Guild Home Video (GHV) or Guild Film Distribution was one of the first video distribution companies to start operating in the UK. Unlike other independent labels such as Intervision or Videoform, GHV not only survived for a very long time, but continued to grow, eventually becoming a video distributor for independent studios such as

Carolco Carolco Pictures, Inc. was an American independent film studio that existed from 1976 to 1995, founded by Mario Kassar and Andrew G. Vajna. Kassar and Vajna ran Carolco together until 1989, when Vajna left to form Cinergi Pictures. Carolco h ...

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, and Lorimar. The videos were released by Video Collection International and

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Origins

Originally based in Oundle Road,

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before moving to Church Street,

Walton-on-Thames Walton-on-Thames, locally known as Walton, is a market town on the south bank of the Thames in the Elmbridge borough of Surrey, England. Walton forms part of the Greater London built-up area, within the KT postcode and is served by a wide ...

, Guild Home Video were one of the biggest of the early video companies, and responsible for distributing a large and varied catalogue of movies. The initial batch of releases came out in mid-1980 and were easily recognisable by the sky blue, stylised 'G' symbol that the company retained throughout its life (with only a colour change to gold in 1987) and the logo was redrawn for an updated, cleaner look in 1984. The original Guild catalogue included a large array of features ranging from creaky and dated British science-fiction/horror fare such as '' The Beast in the Cellar'', '' The Body Stealers'' and '' Doomwatch'', to documentary/non-fiction titles such as ''The Entertaining Electron'' and ''Reardon on Snooker'' as well as recent box office hits such as

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's '' Scanners'' and Jack Nicholson's remake of '' The Postman Always Rings Twice''. Many classic Australian movies such as ''My Brilliant Career'', ''Breaker Morant'' and ''Money Movers'' were also released at that time too. The original catalogue was uncommonly large by the standards of most labels at that time, with well over 100 titles released within the first two years of trading alone, and Guild became well known for the professionalism of its product. At a time when many of the independent labels were resorting to tacky and often distastefully lurid cover designs to get its products noticed (Go Video's ''

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/SS Experiment Camp'' and Vipco's '' The Driller Killer'' being prime examples), GHV adopted a much more subtle approach. Early Guild covers were colour-coded. Cassettes for "hire only" carried a Pink band round the base of the sleeve, while later Hire/Sale cassettes carried a sky blue band round the top. There were also a number of tapes with a yellow band as well, but these are all but extinct now and desirable when found.

Growth

Guild Home Video continued to grow steadily throughout the 1980s, notable especially as one of the very few independent labels to survive the 1984 Video Recordings Act (1). This ruinous and reactionary response to the " Video Nasties" crisis meant that any movie available on video had to carry a BBFC video certificate. As each film would cost hundreds of pounds to classify if re-submitted, many independent labels found it uneconomic to submit their entire back catalogues and several simply went out of business. GHV, by now exclusive distributors to the likes of Cannon, The Samuel Goldwyn Company and Lorimar were able to continue on the strength on their newer titles and the older back catalogue generally disappeared from view. More successful titles such as '' Straw Dogs'' and '' Suppose They Gave a War and Nobody Came'' were among the first budget "sell through" titles to appear when Video Collection began retailing cut-price movies in 1986. In 1986, it also saw the launch of Guild's short-lived Frontier brand. It apparently released just seven titles. Between 1991 and 1992, Guild revived a brand but under the name Capital Home Video, which only released indie titles and a few known titles such as '' Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers''. In 1986, it entered into an agreement with

Karl-Lorimar Home Video Lorimar Productions, Inc., later known as Lorimar Television and Lorimar Distribution, was an American production company that was later a subsidiary of Warner Bros., active from 1969 until 1993, when it was folded into Warner Bros. Televisio ...

to release titles for the British home video market. Later that year, it inked into an agreement with Medusa Communications in order that Guild Home Video to supply Medusa for Guild two titles a month per year, in effect at the end of January, and marked the first time the company, which had three titles a month, had to distribute titles by other companies, and the company already had a two-year pact with CBS/Fox Video. In 1987, Guild decided to expand and supply into theatrical distribution via subsidiary Guild Film Distribution (formerly Guild International Distributors), and it was on good terms with film distributor Carolco Pictures in order to acquire all UK rights to ''

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'', as well as video rights to Carolco's upcoming pictures '' Angel Heart'' and '' Rambo III'', and decided into a package of three films that were produced by New Century Entertainment, which included '' Russkies'', '' Nowhere to Hide'' and ''Kid Gloves'', and picked up home video rights to an Australian feature, which was '' Coolangatta Gold'', and Guild picked up theatrical rights to '' A Prayer for the Dying'', which was produced by The Samuel Goldwyn Company.

Decline

By the early 1990s, the home video industry was changing drastically as the video trade was being dominated more and more by the big studios. It was in this climate that GHV had its climax in major success. In 1988, they secured a distribution deal with Hollywood mini-major Carolco Pictures, which resulted in them gaining exclusive UK video rights for big budget blockbuster movies such as '' Terminator 2: Judgment Day'', '' Total Recall'', '' Cliffhanger'', '' Rambo III'' and ''

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''. GHV merged with Pathé in 1996, forming Guild Pathé Cinema Limited. Guild Pathe Cinema (1996)

Guild Home Video shut down all UK operations in 1998, when Guild Pathé Cinema, became Pathé Distribution. Guild also had rental distribution rights with

20th Century Fox 20th Century Studios, Inc. (previously known as 20th Century Fox) is an American film studio, 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 o ...

, operating as Fox Guild Home Entertainment and after the Pathé merger, Fox Pathé Home Entertainment. The company itself remained as an in-name only dormant business of Pathé until folding on 17 December 2019.

References

{{Authority control Home video distributors Video rental services Video production companies Mass media companies established in 1979 Film distributors of the United Kingdom Mass media companies disestablished in 1998 1979 establishments in the United Kingdom 1998 disestablishments in the United Kingdom