1978–1981: Beginnings On February 6, 1978, three executives of
Transamerica (TA)-owned studio
United Artists (UA)—
Arthur B. Krim (chairman),
Eric Pleskow (president and chief executive officer), and
Robert Benjamin (chairman of the finance committee)—quit their jobs. Krim and Benjamin had headed UA since 1951 and subsequently turned around the then-flailing studio with a number of critical and commercial successes. Change had begun once Transamerica purchased UA in 1967 and, within a decade, a rift formed between Krim and Transamerica chairman
John R. Beckett concerning the studio's operations. Krim suggested spinning off UA 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 Transamerica's 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 company's treatment of them, they should resign. in 1980 which led to Transamerica selling UA to
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM). That same year, the five men forged a deal with
Warner Bros. The executives formed Orion Pictures Company, named after
the constellation which they claimed had five main stars (it actually has seven or eight). The new company intended only to finance projects, giving the filmmakers complete creative autonomy; this ideal had been successfully implemented at United Artists. Orion held a $100 million line of credit and its films would be distributed through 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 1978, Orion signed its first contract, a two-picture deal with
John Travolta's 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; writer/director
John Milius; singer
Peter Frampton; and producer
Ray Stark soon materialized. Orion also developed a co-financing and distribution deal with
EMI Films. Orion's first film,
A Little Romance, was released in April that year. Later that year, Orion released
Blake Edwards'
10 which became a commercial success, the first for Edwards in over a decade (aside from installments of
The Pink Panther franchise). Other films released by Orion over the next two years included a few successes such as
Caddyshack (1980) and
Arthur (1981); critically praised but underperforming films such as
The Great Santini (1979), an adaptation of a
Pat Conroy novel, and
Sidney Lumet's
Prince of the City (1981); and pictures by young writer-directors such as
Philip Kaufman's
The Wanderers (1979) and
Nicholas Meyer's debut
Time After Time (1979); plus ''
Monty Python's Life of Brian (1979) which Orion only distributed in the United States. Out of the 23 films Orion released between April 1979 and December 1981, 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'' (1981) for that reason.
1982–1986: Split from Warner Bros. By early 1982, Orion had severed its distribution ties with Warner Bros., although the latter continued to distribute Orion's films in Japan until 1991. As part of the deal, the rights to Orion's films made up to that point were sold to Warner Bros. 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 Pictures before settling on
Filmways. 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. Out of the initial 18 films released by the firm under the name of Orion Pictures Corporation, ten made profits, five just managed to cover their costs, and three suffered losses under $2 million. On October 26, 1984, the company released the
James Cameron-directed
science fiction film The Terminator which was well received by critics and audience and led to a franchise involving five further films. However, Orion distributed none of the follow-ups. For Orion, 1985 was a dismal year. All but two films,
Desperately Seeking Susan and
Code of Silence, made less than $10 million at the United States box office, including an unsuccessful attempt at a
James Bond-type franchise,
Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins. In January 1986,
Mario Kassar and
Andrew Vajna, producers of the
Rambo films (the first film,
First Blood, was distributed by Orion) attempted to buy $55 million worth of the studio's stock through the duo's company,
Anabasis. Had they succeeded, Kassar and Vajna would have controlled the board and laid off every executive save for Krim. Orion expanded into home video distribution with the formation of Orion Home Entertainment Corporation in 1985, which began distributing videos under the
Orion Home Video label in 1987 (before OHV's formation,
HBO Video and their predecessors, as well as former Orion's partner
Warner Home Video,
Vestron Video and
Embassy Home Entertainment, had been responsible for home media releases of Orion product). In January 1987, Kluge faced competition with the arrival of
Sumner Redstone, whose theater chain,
National Amusements, purchased 6.42% of Orion's stock. National Amusements later acquired Viacom, increasing their Orion stake to 21%, then 26%. Soon Kluge started buying more Orion stock, touching off a battle with Redstone over control of the company. Kluge won on May 20, 1988, when Metromedia took over about 67% of Orion. Also that year, it signed a deal with
Nelson Entertainment to distribute titles on videocassette and theatrically. In February 1990, Orion signed a deal with
Columbia Pictures Entertainment in which the much larger studio would pay Orion $175 million to distribute Orion's movies and television programs overseas. Orion had previously licensed its films to individual distributors territory by territory. and became head of
Tri-Star Pictures. Medavoy would be succeeded by
Marc Platt. The box-office returns for Orion's 1990 releases were just as dismal, with failures in
The Hot Spot and
State of Grace. The only bright spot was
Kevin Costner's western epic
Dances with Wolves, which won seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture, and grossed $400 million worldwide. A few months later, Orion garnered another winner with
The Silence of the Lambs, but these two films could not make up for years of losses. Only Kluge's continued infusions of cash were enough to keep the company afloat, but soon he had enough.
1991–1995: Bankruptcy Kluge first attempted to sell Orion to businessman (and former
20th Century Fox owner)
Marvin Davis.
Sony, which had recently purchased
Columbia Pictures, was also interested. When those talks fell through, Kluge took drastic steps. First, Orion shut down production. Second, Kluge ordered the sale of several projects, such as
The Addams Family (which went to
Paramount, though the international rights to the film were retained by Orion), in order to accumulate much-needed cash. Finally, in the spring of 1991, Kluge's people took over the company, leading to the departure of Arthur Krim. Orion's financial problems were so severe, that at the 63rd Annual Academy Awards in March 1991, host
Billy Crystal made reference to Orion's debt in his opening monologue, joking that "
Reversal of Fortune [is] about a woman in a coma,
Awakenings [is] about a man in a coma; and
Dances with Wolves [was] released by Orion, a studio in a coma." It was during this time that
ABC stepped in to co-finance and assume production over many of Orion Television's shows it had in production, such as
American Detective and
Equal Justice. After Orion had to shut the television division down, this resulted in projects like
The Chuck Woolery Show, which was planned to be produced by Orion, instead having to find new production companies (such as
Group W Productions in the case of Woolery). Gary Nardino, former employee of Orion Television Entertainment, moved on to producing for
Lorimar Television, taking some of Orion's projects with him, including ''
Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventures on Fox, and Hearts are Wild, a co-production with Spelling Television, for CBS; talent deals Orion Television had at the time (with Thomas Carter, Robert Townsend, Paul Stajonovich, Clifton Campbell and Deborah Joy Levine) were also taken by Nardino to Lorimar. On November 25, 1991, Orion sold its Hollywood Squares'' format rights to
King World Productions after Orion closed down its television division. On December 11, 1991, Orion filed for
Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. In February 1992, Bernstein, who was president and chief executive of Orion at that point, resigned from the studio, Bernstein would go on to become executive vice president at Paramount Pictures. At the Academy Awards ceremony, broadcast on March 30, 1992, Crystal made another reference to Orion, this time about its demise:
The Silence of the Lambs swept all five major Academy Awards; however, a majority of key executives, as well as the talent they had deals with, had left the studio. Hollywood observers had doubts that Orion would be resurrected to its former glory. In May 1992, it was reported that Pleskow was resigning from Orion on July 1 of that year. stating in the New York Times: "There is little for me to do at this point". On November 5, 1992, Orion reemerged from bankruptcy. Its reorganization plan would allow for Orion to continue producing and releasing films, but financing for the features would be provided by outside sources, with the studio purchasing the distribution rights to them after their completion. Orion's bankruptcy also delayed the release of many films the studio had produced or acquired, among them:
Love Field (1992),
RoboCop 3 (1993),
The Dark Half (1993),
Blue Sky (1994),
Car 54, Where Are You? (1994),
Clifford (1994),
The Favor (1994), and
There Goes My Baby (1994). Orion started releasing these films after their reorganization.
Blue Sky won star
Jessica Lange an Academy Award for Best Actress in 1995. In August 1994, Orion Home Video partnered with
Streamline Pictures in distributing the latter's licensed
anime video titles to general retailers, which animation historian
Fred Patten considered a major development in anime's growing popularity in American
pop culture.
1995–1997: Metromedia International Group In November 1995, Orion, two other companies controlled by Kluge, and film and television house
MCEG Sterling (producer of the ''
Look Who's Talking'' series) were merged to form the Metromedia International Group. Few of the films released during the four years after
bankruptcy protection were successful either critically or commercially. In 1996, Metromedia acquired production company
Motion Picture Corporation of America, and installed its heads, Brad Krevoy and Steve Stabler, as co-presidents of Orion. Both received a six picture put picture distribution deal as a part of their contracts. In the years ahead, Orion produced very few films, and primarily released films from other producers, including
LIVE Entertainment.
Orion Classics, minus its founders (who had moved to
Sony Pictures Entertainment and founded
Sony Pictures Classics), continued to acquire popular
art-house films, such as
Boxing Helena (1993), before Metromedia merged the subsidiary with
Samuel Goldwyn Entertainment in 1996.
1997–1999: Acquisition by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer In July 1997, Metromedia shareholders approved the sale of Orion Pictures (as well as Samuel Goldwyn Entertainment and
Motion Picture Corporation of America) to
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM). This led to the withdrawal of 85 employees, including Krevoy and Stabler, while 111 other employees were to be laid off within nine months, leaving 25 of them to work at MGM. Orion Pictures also brought with it a two-thousand film library, ten completed movies and five direct-to-video features for future release and the Krevoy and Stabler movie put picture distribution deal. MGM kept Orion Pictures intact as a corporation, mostly to avoid its home video distribution agreement with
Warner Home Video and began distributing Orion Pictures films under the Orion Home Video label. MGM acquired the two thirds of the pre-1996
PolyGram Filmed Entertainment library (which included the
Epic film library) from
Seagram in 1999 for $250 million, increasing their library holdings to 4,000. The PolyGram libraries were purchased by its Orion Pictures subsidiary so as to avoid its 1990 home video distribution agreement with Warner Home Video. In March 1999, MGM bought out its distribution contract with Warner Home Video for $225 million, effectively ending the distribution problem.
2013–present: Revival In 2013, Orion returned to television production (after its original television unit was shut down during its bankruptcy period) with a new syndicated
court show,
Paternity Court. The Orion Pictures name, also as Orion Releasing, was extended in fourth quarter 2014 for smaller multi-platform video on demand and limited theatrical distribution. Its name was first seen again on September 10, 2014, in front of the trailer for
The Town That Dreaded Sundown that was released in October. The label's first release was the Brazilian film
Vestido pra Casar. In September 2015,
Entertainment One Films relaunched the
Momentum Pictures banner with an announced deal with Orion Pictures to co-acquire and co-distribute films in the United States and Canada, and selected foreign markets, such as the
United Kingdom (Momentum's country of origin). The initial films under the deal were
The Wannabe,
Fort Tilden and
Balls Out. Other films released by Orion Pictures and
Momentum Pictures include
Pocket Listing and
Diablo. Starting in September 2016 with
Burn Country, Orion Pictures and
Samuel Goldwyn Films paired in acquiring several films. Orion Television launched a second court show in the fall of 2017,
Couples Court With The Cutlers, which features married couple Keith and Dana Cutler presiding over romantic and domestic disputes. On September 6, 2017, MGM officially revitalized the Orion Pictures brand as a standalone, US theatrical marketing and distribution arm with the hiring of John Hegeman, who joined from
Blumhouse Tilt (distributor of Orion's
The Town That Dreaded Sundown and
The Belko Experiment) and incidentally got his start at the original Orion in the 1980s. Hegeman would serve as president of the expanded label and report to
Jonathan Glickman, president of MGM's motion picture group. Under his leadership, the "new" Orion will produce, market and distribute four to six modestly budgeted films a year across genres and platforms, and both wide and limited releases for targeted audiences. Its first release, the young adult romance drama
Every Day, was released on February 23, 2018. In May 2018, it was announced that
Orion Classics would be revived as a multiplatform distribution label, with 8 to 10 films being released per year. On February 5, 2019, MGM and
Annapurna Pictures expanded their US joint distribution venture Mirror, rebranding it as
United Artists Releasing. Beginning in April 2019, Orion Pictures' upcoming titles would be distributed through the UAR banner and Orion's theatrical distribution staff will move to UAR. The first Orion film to do so was the remake of ''
Child's Play'', which was released on June 21, 2019. On August 20, 2020, it was announced that Orion would be relaunched again, with its focus shifting to films made by underrepresented filmmakers (including people of color, women, the
LGBT community and people with disabilities) as part of the efforts to increase inclusivity in the film industry, both in front of and behind the camera, with the hiring of Alana Mayo as the president, replacing Hegeman by October. The first film released with this new focus was ''
Anything's Possible (previously titled What If?
), a coming-of-age drama directed by Billy Porter in his directorial debut. This effort continued in 2021 when they, along with Annapurna, acquired the US distribution rights to On the Count of Three'' two weeks after it premiered at the
2021 Sundance Film Festival. On May 17, 2021, online shopping company
Amazon entered negotiations to acquire MGM and even made a bid for about $9 billion, with the intention to own the studio's library, including Orion's films, to grow the
Amazon Prime Video catalog. The negotiations were made with
Anchorage Capital Kevin Ulrich. In May 2023,
Amazon Studios created
Amazon MGM Studios Distribution, an international
film and television distribution unit for both MGM and Amazon projects, which will include new projects from Orion. On September 17, 2023,
American Fiction became the studio's first film to win the
People's Choice Award at that year's
Toronto International Film Festival. ==Film library==