National General Corporation

Industry	Motion pictures
Predecessor	Fox Theatres
Founded	1951; 74 years ago (1951)
Defunct	February 1974; 51 years ago (1974-02)
Fate	Liquidation
Successor	Mann Theatres Library:Warner Bros. (main owner) Paramount Pictures (viaCBS) (films produced byCinema Center Films only)
Number of locations	240 (1973; theaters) 6 (1969; distribution offices)
Products	Film distribution, film exhibition, television production and distribution
Production output	Theatrical films
Services	Film distribution Film exhibition
Divisions	National General Pictures National General Records

National General Corporation (NGC) was a theater chain holding company,film distribution andproduction company and was considered one of the "instant majors". It was in operation from 1951 to 1974.

Its divisionNational General Pictures (NGP) was aproduction company which was active between1967 and1973. NGP produced nine motion pictures in-house. The company was a division of the National General Corporation (NGC) which started as the spun outFox Theatre chain of movie houses, which were later sold to theMann Theatres Corporation.

National General had its own record label,National General Records, that operated for at least three years and was distributed byBuddah Records.^[1]

National General Corporation was a film distribution network and the successor of20th Century Fox's theater division with 550 theaters when spun off in 1951 and reduced in half by court order six years later.^{[li 1]}

National General entered distribution in 1966 under a three-year waiver from the consent decrees^{[li 2]} with six distribution offices.^{[li 3]} In 1967, theCBS television network decided to produce their own films for theatrical release through their production unitCinema Center Films (CCF), which were released through National General.

National General also acquiredSy Weintraub's Banner Productions in 1967 which was producingTarzan films and theTV series.^[2] NGC had also entered theatrical film production under Charles Boasberg in 1967 as National General Pictures (NGP). TheABC television network had done the same thing withCinerama in the formation of another instant major partnership. In 1969, after a request for an indefinite waiver, the consent decree waiver was extended for another three years. NGC gained another production partner in 1969 with the formation ofFirst Artists Productions (FAP).

The company tried to acquireWarner Bros.-Seven Arts in 1969, but the deal was rejected on antitrust grounds by theJustice Department, Warner Bros. was subsequently sold toKinney National Service, Inc. in summer 1969, and NGP was closed in 1970.^{[li 2]} By 1970, all the instant majors had each captured 10% of the market.^{[li 3]}

By April 1969 National General had produced five films over two years. The month it received a three-year extension from a judge to pursue its role as a produced, distributor and exhibitor. NG's head, Irvin Levin, announced National General would make 13 films, costing $35 million in all. Six of them would be made in Hollywood. These were:^[3]

• The Cheyenne Social Club
• El Condor
• The Schmid Case - based on theCharles Schmid case directed by Barry Sjear
• The Sophomore - a college student gets his girlfriend pregnant, produced by Frank Coe
• Enemy Enemy - based on Bud Freeman play directed by Jerry Paris
• Another Kind of Love - comedy written and directed byArnold Schulman
• The French Connection - based on the novel by Robin Moore with directorWilliam Friedkin - this was made at Fox
• The Valdez Horses based on novel by Lee Hoffman
• I Want It Now based on novel byKingsley Amis
• Forty Lashes Less One based on novel byElmore Leonard
• Your Own Thing based on play by Hal Hester
• The Grasshoppper
• A Bird in the Hand directed in England byPeter Collinson about the wife of a young English teacher - this was never made.

Following Cinema Center's closure, NGC was taken over by American Financial Corporation in 1972, but continued distributing films until 1973. In November 1973, American Financial sold NGC/NGP's releasing contracts and film library toWarner Bros.^{[li 2]} National General, then just containing 240 theaters, were sold in 1973 toMann Theatres.^{[li 1]}

• Cook, David A. (2000).Lost Illusions: American Cinema in the Shadow of Watergate and Vietnam, 1970-1979. University of California Press.

• National General Pictures films
• 20th Century Studios
• Warner Bros.
• Film distributors of the United States
• Film production companies of the United States
• Entertainment companies based in California
• Companies based in Los Angeles
• Entertainment companies established in 1951
• Entertainment companies disestablished in 1974
• 1951 establishments in California
• 1974 disestablishments in California

• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata