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43-839: Artisan Entertainment (formerly known as U.S.A. Home Video , International Video Entertainment ( IVE ) and LIVE Entertainment ) was an American film studio and home video company . It was considered one of the largest mini-major film studios until it was purchased by later mini-major film studio Lions Gate Entertainment in 2003. At the time of its acquisition, Artisan had a library of thousands of films developed through acquisition, original production, and production and distribution agreements. Its headquarters and private screening room were located in Santa Monica, California . It also had an office in Tribeca in Manhattan , New York . The company owned

86-408: A boom barrier and explain the purpose of their visit to a security guard . The sound stage is the central component of a studio lot. Most studios have several; small studios may have as few as one, and large studios have as many as 20 to 30. Movie studios also provide office space for studio executives and production companies, and makeup rooms and rehearsal rooms for talent. If space allows,

129-661: A high definition DVD , Terminator 2: Judgment Day (Extreme Edition) . The release was a promotion for the Windows Media version 9 format ; it could only be played on a personal computer with Windows XP . Artisan had released the movie in 2002 on D-VHS . In the summer of 2003, Marvel Enterprises placed an offer for Artisan, with then-Disney-owned and Weinstein-operated Miramax Films to provide backing for Marvel's bid. On December 15, 2003, Lions Gate Entertainment Corporation acquired Artisan for $ 220 million and video releases through Artisan have now been re-released under

172-575: A company, StudioCanal got full rights to their film library; LIVE, under a new deal with the French-based production company, continued to distribute Carolco's films for video. Also that year, in July, WEA's role has been mostly decreased, with LIVE took control of its sales, while WEA continue to handle distribution of its products. In 1997, LIVE was acquired by Bain Capital and was taken private. Though Burlage

215-529: A deal with Warner-Elektra-Atlantic. In 1993, Carolco restructured itself and was forced to sell its shares in LIVE Entertainment to a group of investors led by Pioneer Electronic Corporation . In August 1994, Carolco and LIVE plotted another merger attempt, but the plans fell apart once again that October. Under new CEO Roger Burlage, the unprofitable retail assets were sold and more focus was placed upon film production. In 1996, when Carolco ceased to exist as

258-506: A distribution deal with MGM/UA Home Video to distribute the library. In 1983, it received a new agreement with Filmation in order to distribute the library on videocassette. In 1983, FHE began operating its new subsidiary U.S.A. Home Video , when tapes were usually packaged in large boxes and included non-family films such as Supergirl , Silent Night, Deadly Night , several Lorimar titles and many B-movies , including those that begin and end with B-actress Sybil Danning talking about

301-615: A five-ten year period. This was followed in October 1999 with a four-year home video deal with Discovery Communications to release programming from the Discovery Channel , Animal Planet and TLC networks through dedicated labels under Family Home Entertainment. On February 10, 2000, Artisan acquired a minority stake in The Baby Einstein Company in exchange for a three-year North American home video distribution agreement for

344-644: A growing proportion of Hollywood movie revenue, with approximately 70% of total movie revenue coming from international ticket sales; and the Chinese domestic box-office revenue is projected to outpace those of US in 2020. The growth of film studios and filmmaking outside of Hollywood and the US has produced popular international film studio locations such as Hollywood North ( Vancouver and Toronto in Canada ), Bollywood ( Mumbai , India ), and Nollywood ( Lagos , Nigeria ). As

387-701: A market in flux in the wake of several notable independent film companies, including Orion Pictures , Miramax Films and others being subsumed into larger corporate organizations. On December 18, 1997, LIVE entered into a domestic home video deal with Hallmark Entertainment to handle the distribution of products from its Hallmark Home Entertainment subsidiary, including Crayola -branded releases and Hallmark Hall of Fame movies. These releases would be distributed under Family Home Entertainment, while Hallmark Home Entertainment would retain marketing rights. By 1998, products from Cabin Fever Entertainment were added to

430-655: A million dollars to finance the 1992 film Reservoir Dogs , which marked the directorial debut of Quentin Tarantino . Other films included Paul Schrader 's Light Sleeper . On January 11, 1991, Live announced that it would acquire Vestron, Inc. for $ 24 million after its downfall; Vestron had been known best for Dirty Dancing , which had been the second highest-grossing independent film of all time. Vestron releases continued into 1992. For several years starting in 1993, LIVE Entertainment distributed anime released by Pioneer Entertainment , including Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-Ohki and

473-433: A movie studio has usually been housed on a "studio lot." Physically, a studio lot is a secure compound enclosed by a tall perimeter wall. This is necessary to protect filmmaking operations from unwanted interference from paparazzi and crazed fans of leading movie stars . Movement in and out of the studio lot is normally limited to specific gates (often capped with grand decorative arches), where visitors must stop at

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516-479: A music-oriented label, Radio Vision Video . In 1990, IVE became LIVE Home Video . Carolco formed its own home video division under a partnership with LIVE. The company also formed Avid Home Entertainment , which reissued older IVE products, as well as ITC Entertainment 's back catalogue, on videocassette at discount prices. Also in 1990, LIVE acquired German video distributor VCL. LIVE Entertainment also branched out into film production. The company spent more than

559-474: A new distribution deal with 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment . In addition to adding more theatrical releases, the company's home video subsidiary, Artisan Home Entertainment, continued to expand with more home video deals. The company began releasing products from TSG Pictures around this time, and by September 1998, Artisan signed a deal with Spelling Entertainment Group to distribute films from its Republic Pictures unit for home video release throughout

602-788: A studio may have an outside backlot . Finally, there is a studio "commissary", which is the traditional term in the movie industry for what other industries call a company cafeteria . In addition to these basic components, the largest film studios are full-service enterprises offering the entire range of production and post-production services necessary to create a motion picture, including costumes, props, cameras, sound recording, crafts, sets, lighting, special effects , cutting, editing, mixing, scoring, automated dialogue replacement (ADR), re-recording, and foley . Independent suppliers of all these services and more (e.g., photographic processing labs) are often found in clusters in close proximity to film studios. Nitrate film , manufactured until 1951,

645-527: A total of eight generally recognized major studios. United Artists, although its controlling partners owned not one but two production studios during the Golden Age, had an often-tenuous hold on the title of major and operated mainly as a backer and distributor of independently produced films. Smaller studios operated simultaneously with the majors. These included operations such as Republic Pictures , active from 1935, which produced films that occasionally matched

688-640: A tram tour of the backlot where films such as Psycho and Back to the Future were once shot. In fall 2019, movie mogul Tyler Perry opened Tyler Perry Studios in Atlanta . The studio lot is claimed to be larger than any movie-studio lot in Hollywood. In the 1980s and 1990s, as the cost of professional 16mm film equipment decreased, along with the emergence of non-film innovations such as S-VHS and Mini-DV cameras, many young filmmakers began to make films outside

731-503: The 1918 flu epidemic by Los Angeles compared to other American cities reduced the number of cases there and resulted in a faster recovery, contributing to the increasing dominance of Hollywood over New York City. The Big 5 By the mid-1920s, the evolution of a handful of American production companies into wealthy motion picture industry conglomerates that owned their own studios, distribution divisions , and theaters , and contracted with performers and other filmmaking personnel led to

774-983: The Baby Einstein catalog. The deal was eventually revoked early at the end of 2001 following The Walt Disney Company 's purchase of The Baby Einstein Company. In May 2000, Marvel Studios negotiated a deal with Artisan Entertainment for a co-production joint venture that included rights to 15 Marvel characters including Captain America , Thor , the Black Panther , Iron Fist , and Deadpool . Artisan would finance and distribute while Marvel would developing licensing and merchandising tie-ins. The resulting production library, which would also include TV series, direct-to-video films and internet projects, would be co-owned. On September 13, 2000, Artisan launched Artisan Digital Media and iArtisan . The last major deal Artisan undertook that year

817-566: The Hollywood area was Nestor Studios , opened in 1911 by Al Christie for David Horsley . In the same year, another 15 independents settled in Hollywood. Other production companies eventually settled in the Los Angeles area in places such as Culver City , Burbank , and what would soon become known as Studio City in the San Fernando Valley . The stronger early public health response to

860-494: The Lionsgate Home Entertainment banner. After the sale, Artisan Entertainment, Inc. was renamed to Lions Gate Entertainment, Inc. Film studio There are also independently owned studio facilities, who have never produced a motion picture of their own because they are not entertainment companies or motion picture companies; they are companies who sell only studio space. In 1893, Thomas Edison built

903-470: The home video industry. Artisan Entertainment was founded in 1980 by Noel C. Bloom as Family Home Entertainment, Inc. , and it was initially operated as a subsidiary of adult film distributor Caballero Control Corporation . It received a distribution pact with Wizard Video . In 1982, the latter had sold The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 10,000 copies a week. Also that year, the label started distributing titles by Monterey Home Video . Later on, it received

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946-630: The "King of Marbles", who founded the Pressman Toy Corporation . In 1987, his own production company Edward R. Pressman Film Corporation had received a three-feature pact with International Video Entertainment to handle theatrical and home video distribution rights with a dual option to extend into a fourth feature. The Academy Film Archive houses the Edward R. Pressman Collection. The film collection contains over 250 items, including theatrical prints, printing elements and videotapes related to

989-637: The Edison company in 1912. The pioneering Thanhouser movie studio was founded in New Rochelle, New York in 1909 by American theatrical impresario Edwin Thanhouser . The company produced and released 1,086 movies between 1910 and 1917, successfully distributing them around the world. In the early 1900s, companies started moving to Los Angeles, California . Although electric lights were by then widely available, none were yet powerful enough to adequately expose film;

1032-670: The best source of illumination for motion picture production was natural sunlight. Some movies were shot on the roofs of buildings in Downtown Los Angeles . Edison's Motion Picture Patents Company , based in New York City, controlled almost all the patents relevant to movie production at the time. Early movie producers relocated to Southern California to escape patent enforcement, thanks to more lenient local courts and physical distance from company detectives and mob allies. (Edison's patents expired in 1913.) The first movie studio in

1075-658: The company had acquired the assets of home video distributor Vista Home Video from The Vista Organization for $ 38 million. In 1988, IVE and FHE consolidated into LIVE Entertainment after a merger with wholesale media distributor Lieberman Enterprises. LIVE formed new ventures outside the home video business, including ownership of retail music and video chains across the East Coast, after the acquisitions of such stores as Strawberries and Waxie Maxie, and its Lieberman subsidiary acquired Navarre Corporation . Also that year, it partnered with distributor Radio Vision International to launch

1118-572: The deal after Hallmark purchased and folded the company in March of that year. As part of a restructuring process, in April 1998, LIVE Entertainment was rebranded as Artisan Entertainment; the rebranding was in part motivated by LIVE's reputation for mediocre product and lingering memories of their connection to the Menendez brothers case. In August 1998, the distribution deal with WEA has been expired and replaced by

1161-472: The federal government won a case against Paramount in the Supreme Court , which ruled that the vertically integrated structure of the movie industry constituted an illegal monopoly . This decision, reached after twelve years of litigation, hastened the end of the studio system and Hollywood's "Golden Age". By the 1950s, the physical components of a typical movie studio had become standardized. Since then,

1204-717: The film industry had once hoped—movie studios were increasingly being used to produce programming for the burgeoning medium. Some midsize film companies, such as Republic Pictures , eventually sold their studios to TV production concerns , which were eventually bought by larger studios, such as the American Broadcasting Company which was purchased by Disney in 1996. With the growing diversification of studios into such fields as video games , television stations , broadcast syndication , television , theme parks , home video and publishing , they have become multi-national corporations. International markets account for

1247-568: The film that is being shown under the Adventure Video label. U.S.A. also released sports videos under the U.S.A. Sports Video label. In 1984, FHE and U.S.A. became part of Noel Bloom's NCB Entertainment Group (which also included Bloom's other labels Caballero Home Video , Monterey Home Video and Thriller Video), and then later on that year, both were consolidated into International Video Entertainment, Inc. , formed under NCB and also taking ownership of Monterey and Thriller Video. The IVE name

1290-593: The first Tenchi Muyo! movie, Tenchi Muyo! in Love . Much of LIVE's earnings were partially thanks to Carolco's investment in the company, but by 1991, the studio was in such debt that a plan to merge the two companies was called off that December; around this time, the Lieberman assets were sold to another video distributor, Handleman, in an effort to stem LIVE's financial bleeding. In 1992, its distribution agreement with Uni Distribution Corporation has been expired, and signed

1333-571: The first movie studio in the United States when he constructed the Black Maria , a tarpaper-covered structure near his laboratories in West Orange , New Jersey , and asked circus, vaudeville, and dramatic actors to perform for the camera. He distributed these movies at vaudeville theaters, penny arcades, wax museums, and fairgrounds. The first film serial , What Happened to Mary , was released by

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1376-483: The home video rights to the film libraries of Republic Pictures , ITC Entertainment , Gladden Entertainment , Miramax Films , Hemdale Film Corporation , The Shooting Gallery , and Carolco Pictures before it went defunct. Artisan's releases included Requiem for a Dream , Pi , Killing Zoe , The Blair Witch Project , Grizzly Falls , Startup.com , Novocaine , and National Lampoon's Van Wilder . Artisan, unlike most movie studios, had its roots in

1419-670: The latter a year earlier. That year, it secured a deal with MCA Distributing Corporation to handle distribution of its titles. The unrated release of Angel Heart was the first Carolco film released by IVE on video. The studio hired José Menendez, previously of RCA , as head of IVE; he was responsible for creating product deals with Sylvester Stallone 's White Eagle Enterprises and producer Edward Pressman . In 1989, Menendez and his wife were murdered by their two sons . Also in 1987, Noel C. Bloom left IVE, following disputes with Carolco, to start out Celebrity Home Entertainment , with some of IVE's employees defecting to Celebrity. Later that year,

1462-504: The scale and ambition of the larger studio, and Monogram Pictures , which specialized in series and genre releases. Together with smaller outfits such as PRC TKO and Grand National, the minor studios filled the demand for B movies and are sometimes collectively referred to as Poverty Row . The Big Five's ownership of movie theaters was eventually opposed by eight independent producers, including Samuel Goldwyn , David O. Selznick , Walt Disney , Hal Roach , and Walter Wanger . In 1948,

1505-713: The sometimes confusing equation of studio with production company in industry slang. Five large companies: RKO Radio Pictures , 20th Century Fox , Paramount Pictures , Warner Bros. , and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer came to be known as the Big Five, the majors, or the Studios in trade publications such as Variety , and their management structures and practices collectively came to be known as the studio system . The Little 3 Although they owned few or no theaters to guarantee sales of their films, Universal Pictures , Columbia Pictures , and United Artists also fell under these rubrics, making

1548-517: The studio system. Filmmakers and producers such as Mike Judge , Adam Sandler , Jim Jarmusch , Robert Rodriguez , Steven Soderbergh , Quentin Tarantino , Kevin Smith and Richard Linklater made films that pushed boundaries in ways the studios were then reluctant to do. In response to these films, many distributed by mini-studios like Miramax , the majors created their own in-house mini-studios meant to focus on edgier, independent content. Focus Features

1591-595: The studios increased in size they began to rely on production companies like J. J. Abrams ' Bad Robot to handle many of the creative and physical production details of their feature films. Instead, the studios transformed into financing and distribution entities for their films (generally made by their affiliated production companies). With the decreasing cost of CGI and visual effects , many studios sold large chunks of their once-massive studio spaces or backlots to private real-estate developers. Century City in Los Angeles

1634-469: Was created by Universal Pictures and Fox Searchlight was created by 20th Century Fox for this purpose. Edward Pressman Edward Rambach Pressman (April 11, 1943 – January 17, 2023) was an American film producer and founder of the production company Edward R. Pressman Film Corporation. Pressman was born to a Jewish family in New York City , the son of Lynn and Jack Pressman, known as

1677-435: Was highly flammable, and sets and backlots were and still are very flammable, which is why film studios built in the early-to-mid 20th century have water towers to facilitate firefighting . Water towers "somewhat inexplicably" evolved into "a most potent symbol ... of movie studios in general." Halfway through the 1950s, with television proving to be a lucrative enterprise not destined to disappear any time soon—as many in

1720-399: Was once part of the 20th Century Fox backlot, which was among the largest and most famous of the studio lots. In most cases, portions of the backlots were retained and are available for rental by various film and television productions. Some studios offer tours of their backlots , while Universal Pictures allows visitors to its adjacent Universal Studios Hollywood theme park to take

1763-437: Was retained as chairman initially, a new trio of executives took power: former International Creative Management agent Bill Block and former October Films partner Amir Malin became co-presidents, while former Bain Capital financial consultant Mark Curcio handled financial matters. Their goal was to utilize the large video library and the consistent profit from that area to invest in independent film production, which they saw as

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1806-506: Was their renewal of a distribution pact with Canadian media firm Alliance Atlantis , which included distribution rights to Artisan product in Canada, and theatrical distribution of Artisan films in Britain via AAC's Momentum Pictures unit. In 2001, the company acquired Canadian film and TV company Landscape Entertainment. In May 2003, Artisan and Microsoft jointly announced the first release of

1849-461: Was used for non-family releases (although the U.S.A. name continued until 1987) and the FHE name was used for family releases. Also that year, Bloom launched Concept Productions to develop live programming. In the late 1980s, the company also branched out into film distribution for television. In 1987, IVE was acquired by Carolco Pictures from NCB Entertainment after Carolco had taken a minority interest in

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