De Laurentiis Entertainment Group (DEG) was an entertainment

production company A production company, production house, production studio, or a production team is a studio that creates works in the fields of performing arts, new media art, film, television, radio, comics, interactive arts, video games, websites, music, and v ...

and distribution studio founded by Italian producer

Dino De Laurentiis Agostino "Dino" De Laurentiis (; 8 August 1919 – 10 November 2010) was an Italian-American film producer. Along with Carlo Ponti, he was one of the producers who brought Italian cinema to the international scene at the end of World War II. He ...

. The company is notable for producing '' Manhunter'', '' Blue Velvet'', the horror films ''

Near Dark NEAR or Near may refer to: People * Thomas J. Near, US evolutionary ichthyologist * Near, a developer who created the higan emulator Science, mathematics, technology, biology, and medicine * National Emergency Alarm Repeater (NEAR), a forme ...

'' and ''

Evil Dead II ''Evil Dead II'' (also known in publicity materials as ''Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn'') is a 1987 American comedy horror film directed by Sam Raimi. It is considered both a remake and sequel (or "re-quel") to the 1981 film ''The Evil Dead'', and wa ...

'', '' King Kong Lives'' (the sequel to De Laurentiis' remake of ''

King Kong King Kong is a fictional giant monster resembling a gorilla, who has appeared in various media since 1933. He has been dubbed The Eighth Wonder of the World, a phrase commonly used within the franchise. His first appearance was in the novelizat ...

''), and ''

Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure ''Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure'' is a 1989 American science fiction comedy film directed by Stephen Herek and written by Chris Matheson and Ed Solomon. The first installment of the ''Bill & Ted'' franchise, it stars Keanu Reeves, Alex Winte ...

'', as well as distributing '' The Transformers: The Movie''. The company's main studios were located in

Wilmington, North Carolina Wilmington is a port city in and the county seat of New Hanover County in coastal southeastern North Carolina, United States. With a population of 115,451 at the 2020 census, it is the eighth most populous city in the state. Wilmington is t ...

, which is now EUE/Screen Gems Studios. The studio's first releases were in 1986. It went bankrupt two years later after '' Million Dollar Mystery'', among other films, failed at the box office.

Carolco Pictures 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 ...

acquired DEG in 1989.

History

In 1983, Dino De Laurentiis produced '' Firestarter'' in Wilmington. The governor of North Carolina, Jim Hunt, claimed that the filming increased economic activity in the state. Hunt used incentives and loans to allow De Laurentiis to buy a local warehouse to convert into a studio. In early 1984, De Laurentiis founded the North Carolina Film Corporation, with Martha Schumacher as president. In 1985, DEG acquired Embassy Pictures from

The Coca-Cola Company The Coca-Cola Company is an American multinational beverage corporation founded in 1892, best known as the producer of Coca-Cola. The Coca-Cola Company also manufactures, sells, and markets other non-alcoholic beverage concentrates and syrup ...

, allowing for North American distribution of De Laurentiis' new product. Dino De Laurentiis continued to pre-sell his films for overseas distribution, as he had done in the past. In May 1986, De Laurentiis took DEG public, raising $240 million in the process. The following month, DEG's first slate of films were released. In 1986, De Laurentiis formed an Australian subsidiary, De Laurentiis Entertainment Limited (DEL), which built a studio on the

Gold Coast Gold Coast may refer to: Places Africa * Gold Coast (region), in West Africa, which was made up of the following colonies, before being established as the independent nation of Ghana: ** Portuguese Gold Coast (Portuguese, 1482–1642) ** Dutch G ...

. Although De Laurentiis asserted that the company would make films on par with the major studios, most of DEG's slate consisted of films budgeted at $10 million or less, below the industry standard of $14–16 million, with the notable exceptions of '' King Kong Lives'' and ''

Tai-Pan A tai-pan (,Andrew J. Moody, "Transmission Languages and Source Languages of Chinese Borrowings in English", ''American Speech'', Vol. 71, No. 4 (Winter, 1996), pp. 414-415. literally "top class"汉英词典 — ''A Chinese-English Dictionary' ...

'', the only studio-level films DEG financed. Also that year, DEG entered into a strategic partnership with producers

Fred Silverman Fred Silverman (September 13, 1937 – January 30, 2020) was an American television executive and producer. He worked as an executive at all of the Big Three television networks, and was responsible for bringing to television such programs as '' ...

and Gordon Farr to launch the syndicated strip '' Honeymoon Hotel'', with a promise to run it for 100 episodes, and a new starring vehicle for

Isabel Sanford Isabel Sanford (born Eloise Gwendolyn Sanford; August 29, 1917 – July 9, 2004) was an American stage, film, and television actress and comedian best known for her role as Louise "Weezy" Mills Jefferson on the CBS sitcoms ''All in the Fami ...

. Later that year, DEG also financed another syndicated strip with Silverman and Farr to set up ''California Girls'', with Viacom Enterprises serving as distributor of the series. By August 1987, DEG was $16.5 million in debt, citing the box-office failures and/or disappointments of its product. Dino De Laurentiis refused offers to sell the company because he wanted to retain

controlling interest A controlling interest is an ownership interest in a corporation with enough voting stock shares to prevail in any stockholders' motion. A majority of voting shares (over 50%) is always a controlling interest. When a party holds less than the major ...

. Around the same time, De Laurentiis' daughter Raffaella exited her role as DEG's president of production. De Laurentiis' North Carolina studio would be sold by

and the Gold Coast studio would be acquired by

Village Roadshow Village Roadshow Limited is an Australian company which operates cinemas and theme parks, and produces and distributes films. Before being acquired by private equity company BGH Capital, the company was listed on the Australian Securities Ex ...

. The De Laurentiis library is currently owned by StudioCanal via its acquisition of the Paravision International library; with some exceptions. Films that were distributed by United Artists are now owned by Amazon, via Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, while films by HBO Pictures are owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. North American home video rights to much of their films are split between MGM Home Entertainment (for the Embassy library via PolyGram) and Lionsgate Films (for the rest). '' My Little Pony: The Movie'' and '' The Transformers: The Movie'' are now owned by Hasbro after obtaining the rights from Sunbow Entertainment (along with all other animated series based on Hasbro properties).

Films released

Canadian distribution of DEG releases were done by Paramount Pictures. DEG had an early version of '' Total Recall'' in pre-production with

Patrick Swayze Patrick Wayne Swayze (; August 18, 1952 – September 14, 2009) was an American actor, dancer, and singer known for playing distinctive lead roles, particularly romantic, tough, and comedic characters. He was also known for his media image and ...

as Quaid and

Bruce Beresford Bruce Beresford (; born 16 August 1940) is an Australian film director who has made more than 30 feature films over a 50-year career, both locally and internationally in the United States. Beresford's notable films he has directed include '' B ...

to direct ( David Cronenberg had also been approached), where it was to have been shot in Australia. After DEG's bankruptcy, the film went in turnaround to

. Along with the Embassy Pictures library, De Laurentiis Entertainment Group's library was sold to Paravision, a subsidiary of

L'Oréal L'Oréal S.A. () is a French personal care company headquartered in Clichy, Hauts-de-Seine with a registered office in Paris. It is the world's largest cosmetics company and has developed activities in the field concentrating on hair color, ...

, in 1989. The library was later sold to

Canal+ Canals or artificial waterways are waterways or engineered channels built for drainage management (e.g. flood control and irrigation) or for conveyancing water transport vehicles (e.g. water taxi). They carry free, calm surface flo ...

and is currently held by

StudioCanal StudioCanal S.A.S. (formerly known as Le Studio Canal+, Canal Plus, Canal+ Distribution, Canal+ D.A., Canal+ Production, and Canal+ Image and also known as StudioCanal International) is a French film production and distribution company that owns ...

References

{{Authority control American companies established in 1984 American companies disestablished in 1989 Entertainment companies established in 1984 Mass media companies established in 1984 Mass media companies disestablished in 1989 Film production companies of the United States Film distributors of the United States Defunct American film studios Companies based in Wilmington, North Carolina 1984 establishments in North Carolina 1989 disestablishments in North Carolina