Nelson Entertainment (also known as Nelson Entertainment Group) was a

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

-based film production and home video distribution company, a subsidiary of Nelson Holdings International Ltd., a

Vancouver Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...

, Canada, holding company formed in 1985 by British film producer Barry Spikings and Richard Northcott, a British financier who amassed his fortune from a chain of hardware and furniture stores.

History

The company acquired Galactic Films as well as Spikings Corporation in 1985, then later acquired distribution rights to a majority of

Embassy A diplomatic mission or foreign mission is a group of people from a Sovereign state, state or organization present in another state to represent the sending state or organization officially in the receiving or host state. In practice, the phrase ...

titles after purchasing its home video division, which Nelson paid $85 million for, and then signed an agreement with

Columbia Pictures Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc., Trade name, doing business as Columbia Pictures, is an American film Production company, production and Film distributor, distribution company that is the flagship unit of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group ...

which enabled Nelson to finance their films for Columbia. The company would buy out Autovend Technology Corp, which specialized in vending machines holding up to 400 videotapes for sale or rental, in September 1986, with John Lack, a former executive of

Warner-Amex Satellite Entertainment Paramount Media Networks is the division of Paramount Global that oversees the operations of its television channels and online brands. The division was originally founded as MTV Networks in 1984, named after MTV. It would be known under this ...

, hired to run the Autovend technology. On November 26, 1986, Nelson decided to form a foreign sales arm, Nelson International, Inc. Ian Jessel, formerly an executive at CBS Theatrical Films, was named president of the unit. On March 18, 1987, Nelson Entertainment, through its Embassy Home Entertainment division inked a pact with

Hemdale Film Corporation Hemdale Film Corporation (known as Hemdale Communications after 1992) was an independent American-British film production company and Film distributor, distributor. The company was founded in London in 1967 as the Hemdale Company by actor David He ...

, to co-produce 10 pictures in a co-financing agreement between Hemdale and Nelson; Nelson would receive domestic home video rights, while Hemdale retained all other rights to the 10 pictures. Throughout the summer of 1987, Embassy/Nelson announced more international distribution deals, including West German video distributor Neue Constantin Film and Nippon Herald in Japan. Elsewhere, Nelson decided to intervene in the

- Vestron Video lawsuit over video rights to a package of 12 Hemdale films; Nelson then subsequently filed for rights to the same 12 pictures under almost identical terms as the arrangement Vestron was trying to have enforced, and the deal added another film to the mix, ''

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''. Sometime in August 1987, Embassy Home Entertainment was renamed Nelson Entertainment, but retained the earlier brand as well as Charter Entertainment for sell-through products. Nelson then financed a deal with

Castle Rock Entertainment Castle Rock Entertainment is an American independent film and television production company founded in 1987 by Martin Shafer, director Rob Reiner, Andrew Scheinman, Glenn Padnick (September 8, 1947 – February 27, 2025) and Alan Horn. Histo ...

to co-produce their films, and in addition handle the international distribution rights. In September 1988,

Orion Home Video Orion may refer to: Common meanings * Orion (constellation), named after the mythical hunter * Orion (mythology), a hunter in Greek mythology Arts and media Fictional entities Characters and species * Orion (character), a DC Comics c ...

became Nelson's sales agent; in addition,

Orion Pictures Orion Releasing, LLC (Trade name, doing business as Orion Pictures) is an American film production and film distribution, distribution company owned by the Amazon MGM Studios subsidiary of Amazon (company), Amazon. It was founded in 1978 as Ori ...

would later theatrically distribute a few of Nelson's titles. By February 1989, Orion was the official home video distributor of Nelson product. In 1991, Nelson Entertainment sold its home video division to

New Line Cinema New Line Productions, Inc., Trade name, doing business as New Line Cinema, is an American film production, film and television production company that is a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group, a division of the Major film studios, ...

and it was rebranded as New Line Home Video. The company was later renamed Sultan Entertainment and was acquired by New Line, who then later took over the video rights to the library. This merger also meant Nelson's video rights changed hands, as RCA/Columbia Pictures Home Video began distributing former Embassy and Nelson videos via their distribution pact with New Line. By 1994, Nelson's catalog had been acquired by Epic Productions and folded into the Alpha Library Company. After Epic's closure,

Crédit Lyonnais The Crédit Lyonnais (, "Lyon Credit ompany) was a major French bank, created in 1863 and absorbed by former rival Crédit Agricole in 2003. Its head office was initially in Lyon but moved to Paris in 1882. In the early years of the 20th cen ...

assumed responsibility of its library. The library was put up for auction by the Consortium de Realisation as the "Epic library". Credit Lyonnais later sold the Epic film library to

PolyGram Filmed Entertainment PolyGram Filmed Entertainment (formerly known as Filmworks, Casablanca Record & Filmworks, PolyGram Films and PolyGram Pictures or simply PFE) was a film production company founded in 1975 as an American film studio, which became a European co ...

in 1997, then

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. (also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures, commonly shortened to MGM or MGM Studios) is an American Film production, film and television production and film distribution, distribution company headquartered ...

(MGM) acquired 2/3 of PolyGram's pre-April 1996 library in October 1998. Therefore, MGM now owns most of the Nelson Entertainment library with the copyrights being held by Orion Pictures. Due to a previous agreement with Viacom Enterprises,

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 Trifecta Entertainment & Media) holds the North American television rights to Nelson's post-January 1989 films not co-produced with Castle Rock Entertainment. Castle Rock Entertainment's pre-July 1994 titles are owned by

Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (WBEI), commonly known as Warner Bros. (WB), is an American filmed entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California and the main namesake subsidiary of Warner Bro ...

, but are controlled by MGM via Orion, while the film ''

Labyrinth In Greek mythology, the Labyrinth () is an elaborate, confusing structure designed and built by the legendary artificer Daedalus for King Minos of Crete at Knossos. Its function was to hold the Minotaur, the monster eventually killed by the h ...

'' is currently controlled by The Jim Henson Company, with distribution rights currently licensed to Shout! Studios.

Filmography

Feature films

Notes

References

{{reflist Film production companies of the United States Defunct American film studios Companies based in Beverly Hills, California Home video companies of the United States New Line Cinema