Revolution Studios Distribution Company, LLC (operating as Revolution Studios) is an American independent motion picture and foreign sales company headed by Chief Executive Officer Scott Hemming, founded by Joe Roth on January 12, 2000, and based in Los Angeles, California.
The company focuses primarily on the distribution, remake, and sequel rights to titles in its library, which it continues to add to through acquisitions and new productions.
Company history
On January 12, 2000, after a successful run at Walt Disney Studios, and his time at 20th Century Fox and Caravan Pictures, Joe Roth left Disney, to create a yet-unnamed venture. On February 17, 2000, Roth signed an agreement with actress Julia Roberts to star in their films as well as producing through their Shoelace Productions banner.
On June 7, 2000, Roth officially decided to name his new venture Revolution Studios (the name coming from the song by The Beatles, as he has admitted to being a lifelong fan of the band) and announced that Tomcats would be the first film to be produced by the studio. On the same day, Revolution Studios entered into an agreement with Sony Pictures (which also owned a stake in the company) to distribute and market Revolution Studios' films. Roth owned the controlling interest in Revolution Studios. Other equity owners included Hollywood executives Todd Garner, Rob Moore, Tom Sherak and Elaine Goldsmith-Thomas, as well as Starz Entertainment and 20th Century Fox. followed by a deal with American Girl.
On January 5, 2005, Revolution Studios signed a television syndication distribution deal with Debmar-Mercury to market their library to syndication.
In August 2006, Revolution Studios announced that it had licensed to Universal Pictures the sequel rights to its comic-book-inspired hit Hellboy (2004). Universal released Hellboy II: The Golden Army in the United States in 2008.
Coinciding with the end of its six-year distribution deal with Sony in 2007, Revolution Studios turned its attention to exploiting the remake, sequel and television rights to films in its library. Roth suddenly decided to move into a producing deal with Sony Pictures to start his own production company.
Revolution Studios produced a sitcom based on its comedy feature Are We There Yet?, which ran from June 1, 2010 to March 2, 2013 on TBS, as well as a sitcom adaptation of Anger Management, which ran from June 28, 2012 to December 22, 2014 on FX.
In June 2014, Roth announced that he had sold Revolution Studios to funds managed by Fortress Investment Group for roughly $250 million. Roth continues to serve as a strategic adviser and develops television projects for the Revolution Studios through a first-look deal. Concurrent with the sale, former Chief Operating Officer Vince Totino was promoted to CEO, and former finance executive Scott Hemming was named COO.
In October 2015, Revolution Studios acquired Cross Creek Pictures' 50% interests in feature films Black Swan and The Ides of March. Later that month, Revolution Studios purchased the eight-film Cold Spring Pictures film library, including the 2009 Academy Award nominee and Golden Globe Award winner Up in the Air.
Also in 2015, Revolution Studios announced a partnership with Universal Pictures Home Entertainment to produce non-theatrical sequels, prequels, or other spin-offs based on the titles in Revolution Studios' library.
In June 2016, Revolution Studios expanded its library to 126 films when it acquired worldwide rights to five films produced by Graham King's GK Films: Hugo, The Tourist, Edge of Darkness, The Rum Diary and The Young Victoria. The rights were previously held by Dallas-based Tango Films. In January 2017, Revolution Studios returned to film production with their release XXX: Return of Xander Cage, the company's first film since 2007's The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep.
In January 2017, Content Partners LLC and its affiliate CP Enterprises acquired Revolution Studios from investment funds managed by affiliates of Fortress Investment Group for an undisclosed price.
Corporate partnerships
In October 2014, Revolution Studios forged a global licensing pact with Miramax, wherein Miramax would sell the worldwide television and digital distribution rights to Revolution Studios' library. Miramax has been handling U.S. sales of the Revolution Studios library since June 2012.
In May 2016, Revolution Studios announced that it had made a seven-figure investment for a stake in Spanish-language digital services company Latin Everywhere, agreeing to license Spanish-dubbed versions of its library titles to Latin Everywhere's video streaming platform Pongalo (Spanish for "play it").
In October 2019, Revolution Studios signed a worldwide television and digital distribution deal with Sony Pictures Television, covering the Revolution Studios and Morgan Creek libraries.
Films
Here is a list of films independently produced by Revolution Studios:
Theatrical films
{| class="wikitable sortable"
|-
! Release date
! Title
! Notes
! Budget
! Gross (worldwide)
|-
| align="right"| March 30, 2001 || Tomcats || co-production with Eagle Cove Entertainment ||$11 million ||$23,430,766
|-
| align="right"| June 1, 2001 || The Animal || ||$13 million ||$31,167,388
|-
| align="right"| August 2, 2002 || The Master of Disguise || co-production with Happy Madison Productions ||$16 million ||$43,411,001
|-
| align="right"| August 9, 2002 || XXX || co-production with Original Film ||$70 million ||$277,448,382
|-
| align="right"| September 13, 2002 || Stealing Harvard || co-production with Imagine Entertainment ||$25 million ||$14,277,032
|-
| align="right"| November 1, 2002 || Punch-Drunk Love || co-production with Distant Corners ||$11 million ||$47,488,536
|-
| align="right"| March 7, 2003 || Tears of the Sun || co-production with Paramount Pictures, One Race Films and Roth/Kirschenbaum Films ||$85 million ||$338,678,346
|-
|}
Direct-to-video films
{| class="wikitable sortable"
|-
! Release date
! Title
! Notes
|-
| align="right"| October 28, 2006 || Hellboy: Sword of Storms || co-production with Film Roman
|-
| align="right"| March 17, 2007 || Hellboy: Blood and Iron || co-production with Film Roman
|-
| align="right"| January 29, 2019 || Benchwarmers 2: Breaking Balls || co-production with Universal 1440 Entertainment
|-
| align="right"| February 5, 2019 || Grand-Daddy Day Care || co-production with Universal 1440 Entertainment
|}
Television
{| class="wikitable sortable"
!Start date
!End date
!Title
!Network
!Notes
!Seasons
!Episodes
|-
|January 10, 2003
|May 16, 2003
|Queens Supreme
|CBS
|as Revolution Television; co-production with Red Om Films, Shoelace Productions, Shadowland Productions, CBS Productions and Spelling Television
|1
|13
|-
|June 2, 2010
|March 1, 2013
|Are We There Yet?
|TBS
|co-production with 5914 Productions, Ltd., Cube Vision and Debmar-Mercury
|3
|100
|-
|April 11, 2011
|June 3, 2011
|Drew Carey's Improv-A-Ganza
|GSN
|as Revolution Television; co-production with Three Foot Giant Productions and International Mammoth Television
|1
|40
|-
|November 29, 2011
|July 23, 2012
|Una Maid en Manhattan
|Telemundo
|co-production with Sony Pictures Television
|1
|163
|-
|June 28, 2012
|December 22, 2014
|Anger Management
|FX
|co-production with Mohawk Productions, Estevez/Sheen Productions, Twisted Television, Debmar-Mercury and Lionsgate Television
|2
|100
|}
Television films/specials
{| class="wikitable sortable"
!Release date
!Title
!Network
!Notes
|-
|November 23, 2004
|Samantha: An American Girl Holiday
| rowspan="2" |The WB
| rowspan="3" |as Revolution Television; co-production with Red Om Films, American Girl and Warner Bros. Television
|-
|November 29, 2005
|Felicity: An American Girl Adventure
|-
|November 26, 2006
|Molly: An American Girl on the Home Front
|Disney Channel
|-
|January 27, 2019
|Rent: Live
|Fox
|co-production with Marc Platt Productions, Sony Pictures Television and 20th Century Fox Television
|}
See also
- Caravan Pictures/Spyglass Media Group
- Morgan Creek Entertainment
- Roth/Kirschenbaum Films
References
External links
- Revolution Studios