Franchise Pictures

Franchise Pictures LLC

Industry	Independent film studio
Founded	1997
Founder	Elie Samaha Andrew Stevens Ashok Amritraj
Defunct	2006
Fate	Chapter 11 bankruptcy Liquidation
Successor	Studio: Intertainment AG Möbius International Luminosity Entertainment LLC Library: Morgan Creek Entertainment Revolution Studios Orange Holdings LLC
Headquarters	Los Angeles, California, United States[1]
Key people	Elie Samaha Andrew Stevens
Subsidiaries	Franchise Interactive Phoenician Entertainment[2] Franchise Pictures Classics[2]

Franchise Pictures, LLC was a short-lived American independent motion picture studio, production and distribution company based in Los Angeles, California, founded in 1997 by Elie Samaha, Ashok Amritraj, and Andrew Stevens. They were known for their production in the action film genre, and for producing passion projects by actors which major studios passed on.^[3] The company also had a short-lived video game arm, Franchise Interactive.

In 2004, in a case heard before a jury in a Los Angeles federal courtroom, Intertainment Licensing GmbH v. Franchise Pictures, et al.,^[4] Judge Stotler awarded a plaintiff's verdict for $121.7 million against Franchise Pictures and Elie Samaha for fraudulent accounting. Samaha vowed to appeal but the fraud judgment destroyed Franchise's viability; the company and its subsidiaries all filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy petitions on August 18, 2004.^[5]

As of 2021, half of the Franchise Pictures library, along with that of ThinkFilm, is now owned by Orange Holdings LLC.^[6] Another half of the Franchise Pictures library is owned by Revolution Studios (via Morgan Creek Entertainment).^[7][8]

History

Franchise Pictures was started in November 1997, with Phoenician Entertainment serving as subsidiary for lower-budget films. Its initial employees were Elie Samaha and Ashok Amritraj, who would leave two years later to start Hyde Park Entertainment.^[9]

On October 8, 1998, they signed a distribution agreement with Morgan Creek Productions and Warner Bros. Pictures, in which Franchise paid the distribution rights to both Morgan Creek and Warner Bros. for North America and the United Kingdom,^[10] while 20th Century Fox handling the distribution rights in select territories for two movies. Summit Entertainment would also handle the international sales of their films. On May 19, 1999, the company had signed a deal with Intertainment in order to bring all 60 motion pictures that Franchise had been receiving to Germany.^[11] A month later, Intertainment had struck a distribution deal with Warner Bros. Pictures, in order to secure the rights to 60 motion pictures for worldwide distribution.^[12] The company's first film, A Murder of Crows, began shooting in December 1997, and it was released in the United States in July 1999, with the British release occurring in December 1998.^[13] In December 1997, Franchise also started shooting If... Dog... Rabbit..., which was directed by actor Matthew Modine. However, this film didn't receive a wide release in the United States until 2002, when it was released on home video.^[14]

On July 2, 2001, Morgan Creek and its CEO James G. Robinson sued Franchise Pictures for breach of contract, resulting in Morgan Creek ending their partnership with Franchise Pictures after the release of Heist (2001).^[15]

During Franchise's partnership with Morgan Creek, by 2000, the companies had financial success with the film The Whole Nine Yards. However, they also suffered a huge flop with Battlefield Earth starring John Travolta, which received bad word-of-mouth and grossed $29.7 million on a $75 million budget.^[16]

Bankruptcy

Filmography

References