19 Facts About Carolco

Carolco Pictures, Inc was an American independent film studio that existed from 1976 to 1995, founded by Mario Kassar and Andrew G Vajna.

Carolco hit its peak in the 1980s and early 1990s, with blockbuster successes including the first three films of the Rambo franchise, Total Recall, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Basic Instinct, Universal Soldier, Cliffhanger and Stargate.

On May 15,1984, Carolco Pictures entered into a long-time agreement with then-up-and-coming film distributor and fledging studio Tri-Star Pictures, whereas Tri-Star would distribute films in North America, whereas HBO handled pay cable TV rights, and Thorn EMI Video, which handled North American home video distribution rights.

On May 14,1986, Carolco decided to restructure their corporation into a new structure with Peter Hoffman hired as president and CEO of the studio, and decided to set up subsidiaries and alliances within the branch of the own Carolco movie studio.

On December 24,1986, Carolco expanded into video retail holdings by acquiring Filk's Video, which was a Woolbridge, New Jersey video store that has been officially opened shortly and that they teamed up with Tom House of the New York-area American Video Enterprises chain, in order to expand the distribution channels of the Carolco material, and it would be simultaneously with Paramount's move into video retailers.

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Carolco acquired the rights to make a sequel to The Terminator from Hemdale Film Corporation in 1990 .

Halfway through the year, Carolco entered into a joint venture with New Line Cinema to start Seven Arts, a distribution company which primarily released much of Carolco's low-budget output.

Carolco struggled for some years to secure the rights to Spider-Man, a property that Cameron was keen to produce as a film.

Carolco attempted to make Bartholomew vs Neff, a comedy film that was to have been written and directed by John Hughes and would have starred Sylvester Stallone and John Candy.

In 1992, Carolco went under a corporate restructuring, invested in by a partnership of Rizzoli-Corriere della Sera of Italy, Le Studio Canal+ of France, Pioneer, and MGM.

In 1993, Carolco was forced to sell its shares in LIVE Entertainment to a group of investors led by Pioneer; it was later renamed Artisan Entertainment, which was bought by Lions Gate Entertainment.

Cutbacks at Carolco forced the studio to make a deal with TriStar over the funding of the Stallone action film Cliffhanger: Carolco would have to sell full distribution rights in North America, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, Germany, and France to TriStar in exchange for half of the film's budget.

However, Carolco was able to complete a merger with The Vista Organization in late October 1993.

Carolco attempted a comeback with the big-budget swashbuckler Cutthroat Island, with Michael Douglas in the lead.

In October 1994, Carolco ran out of funds and Pioneer invested another $8 million.

Carolco agreed to sell its assets to 20th Century Fox for $50 million.

However, on April 7,2016, it was announced that both Bafer and Kassar had left the company, Kassar taking with him one of Carolco's planned projects, a remake of the 1999 Japanese horror film Audition which he was producing.

The ancillary rights to Carolco's library are held by French production company StudioCanal, since its parent company, Canal+ Group, owned a stake in Carolco, eventually buying out its partners.

In 1992, Carolco Pictures licensed television distribution rights to its library to Spelling Entertainment's Worldvision Enterprises in order to pay off debt.