Media Home Entertainment

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Media Home Entertainment Inc.
Heron Communications
SubsidiariesHi-Tops Video (1986–1992)
Fox Hills Video (1986–1989)
The Nostalgia Merchant (1985–1989)

Media Home Entertainment Inc. was a home video company headquartered in Culver City, California, originally established in 1978 by filmmaker Charles Band.

Media Home Entertainment also distributed video product under three additional labels — The Nostalgia Merchant (very old or classic films), Hi-Tops Video (children's videos), and Fox Hills Video (special-interest videos/obscure B-movies and low-profile Cannon pictures). The "Fox Hills" name was derived from a geographical location near the company's headquarters at 5700 Buckingham Parkway.

History

The company got off to a rocky start when

Texas Chain Saw Massacre's (1974's original and 1986's second, "2", both Tobe Hooper's direction) and 1976's original John Carpenter's Assault on Precinct 13
.

In 1983, Media Home Entertainment entered into an agreement with film distributor United Film Distribution Company whereas Media would release seven United Film Distribution Company's film titles on videocassette.[3] Also, the following year, in 1984, the company bought out the home video rights of the movie Santa Claus: The Movie for $2.6 million from the Salkinds.[4]

On April 18, 1984, the company received an agreement with Cinetel Productions and gave them right of first refusal on any direct-to-video project Cinetel has ever produced for Media Home Entertainment and the budget is in the $50-200,000 range for Cinetel/MHE projects.[5] On April 25, 1984, Media Home Entertainment entered into an agreement in order to grab the home video rights to the Peanuts specials under the new "Snoopy's Home Video Library" banner and gave them the worldwide home video rights of all the specials, and has plans to produce direct-to-video material.[6]

On July 14, 1984, the company had bought out The Nostalgia Merchant, which was previously a distributor of classic, contemporary and modern films on videocassette, for an undisclosed seven-price tag.[7]

In 1984, Media Home Entertainment was bought by Heron Communications Inc., a subsidiary of Gerald Ronson's Heron International. However, by late 1990, Media Home Entertainment had begun downsizing its staff and selling off its video assets in the wake of Ronson's involvement in the Guinness share-trading fraud in Great Britain.

On September 14, 1985, Media Home Entertainment and The Cannon Group inked an agreement that they would pick up videocassette rights to upcoming 32 films from the studio's own feature film catalog, which is the largest deals in the video industry.[8] In 1986, Trans World Entertainment had inked an agreement with Media Home Entertainment whereas the eight theatrical Trans World titles would be handled on video by Media Home Entertainment.[9] In February 1986, Media Home Entertainment entered into the U.S. Hispanic market by launching its own Spanish product line Condor Video, which was growing to became the biggest video distributor in the sector, and had an agreement with American General Film Distribution, the largest U.S. Hispanic film distributor ever, and also had Spanish-subtitled versions of Media's flagship products, which were The Cannon Group, as well as entities in the Nightmare on Elm Street film franchise, which had a total of 124 titles in the library.[10]

In April 1987, Media Home Entertainment reportedly considered to be put up for sale by its owners, as Carolco Pictures, who owned a majority interest in rival home video distributor International Video Entertainment were all bidding $100 million, along with other investments who bid lots of millions, but no talks were interested.[11] Over time, in the late 1980s, the company had set up labels such as Hi-Tops Video, Fox Hills Video and The Cinematheque Collection. Heron decided to raise $100 million into the Heron Communications branch in 1987, an there are no talkers because the price is too high, but the plan was to abort the purchase of various buyers and spent $75 million budgeted for Heron Communications that paid programming acquisitions during fiscal 1987.[12] In July 1987, Media Home Entertainment and parent Heron Communications had inked a pact with Troma Entertainment to distribute nine films on videocassette, namely Surf Nazis Must Die, Student Confidential, Lust for Freedom, Story of a Junkie, Ferocious Female Freedom Fighters, Deadly Daphne's Revenge, Troma's War, Fortress in America and an untitled picture.[13] In late August 1987, Media Home Entertainment and Trans World Entertainment made a third agreement that would cover six pictures shown in the agreement, namely Full Moon in Blue Water, Kansas, Killer Klowns from Outer Space, Hardcover, Cinderella Rock and Teen Witch, which paid $15 million, and the company already had video rights to the prior 14 TWE titles that Heron held, such as Rage of Honor, Programmed to Kill and Iron Warrior, and the six films involved in the Heron deal was expected to go by early 1988, before all rights reverted from Heron to TWE by 1989.[14]

In March 1988, Heron forged a licensing deal with budget distributor

Video Treasures to release sell-through copies of Media releases.[15]

They briefly picked up the home video rights of the

Morgan Creek Productions library.[16]

Media Home Entertainment ceased final operations in 1993. At that time, its final titles being prepared for video release were acquired by and subsequently distributed by

PolyGram Video would finally get the rights later in that same year. After it shut down, MHE moved the Kathy Smith titles to A*Vision Entertainment under the then-new BodyVision label.[17]

References

  1. ^ Billboard, March 3, 1979
  2. ^ The first Beatles tapes and the resulting lawsuits
  3. ^ "MHE Gets 7 UFD Pix". Variety. May 18, 1983. p. 33.
  4. ^ Bierbaum, Tom (March 14, 1984). "MHE Pays $2.6-Mil Advance for 'Santa' Vid Rights, Pre-Shoot". Variety. p. 6.
  5. ^ "Media Signs Development Pact for First Turndown with Cinetel". Variety. April 18, 1984. p. 29.
  6. ^ "Media Home Entertainment Grabs Cassette Rights to 'Peanuts' Specs". Variety. April 25, 1984. p. 41.
  7. ^ Zuckerman, Faye (July 14, 1984). "Media Home Entertainment Buys Nostalgia Merchant" (PDF). Billboard. Retrieved December 16, 2021.
  8. ^ McCullaugh, Jim (September 14, 1985). "Media Getting 32 Films from Cannon Group" (PDF). Billboard. Retrieved December 16, 2021.
  9. ^ Bierbaum, Tom (April 2, 1986). "Heron Feeds Media's Pic Hopper; Antes $16-Mil For 8 TWE Films". Variety. p. 39.
  10. ^ "Media Home's Hispano Division, Condor, To Release 124 Titles". Variety. March 25, 1987. p. 148.
  11. ^ Melanson, James (April 2, 1987). "Media Home Ent. Reportedly On The Homevid Sales Block; Carolco An Interested Bidder?". Variety. pp. 43–44.
  12. ^ Melanson, James (April 29, 1987). "Heron Intl. Sez No Sale On MHE; Ups Its Commitment By $100-Mil". Variety. p. 39.
  13. ^ "Heron Obtains 9 Troma Films For HV And Inks With Cox For Madefors". Variety. July 22, 1987. p. 44.
  14. ^ "TWE Deals With Heron But Future Could See Firm Going Solo Route". Variety. September 2, 1987. pp. 46, 48.
  15. ^ [1]
  16. ISSN 0362-4331
    . Retrieved October 18, 2021.
  17. ^ Applefield, Catherine; Goldstein, Seth (February 13, 1993). "A*Vision Works Out Label Deal With Kathy Smith" (PDF). Billboard. Retrieved October 17, 2021.
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