Who owns the rights to this? - Drop Dead Fred (1991) Discussion

[–] goody1701d 10 years ago

The last holder was Lionsgate Home Entertainment in the US and Universal in the UK. But these likely have reverted back to Warner since then because New Line, the production company, is Time Warner.

"Do you mind if I name my first child after you? "Dipsh*t Knight" has a nice ring to it."

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[–] The Hoyk 10 years ago

Actually, because this movie was fully financed by the former Polygram shingle Working Title, it would appear Universal now has worldwide rights to it. New Line only released it in theatres as a P&A deal with Polygram, who at the time did not have a U.S. theatrical division.

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[–] Lucious-Nightingale 10 years ago

how do you guy know and keep up with this stuff

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[–] foxvideo1996 8 years ago

Actually PolyGram was first had a first theatrical division known as PolyGram Pictures, which was formed by producers Jon Peters and Peter Guber. Under the reign of Peters and Guber, they produced and financed several movies. These movies included Endless Love, Wes Craven's Deadly Blessing, An American Werewolf In London, Flashdance and so on. Universal Studios would handle US distribution for most of these films while Producers Sales Organization handled foreign distribution. While some weren't even distributed by Universal. Flashdance was distributed by Paramount Pictures while Deadly Blessing was distributed by United Artists. In 1983, Jon Peters and Peter Guber would leave PolyGram to form the Guber-Peters company while PolyGram Pictures would go belly up. However, Peters and Guber had plans to make a Batman film at PolyGram. But their departure lead to them to make it for Warner Bros instead. Vestron Video would aquire most of the PolyGram Pictures library in 1985. The following year in 1986, PolyGram was relaunched as PolyGram Filmed Entertainment as a european competitor to hollywood. They would not have a U.S. division or logo until 1992.

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[–] lilmarkuk 10 years ago

I agree, also there was to be a Blu-ray release for its anniversary few year ago but it didn't happen, I actually expect this to be release somewhere like Germany first as many movie seem to be released their on bluray like death becomes her that's been out there a year, it was released by another company

ive got it and it looks fantastic

for now I will make do with the 720p version ive downloaded which looks great but not 1080p or bluray

I always want the witches on bluray with angelica Huston but no luck so far but I downloaded a 1080p version which looks great but not Blu-ray quality

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[–] RTheManF89 9 years ago

I'm pretty certain Lionsgate still owns the film.

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[–] foxvideo1996 8 years ago

Here's four possibilities of who owns Drop Dead Fred:

1. Lionsgate. LIVE Entertainment originally released the movie on VHS and Laserdisc. Then LIVE would become Artisan who would release it on DVD in 2003. Artisan would eventually become Lionsgate in the mid 2000s so they could release it on Blu Ray.

2. Universal. Drop Dead Fred was released overseas by PolyGram who Universal would buy in 1999. And Universal has released it on DVD in the UK so they're another contender.

3. Warner Bros. Drop Dead Fred was released theatrically In North America by New Line Cinema. Now New Line would be taken over by Turner in 1993 and eventually Turner would be morphed into TimeWarner (Warner Bros) in 1996. But would become a full part of Warner Bros in 2008 following the box office failure of The Golden Compass. So I could also see Warner Bros releasing this movie on Blu Ray or maybe on DVD as part of the Warner Archive collection.

4. MGM/20th Century Fox. As mentioned earlier, It was released overseas by PolyGram. MGM would buy most of the pre-1996 PolyGram library (However Universal would retain the rights of some of the pre-1996 PolyGram library such as An American Werewolf in London, Endless Love and The Jacksons: An American Dream. The pre-1996 PolyGram library also included pre-1994 Castle Rock films and some Nelson Entertainment films as well) and make it part of the Orion Pictures library. So MGM and 20th Century Fox could release it as well. Now I mention 20th Century Fox because MGM still has a deal with 20th Century Fox.

Out of those four, who do you think owns Drop Dead Fred?

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[–] RTheManF89 8 years ago

You make some interesting points, but I'm still betting on Lionsgate, until further notice.

Artisan Entertainment also used to be Live Entertainment, which released Drop Dead Fred onto VHS in the 1990s.

http://houstonrambler.blogspot.com/

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