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| Type | Subsidiary of Starz Media |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1985 as Video Treasures |
| Industry | Home video, television syndication, motion pictures |
| Products | DVD, Blu-ray |
| Website | www.anchorbayentertainment.com |
Anchor Bay Entertainment is a U.S. based home entertainment and production company and is a division of Starz Media, which is a unit of Starz, LLC. It was previously owned by IDT Entertainment until 2006 when IDT was purchased by Starz Media.[1] Anchor Bay markets and sells feature films, series, television specials and short films to consumers worldwide. Anchor Bay Entertainment is headquartered in Troy, Michigan. In 2004, Anchor Bay agreed to have their movies distributed by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment.[2]
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History
Anchor Bay Entertainment can date its origins back to 1985, when Video Treasures was founded as a publisher and distributor of home video programming.[3] Their VHS releases were well known for being sold as budget items in all three tape speeds (SP, LP and EP/SLP modes). They released films from Heron Communications (including Media Home Entertainment and Hi-Tops Video), Britt Allcroft (the Thomas the Tank Engine series), as well as Starmaker Entertainment. Video Treasures was sold to Handleman Company in 1989, and changed its name to "Anchor Bay Entertainment" in January 1997.[4]
Anchor Bay remained part of Handleman until 2003, when it was acquired by IDT Entertainment.[5]
On February 4, 2005, the Securities and Exchange Commission filed civil charges against two former employees of Anchor Bay Entertainment, a former subsidiary of Handleman Company. The SEC's complaint, which was filed in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, alleges that the two employees caused the company to enter into two million dollar sham transactions. Both transactions involved the purported sale of slow moving or obsolete inventory to business partners coupled with secret buy-back provisions. The inventory included worthless video boxes and sleeves and DVDs for films. Handleman subsequently restated its financial statements to correct these accounting errors.
Liberty Media, the owner of the Starz cable network, purchased IDT Entertainment from IDT Corp. in 2006 and renamed it Starz Media,[1]
In May 2007, Anchor Bay became known as Starz Home Entertainment. SHE announced on June 19, 2007 that they will be releasing high definition versions of their films exclusively in the Blu-ray format.
In 2008, Starz Media re-instated the Anchor Bay Entertainment brand and all future releases will bear this name.
Licensed content
Anchor Bay Entertainment currently licenses the home video rights to
- 50 Classic Cartoons, the three videos with 153 short films
- Three's Company (from DLT Entertainment), Hercules: The Legendary Journeys & Xena: Warrior Princess (the latter two via Universal) television series;
- most of the libraries of Embassy Pictures, Rankin-Bass, EMI Films, HBO Films, and Alexander Salkind (via StudioCanal);
- Moustapha Akkad's Trancas International Pictures (production company behind the Halloween movie series);
- George Harrison's Handmade Films (Time Bandits, Mona Lisa, etc.);
- New World Pictures (The Boys Next Door, Children of the Corn, Girls Just Want to Have Fun, Heathers, Sledge Hammer!, Godzilla 1985, etc.);
- Carsey-Werner Productions (Grounded for Life, Roseanne & 3rd Rock from the Sun);
- Davis-Panzer Productions (The Osterman Weekend, the Highlander television series);
- Fox Studios (Doogie Howser, M.D., Titus & Profit)
- Some of the 20th Century Fox and Universal Pictures libraries;
- Dianetics: A Visual Guidebook to the Mind.
From 1997 to 2003, Anchor Bay held the video rights to some of Walt Disney Pictures' live-action features (such as The Black Hole, Big Red,The Cat From Outer Space, and The Devil and Max Devlin and Tex), before Disney decided to suspend their licence, and the studio soon released their own DVDs of the films from the Anchor Bay deal. They also had planned on producing a director's cut of the 1981 suspense film The Watcher in the Woods, but canceled the release due to interference and lack of cooperation from Disney.
Special Interest
In addition to feature films, Anchor Bay Entertainment distributes Special Interest titles, including children's video series, like Bobby's World. They also until 2008, distributed Thomas & Friends videos. Thomas has reached platinum-selling status and in 2004 ranks consistently on the VideoScan ranking top 50 chart of children's weekly video sales. Rights to the Thomas DVD's now belong to Lionsgate. The company also has a top market share for fitness videos such as the "Crunch" and "For Dummies" series.
Production company
As a full-fledged production company, they handle television syndication of Halloween IV: The Return of Michael Myers and Halloween V: The Revenge of Michael Myers (which they also hold the video rights to), and have recently entered in-house production of theatrical films.
Horror films
Anchor Bay Entertainment is also noted for the release of the Evil Dead film trilogy on DVD, in numerous editions. Army of Darkness for example, had been released in both a regular and limited edition set that featured the director's cut of the film. Since then, the director's cut has been re-released on two separate occasions in addition to a two-disc "Boomstick Edition" of the film as well. Until Anchor Bay released The Evil Dead on VHS and DVD it was previously unavailable on video from a major label.
Also among their more profitable releases has been George Romero's Living Dead series. Anchor Bay Entertainment has distribution rights for the middle two films in the Romero tetrology: Dawn of the Dead and Day of the Dead.
Like the Evil Dead trilogy, the "Living Dead" series has seen many editions of the films on DVD. Dawn of the Dead has itself seen several releases on DVD, the most extra feature-laden being the "Ultimate Edition" in late 2004.
An "Evil Dead" 3-Disc Ultimate Edition DVD was released in December 2007.
Anchor Bay has also released most of Dario Argento's films including:
The company has been screen-testing Rob Zombie's El Superbeasto for a 2009 release.[6]
Award
Anchor Bay Entertainment received a Special Achievement Award from the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films in June 2002.[7] Anchor Bay was recognized as one of the "pioneers in DVD releases and home video entertainment" and "successful in releasing dramas, comedies, foreign films, children's programming, and most prominently genre films."[7] Cited as highlights of Anchor Bay's releases were "the films of Hammer Studios, the works of Werner Herzog, Paul Verhoeven, Wim Wenders, John Woo, Monte Hellman and Sam Raimi".[7]
References
- ^ a b Merger of Starz Entertainment Group, IDT Entertainment Creates Fully Integrated Media Company, an August 2006 press release from PR Newswire
- ^ Video Business - "Anchor Bay, Fox finalize deal"
- ^ Executive Biography of George Port from the MarVista Entertainment website
- ^ The cuurent company's name, Anchor Bay, got its name from the school system in Casco Township, near New Baltimore, Michigan.[citation needed]
- ^ IDT Entertainment Completes Acquisition of Anchor Bay Entertainment Group from Business Wire via ECNext
- ^ http://www.zimbio.com/Zombie+Lovers,+UNITE/articles/122/El+Superbeasto+Rob+Zombies+Cartoon+Movie
- ^ a b c 2002 Special Award from the Internet Movie Database
External links
- Official U.S. website
- Official U.K. website
- List of Anchor Bay Entertainment films from Internet Movie Database:
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