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Vestron Pictures Films
Vestron Video was the main subsidiary of Vestron, Inc., a home video company based in Stamford, Connecticut, that was active from 1981 to 1993, and is considered to have been a pioneer in the home video market. The name is now used for a collector-oriented home entertainment label of Lionsgate. History Vestron was founded in 1981 by Austin Owen Furst Jr. (born 1943), an executive at HBO, who was hired to dismantle the assets of Time-Life Films. Furst bought the video rights of the film library for himself and decided to form a home entertainment company with these assets. Furst's daughter suggested the moniker "Vestron," a portmanteau combining the name of Roman goddess Vesta and "Tron", which means "instrument" in Greek. The company held on to its Time-Life Video library, and was also responsible for releases on videocassette and CED Videodisc (CED) of mostly B movies and films from the Cannon Films' library. They also distributed films under The Movie Store banner. The most ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chapter 11 Bankruptcy
Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code (Title 11 of the United States Code) permits reorganization under the bankruptcy laws of the United States. Such reorganization, known as Chapter 11 bankruptcy, is available to every business, whether organized as a corporation, partnership or sole proprietorship, and to individuals, although it is most prominently used by corporate entities. In contrast, Chapter 7 governs the process of a liquidation bankruptcy, though liquidation may also occur under Chapter 11; while Chapter 13 provides a reorganization process for the majority of private individuals. Chapter 11 overview When a business is unable to service its debt or pay its creditors, the business or its creditors can file with a federal bankruptcy court for protection under either Chapter 7 or Chapter 11. In Chapter 7, the business ceases operations, a trustee sells all of its assets, and then distributes the proceeds to its creditors. Any residual amount is returned to t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by amazon (company), Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded on April 17, 1924 and based in Beverly Hills, California. MGM was formed by Marcus Loew by combining Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures, and Louis B. Mayer Productions, Louis B. Mayer Pictures into one company. It hired a number of well known actors as contract players—its slogan was "more stars than there are in heaven"—and soon became Hollywood's most prestigious film studio, producing popular musical films and winning many Academy Awards. MGM also owned film studios, movie lots, movie theaters and technical production facilities. Its most prosperous era, from 1926 to 1959, was bracketed by two productions of ''Ben-Hur (1959 film), Ben Hur''. After that, it divested itself of the Loews movie theater chain, and, in the 1960s, diversified ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Empire International Pictures
Empire International Pictures (aka Empire Entertainment) was an American small-scale theatrical distribution company. Charles Band formed Empire in 1983, prompted by his dissatisfaction with distributors' handling of films made by his previous business, Charles Band International Productions. Empire produced and distributed a number of low-budget horror and fantasy feature films, including ''Re-Animator'', ''Troll'', ''Ghoulies'', ''Trancers'', and '' From Beyond''. History Early years (1983–1984) Sensing the emerging theatrical market for independently produced horror and science-fiction films, producer Charles Band decided to create a small production company to compete with the major Hollywood studios. The name ''Empire Pictures'' first surfaced in May 1983 at the Cannes Film Festival, where Band sought funding for ''Parasite II'', a proposed sequel to his successful movie ''Parasite'' (1982). Initial Empire productions included ''Swordkill'' (aka ''Ghost Warrior'') an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The House On Sorority Row
''The House on Sorority Row'' (also known as ''House of Evil'' in the United Kingdom) is a 1982 American slasher film written and directed by Mark Rosman, produced by John G. Clark, and starring Eileen Davidson and Kathryn McNeil. The plot follows a group of sorority sisters being stalked and murdered during their graduation party after they conceal a fatal prank against their house mother. Partly inspired by the 1955 French film '' Les Diaboliques'', first-time writer-director Rosman wrote the screenplay for the film in 1980, then titled ''Seven Sisters''. The film was shot on location in Pikesville, Maryland in the summer months of 1980, with additional photography taking place in Los Angeles. In November 1982, it received a limited regional theatrical release before expanding on January 21, 1983. The following week it rose to number one, eventually going on to gross $10.6 million at the box office. Despite a mixed critical response on release, the film has obtained a large c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vigilante (film)
''Vigilante'', later released on video as ''Street Gang'', is a 1982 American vigilante film directed by William Lustig and starring Robert Forster and Fred Williamson. Lustig came upon the idea for the film through a news article about "a group of blue collar workers in southern New Jersey who had organized to fight crime in their neighborhood". Plot Eddie Marino (Robert Forster) is a factory worker in New York City. He has a wife named Vickie (Rutanya Alda) and an eight-year-old son named Scott ( Dante Joseph). Eddie's friend and co-worker, Nick (Fred Williamson), and two other co-workers, Burke and Ramon, have formed a secret vigilante group because Nick and the group are fed up with the crime in their neighborhoods. Nick and his group are also tired of the police, because the police always fail to protect people. Nick's "group" has support of various residents of the neighborhood who indirectly help them. In one example, a local thug stalks and chases a young woman to a roof ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Variety (magazine)
''Variety'' is an American media company owned by Penske Media Corporation. The company was founded by Sime Silverman in New York City in 1905 as a weekly newspaper reporting on theater and vaudeville. In 1933 it added ''Daily Variety'', based in Los Angeles, to cover the motion-picture industry. ''Variety.com'' features entertainment news, reviews, box office results, cover stories, videos, photo galleries and features, plus a credits database, production charts and calendar, with archive content dating back to 1905. History Foundation ''Variety'' has been published since December 16, 1905, when it was launched by Sime Silverman as a weekly periodical covering theater and vaudeville with its headquarters in New York City. Silverman had been fired by ''The Morning Telegraph'' in 1905 for panning an act which had taken out an advert for $50. As a result, he decided to start his own publication "that ouldnot be influenced by advertising." With a loan of $1,500 from his father- ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
David Begelman
David Begelman (August 26, 1921 – August 7, 1995) was an American film producer, film executive and talent agent who was involved in a studio embezzlement scandal in the 1970s. Life and career Begelman was born to a Jewish family in New York City. His father was a Manhattan tailor. Begelman was in the United States Army Air Forces during World War II. He then became a student at New York University. Following college, he worked in the insurance business. He worked at the Music Corporation of America (MCA Inc.) for more than 11 years starting in the mid-1950s, eventually becoming vice president. He left in 1960 to co-found the talent agency Creative Management Associates (CMA) with Freddie Fields. Their clients included Judy Garland, Barbra Streisand, Liza Minnelli, Woody Allen, Gregory Peck, Paul Newman, Steve McQueen, Jackie Gleason and Fred Astaire. At CMA, Fields and Begelman pioneered the movie "package", where the talent agency put their stars, directors and writers tog ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Initial Public Offering
An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investment banks, who also arrange for the shares to be listed on one or more stock exchanges. Through this process, colloquially known as ''floating'', or ''going public'', a privately held company is transformed into a public company. Initial public offerings can be used to raise new equity capital for companies, to monetize the investments of private shareholders such as company founders or private equity investors, and to enable easy trading of existing holdings or future capital raising by becoming publicly traded. After the IPO, shares are traded freely in the open market at what is known as the free float. Stock exchanges stipulate a minimum free float both in absolute terms (the total value as determined by the share price multiplied by the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
New York Stock Exchange
The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE, nicknamed "The Big Board") is an American stock exchange in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It is by far the world's largest stock exchange by market capitalization of its listed companies at US$30.1 trillion as of February 2018. The average daily trading value was approximately 169 billion in 2013. The NYSE trading floor is at the New York Stock Exchange Building on 11 Wall Street and 18 Broad Street and is a National Historic Landmark. An additional trading room, at 30 Broad Street, was closed in February 2007. The NYSE is owned by Intercontinental Exchange, an American holding company that it also lists (). Previously, it was part of NYSE Euronext (NYX), which was formed by the NYSE's 2007 merger with Euronext. History The earliest recorded organization of securities trading in New York among brokers directly dealing with each other can be traced to the Buttonwood Agreement. Previously, securiti ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
VidAmerica
VidAmerica was a home video distributor established in 1979 as a subsidiary of Video Corporation of America and headquartered in New York City, NY. It was set up to pioneer the concept of renting videocassettes through mail, which led to failure where each week, tapes kept disappearing somewhere in the postal system, much to the chagrin of VidAmerica executives as they considered stamping the packages a "nuclear waste" before giving up on long-distance retail. During its lifetime, VidAmerica distributed B-movies, independent films, special interest videos, and public domain titles, as well as films from the RKO Radio Pictures library and select Avco-Embassy Pictures titles, on VHS, and rented most of its tapes on a seven-day basis for $9.95 to $13.95 (subscribers receive six Program Guides a year). It also originally had an exclusive rental contract with United Artists during its second year of existence (1980), as VidAmerica distributed 20 titles from the UA library (e.g. '' The ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Image Entertainment
RLJ Entertainment (formerly Image Entertainment) is an American film production company and home video distributor, distributing film and television productions in North America, with approximately 3,200 exclusive DVD titles and approximately 340 exclusive CD titles in domestic release, and approximately 450 programs internationally via sublicense agreements. For many of its titles, Image has exclusive audio and broadcast rights as well as digital download rights to approximately 2,100 video programs and over 400 audio programs containing more than 6,000 tracks. The company is headquartered in Chatsworth, California. History Founded in 1981 as a public company known as Image Entertainment, Image began as a distributor of LaserDiscs, whose sound and picture quality surpassed that of VHS and Beta, the dominant tape formats of the time. Image successfully secured exclusive output deals with major studios such as Universal Studios, 20th Century Fox, Orion Pictures, and The Wal ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
