million of debt.[54] In November 1995, Carolco filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Cutthroat Island was released that Christmas and became a box-office disaster.[55] Carolco agreed to sell its assets to 20th Century Fox for $50 million.[56] But when Canal+ made a $58 million bid for the library in January 1996, 20th Century Fox, which by then lowered their purchase price to $47.5 million, dropped their deal.[57]
A new partnership was formed 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.
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.[58][59] 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.[60] 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.[61][62] 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.[63] 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.
On September 17, 1991, Multimedia Entertainment acquired selected assets of Carolco's television distribution unit Orbis Communications, which included the telefilm subsidiary Carolco Television Productions.[64]
In 1992, Carolco Pictures licensed television distribution rights to its library to Spelling Entertainment's Worldvision Enterprises in order to pay off debt.[65] 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). The video rights to most titles previously released by Lionsgate in North America are now held outright by StudioCanal, and sublicensed to Kino Lorber.
Showgirls was sold in pre-production to United Artists and Chargeurs (now known as Pathé); both studios retained the film.
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.[66]
Filmography
1970s
| Release Date | Title | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| March 30, 1976 | The Sicilian Cross | 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 AVCO 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 AVCO Embassy Pictures |
| May 30, 1979 | The Fantastic Seven | financing; produced by Martin Poll |
| September 1979 | The Sensuous Nurse | financing |
1980s
| Release Date | Title | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 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 | The 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 1985 | Superstition | with 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[67] | 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 Date | Title | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| February 23, 1990 | Mountains of the Moon | distributed by TriStar Pictures |
| June 1, 1990 | Total Recall | |
| 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[68] 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 |
| March 20, 1992 | Basic Instinct | with Le Studio Canal+; distributed by TriStar Pictures |
| June 26, 1992 | Incident at Oglala | distributed by Miramax Films |
| July 10, 1992 | Universal Soldier[69] | with Centropolis Entertainment; distributed by TriStar Pictures |
| 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[70] |
| December 22, 1995 | Cutthroat Island | distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, last film to be released by Carolco |
Seven Arts Pictures
| Release Date | Title | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 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 |
References
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