Orion Pictures Corporation is an American motion picture producer and distributor that produced and released films from 1978 until 1999, and was also involved in. WLDX Presents. Guy Penrod, Christmas More Tour By WLDX. Sunday, December 17th, 2017, 3pm at the Earl McDonald Auditorium on the campus of Bevill State Community. Orion Pictures Wikipedia. Orion Pictures Corporation is an American motion picture producer and distributor that produced and released films from 1. It was formed in 1. Warner Bros. and three former top level executives of United Artists. Although it was never a large motion picture producer, Orion achieved a comparatively high reputation for Hollywood quality. Woody Allen, James Cameron, Jonathan Demme, Oliver Stone, and several other prominent directors worked with Orion during its most successful years from 1. Watch At Risk Online Facebook. Of the films distributed by Orion, four won Academy Awards for Best Picture Amadeus 1. Platoon 1. 98. 6, Dances with Wolves 1. The Silence of the Lambs 1. Two other Orion films, Hannah and Her Sisters 1. Mississippi Burning 1. In 2. 01. 3, Metro Goldwyn Mayer revived the Orion name for television a year later, Orion Pictures was relaunched by the studio. HistoryeditBeginnings 1. In January 1. 97. Watch Wolves At The Door Online Hollywoodreporter' title='Watch Wolves At The Door Online Hollywoodreporter' />Transamerica TA owned studio United Artists UA Arthur B. Krim chairman, Eric Pleskow president and chief executive officer, and Robert S. Benjamin chairman of the finance committee quit their jobs. Krim and Benjamin had headed UA since 1. Change had begun once Transamerica purchased UA in 1. Krim and TA chairman Jack Beckett regarding the studios operations. Krim suggested spinning off United Artists into a separate company, which was rejected by Beckett. The last straw came for Pleskow when he refused to collect and deliver the medical records of UA department heads to Transamericas offices in San Francisco for the sake of confidentiality. The tensions only worsened when Fortune magazine reported an article on the clash between UA and TA, in which Beckett had stated that if the executives disliked the parent companys treatment of them, they should resign. Krim, Benjamin, and Pleskow quit United Artists on January 1. William Bernstein and Mike Medavoy three days later. The week following the resignations, according to the website Reference for Business, 6. Hollywood figures took out an advertisement in a trade paper warning UA that it had made a fatal mistake in letting the five men leave. The fatal mistake came true following the box office disaster of Heavens Gate7 which led to Transamerica washing its hands of the movie business by selling UA to Metro Goldwyn Mayer, so that the name of Transamerica wouldnt be tarnished. In February 1. Warner Bros. The executives formed Orion Pictures Company, named after the constellation, which they claimed had five main stars it actually has seveneight. The new company intended only to finance projects, giving the filmmakers complete creative autonomy this ideal was implemented with great success at United Artists. Orion held a 1. 00 million line of credit, and its films would be distributed by the Warner Bros. Orion, however, was contractually given free rein over distribution and advertising, as well as the number and type of films the executives chose to invest in. In late March 1. Orion signed its first contract a two picture deal with John Travoltas production company. Contracts with actress and director Barbra Streisand actors James Caan, Jane Fonda, Peter Sellers, Jon Voight, and Burt Reynolds directors Francis Ford Coppola and Blake Edwards writerdirector John Milius singer Peter Frampton and producer Ray Stark soon materialized. Orion also developed a co financing and distribution deal with EMI Films. To quote Reference for Business By the end of its first year, the company had put 1. Orion a solid reputation from the very beginning. In 1. 97. 9, Benjamin died. Orions first film, A Little Romance,1. April that year. That year, Orion released Blake Edwards 1. Edwards in over a decade aside from installments of The Pink Panther franchise. Other films released in that period included Caddyshack The Great Santini, a critically praised but underpromoted adaptation of a Pat Conroy novel and Promises in the Dark. Out of the 2. 3 films Orion released between April 1. December 1. 98. 1, only a third of them made a profit. Orion executives were conflicted over financing big budgeted films and passed on Raiders of the Lost Ark for that reason. Acquisition of Filmways 1. By early 1. 98. 2, Orion had severed its distribution ties with Warner. As part of the deal, the rights to Orions films made up to that point were sold to Warner. Orion was now looking to have its own distribution network by acquiring another company with such capabilities. The four partners looked into Allied Artists and Embassy Pictures1. Filmways. 1. 5 Orion subsequently purchased Filmways and reorganized the flailing company. New employees were hired and all of Filmways non entertainment assets Grosset Dunlap and Broadcast Electronics were sold off. On August 3. 1, 1. Filmways was renamed as Orion Pictures Corporation. Another result of the merger was that Orion entered television production. Orions biggest TV hit was Cagney Lacey, which lasted seven seasons on CBS. In 1. 98. 3, Orion Pictures introduced art house division Orion Classics with executives who had previously run United Artists Classics. Problems arise 1. According to Reference for Business Of the first 1. Orion Pictures Corporation, ten had been profitable, five had broken even, and three had losses of less than 2 million. One such film, Francis Ford Coppolas The Cotton Club, was mired in legal troubles and Orion lost 3 million of its investment. Weve had some singles and doubles but havent had any home runs, lamented Krim. In September 1. Orion distributed Amadeus, which garnered many accolades, winning eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture. For Orion, 1. All but two films, Desperately Seeking Susan and Code of Silence, made less than 1. United States box office, including an unsuccessful attempt at a James Bond type franchise, Remo Williams The Adventure Begins. Orions haphazard distribution channels and unsuccessful advertising campaigns made it impossible to achieve a hit. Another factor was that Orion was about to venture into the video business and stopped selling off home use rights to its films. Furthermore, production of the Rodney Dangerfield comedy Back to School was put on hold when a co producer died, taking the film off of its Christmas 1. In January 1. 98. Mario Kassar and Andrew Vajna, producers of the Rambo films the first film, First Blood, was distributed by Orion attempted to buy 5. Anabasis. Had they succeeded, Kassar and Vajna would have controlled the board and laid off every executive save for Krim. Warburg Pincus subsequently limited its 2. Orion to 5 the remaining stocks were acquired by Viacom International. Viacom hoped to use Orions product for its pay TV channel Showtime. Orion expanded into home video distribution with the formation of Orion Home Entertainment Corporation. Metromedia era 1. On May 2. 2, 1. 98. Metromedia, a television and communications company controlled by billionaire and a friend of Krims John Kluge, purchased a 6. Orion. Kluges investment in the company came at the right time Back to School was a success and ultimately earned 9. By March 1. 98. 7, the studios fortunes increased dramatically with a succession of critical and commercial hits, including Platoon which ultimately won a Best Picture Oscar, Woody Allens Hannah and Her Sisters, and the sports film Hoosiers. Orions 1. 98. 6 offerings totaled 1. Academy Award nominations, more than any other studio. Orion achieved further success with Robo. Cop, and No Way Out. By this time, Orions television division had expanded into the lucrative syndicated game show market under the name Century Towers Productions, in reference to Orions street address at the time. It produced revivals of format inherited from Heatter Quigley Productions after the Filmways merger as Filmways had previously acquired HQ in the late 1.