Friday, March 29, 2024

Carolco Films: Another Independent Story Of Success And Demise

I had previously written about the rise and fall of Orion Pictures, plus the sudden disappearance of Miramax Films. Yet, they are just several major companies who made their mark on Hollywood, but have faded away and only be read in the history books. The Weinsteins were not the only duo to come out of nowhere to create their own business which was shaking up the system. Prior to their arrival, another duo came with a studio that would thread the needle between the big heads and rub shoulders with the establishment. They were Mario Kassar and Andrew Vajna and using their expertise in successfully distributing films abroad, the two bought a name from Panama (one they never bothered to find out what it meant) and formed Carolco Films.

Their First Blood In Hollywood

In 1976, their first film was the thriller The Sicilian Cross starring Roger Moore and was able to make a small profit. Other early films they would also produce successfully include The Domino Principle (1977), The Eagle Has Landed (1977), Winter Kills (1980), and The Chagneling (1980). In 1981, they would release Escape To Victory, a war sports drama with Michael Caine, Max von Sydow, and Sylvester Stallone. Stallone, a massive box-office draw with the Rocky series, was then cast in First Blood (1992), the first of the Rambo series which became a major success after scoring $125.2 million in the box office. Its sequel, released three years later, would also become a financial hit and make Carolco a real player.

More Action, More Money

Carolco saw this as a sign to invest mainly in action pictures which kept Stallone on board with the studio as well as bring in Arnold Schwarzenegger for a sequel to Terminator. The film, Judgment Day, would cost $100 million, but gross back $500 million, making it the most successful film ever by Carolco. The action genre became a financial boon for them and they were financed via pre-sales, where domestic and foreign distributors invested in productions in return for releasing rights locally. Plus, Carolco signed a distribution deal with TriStar Pictures and invested in home video by buying two distribution companies, creating LIVE Entertainment which helped the company move forward into the 1990s. However, as they were still riding high, disagreements between Vajna and Kassar led to Vajna selling off his shares of the company and forming Cinergi Pictures in 1989 with Disney as a distribution partner.

A Sinking Ship

Early 90s hits included Total Recall (1990), Jacob’s Ladder (1990), The Doors (1991), and Basic Instinct (1992)However, parallel to Orion Films, Carolco found itself bleeding money through other box office failures and overspending on multiple projects. Stallone had a ten-picture deal following First Blood that continued into the 90s while they paid Schwarzenegger close to $28 million for Recall and Judgment Day, and deals were left to expire that endangered the studio. In the midst of recouping benefits from both Basic Instinct and Chaplin (Richard Attenborough’s expensive biopic about the legendary silent star), Kassar led a restructuring of the company and sold off Carolco assets, including LIVE Entertainment.

After shutting down a $100 million+ budget project from Total Recall’s Paul Verhoeven, Carolco plotted its comeback through the pirate adventure film Cutthroat Island for director Renny Harlin and then-wife Geena Davis. The result was Carolco’s own version of Heaven’s Gate. The company sold off its rights in making Stargate (1994) and Showgirls (1995, a Verhoeven project) in order to finance the movie, originally budgeted at $60 million which was in trouble immediately after multiple A-list actors passed on it before Matthew Modine signed on. More delays and Hardin’s dissatisfaction with the script forced the production to overrun and end up costing almost $100 million. Everything but the musical score was panned, the film grossed only $10 million, and Carolco filed for bankruptcy and shut down one month before the film’s release.

The Remains Of It Today

Carolco was bought by StudioCanal and its parent company, Canal+, for $58 million in 1996. In 1998, Kassar and Vajna, whose Cinergi Pictures also folded, teamed up again to start C2 Pictures with the purpose of keeping the Terminator franchise going. Although 2003’s Rise Of The Machines was a financial success, the failure of both I Spy (2002) and Basic Instinct 2 led to C2 closing in 2008. Vajna returned to his native Hungary and helped restructure the country’s film industry, leading to the creation of the Hungarian National Film Fund, which helped finance 2015’s Son of Saul, winner for the Oscar’s Best International Film. He died in 2019, aged 74. Kassar sold the Terminator franchise and was given a second chance of running Carolco when it was briefly relaunched in 2015. It was short-lived and he left when the company was renamed, ending Carolco for good. Currently, Kassar still has the rights to an English remake of the Japanese horror classic, Audition, but that project has been in development hell since 2014. 

Carolco. A wannabe big studio that bit the dust. It’s the story that keeps on giving for other indie studios to this day.

Follow me on Twitter: @brian_cine (Cine-A-Man)

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