Twenty-First Century Film Corporation Inc.

Industry	Film
Founded	July 25, 1976; 49 years ago (1976-07-25) (as 21st Century Distribution Corporation) April 19, 1989; 36 years ago (1989) (as 21st Century Film Corporation)
Defunct	March 24, 1996; 29 years ago (1996-03-24)
Fate	Bankruptcy andliquidation; assets acquired byEpic Productions via Consortium de Realisation.
Successor	Library: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (throughOrion Pictures) Sony Pictures (throughColumbia Pictures) (Night of the Living Dead only)
Headquarters	Los Angeles, United States
Key people	Tom Ward Art Schweitzer Menahem Golan (CEO) Ami Artzi Giancarlo Parretti
Products	Motion pictures
Parent	Independent Pathé Communications Public (pink sheets)[1]

21st Century Film Corporation Inc. was a theatrical distribution company formed sometime in the 1970s as a production company and distributor.Menahem Golan was CEO of the company from 1989 to the company's bankruptcy.

The company was formed by Tom Ward and Art Schweitzer around 1976 (though some sources claim it to be 1971) as a film production company and distributor.^[2] The company acquired most of the catalog ofDimension Pictures, after that company's bankruptcy in 1981.^[3] Along with theatrical distribution, 21st Century also released many films on home video, first via their short-lived label, Planet Video, from 1982 to 1983, and then through a more lucrative deal with Continental Video beginning in 1985.^[4]

In the late 1980s, while filing for bankruptcy, it was purchased byGiancarlo Parretti. Parretti had also recently purchasedThe Cannon Group, which was renamed Pathé Communications, and he eventually handed the newly rebranded21st Century Film Corporation, along with theSpider-Man andCaptain America film rights (held by Cannon), over to Israeli filmmaker Menahem Golan as part of Golan's severance package from Cannon.^[5][6] Golan's goal was to release high-quality motion pictures to the American and worldwide film audiences, but 21st Century only enjoyed small-scale success releasing low-budget films likeBullseye!, as well as remakes ofThe Phantom of the Opera andNight of the Living Dead.

In April 1989, Twenty-first Century Film and Pathé Communications ended their film production contract. As part of the termination, 21st Century Film received rights to two feature-length movies: the completedMack the Knife, in productionPhantom of the Opera plus other projects and scripts rights. With this Pathé would no longer have any financial obligations to 21st Century.^[7]Captain America was filmed and was given only a limited theatrical release worldwide. On May 17, 1989, 21st Century Film Corporation signed an agreement withHoyts Corporation to serve a 20-film production and distribution agreement.^[8]

Looking for funding for the Spider-Man film was difficult; 21st Century sold the film's TV rights toViacom, the home-video rights to Columbia and theatrical rights toCarolco. In 1993, Golan triggered a series of lawsuits for 21st Century over Spider-Man as he feared being pushed out. Bankruptcy followed within the year for the company. In 1995, the judge ruled that the Spider-Man film rights expired and reverted to Marvel, and Carolco had aquitclaim deed after being closed a year after.^[5][9] Meanwhile, all of 21st Century's film library and assets were acquired byCrédit Lyonnais, incorporating it into the bank'sEpic film library. A year later,PolyGram Filmed Entertainment acquired the Epic library,^[10] then in 1998,Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer acquired the pre-1996 PolyGram library, and was incorporated intoOrion Pictures.^[11] (Ironically, MGM had merged with Pathé/Cannon earlier and was a theatrical distributor of Carolco's films at the time).

In 1993, it released a few more movies includingDeadly Heroes and most notablyDeath Wish V: The Face of Death, the last in the series andCharles Bronson's final theatrical film. Currently, the majority of 21st Century Film Corporation's film catalog is owned by MGM (with Orion holding the copyright), with the exception ofNight of the Living Dead, which was distributed byColumbia Pictures.Paramount Pictures (inherited from Viacom), currently holds television and streaming rights to 21st Century library withTrifecta Entertainment & Media handling U.S. distribution.

• Film production companies of the United States
• Entertainment companies based in California
• Golan-Globus films
• Companies based in Los Angeles
• American companies established in 1971
• Entertainment companies established in 1971
• American companies disestablished in 1996
• 1971 establishments in California
• 1996 disestablishments in California
• Companies that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 1996
• Defunct companies based in Greater Los Angeles
• 1996 mergers and acquisitions

• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata