25 Facts About Orion Television

Orion Television held a $100 million line of credit and its films would be distributed by the Warner Bros.

Orion Television 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 Television signed its first contract, a two-picture deal with John Travolta's production company.

Orion Television developed a co-financing and distribution deal with EMI Films.

Later that year, Orion Television released Blake Edwards' 10 which became a commercial success, the first for Edwards in over a decade.

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Out of the 23 films Orion Television released between April 1979 and December 1981, only a third of them made a profit.

Orion Television executives were conflicted over financing big-budgeted films and passed on Raiders of the Lost Ark for that reason.

Orion Television was now looking to have its own distribution network by acquiring another company with such capabilities.

In 1983, Orion Television Pictures introduced art-house division Orion Television Classics with executives who had previously run United Artists Classics.

In September 1984, Orion Television distributed Amadeus, which garnered many accolades, winning eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture.

In 1987, Orion Television achieved further success with RoboCop and No Way Out.

Soon Kluge started buying more Orion Television stock, leading to his and Redstone's battling it out to take over the company.

In 1989, Orion Television suffered from a disastrous slate of films, placing themselves dead last among the larger Hollywood studios in terms of box office revenue.

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 Television had previously licensed its films to individual distributors territory by territory.

On November 25,1991, Orion sold its Hollywood Squares format rights to King World Productions after Orion closed down its television division.

In December 1991, Orion Television was in talks with New Line Cinema, a successful independent film company, to acquire the bankrupt studio.

The good news is that Orion Television was just purchased, and the bad news is it was bought by the House of Representatives.

Orion Television 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.

In 2013, Orion returned to television production with a new syndicated series, Paternity Court.

In 2017, Orion Television TV added another court series, Couples Court, to its syndicated line up.

Under his leadership, the "new" Orion Television 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.

However, in most cases, the 1980s Orion Television logo has been retained or added, in the case of the Filmways and AIP libraries.

Orion Television retains a controlling interest in The Cotton Club, although major rights are now with Lionsgate, which owns the library of presenting studio Zoetrope Corporation.

Orion Television releases produced by the Hemdale Film Corporation and Nelson Entertainment are included in MGM's library as well, and are incorporated into the Orion Television library.

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