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Anchor Bay Entertainment

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Anchor Bay Entertainment
FormerlyVideo Treasures (1985–1998)
Starmaker Entertainment (1988–1998)
Starz Home Entertainment (2007–2008)
TypeSubsidiary
IndustryHome video
Motion pictures
Founded1985; 38 years ago (1985)
DefunctAugust 29, 2017; 5 years ago (2017-08-29)
FateFolded into Lionsgate Home Entertainment
SuccessorLionsgate Home Entertainment
HeadquartersBeverly Hills, California
ProductsDVD, Blu-ray, LaserDisc, VHS
OwnerLionsgate
ParentStarz
DivisionsAnchor Bay Films
Websitehttp://anchorbayent.com/

Anchor Bay Entertainment (formerly Video Treasures, Starmaker Entertainment, and Starz Home Entertainment) was an American home entertainment and production company owned by Starz Inc., which is a subsidiary of Lionsgate. Anchor Bay Entertainment marketed and released feature films, television series, television specials and short films on DVD. In 2004, Anchor Bay agreed to have its movies distributed by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment and renewed their deal in 2011.[1] In 2017, Lions Gate Entertainment folded Anchor Bay Entertainment into Lionsgate Home Entertainment.

History

Anchor Bay Entertainment dates its origins back to two separate home video distributors: Video Treasures, formed in 1985,[2] and Starmaker Entertainment, founded in 1988. Both companies sold budget items — reissues of previously released home video programming — at discount prices. Video Treasures started with public domain titles, and later made licensing deals with CST Entertainment (which released colorized titles through the Classicolor logo),[3] Vestron Video, Heron Communications (including Media Home Entertainment and Hi-Tops Video), Britt Allcroft (the Thomas the Tank Engine series; this was inherited from Strand Home Video when Video Treasures purchased that label from VCI in 1993), Trans World Entertainment, Regal Video, Virgin Vision, Hal Roach Studios, Jerry Lewis, and Orion Pictures, among others. Starmaker's major distributions were films from the then-recently out-of-business New World Pictures and programs previously licensed to their video division. Viacom programs and Saturday Night Live compilations were other notable Starmaker releases. The companies competed with each other for years, until they were sold to the Handleman Company, and formed a new corporate umbrella: Anchor Bay Entertainment, on May 2, 1995.[4] The company also bought out (through the Video Treasures and Starmaker acquisitions) other budget home video and music distributors such as MNTEX Entertainment, Teal Entertainment, Burbank Video, Drive Entertainment, and GTS Records.[4] Both the Video Treasures and Starmaker labels were phased out a few years later.

Original company logo from 1995[4] until 2008.
Original company logo from 1995[4] until 2008.

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Anchor Bay specialized in the release of horror films, particularly cult films and slasher movies from the 1970s and 1980s. One of its first releases was Prom Night in 1980. It also released Halloween (as well as its 3rd, 4th, and 5th sequels), Hellraiser, and many others, leading the home video market for obscure and retro horror films.

In October 2000, Anchor Bay Entertainment expanded to the United Kingdom.[5]

In 2003, Handleman sold Anchor Bay to IDT Entertainment, at the time a newly formed entertainment division of telecommunications company IDT Corporation.[6][7][8] On February 4, 2005, the Securities and Exchange Commission filed civil charges against two former employees of Anchor Bay Entertainment, formerly owned by Handleman. The SEC's complaint, which was filed in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, alleges that the two employees caused the company to enter into a 2 million-dollar fraudulent transactions. The transactions involved the purported sale of slow-moving or obsolete inventory to business partners coupled with secret buy-back provisions. The inventory included worthless video boxes and sleeves and DVDs for films. Handleman subsequently restated its financial statements to correct these accounting errors.

In 2006, Liberty Media, the owner of the Starz cable network, purchased IDT Entertainment from IDT Corporation and renamed it Starz Media.[9]

In May 2007, Anchor Bay was renamed as Starz Home Entertainment (SHE). A month later, it was announced on June 19, 2007, that Starz Home Entertainment would begin releasing high-definition versions of its films exclusively in the Blu-ray format. In 2008, Starz Home Entertainment was changed back to Anchor Bay Entertainment.

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment had a three-year deal with Anchor Bay Entertainment for worldwide DVD releases, with the exceptions of North America, Canada, Australia, and the United Kingdom.

On January 4, 2011, Starz, LLC sold 25% of Starz Media to The Weinstein Company, which rendered Anchor Bay the de facto video distributor of films made by TWC and Dimension.[10] Starz later bought back the Weinstein's stake in October 2015,[11] with Anchor Bay continuing to release TWC and Dimension video releases.

In early 2015, Anchor Bay UK (alongside Manga Entertainment UK) was bought from Starz by managing director Colin Lomax and renamed to Platform Entertainment. Kaleidoscope Film Distribution would acquire Platform in December 2016, with Manga Entertainment UK becoming a separate entity and operating on its own, which itself was eventually acquired by Funimation in 2019.

On June 30, 2016, Lionsgate agreed to acquire Anchor Bay's parent company Starz Inc. for $4.4 billion in cash and stock.[12] The Starz/Lionsgate merger was completed on December 8, 2016.[13] On August 29, 2017, Anchor Bay was folded into Lionsgate Home Entertainment. From August 30, 2017 to 2021, Anchor Bay's website remained online, but with all the links broken.

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Heron Communications

Heron Communications

Heron Communications was a production company, distributor and a subsidiary of Gerald Ronson's Heron International.

Media Home Entertainment

Media Home Entertainment

Media Home Entertainment Inc. was a home video company headquartered in Culver City, California, originally established in 1978 by filmmaker Charles Band.

Hi-Tops Video

Hi-Tops Video

Hi-Tops Video was a children's home video sublabel of Media Home Entertainment, active from 1986 until 1991. Some of its releases include some Charlie Brown specials, Madeline and primarily some of the original Baby Songs video releases beginning in 1987.

Britt Allcroft

Britt Allcroft

Britt Allcroft is a British writer, producer, director and voice actress. She is the creator of the children's television series Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends, Shining Time Station, Mr. Conductor's Thomas Tales and Magic Adventures of Mumfie. She also wrote, co-produced and directed the film Thomas and the Magic Railroad (2000).

Hal Roach

Hal Roach

Harold Eugene "Hal" Roach Sr. was an American film and television producer, director, screenwriter, and centenarian, who was the founder of the namesake Hal Roach Studios.

Jerry Lewis

Jerry Lewis

Jerry Lewis was an American comedian, actor, singer, filmmaker and humanitarian. His success made him a global figure in pop culture and earned him the nickname, "The King of Comedy".

Orion Pictures

Orion Pictures

Orion Pictures is an American film production and distribution company owned by Amazon through its Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) subsidiary. In its original operating period, the company produced and released films from 1978 until 1999 and was also involved in television production and syndication throughout the 1980s until the early 1990s. It was formed in 1978 as a joint venture between Warner Bros. and three former senior executives at United Artists. From its founding until its buyout by MGM in the late 1990s, Orion was considered one of the largest mini-major studios.

New World Pictures

New World Pictures

New World Pictures was an American independent production, distribution, and multimedia company. It was founded in 1970 by Roger Corman and Gene Corman as New World Pictures, Ltd., a producer and distributor of motion pictures, eventually expanding into television production in 1984. New World eventually expanded into broadcasting with the acquisition of seven television stations in 1993, with the broadcasting unit expanding through additional purchases made during 1994.

Horror film

Horror film

Horror is a film genre that seeks to elicit fear or disgust in its audience for entertainment purposes.

Cult film

Cult film

A cult film or cult movie, also commonly referred to as a cult classic, is a film that has acquired a cult following. Cult films are known for their dedicated, passionate fanbase which forms an elaborate subculture, members of which engage in repeated viewings, dialogue-quoting, and audience participation. Inclusive definitions allow for major studio productions, especially box-office bombs, while exclusive definitions focus more on obscure, transgressive films shunned by the mainstream. The difficulty in defining the term and subjectivity of what qualifies as a cult film mirror classificatory disputes about art. The term cult film itself was first used in the 1970s to describe the culture that surrounded underground films and midnight movies, though cult was in common use in film analysis for decades prior to that.

Halloween (1978 film)

Halloween (1978 film)

Halloween is a 1978 American independent slasher film directed and scored by John Carpenter, co-written with producer Debra Hill, and starring Jamie Lee Curtis and Donald Pleasence, with P. J. Soles and Nancy Loomis in supporting roles. The plot centers on a mental patient, Michael Myers, who was committed to a sanitarium for murdering his babysitting teenage sister on Halloween night when he was six years old. Fifteen years later, he escapes and returns to his hometown, where he stalks a female babysitter and her friends while under pursuit by his psychiatrist.

Hellraiser

Hellraiser

Hellraiser is a 1987 British supernatural horror film written and directed by Clive Barker, and produced by Christopher Figg, based on Barker's 1986 novella The Hellbound Heart. The film marked Barker's directorial debut. Its plot involves a mystical puzzle box that summons the Cenobites, a group of extra-dimensional, sadomasochistic beings who cannot differentiate between pain and pleasure. The leader of the Cenobites is portrayed by Doug Bradley, and identified in the sequels as "Pinhead".

Licensed content

Films

Horror

During its original incarnation in the late 1990s and early 2000s, Anchor Bay specialized in the release of horror and cult films, particularly those of the 1970s and 1980s. The company's first-ever DVD release was The Car in April 1997,[15] followed by Elvira, Mistress of the Dark that August, and an extended cut (erroneously titled as a director's cut) of Dawn of the Dead in November 1997. The company's next release was Prom Night in February 1998.[16]

It also released Halloween (as well as its third and fourth sequels), Sleepaway Camp, Alice, Sweet Alice, The Hills Have Eyes, Suspiria, Maniac, the first three Hellraiser films, The Wicker Man, Silent Night, Deadly Night, Children of the Corn, The Beyond and several Lucio Fulci films. Some of these were given numbered limited edition releases which included multiple discs, information booklets and collectible tin cases. Many of these releases have since gone out of print and became sought-after collectibles.

Anchor Bay is also noted for the release of the Evil Dead film trilogy on DVD, in numerous editions. Army of Darkness for example, had been released in both a regular and limited edition set that featured the director's cut. Since then, the director's cut has been re-released on two occasions in addition to a 2-disc "Boomstick Edition" of the film as well. Until Anchor Bay released The Evil Dead on VHS and DVD, it was previously unavailable on video from a major label.

Also among its more profitable releases has been George A. Romero's Living Dead series. Anchor Bay has distribution rights for the middle two films in the tetralogy: Dawn and Day, however, it has also distributed DVDs of the original, Night of the Living Dead, which is in the public domain. Like the Evil Dead trilogy, the Living Dead series has seen many editions on DVD. Dawn has itself seen several releases on DVD, the most extra feature-laden being the Ultimate Edition in late 2004. An Evil Dead 3-disc Ultimate Edition DVD was released in December 2007.

Special interest

In addition to feature films, Anchor Bay distributed special interest titles, including children's series, such as Bobby's World and Mister Rogers' Neighborhood. Until 2008, they distributed Thomas & Friends videos. Thomas has reached platinum-selling status and, in 2004, ranked consistently on the VideoScan ranking top 50 chart of children's weekly video sales. Lionsgate acquired the Thomas DVD titles after HIT Entertainment bought out the rights to Thomas. Rights to the Thomas DVDs now belong to Universal (through their deal with Mattel, HIT's current parent company). The company also has a top market share for fitness videos such as the Crunch and For Dummies series. The company also distributed UFC events on DVD and Blu-ray.

Production company

As a full-fledged production company, it handled TV syndication of Halloween, Halloween 4 and Halloween 5 (to which it also holds the video rights) and have recently entered in-house production and distribution of theatrical films.

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EMI Films

EMI Films

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Alexander Salkind

Alexander Salkind

Alexander Salkind was a Polish born-French film producer, the second of three generations of successful international producers.

Lionsgate

Lionsgate

Lions Gate Entertainment Corporation, doing business as Lionsgate, is a Canadian-American entertainment company. It was formed by Frank Giustra on July 10, 1997, domiciled in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, and is currently headquartered in Santa Monica, California, United States. In addition to its flagship Lionsgate Films division, the company contains other divisions such as Lionsgate Television and Lionsgate Interactive. It owns a variety of subsidiaries such as Summit Entertainment, Debmar-Mercury, and Starz Inc.

Army of Darkness

Army of Darkness

Army of Darkness is a 1992 American dark fantasy horror comedy film directed, co-written, and co-edited by Sam Raimi. The film is the third installment in the Evil Dead film series and the sequel to Evil Dead II (1987). Starring Bruce Campbell and Embeth Davidtz, it follows Ash Williams (Campbell) as he is trapped in the Middle Ages and battles the undead in his quest to return to the present.

Repo Man (film)

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Moustapha Akkad

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Halloween (franchise)

Halloween (franchise)

Halloween is an American slasher media franchise that consists of thirteen films, as well as novels, comic books, a video game and other merchandise. The films primarily focus on Michael Myers, who was committed to a sanitarium as a child for the murder of his sister, Judith Myers. Fifteen years later, he escapes to stalk and kill the people of the fictional town of Haddonfield, Illinois. Michael's killings occur on the holiday of Halloween, on which all of the films primarily take place. The original Halloween, released in 1978, was written by John Carpenter and Debra Hill—the film's director and producer respectively. The film, itself inspired by Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho and Bob Clark's Black Christmas, is known to have inspired a long line of slasher films.

New World Pictures

New World Pictures

New World Pictures was an American independent production, distribution, and multimedia company. It was founded in 1970 by Roger Corman and Gene Corman as New World Pictures, Ltd., a producer and distributor of motion pictures, eventually expanding into television production in 1984. New World eventually expanded into broadcasting with the acquisition of seven television stations in 1993, with the broadcasting unit expanding through additional purchases made during 1994.

Children of the Corn (1984 film)

Children of the Corn (1984 film)

Children of the Corn is a 1984 American supernatural slasher film based upon Stephen King's 1977 short story of the same name. Directed by Fritz Kiersch, the film's cast consists of Peter Horton, Linda Hamilton, John Franklin, Courtney Gains, Robby Kiger, Anne Marie McEvoy, Julie Maddalena, and R. G. Armstrong. Set in the fictitious rural town of Gatlin, Nebraska, the film tells the story of a malevolent entity referred to as "He Who Walks Behind the Rows" which entices the town's children to ritually murder all the town's adults, as well as a couple driving across the country, to ensure a successful corn harvest.

Creepshow 2

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Creepshow 2 is a 1987 American comedy horror anthology film directed by Michael Gornick, and the sequel to Creepshow. Gornick was previously the cinematographer of the first film, and the screenplay was written by George A. Romero who was director of the original film with the film starring Lois Chiles, George Kennedy, Dorothy Lamour, and Tom Savini. It was once again based upon stories by Stephen King, and features three more horror segments consisting of "Old Chief Wood'nhead", "The Raft" and "The Hitchhiker".

Girls Just Want to Have Fun (film)

Girls Just Want to Have Fun (film)

Girls Just Want to Have Fun is a 1985 American romantic comedy dance film directed by Alan Metter and distributed by New World Pictures. It was written by Amy Spies and stars Sarah Jessica Parker, Lee Montgomery, Morgan Woodward, Jonathan Silverman, Shannen Doherty, and Helen Hunt. Its story follows Janey, a new girl in town who meets Lynne and discovers they both share a passion for dancing and the TV show Dance TV. Together the two enter a competition to be a new Dance TV regular couple, however Janey's father doesn't approve.

Heathers

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Heathers is a 1989 American teen black comedy film written by Daniel Waters and directed by Michael Lehmann, in both of their respective film debuts. The film stars Winona Ryder, Christian Slater, Shannen Doherty, Lisanne Falk, Kim Walker, and Penelope Milford. Its plot portrays four teenage girls—three of whom are named Heather—in a clique at an Ohio high school, one of whose lives is disrupted by the arrival of a misanthrope intent on murdering the popular students and staging their deaths as suicides.

Award

Anchor Bay Entertainment received a Special Achievement Award from the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films in June 2002. Anchor Bay was recognized as one of the "pioneers in DVD releases and home video entertainment" and "successful in releasing dramas, comedies, foreign films, children's programming, and most prominently genre films." Cited as highlights of Anchor Bay's releases were "the films of Hammer Studios, the works of Werner Herzog, Paul Verhoeven, Wim Wenders, John Woo, Monte Hellman and Sam Raimi".[17]

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Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films

Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films

Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films is an American non-profit organization established in 1972 dedicated to the advancement of science fiction, fantasy, and horror in film, television, and home video. The Academy is headquartered in Los Angeles, California, and was founded by Dr. Donald A. Reed.

B movie

B movie

A B movie or B film is a low-budget commercial motion picture. In its original usage, during the Golden Age of Hollywood, the term more precisely identified films intended for distribution as the less-publicized bottom half of a double feature. However, the US production of films intended as "second features" largely ceased by the end of the 1950s. With the emergence of commercial television at that time, film studio B movie production departments changed into television film production divisions. They created much of the same type of content in low-budget films and series. The term "B movie" continues to be used in its broader sense to this day. In post-Golden Age usage, B movies can range from lurid exploitation films to independent arthouse films.

Hammer Film Productions

Hammer Film Productions

Hammer Film Productions Ltd. is a British film production company based in London. Founded in 1934, the company is best known for a series of Gothic horror and fantasy films made from the mid-1950s until the 1970s. Many of these involve classic horror characters such as Baron Victor Frankenstein, Count Dracula, and the Mummy, which Hammer reintroduced to audiences by filming them in vivid colour for the first time. Hammer also produced science fiction, thrillers, film noir and comedies, as well as, in later years, television series.

Werner Herzog

Werner Herzog

Werner Herzog is a German film director, screenwriter, author, actor, and opera director, regarded as a pioneer of New German Cinema. His films often feature ambitious protagonists with impossible dreams, people with unusual talents in obscure fields, or individuals in conflict with nature. His filmmaking process includes disregarding storyboards, emphasizing improvisation, and placing the cast and crew into similar situations as characters in his films.

Paul Verhoeven

Paul Verhoeven

Paul Verhoeven is a Dutch filmmaker. His blending of graphic violence and sexual content with social satire is a trademark of both his drama and science fiction films.

Wim Wenders

Wim Wenders

Ernst Wilhelm "Wim" Wenders is a German filmmaker, playwright, author, and photographer. He is a major figure in New German Cinema. Among many honors, he has received three nominations for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature: for Buena Vista Social Club (1999), about Cuban music culture; Pina (2011), about the contemporary dance choreographer Pina Bausch; and The Salt of the Earth (2014), about Brazilian photographer Sebastião Salgado.

John Woo

John Woo

John Woo Yu-Sen SBS is a Hong Kong filmmaker, known as a highly-influential figure in the action film genre. He is a pioneer of heroic bloodshed films and the gun fu genre in Hong Kong action cinema, before working in Hollywood films. He is known for his highly chaotic "bullet ballet" action sequences, stylized imagery, Mexican standoffs, frequent use of slow motion and allusions to wuxia, film noir and Western cinema.

Monte Hellman

Monte Hellman

Monte Hellman was an American film director, producer, writer, and editor. Hellman began his career as an editor's apprentice at ABC TV, and made his directorial debut with the horror film Beast from Haunted Cave (1959), produced by Gene Corman, Roger Corman's brother.

Sam Raimi

Sam Raimi

Samuel M. Raimi is an American filmmaker. He is best known for directing the Spider-Man trilogy (2002–2007) and the Evil Dead franchise (1981–present). He also directed the 1990 superhero film Darkman, the 1995 revisionist western The Quick and the Dead, the 1998 neo-noir crime-thriller A Simple Plan, the 2000 supernatural thriller film The Gift, the 2009 supernatural horror film Drag Me to Hell, and the 2013 Disney fantasy film Oz the Great and Powerful. His films are known for their highly dynamic visual style, inspired by comic books and slapstick comedy.

Past names

  • Video Treasures
  • Starmaker Entertainment
  • MNTEX Entertainment
  • Teal Entertainment
  • Burbank Video
  • Troy Gold
  • Viking Video Classics
  • Drive Entertainment
  • GTS Records
  • Media Home Entertainment
  • Strand Home Video

Source: "Anchor Bay Entertainment", Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, (2023, March 18th), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anchor_Bay_Entertainment.

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References
  1. ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on December 3, 2013. Retrieved May 19, 2009.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  2. ^ Executive Biography of George Port Archived July 8, 2008, at the Wayback Machine from the MarVista Entertainment website
  3. ^ "CST Will Distrib Colorized Pics Via 'Classicolor' Logo". Variety. November 4, 1987. p. 34.
  4. ^ a b c Billboard (May 20, 1995), page 84-85.
  5. ^ "PLATFORM ENTERTAINMENT LIMITED - Overview (free company information from Companies House)". Beta.companieshouse.gov.uk. Retrieved June 15, 2019.
  6. ^ "IDT acquires Anchor Bay homevid biz". Variety. December 7, 2003. Retrieved February 20, 2021.
  7. ^ "IDT Entertainment to acquire Anchor Bay Entertainment" (Press release). IDT Corporation. December 3, 2003. Retrieved February 20, 2021.
  8. ^ Kay, Jeremy (December 3, 2003). "IDT close to acquisition of DVD/video company Anchor Bay". Screen Daily. Retrieved February 20, 2021.
  9. ^ "A New Starz is Born" (Press release). PRNewswire. August 29, 2006. Archived from the original on December 16, 2012. Retrieved September 27, 2019.
  10. ^ "Weinsteins Buy 25% Stake In Starz Media". Deadline Hollywood. January 4, 2011. Retrieved March 28, 2016.
  11. ^ "IR Home". Investors.lionsgate.com. Retrieved June 15, 2019.
  12. ^ Lieberman, David (June 30, 2016). "Lionsgate Agrees To Buy Starz For $4.4 Billion In Cash And Stock". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved June 30, 2016.
  13. ^ Lieberman, David (December 8, 2016). "Lionsgate Closes Deal To Buy Starz". Deadline. Retrieved December 9, 2016.
  14. ^ Jordan Pinto. "Against the Wild 2 gets U.S. theatrical release". Playbackonline.ca. Retrieved June 15, 2019.
  15. ^ "Discs Released by Anchor Bay Entertainment". DVDloc: The Internet DVD Database. Retrieved May 30, 2012.
  16. ^ Catalogue listings state that Prom Night was released by Anchor Bay on February 18, 1998.
  17. ^ "2002 Special Award". IMDb. Retrieved June 15, 2019.
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