Former
Columbia Pictures Entertainment chairman and
TriStar Pictures founder Victor A. Kaufman became chairman and chief executive officer of Savoy Pictures in 1992 along with vice chairman executive, Lewis J. Korman. Kaufman has claimed that the name came from the Savoy Special bat
Robert Redford's character used in
The Natural. Savoy intended to finance and distribute films in the $12–25 million range, investing in up to $15 million per film. Budgets for their films grew. However, with rather poor marketing, Savoy faced a major financial slump, only three years after being formed. For three years, Savoy then released box office failures including
Exit to Eden and
Getting Away with Murder. It also didn't help that two of its competitors in the independent film field,
Miramax and
New Line Cinema, were bought out by majors (
The Walt Disney Company and
Turner Broadcasting, respectively), giving them stability. As a result, Savoy focused on low-budget films and the occasional blockbuster, costing up to $80 million. Executives hoped to lure
Sylvester Stallone with a then-hefty $20 million paycheck to star in a studio project that was ultimately never made. As a result of purchasing these stations, all of them would become affiliates of the
Fox network. Stations owned by SF Broadcasting were
WALA-TV in
Mobile,
Alabama,
WLUK-TV in
Green Bay,
Wisconsin,
WVUE in
New Orleans, and
KHON-TV in
Honolulu,
Hawaii. Savoy also launched a television production division. In January 1995, Kaufman announced that he was hiring
Robert N. Fried to run the motion picture studio. Fried brought in executives Alan Sokol, Bob Levin,
Cathy Schulman,
Stan Brooks, Stan Wlodkowski and filmmakers
Sam Raimi, and
George Tillman,
Rob Weiss and
Peter Chelsom. In the middle of the year, the company started a television division, which was headed by
Stanley Brooks. In September 1995, Kaufman announced that he was cutting back on his interest in the motion picture business and was re-positioning the company as a television station
holding company. Shortly thereafter, Savoy announced the sale of 14 films in its roster, in varying stages of production, to potential buyers.
New Line Cinema picked up
Martin Lawrence's directorial debut
A Thin Line Between Love and Hate,
American History X,
The Adventures of Pinocchio, ''
Heaven's Prisoners, Faithful, and The Stupids. Paramount Pictures picked up the rights to produce A Simple Plan, and the distribution rights of Private Parts. Only a single film Savoy had on their roster, Mariette in Ecstasy'', was left unreleased, until 2019, when the film's director
John Bailey, eventually saw a screening at the 2019
Camerimage International Film Festival. Savoy Pictures announced in November 1995 that
Barry Diller's
Silver King Communications was going to acquire Savoy for $210 million. The deal was finalized in 1997. Victor Kaufman was made vice chairman and sits on the board of directors of IAC. The SF stations were sold to Diller's
Silver King Broadcasting in 1997.
Cineplex Odeon Films was the Canadian distributor for Savoy films, then
Alliance Films became the Canadian distributor after
New Line Cinema picked up the later films from 1996. Much of Savoy's library now lies with
Universal Pictures and
Focus Features, most likely as a result of Diller selling off
USA Networks' entertainment assets to
Vivendi Universal for $10.3 billion.
Warner Bros. Discovery owns the titles produced by New Line Cinema, while
Paramount Pictures owns the titles produced by Rysher Entertainment,
Pathé owns the rights to
No Escape via
Allied Filmmakers, rights to
A Bronx Tale have since reverted to
Robert De Niro's
Tribeca Productions, and
Joel B. Michaels owns the rights to
Last of the Dogmen. == Films ==