Deluxe Media Inc., also known simply as Deluxe and formerly Deluxe Entertainment Services Group, Inc., is an American
multinational multimedia and entertainment service provisions company owned by
Platinum Equity,
founded in 1915 by
Hungarian-born American
film producer
A film producer is a person who oversees film production. Either employed by a production company or working independently, producers plan and coordinate various aspects of film production, such as selecting the script, coordinating writing, di ...
William Fox and headquartered in
Burbank, California
Burbank is a city in the southeastern end of the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Located northwest of downtown Los Angeles, Burbank has a population of 107,337. The city was named after David Burbank, w ...
.
Servicing multiple clients in the film, television, digital content and advertising industries across the globe, the company has been recognized with 10
Academy Awards for scientific and technical achievements, including developments in
CinemaScope
CinemaScope is an anamorphic lens series used, from 1953 to 1967, and less often later, for shooting widescreen films that, crucially, could be screened in theatres using existing equipment, albeit with a lens adapter. Its creation in 1953 by ...
pictures (as part of
20th Century Fox
20th Century Studios, Inc. (previously known as 20th Century Fox) is an American film production company headquartered at the Fox Studio Lot in the Century City area of Los Angeles. As of 2019, it serves as a film production arm of Walt Dis ...
) and more recently for a process of creating archival separations from digital image data.
History
Deluxe began as a film processing laboratory established in 1915 by William Fox under the name De Luxe as part of
his eponymous film conglomerate corporation in
Fort Lee, New Jersey.
In 1916, Fox Film Corporation opened its studio in
Hollywood
Hollywood usually refers to:
* Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California
* Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States
Hollywood may also refer to:
Places United States
* Hollywood District (disambiguation)
* Hollywood, ...
on 13 acres at Sunset and Western.
The first Deluxe film laboratory on the west coast was built on the south side of the lot (Fernwood and Serrano), and the laboratory was moved to the new Fox studios building on Manhattan's west side in 1919, where it remained for over 40 years. The "business manager" (later president) of the laboratory was
Alan E. Freedman
Alan Eliot Freedman (October 12, 1889 – April 29, 1980) was a pioneer and long-time executive in the motion picture film processing industry. He founded DeLuxe Laboratories after serving as president of its predecessor, Fox Film Laboratorie ...
, who guided the company into the 1960s.
In 1927, Fox (Deluxe) received a patent for sound-on-film, the Fox Movietone process.
In 1927, "Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans," an early Movietone film, opened.
Fox Movietone News, ran weekly in theaters until 1963.
During the
Great Depression
The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...
, Fox Film Corporation encountered financial difficulties. Among the actions taken to maintain liquidity, Fox sold the laboratories in 1932 to Freedman, who renamed the operation Deluxe. Under Freedman's leadership, Deluxe added two more plants in Chicago and Toronto. In January 1934, Fox was granted an option to rebuy DeLuxe before December 31, 1938. On 31 May 1935, under
Sidney Kent, Fox merged his film company with
Twentieth Century Pictures to form The Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation (which would change name to an unhypenated ''Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation'' in 1985 and would
be acquired and evolved by The Walt Disney Company into the current ''
20th Century Studios
20th Century Studios, Inc. (previously known as 20th Century Fox) is an American film production company headquartered at the Fox Studio Lot in the Century City area of Los Angeles. As of 2019, it serves as a film production arm of Walt Disn ...
'') following a bank-infused reorganisation. The merged company then exercised this option in July 1936, with Freedman remaining as president.
In 1953, Deluxe developed the widescreen format
CinemaScope
CinemaScope is an anamorphic lens series used, from 1953 to 1967, and less often later, for shooting widescreen films that, crucially, could be screened in theatres using existing equipment, albeit with a lens adapter. Its creation in 1953 by ...
.
Titles included "There's No Business Like Show Business" (1954) and "The Seven Year Itch" (1955).
Other innovations included the processing and sound striping of
CinemaScope
CinemaScope is an anamorphic lens series used, from 1953 to 1967, and less often later, for shooting widescreen films that, crucially, could be screened in theatres using existing equipment, albeit with a lens adapter. Its creation in 1953 by ...
, and were patented and/or received Academy awards.
In 1962 Freedman retired. In the 1960s, Deluxe closed its New York plant, followed by its plants in Chicago and Toronto, as motion picture production declined on the East Coast.
In 1972, Deluxe began large volume videocassette production, with a billion by 1996.
In 1990,
The Rank Organisation acquired Deluxe from Fox.
In 2000, Deluxe began large volume DVD production.
In 2006,
The Rank Organisation sells Deluxe Film Group to
MacAndrews & Forbes, renamed Deluxe Entertainment Services Group.
On 9 February 2012, Deluxe acquired
Hong Kong-based visual effects and post-production company, Centro Digital Pictures, with its founder John Chu remaining as president while reporting to Alaric McAusland, managing director for Deluxe in Australia.
In May 2014, Deluxe shut down its Los Angeles plant at Sunset & Western Studios complex, where other studios themselves were demolished way back in 1971. Also that same year, Deluxe closed the Hollywood film labs,
and they gave thousands of orphaned film elements to the
Academy Film Archive. The Deluxe Laboratories Collection at the Academy Film Archive consists of over 7,500 35mm and 16mm film elements of various motion pictures dating back to the early 1960s.
On 22 April 2015, Deluxe and its longtime competitor,
Technicolor S.A.
Vantiva SA, formerly Technicolor SA, Thomson SARL, and Thomson Multimedia, is a French multinational corporation that provides creative services and technology products for the communication, media and entertainment industries. Vantiva's headq ...
, announced that they had entered into a binding agreement to create a new joint venture known as ''Deluxe Technicolor Digital Cinema'' which will specialize in cinema mastering, distribution and management services.
Deluxe got acquired on 4 September 2019 by creditors in a debt-for-equity swap to avoid bankruptcy.
On 3 October 2019, Deluxe filed for bankruptcy, pending in the Southern District of New York. The same month on the 24th, the company received court approval to emerge from bankruptcy with a comprehensive restructuring plan.
On July 1, 2020,
Platinum Equity agreed to acquire the distribution division of Deluxe and re-unite with former CEO Cyril Drabinsky who would merge CineVizion, a film distribution company he founded after leaving Deluxe in 2016, into it. The companies
Company 3 and
Method Studios which formed the creative divisions of Deluxe were sold to
Framestore in November 2020.
See also
*
DeLuxe Color
*
Alan E. Freedman
Alan Eliot Freedman (October 12, 1889 – April 29, 1980) was a pioneer and long-time executive in the motion picture film processing industry. He founded DeLuxe Laboratories after serving as president of its predecessor, Fox Film Laboratorie ...
*
Sol M. Wurtzel
Solomon Max Wurtzel (September 12, 1890 – April 9, 1958) was an American film producer.
Life and career
Born in New York City, the second of five brothers; his parents were both Polish Jews from the village of Ulanow (Surname ''Wurtzel'' i ...
References
External links
* {{Official website, https://www.bydeluxe.com/
Film and video technology
Digital media
Technology companies established in 1915
20th Century Studios
Universal Pictures
1915 establishments in New Jersey
Companies based in Burbank, California