Orion Pictures

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Orion Pictures

Orion Releasing, LLC (doing business as Orion Pictures) is an American film production and distribution company owned by the Amazon MGM Studios subsidiary of Amazon. In its current incarnation, Orion focuses primarily on producing, distributing, and acquiring independent and specialty films made by underrepresented filmmakers.

It was founded in 1978 as Orion Pictures Corporation, a joint venture between Warner Bros. and three former senior executives at United Artists (UA). The company produced and released films from 1978 through 1999 and was also involved in television production and syndication in the 1980s and early 1990s. It was one of the largest mini-major studios during its early years, when it worked with prominent directors such as Woody Allen, James Cameron, Jonathan Demme, and Oliver Stone.[3] Four films distributed by Orion won Academy Awards for Best Picture: Amadeus (1984), Platoon (1986), Dances with Wolves (1990), and The Silence of the Lambs (1991).[4]

In 1997, Orion was acquired by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), and was folded into MGM in 1999. MGM later revived the Orion name for television in 2013 and relaunched Orion Pictures a year later. In 2022, Amazon acquired MGM, making it the new owner of Orion Pictures.

Awards

Of the many movies distributed by Orion, four won the Academy Awards for Best Picture: Amadeus (1984), Platoon (1986), Dances with Wolves (1990) and The Silence of the Lambs (1991).

History

In 1997, Orion was bought by MGM. In 2013, MGM revived the Orion name for television. In 2014, MGM restarted Orion Pictures.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Orion was famous for its RoboCop movies. The first RoboCop was in 1987. The second movie, RoboCop 2, was in 1990. The third movie, RoboCop 3, was released in November 1993.

Also during this period, Orion released the Terminator movies in 1984 and 1991. Both of them had Arnold Schwarzenegger as the Terminator.

On February 5, 2019, MGM and Annapurna Pictures expanded their U.S. distribution company, Mirror. Mirror was changed to United Artists Releasing.

References

1. ↑ "MGM Relaunching Orion Pictures". Variety. Retrieved April 20, 2019.
2. ↑ "MGM, Annapurna Revive United Artists for Joint Distribution". LA Biz. Retrieved April 20, 2019.