De Laurentiis Entertainment Group (DEG) was an entertainment

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

and distribution studio founded by Italian producer

Dino De Laurentiis Agostino "Dino" De Laurentiis (; 8 August 1919 – 10 November 2010) was an Italian film producer and businessman who held both Italian and American citizenship. Following a brief acting career in the late 1930s and early 1940s, he moved into f ...

. The company is notable for producing '' Manhunter'', '' Blue Velvet'', the horror films '' Near Dark'' and '' Evil Dead II'', ''

King Kong Lives ''King Kong Lives'' (released as ''King Kong 2'' in some countries) is a 1986 American monster adventure film directed by John Guillermin. Produced by the De Laurentiis Entertainment Group and featuring special effects by Carlo Rambaldi, the f ...

'' (the sequel to De Laurentiis'

remake A remake is a film, television series, video game, song or similar form of entertainment that is based upon and retells the story of an earlier production in the same medium—e.g., a "new version of an existing film". A remake tells the same s ...

of ''

King Kong King Kong, also referred to simply as Kong, is a fictional giant monster resembling a gorilla, who has appeared in various media since 1933. The character has since become an international pop culture icon,Erb, Cynthia, 1998, ''Tracking Kin ...

''), 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 Win ...

'', 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 New Hanover County, North Carolina, United States. With a population of 115,451 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of municipalities in North Carolina, eighth-most populous city in the st ...

, 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 was founded by Mario Kassar and Andrew G. Vajna in 1976. Kassar and Vajna ran Carolco together until 1989, when Vajna left to form Cinergi Pictures. Carolco hit its peak in th ...

acquired DEG in 1989.

History

In 1983, Dino De Laurentiis produced '' Firestarter'' in Wilmington. The

governor of North Carolina The governor of North Carolina is the head of government of the United States, U.S. state of North Carolina. Seventy-five people have held the office since the first state governor, Richard Caswell, took office in 1777. The governor serves a ...

Jim Hunt James Baxter Hunt Jr. (born May 16, 1937) is an American politician and retired attorney who was the List of governors of North Carolina, 69th and 71st governor of North Carolina (1977–1985, and 1993–2001). He is the longest-serving governo ...

, 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 Embassy Pictures Corporation (also and later known as Avco Embassy Pictures as well as Embassy Films Associates) was an American independent film production and distribution company, which was active from 1942 to 1986. Embassy was responsible ...

from

The Coca-Cola Company The Coca-Cola Company is an American multinational corporation founded in 1892. It manufactures, sells and markets soft drinks including Coca-Cola, other non-alcoholic beverage concentrates and syrups, and alcoholic beverages. Its stock is lis ...

, 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. 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 ''

'' and '' Tai-Pan'', 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 Fam ...

. 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 maj ...

. Around the same time, De Laurentiis' daughter Raffaella exited her role as DEG's president of production. In 1988, Dino De Laurentiis, who founded the company quit the studio amidst the failures of such films and formed a successor company Dino de Laurentiis Communications. De Laurentiis' North Carolina studio would be sold by

and the Gold Coast studio would be acquired by

Village Roadshow Village Roadshow 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 Exchange a ...

, whose intended strategy became the basis for Village Roadshow's ''Silver Series'' line, and some of the workforce joined the newly-formed

Village Roadshow Pictures Village Roadshow Pictures is an American film production company founded in 1989. It is a division of Village Roadshow Entertainment Group (VREG), which in turn is majority-owned by Vine Alternative Investments and Falcon Investment Advisors, wi ...

. The De Laurentiis library is currently owned by StudioCanal via its acquisition of the Paravision International library; with some exceptions. A few years back in 1988–89,

L'Oréal L'Oréal S.A. () is a French multinational personal care corporation registered in Paris

controlled the film company, whose properties included the

Filmation Filmation Associates was an American production company founded by Lou Scheimer, Hal Sutherland and Norm Prescott in 1962, before closing by Group W Productions on February 3, 1989. Located in Reseda, California, Filmation produced animated ...

and De Laurentiis libraries.

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

acquired the Paravision properties in 1994. Films that were distributed by United Artists are now owned by 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 Paramount Pictures Corporation, commonly known as Paramount Pictures or simply Paramount, is an American film production company, production and Distribution (marketing), distribution company and the flagship namesake subsidiary of Paramount ...

through its

Famous Players Famous Players Limited Partnership was a Canadian-based subsidiary of Cineplex Entertainment. As an independent company, it existed as a film exhibitor and cable television service provider. Famous Players operated numerous film, movie theatre ...

division. In May 1986, rival

Cineplex Odeon Corporation Cineplex Odeon is a theatre brand owned by Cineplex Entertainment in Canada, after acquiring the Cineplex Odeon Corporation in 1998. As of 2023, there are 61 Cineplex Odeon locations in Canada. The former corporation was one of North America's ...

unsuccessfully attempted to sue Paramount for breaching a pre-set Canadian distribution contract DEG had with the chain's Pan-Canadian Films division. 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, singer, songwriter, and dancer. Known for his romantic, tough, and comedic roles in blockbusters and cult films, Swayze was nominated for three Golden Glob ...

as Quaid and

Bruce Beresford Bruce Beresford (; born 16 August 1940) is an Australian film director, opera director, screenwriter, and producer. He began his career during the Australian New Wave, and has made more than 30 feature films over a 50-year career, both locally ...

to direct (

David Cronenberg David Paul Cronenberg (born March 15, 1943) is a Canadian film director, screenwriter, producer and actor. He is a principal originator of the body horror genre, with his films exploring visceral bodily transformation, infectious diseases, and ...

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

library, De Laurentiis Entertainment Group's library was sold to Paravision, a subsidiary of

L'Oréal L'Oréal S.A. () is a French multinational personal care corporation registered in Paris

, in 1989. The library was later sold to Canal+ and is currently held by

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