Genius Products (also known as Genius Entertainment) was an entertainment company based in

Santa Monica, California Santa Monica (; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Santa Mónica'') is a city in Los Angeles County, California, Los Angeles County, situated along Santa Monica Bay on California's South Coast (California), South Coast. Santa Monica's 2020 United Sta ...

, United States. The ''Baby Genius'' line was one of a number of "smart toys" that came out in response to a study book about the

Mozart effect The Mozart effect is the theory that listening to the music of Mozart may temporarily boost scores on one portion of an IQ test. Popular science versions of the theory make the claim that "listening to Mozart makes you smarter" or that early childh ...

. Genius also released DVDs for other companies, including

Entertainment Rights Entertainment Rights PLC (formally known as Sleepy Kids) was a British multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate that specialized in TV-shows and cartoons, children’s media, films, and distribution. In May 2009, the company was ...

Classic Media Classic Media, LLC, doing business as DreamWorks Classics, is an American entertainment company owned by DreamWorks Animation, which is a subsidiary of Universal Pictures and a division of Comcast's NBCUniversal. It was founded as Classic Media ...

Sesame Workshop Sesame Workshop (SW), originally known as the Children's Television Workshop (CTW), is an American nonprofit organization that has been responsible for the production of several educational children's programs—including its first and best-know ...

(from 2007 to 2009),

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...

Discovery Communications Discovery, Inc. was an American multinational mass media factual television conglomerate based in New York City. Established in 1985, the company operated a group of factual and lifestyle television brands, such as the namesake Discovery Chann ...

World Wrestling Entertainment World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc., d/b/a as WWE, is an American professional wrestling promotion. A global integrated media and entertainment company, WWE has also branched out into other fields, including film, American football, and vario ...

, and

PorchLight Entertainment PorchLight Entertainment, Inc. was an American animation and live-action studio founded in 1995 by Bruce D. Johnson and William T. Baumann. It is focused on development & production of television series in both live action and animation. It spec ...

History

Genius Products Inc. was founded in

San Diego, California San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the eighth most populous city in the United States ...

in 1999. created by Klaus Moeller and

Larry Balaban Larry is a masculine given name in English, derived from Lawrence or Laurence. It can be a shortened form of those names. Larry may refer to the following: People Arts and entertainment * Larry D. Alexander, American artist/writer *Larry Boone ...

. In 2001, the video release of ''Baby Genius: The Four Seasons'' won a Kids First! award, beating ''

Teletubbies ''Teletubbies'' is a British children's television series created by Anne Wood and Andrew Davenport for the BBC. The programme focuses on four differently coloured characters known as the Teletubbies, named after the television screens on th ...

''. By 2002,

AOL Time Warner Warner Media, LLC ( traded as WarnerMedia) was an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate. It was headquartered at the 30 Hudson Yards complex in New York City, United States. It was originally established in 1972 by ...

was distributing ''Baby Genius'' products. Genius Products acquired American Vantage Media (formerly Fox Lorber, Winstar TV & Video, and Wellspring Media, spun off from

Winstar Communications Winstar Communications (at some point WinStar Communications) was an American telecommunications company that provided broadband services to business customers. Winstar owned and operated a broadband network in 60 major markets in the United State ...

in 2001) in early 2005. On December 5, 2005, Genius Products, Inc. announced a distribution

joint venture A joint venture (JV) is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, shared returns and risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint ventures for one of four reasons: to acces ...

with

The Weinstein Company The Weinstein Company (usually credited or abbreviated as TWC) was an American independent film studio, founded in New York City by Bob and Harvey Weinstein in March 2005. TWC was one of the largest mini-major film studios in North America prior ...

(TWC) called Genius Products, LLC (GPL), with Weinstein holding a 70% stake. GPL would hold the Wellspring film library, including the Fox Lorber, Winstar and American Vantage Media titles, and the bulk of GPI's assets. Weinstein Co. added distribution rights for its products combined with no cash and received a 50% cut in the distribution fee on their films. The high-profile with Weinstein helped Genius Products to open the doors to major retailers like

Wal-Mart Walmart Inc. (; formerly Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.) is an American multinational retail corporation that operates a chain of hypermarkets (also called supercenters), discount department stores, and grocery stores from the United States, headquarter ...

and

Target Target may refer to: Physical items * Shooting target, used in marksmanship training and various shooting sports ** Bullseye (target), the goal one for which one aims in many of these sports ** Aiming point, in field artillery, fi ...

. With major retailers available to Genius, other entertainment companies including

and

Robert Halmi Robert Halmi (Sr.) ( hu, Halmi Róbert; January 22, 1924 – July 30, 2014) was a Hungarian-born producer of movies and mini-series for television. Early life Robert Halmi was born in Budapest on January 22, 1924. His father, Béla Halmi, was a ...

Inc. had signed with them. Under Weinstein's order, the Wellspring Home Entertainment division was moved to

at the end of April, dropping most of the previous staff and closing its theatrical distribution unit, while transferring theatrical distribution to TWC. TWC also arranged for direct-to-video funding from

Blockbuster Blockbuster or Block Buster may refer to: *Blockbuster (entertainment) a term coined for an extremely successful movie, from which most other uses are derived. Corporations * Blockbuster (retailer), a defunct video and game rental chain ** Bl ...

in exchange for exclusive rental rights. Expecting the indistinguishable dozen films to be made (possibly by a standing Romanian-based crew) under the multi-year deal would generate regular income of $1 to $2 million. In January 2006, Pacific Entertainment, formed by Moeller and Balaban, purchased ''Baby Genius'' and other lines from Genius Products, Inc. for $3 million. The other lines were preschool brands such as ''Wee Worship'' and the ''

Little Tikes Little Tikes is an American manufacturer of children's toys, with headquarters and manufacturing located in Hudson, Ohio. The company also has other manufacturing and distribution facilities in Asia and Europe. Little Tikes' products are mostly l ...

'' music and DVD series. Genius Products retained exclusive U.S. distribution rights for the lines. In April 2006, Genius Products signed a distribution agreement with Tartan USA, an American division of the British company Tartan Films to distribute its titles on DVD, taking over from TLA Releasing. In July 2006, Genius Products signed a agreement with

ESPN Inc. ESPN Inc. is an American multinational sports media conglomerate majority-owned by The Walt Disney Company, with Hearst Communications as an equity stakeholder. For management and financial reporting purposes, the company is the main entity wit ...

to distribute DVDs of ESPN programs via the ESPN Home Entertainment label. In October 2006, Genius Products signed distribution agreements with

Discovery Kids Discovery Kids (stylized as Discovery K!ds) is a brand name owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. Starting as a television segment within the Discovery Channel, the brand expanded as a separate television channel. Most of its worldwide channels were ei ...

and

to distribute their titles on DVD. On December 10, 2006, Genius Products signed a distribution agreement with

RHI Entertainment Halcyon Studios, LLC., formerly known as Sonar Entertainment, RHI Entertainment, Hallmark Entertainment, Qintex Entertainment, HRI Group and Robert Halmi Inc., is an American entertainment company specializing in the production and distribution ...

(now known as Sonar Entertainment) to distribute its miniseries and television films on DVD. In January and February 2007, Genius Products and The Weinstein Co. signed distribution and co-production agreements with

and

after Sesame Workshop and Classic Media's deals with

Sony Wonder Sony Wonder (founded as Sony Kids’ Music) is the kids and family entertainment label of Sony Pictures Home Entertainment and the former record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment. Despite the similarity in name, Sony Wonder is not direct ...

ended. Genius would distribute Sesame Workshop and ER/Classic Media's shows, while Weinstein Co. would work with Sesame and ER/Classic Media on current properties and for future development. At this time,

Steve Bannon Stephen Kevin Bannon (born November 27, 1953) is an American media executive, political strategist, and former investment banker. He served as the White House's chief strategist in the administration of U.S. president Donald Trump during t ...

was the chairman of the board at Genius. In 2009, investment firm Quadrant Management affiliate, GNPR Investments, acquired 60% of Genius Products, LLC, with TWC retaining 15% and Genius Products, Inc. holding 25%. Later that year, Genius' home video distribution rights were acquired by

Vivendi Entertainment Gaiam Vivendi Entertainment (formerly known as Vivendi Entertainment, Vivendi Visual Entertainment and Visual Entertainment) is an independent film, television, DVD and digital distribution company operating in the United States and Canada. It is ...

, while distribution rights to

were sold to

Warner Home Video Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Inc. (formerly known as Warner Home Video and WCI Home Video and sometimes credited as Warner Home Entertainment) is the home video distribution division of Warner Bros. It was founded in 1978 as WCI Home Video ...

. In 2011, GPL was pushed into involuntary bankruptcy over $8.5 million in debt by

and two other companies.

Distribution rights

Animal Planet Animal Planet (stylized in all lowercase since 2018) is an American multinational pay television channel owned by the Warner Bros. Discovery Networks unit of Warner Bros. Discovery. First established on June 1, 1996, the network is primarily dev ...

* BFC Berliner Film Companie Distribution GmbH * BKN International AG *

(2007-2009, NA) *

(2006-2009) * ESPN Home Entertainment *

Inc. * Pacific Entertainment (2006-2009) *

NBC News NBC News is the news division of the American broadcast television network NBC. The division operates under NBCUniversal Television and Streaming, a division of NBCUniversal, which is, in turn, a subsidiary of Comcast. The news division's var ...

(2006-2009, US) *

(2007-2009, NA) *

Sundance Channel Sundance Channel can refer to: * Sundance TV, formerly known as Sundance Channel (United States). * Sundance Channel (Canada) * Sundance Channel (Netherlands) * Sundance Channel (Europe) * Sundance Channel (Iberia) * Sundance Channel (Asia) Sundanc ...

TLC TLC may refer to: Arts and entertainment Television * ''TLC'' (TV series), a 2002 British situational comedy television series that aired on BBC2 * TLC (TV network), formerly the Learning Channel, an American cable TV network ** TLC (Asia), an A ...

(2006-2009, US)

References

{{Authority control The Weinstein Company Companies traded over-the-counter in the United States Entertainment companies established in 1996 Entertainment companies disestablished in 2011 Companies based in Los Angeles County, California Home video companies of the United States