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| Company type | Public |
|---|---|
| Nasdaq: CRLC | |
| Industry | Entertainment |
| Founded | March 30, 1976; 49 years ago (1976-03-30) (as Anabasis Investments) inBoca Raton, Florida, United States[1] |
| Founders | Mario Kassar[1] Andrew G. Vajna[1] |
| Defunct | December 22, 1995; 29 years ago (1995-12-22) |
| Fate | Bankruptcy, assets and name now owned byStudioCanal |
| Successors |
|
| Headquarters | Beverly Hills, California[1], United States |
Key people | Mario Kassar (chairman &CEO) |
| Products | Motion pictures |
| Divisions | Carolco Television Productions Carolco Home Video |
| Subsidiaries | Orbis Communications The IndieProd Company |
| Website | www.carolcofilms.com |
Carolco Pictures, Inc. was an Americanindependent film studio that was founded byMario Kassar andAndrew G. Vajna in 1976.[1] Kassar and Vajna ran Carolco together until 1989, when Vajna left to formCinergi Pictures. Carolco hit its peak in the 1980s and early 1990s, with blockbuster successes including the first three films of theRambo franchise,Field of Dreams,Total Recall,Terminator 2: Judgment Day,Basic Instinct,Universal Soldier,Cliffhanger andStargate. Nevertheless, Carolco was losing money overall, requiring acorporate restructuring in 1992. The filmCutthroat Island was produced as a resurgence for Carolco, but it instead lost them $147 million, and Carolco eventually went bankrupt in 1995.[2]
Carolco Pictures was founded through the partnership of two film investors,Mario Kassar andAndrew Vajna.[1] The two were hailed byNewsweek as some of the most successful independent producers.[3] By the age of 25, Vajna went from wig-maker to the owner of twoHong 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 entitledThe 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 beingThe Sicilian Cross;[5] eventually it went into financing low-budget films. Their earliest films were produced byAmerican International Pictures andITC Entertainment with Carolco's financial support,[6] and co-produced with Canadian theater magnateGarth Drabinsky. The name "Carolco" was purchased from a defunct company based in Panama, and according to Kassar, "it has no meaning."[7]
Carolco's first major success wasFirst Blood (1982), an adaptation ofDavid Morrell'snovel of the same name. Kassar and Vajna took a great risk buying thefilm rights to the novel (for $385,000) and used the help of European bank loans to castSylvester Stallone as the lead character,Vietnam War veteran John Rambo, after having worked with him on theJohn Huston filmEscape to Victory (1981). The risk paid off afterFirst 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 studioTri-Star Pictures, with Tri-Star distributing Carolco's films in North America;HBO (a partner in the Tri-Star venture) handled pay cable television rights, andThorn EMI Video (later,HBO/Cannon Video) handled North American home video distribution rights. The first film under the agreement wasRambo: First Blood Part II.[9] TriStar released the majority of Carolco's films from that point on in the United States and some other countries until 1994.
The sequelRambo: 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, includingRambo III, in a new multi-feature agreement.[10]
The release of the twoRambo 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) andArnold 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 distributorInternational 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 toHBO/Cannon Video (successor to Thorn-EMI Video) in exchange for the video rights to two of Carolco's upcoming releases,Angel Heart andExtreme 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 ofRambo 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 withJohn Carpenter andAlive Films, as well as Canada'sAlliance 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 ofHemdale Film Corporation (includingThe Terminator andThe Return of the Living Dead), Alive Films (includingKiss of the Spider Woman),HBO Premiere Films (includingThe Glitter Dome), and future subsidiary The Vista Organization.[21]
Carolco also attempted to buy troubled film distributorOrion Pictures and home video distributorMedia Home Entertainment, but these deals failed.[22][23] However, they succeeded in purchasing the formerDe Laurentiis Entertainment Group production facility inWilmington, North Carolina in 1989.[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 formedCinergi Pictures, withThe Walt Disney Company as a distribution partner. Kassar's ownership of the company increased to 62%.[25]
In 1990,Pioneer Electric Corporation of Japan acquired a share in Carolco.[26]
Also in 1990, Carolco acquired the rights to make a sequel toThe 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-hiredTerminator directorJames Cameron (who had worked as a screenwriter onRambo II) andArnold 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 withNew 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 toSpider-Man from producerMenahem Golan via his studio,21st Century Film Corporation.[30] Golan had previously tried and failed to produce aSpider-Man film for his former studio,the Cannon Group, and selling the film rights to Carolco—along with the home video rights toColumbia Pictures, and the television rights toViacom—was his way of raising funds to revive production.[30][31] Carolco subsequently began pre-production on theSpider-Man film, and James Cameron was quickly hired as the writer and director.[32][33] In 1993, towards the end of filmingTrue 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 forDoctor Octopus, and futureTitanic starLeonardo DiCaprio was considered for the titular role, Peter Parker.[36][37][38]
Carolco also attempted to makeBartholomew vs. Neff, a comedy film that was to have been written and directed byJohn Hughes and would have starredSylvester Stallone andJohn Candy.[39]
Though Carolco made several successful films in the early 1990s, includingTotal Recall,Terminator 2: Judgment Day, andBasic 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 onTotal Recall andTerminator 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 ofRizzoli-Corriere della Sera of Italy,Le Studio Canal+ of France,Pioneer, andMetro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM). Each partner helped infuse up to $60 million into Carolco's stock and another $50 million for co-financing deals.[4] MGM also agreed to distribute Carolco products domestically after a previous deal withTriStar expired.[41] In October 1993, Carolco was able to complete a merger with The Vista Organization.[42] That same year, Carolco was forced to sell its shares in LIVE Entertainment to a group of investors led by Pioneer;[43] it was later renamedArtisan Entertainment, which was bought byLions Gate Entertainment in 2003. Cutbacks at Carolco also forced Carolco to make a deal with TriStar over the funding of the Stallone action filmCliffhanger: 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.[44] Although a major box-office success, Carolco saw little revenue fromCliffhanger since it ended up becoming a minority owner in the film.[45]
Carolco's attempt to make more of its specialties proved to be more strenuous: their plans for aSpider-Man film with James Cameron, which had an estimated budget of $50 million,[46] were forced to be shelved, following a period of litigation;[47] in April 1993, Menahem Golan filed a lawsuit against Carolco to revoke his contract with them, since Cameron had Golan’s executive producer name omitted from the film credits.[47] In February 1994, Carolco filed a separate lawsuit against Columbia Pictures and Viacom, in an effort to gain their home video and television rights toSpider-Man, but the suit backfired, when Columbia and Viacom counter-sued Carolco.[47] In 1995, Carolco, Golan, Columbia, Viacom, andMarvel were all sued by MGM, who believed they should have inherited the film rights, upon acquiring the Cannon Group and 21st Century Films.[47][48] Since the court did not rule in Carolco’s favor, theSpider-Man film rights were reverted to Marvel and eventually sold to Columbia.[47][48]
By May 1994, Carolco had two big-budget films scheduled for production:Crusade, a Schwarzenegger-led film based on a script byWalon Green and withPaul Verhoeven attached as director, andCutthroat Island, aMichael Douglas-led swashbuckler film withRenny Harlin attached as director.[44][49] At that point, the studio's financial losses and debts had worsened to the point they could only barely afford to finance one major project. Carolco decided to push forward withCutthroat Island as their comeback film while cancellingCrusade, since the latter's projected budget reached $100 million, and during a meeting with Carolco executives, Verhoeven refused to guarantee that it would not further increase.[44][49][50]
Early inCutthroat Island's production, Michael Douglas dropped out and was replaced by the less-bankableMatthew Modine.Geena Davis, cast as the female lead through Renny Harlin—her husband at the time—was already an establishedA-lister but was coming off a string of flops. MGM hoped to advertiseCutthroat 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, includingLast of the Dogmen,Stargate andShowgirls.[51][52][53][54][55] 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.[56] In November 1995, Carolco filed forChapter 11 bankruptcy protection.Cutthroat Island was released that Christmas and became a box-office disaster.[57] Carolco agreed to sell its assets to20th Century Fox for $50 million.[58] But when Canal+ made a $58 million bid for the library in January 1996, Fox, which by then lowered their purchase price to $47.5 million, dropped their deal.[59]
A new partnership was formed between Carolco's owner (Mario Kassar) andCinergi's owner (Andrew G. Vajna) in 1998. The duo formedC2 Pictures and producedTerminator 3: Rise of the Machines andBasic Instinct 2, among other films.
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.[60][61] 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 filmAudition which he was producing. Investor Tarek Kirschen was then inducted as Carolco's CEO.[62] 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.[63][64] The arrangement took effect on November 29 of that year.
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.[65] The ancillary rights to Carolco's library (up to 1995 with certain exceptions) are held by French production companyStudioCanal, since its parent company,Canal+ Group, owned a stake in Carolco, eventually buying out its partners.[66][67]
On September 17, 1991,Multimedia Entertainment acquired Carolco's television business, which included television distribution unit Orbis Communications and the telefilm subsidiary Carolco Television Productions,[68] but did not include the television distribution rights to Carolco's film library.
Those rights would instead be licensed toSpelling Entertainment'sWorldvision Enterprises in 1992 in order to pay off debt.[69] InNorth America, with certain exceptions, those rights are held byParamount Television Studios throughTrifecta 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 toLionsgate under an ongoing deal with StudioCanal. Lionsgate, in turn, licensed those rights in Canada toEntertainment One (which in turn was acquired by Lionsgate in 2023), although theatrical rights to most of the library were split betweenSony Pictures (forCliffhanger), andRialto Pictures (for the rest of the library not already retained by its original distributors or passed on to other companies).[citation needed] The video rights to most titles previously released by Lionsgate in North America are now held outright by StudioCanal, and sublicensed toKino Lorber.[citation needed]
Showgirls was sold in pre-production toUnited Artists andChargeurs (now known asPathé); both studios retained the film.[citation needed]
StudioCanal itself held full distribution rights in France, Germany, Australia, Ireland, and the United Kingdom. In other territories, StudioCanal licensed home video rights toUniversal Pictures Home Entertainment until StudioCanal's global distribution deal with Universal expired in January 2022.[70]
| Release date | Title | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| March 30, 1976 | Street People | financing; produced by Aetos Produzioni; distributed by Agora Cinematografica in Italy andAmerican International Pictures in North America |
| July 9, 1976 | A Small Town in Texas | financing; produced and distributed byAmerican International Pictures |
| July 28, 1976 | Futureworld | financing; produced and distributed by American International Pictures |
| October 8, 1976 | The Cassandra Crossing | financing; produced byITC Entertainment; distributed byEmbassy Pictures |
| March 23, 1977 | The Domino Principle | |
| March 31, 1977 | The Eagle Has Landed | financing; produced by ITC Entertainment; distributed byColumbia Pictures |
| August 5, 1977 | March or Die | |
| March 30, 1979 | The Silent Partner | distributed by EMC |
| May 11, 1979 | Winter Kills | financing; distributed by Embassy Pictures |
| May 30, 1979 | The Fantastic Seven | financing; produced byMartin Poll |
| September 1979 | The Sensuous Nurse | financing |
| Release date | Title | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| March 28, 1980 | The Changeling | distributed byAssociated Film Distribution |
| August 15, 1980 | The Kidnapping of the President | financing; distributed byCrown International Pictures |
| September 5, 1980 | Agency | financing; distributed byJensen Farley Pictures |
| September 9, 1980 | Suzanne | financing; distributed by20th Century Fox |
| September 15, 1980 | Shōgun | financing; distributed byParamount 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 | withLorimar; distributed by Paramount Pictures |
| September 25, 1981 | Carbon Copy | financing; produced byHemdale Film Corporation andRKO 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 byOrion Pictures |
| January 1985 | Superstition | with Panaria, distributed by Almi Pictures |
| May 22, 1985 | Rambo: First Blood Part II | first film under distribution pact withTriStar 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 byUniversal 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[71] | 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 |
| Release date | Title | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| February 23, 1990 | Mountains of the Moon | distributed by TriStar Pictures |
| March 29, 1990 | Welcome to Spring Break | home media and television distribution in North America only, distributed byColumbia Pictures andOverseas Filmgroup internationally |
| June 1, 1990 | Total Recall | distributed by TriStar Pictures |
| August 10, 1990 | Air America | |
| September 21, 1990 | Narrow Margin | |
| November 2, 1990 | Jacob's Ladder | |
| December 19, 1990 | Hamlet | Foreign distribution withWarner Bros.,Icon Productions, andNelson Entertainment |
| February 8, 1991 | L.A. Story | distributed by TriStar Pictures |
| March 1, 1991 | The Doors | withBill Graham Films andImagine Entertainment; distributed by TriStar Pictures |
| April 25, 1991 | The Punisher | home media and television distribution[72] in North America only, distributed byNew World Pictures and20th Century Fox internationally |
| July 3, 1991 | Terminator 2: Judgment Day | withLightstorm Entertainment andLe 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 byMiramax Films |
| July 10, 1992 | Universal Soldier[73] | withCentropolis Entertainment; distributed by TriStar Pictures |
| October 9, 1992 | Reservoir Dogs | international distribution only; with Live Entertainment; distributed byMiramax in the U.S. |
| 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 byMetro-Goldwyn-Mayer |
| September 8, 1995 | Last of the Dogmen | withSavoy Pictures |
| September 22, 1995 | Showgirls | withUnited Artists andChargeurs[74] |
| December 22, 1995 | Cutthroat Island | distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, last film to be released by Carolco |
| Release date | Title | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| September 14, 1990 | Repossessed | distributed byNew 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; withNew 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 andAllied 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 divisionFine Line Features; last picture to be made under the Seven Arts banner |
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Other | |
