Who now has control of the Palomar library? (1 Viewer)

[Louis Letizia]

You would need to be a SLEUTH to figure out who owns this very cool catalog of films. Anchor Bay released SLEUTH and THE HEARTBREAK KID -2 that Fox released theatrically (and Media on video) as well as LAW AND DISORDER and THE STEPFORD WIVES , both Columbia releases , that debuyed in video via AB for the first time (AB had the most extraordinary library at one time . All four of these classics have not seen the light of day (outside HEARTBREAKs very brief streaming life on Netflix). Ironically all except DISORDER had been remade in the past 6 years and werent promoted with rereleases -with the exception of Paramounts one time release of THE STEPFORD WIVES to coincide with their remake. Of course-all 3 remakes performed horribly at the boxoffice-but who was to know that prior to their releases? There are other Palomar titles-all Fox theatrical releases-TO KILL A CLOWN (which at least had a Media vhs life), and THE STRANGE VENGEANCE OF ROSALIE and WHAT BECAME OF JACK AND JULL? which never saw a video release. So-who owns them now?

 

[walter o]

I believe its Paramount.

 

[ahollis]

Most of the titles that Palomar Pictures made still reside with the original distributor. The two Fox films you name still belong to Fox, they had a deal with Anchor Bay to release several titles from their library.

Edgar Scherick, who was in charge of ABC Television in the 1960's and created ABC's Wild World Of Sports, left in 1967 and formed Palomar Pictures and the films produced from 1968 through 1970 also involved ABC Circle Films and they were released to theatres by Cinerama Releasing. Cinerama Releasing closed there doors in 1974, one year after ABC Circle Films ceased producing. Palomar produced several made for TV films for ABC which belong to ABC. Those films owned by ABC are under control of Disney, which has leased the home entertainment rights to MGM. Starting with What Became of Jack And Jill, Palomar released their productions through 20th Century Fox. Fox has control of those films now. That agreement ended in 1973 with Gordon's War being the final Fox release. Taking of the Pelham 1-2-3 was released through UA and Stepford Wives through Columbia. Paramount now controls the 1975 version when they acquired the remake rights for the 2004 sequel.

Palomar Pictures always had a second or third producing partner with all their productions. Mr. Scherick through Palomar Pictures was involved in around 72 films from 1968 through 1978. A lot of those films were for the ABC Movie Of The Week and his commitment and allegiance to ABC remained strong until his death in 2002.


In a nut shell, all, except Stepford Wives, are either controled by MGM (MOD program) or 20th Century Fox (never see them).

 

[Louis Letizia]

I see that Fox's arrangement with Shout Factory! unleashed GORDON'S WAR. I do not know how extensive a catalog Fox had released to Shout -but they potentially may rerelease SLEUTH and HEARTBREAK KID as Shout has rereleased many of Anchor Bays Fox releases. Thanks for the informativ e paragraph on Palomars history-they have always intrigued me. 1970s distribution was very complex. Besides the TWILIGHTS LAST GLEAMING nightmare-who actually would own THE REINCARNATION OF PETER PROUD which was a BCP film but released through American International? I see Shout!(God Bless them!) is releasing the Pusser trilogy -so I can see them double featuring such BCP films as BEN/WILLARD and THE REINCARNATION OF PETER PROUD/ARNOLD. Among others. Time will tell.

 

[ahollis]

BCP (Bing Crosby Productions) had a life from 1949 to 1977 and was know for several movies and the TV shows Hogan's Hero's and Ben Casey. The films were released by Cinerama Releasing (The same with ABC Circle Films). BCP was purchased by Cox Broadcasting in 1978 and incorporated the company into Rysher Entertainment in 1988 (Rysher is famous for Saved By The Bell). Rysher's Library was soon added to CBS Television Studios and now is controlled by Paramount, which has been the reason for no DVD releases. Shout! has a deal with Paramount to release some of their titles as they do with Fox. This makes the third outside company that Paramount as made deals with, the other being Legend and Olive. The film titles in the Bing Crosby catalog seem to really fit into Shout! type of DVD releases and should do well. I do hope that Willard and Ben get at Shout! release.

 

[Louis Letizia]

Everything makes sense now. The stand alone , limited release of the original 1973 WALKING TALL from Paramount as well as Paramount looking to remake PETER PROUD a few years back made me think BCP was owned now by Paramount-but I didnt know the trajectory (I love the labyrinthine way movies get gobbled up). Paramount seems to be really wanting to get there catalog seen -first Legend (some fun titles there that were never released to video), then the prestige of Criterion (hopefulyy LOOKING FOR MR. GOODBAR will land there), Olive (very nicely done) and now Shout! -which I wasnt aware of and I am very excited about . Paramount does release surprises on their own -the recent CBS film of GRANDVIEW USA was a nice surprise-maybe the underrated WINDY CITY isnt far behind. And dont leave out their streaming content- it was amazing to finally see 1972s CHILD'S PLAY , UNMAN WITTERING AND ZAGO and especially SHEILA LEVINE IS DEAD AND LIVING IN NEW YORK -a guilty pleasure -from Amazon Prime and Netflix has ISABEL with Genevieve Bujould and the very interesting SYLVIA -with the always beguiling, bewitching and stunningly beautiful Carroll Baker. Amazon also had tryouts for Premingers SUCH GOOD FRIENDS while NF had HURRY SUNDOWN -now through Olive on DVD. When you just want to reexperience a flick -I do not mind streaming one bit. It appetizes for any future hard releases (i bought Olives Preminger dvds) When it comes to catalog releases, Warner is king but this company is Paramount.

 

[Mark Edward Heuck]

Filling in the gaps in Allen's otherwise terrific history... When ABC decided to get out of the theatrical film business, Palomar partnered with big pharma company Bristol-Myers-Squibb to finance their movies, most of which went out through Fox except for STEPFORD, DISORDER, and ALOHA BOBBY AND ROSE which went out through Columbia. After a license of so many years, during which time Fox very briefly released SLEUTH and HEARTBREAK KID on VHS on their Magnetic Video label, all those movies reverted back to Bristol-Myers. Media briefly made a deal with the drug company to release the two Magnetic Video releases, along with TO KILL A CLOWN and ALOHA. Anchor Bay in turn also dealt with Bristol-Myers to get 3 of those four movies (they passed on CLOWN), as well as STEPFORD and DISORDER. So while AB did license movies from Fox a few years later, the Palomar releases did not come from that deal. In the mid-noughts, Bristol-Myers wanted to divest themselves of this film library, and sold it to Paramount, since they were already developing remakes of two of the films (STEPFORD at Paramount, HEARTBREAK at DreamWorks), were partnered on a third (Paramount released Kenneth Branagh's remake of SLEUTH overseas while Sony Classics handled it in the States), and Viacom had already held syndication rights for years on the movies. So far, only STEPFORD (in the U.S.) and SLEUTH (in the U.K.) have been released on DVD by Paramount, but they should control all the others. Fox still owns GORDON'S WAR for the same reason MGM still owns PELHAM, because they purchased a majority stake in the film as opposed to the ones fully financed by Palomar. So yes, both the Palomar and the Bing Crosby libraries reside with Paramount now.

 

[ahollis]

Shout! says they asked Paramount about LOOKING FOR MR. GOODBAR and were given a direct and distinct NO. There has been much talk of music rights issues, but being a person that likes the glass half full and not half empty, I too hope that it is because Criterion has it on their radar and tied up.