Savoy Pictures Entertainment, Inc. was an American independent motion picture company that operated from 1992 to 1997. Among Savoy Pictures' noteworthy feature films were '' No Escape'', and '' Last of the Dogmen''.

History

Former Columbia Pictures Entertainment chairman and

TriStar Pictures TriStar Pictures, Inc. (spelled as Tri-Star until 1991) is an American film studio and production company that is part of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group, which is part of the Japanese conglomerate Sony, Sony Group Corporation. The compan ...

founder Victor A. Kaufman became chairman and chief executive officer of Savoy Pictures in 1992 along with vice chairman executive, Lewis J. Korman. Kaufman has claimed that the name came from the Savoy Special bat

Robert Redford Charles Robert Redford Jr. (born August 18, 1936) is an American actor and filmmaker. He has received numerous accolades such as an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, and two Golden Globe Awards, as well as the Cecil B. DeMille Award in 1994, the ...

's character used in '' The Natural''. Savoy intended to finance and distribute films in the $12–25 million range, investing in up to $15 million per film. In June of that year, Savoy entered into a deal with

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for the home video, pay-TV, and pay-per-view rights to its films. Budgets for their films grew. However, with rather poor marketing, Savoy faced a major financial slump, only three years after being formed. For three years, Savoy then released box office failures including '' Exit to Eden'' and '' Getting Away with Murder''. It also didn't help that two of its competitors in the independent film field,

Miramax Miramax, LLC, formerly known as Miramax Films, is an American independent film and television production and distribution company owned by beIN Media Group and Paramount Global. Based in Los Angeles, California, it was founded on December 19, ...

and

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, ...

, were bought out by majors (

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and

Turner Broadcasting Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. was an American television and media conglomerate founded by Ted Turner in 1965. Based in Atlanta, Georgia, it merged with Time Warner (later WarnerMedia) on October 10, 1996. As of April 2022, all of its ass ...

, respectively), giving them stability. As a result, Savoy focused on low-budget films and the occasional blockbuster, costing up to $80 million.Fabrikant, Geraldine
''Savoy Pictures' High and Low Roads''.

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(January 18, 1995) Executives hoped to lure

Sylvester Stallone Sylvester Gardenzio "Sly" Stallone (; born July 6, 1946) is an American actor and filmmaker. In a Sylvester Stallone filmography, film career spanning more than fifty years, Stallone has received List of awards and nominations received by Syl ...

with a then-hefty $20 million paycheck to star in a studio project that was ultimately never made. In the meantime, Savoy expanded into broadcasting to help the investment of films. In March 1994, Savoy created SF Broadcasting as a venture with

Fox Television Stations Fox Television Stations, LLC (stylized as FOX TV STATIONS; also known as FTS) is a group of television stations in the United States owned-and-operated by Fox Corporation. It owns LiveNOW from Fox, Fox Local, and Fox Soul. It also oversees ...

, with Kaufman and Korman owning

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 ...

. As a result of purchasing these stations, all of them would become affiliates of the Fox network. Stations owned by SF Broadcasting were WALA-TV in Mobile,

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in Green Bay,

Wisconsin Wisconsin ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest of the United States. It borders Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michig ...

, WVUE in

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, and

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. Savoy also launched a television production division. In January 1995, Kaufman announced that he was hiring Robert N. Fried to run the motion picture studio. Fried brought in executives Alan Sokol, Bob Levin, Cathy Schulman, Stan Brooks, Stan Wlodkowski and filmmakers

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, and George Tillman, Rob Weiss and Peter Chelsom. In the middle of the year, the company started a television division, which was headed by Stanley Brooks. In September 1995, Kaufman announced that he was cutting back on his interest in the motion picture business and was re-positioning the company as a television station

holding company A holding company is a company whose primary business is holding a controlling interest in the Security (finance), securities of other companies. A holding company usually does not produce goods or services itself. Its purpose is to own Share ...

. Shortly thereafter, Savoy announced the sale of 14 films in its roster, in varying stages of production, to potential buyers.

picked up

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's directorial debut ''

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'', ''

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'', ''

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'', '' Heaven's Prisoners'', '' Faithful'', and ''

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''.

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picked up the rights to produce '' A Simple Plan'', and the distribution rights of '' Private Parts''. Only a single film Savoy is planning on to release, '' Mariette in Ecstasy'', has been left unreleased, until 2019, when the film's director John Bailey, eventually saw a screening at the 2019 Camerimage International Film Festival. Savoy Pictures announced in November 1995 that

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's Silver King Communications was going to acquire Savoy for $210 million. The deal was finalized in 1997. Victor Kaufman was made vice chairman and sits on the board of directors of IAC. The SF stations were sold to Diller's Silver King Broadcasting in 1997. Cineplex Odeon Films was the Canadian distributor for Savoy films, then

Alliance Films Alliance Films (formerly Alliance Entertainment, Alliance Communications, Alliance Atlantis Releasing Ltd, Motion Picture Distribution LP; and also known as Alliance Vivafilm in Quebec; or simply Alliance) was a Canadian motion picture distributi ...

became the Canadian distributor after

picked up the later films from 1996. Much of Savoy's library now lies with

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and

Focus Features Focus Features LLC is an American independent film production and distribution company, owned by Comcast as a unit of Universal Pictures, which is itself a unit of Comcast's division NBCUniversal. Focus Features distributes independent and fore ...

, most likely as a result of Diller selling off USA Networks' entertainment assets to

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for $10.3 billion.

Warner Bros. Discovery Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc. (WBD) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational mass media and Outline of entertainment, entertainment Conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered in New York City. It was formed from WarnerMedi ...

owns the titles produced by New Line Cinema, while

Paramount Global Paramount Global (Trade name, d/b/a Paramount) is an American multinational mass media and entertainment Conglomerate (company), conglomerate controlled by National Amusements and Headquarters, headquartered at One Astor Plaza in Times Square, ...

owns the titles produced by Rysher Entertainment,

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owns the rights to ''No Escape'' via Allied Filmmakers, rights to ''The Bronx Tale'' have since reverted to

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's Tribeca Productions, and Joel B. Michaels owns the rights to ''Last of the Dogmen''.

Films

References

{{Film Studio Defunct American film studios Defunct television broadcasting companies of the United States Defunct film and television production companies of the United States Film production companies of the United States Film distributors of the United States American companies established in 1992 Entertainment companies established in 1992 Entertainment companies disestablished in 1997 Mass media companies established in 1992 Mass media companies disestablished in 1997 American independent film studios