New World Pictures was an independent motion picture and television production company, and later television station owner in the United States from the late 1980s to the mid-1990s. News Corporation became a major investor in 1994 and purchased the company outright in 1997; the alliance with News Corporation helped to cement the Fox network as the fourth major U.S. television network. Although effectively defunct, it, along with various regional subsidiaries (i.e. "New World Communications of Tampa"), continue to exist as holding companies within the complex NewsCorp corporate structure.
History[]
New World Pictures (1970-1987)[]
The company was founded as New World Pictures, Ltd.; it was co-founded by B-movie director Roger Corman and his brother Gene, following their departure from American International Pictures. At the time, New World was the last remaining national low-budget film distributor, and was also one of the most successful independent companies in the nation. Corman hoped to continue AIP's formula at New World, making low-budget films by new talent and distributing them internationally. However, it started out with only ten domestic offices, and one each in Canada and the United Kingdom; its films were distributed regionally by other companies.
New World initially made exploitation films such as The Student Nurses and other small-scale productions. Corman helped launch the filmmaking careers of Jonathan Demme (Caged Heat, Crazy Mama), Jonathan Kaplan (White Line Fever), Ron Howard (Grand Theft Auto), Paul Bartel (Death Race 2000) and Joe Dante (Piranha), all of whom made some of their early films as interns for the company. New New World also released foreign films from acclaimed directors such as Ingmar Bergman (Cries and Whispers, Autumn Sonata), Federico Fellini (Amarcord) and Akira Kurosawa (Dersu Uzala). The distribution of such films was conceived by Corman in an effort to disassociate New World as an exhibitor of exploitation films.
In 1983, Corman sold New World to Larry Kupin, Harry E. Sloan and Larry A. Thompson for $16.5 million; the three new owners decided to take the company public. Corman retained the film library, while New World acquired home video rights to the releases. In 1984, Robert Rehme – who formerly served as chief executive officer of Avco Embassy Pictures and Universal Pictures and had previously worked for New World as its vice president of sales in the 1970s – returned to the company as its new CEO. Later that year Thompson left the company to form his own firm. Also in 1983, MacAndrews acquired Technicolor Inc.
In 1984, the company created three new divisions: New World International, which would handle distribution of New World's productions outside the United States; New World Television, a production unit focusing on television programs (the first television programs produced by the unit were the soap opera Santa Barbara and the made-for-TV movie Playing With Fire); and New World Video, which would handle home video distribution of films produced mainly by New World Pictures. In May 1986, New World acquired post-production facility Lions Gate Studios for $4.4 million. That November the company acquired the Marvel Entertainment Group (MEG), the corporate parent of Marvel Comics. By early 1987, the company sold its shares in Taft Broadcasting for $17.8 million.
- 1986 - New World acquired Highgate Pictures, Learning Corporation of America, and Marvel Comics.
- The U.S. theatrical release of Warriors of the Wind, a dub of Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind.
New World Entertainment (1987-1992)[]
In 1987, New World acquired independent film studio Highgate Pictures and educational film company Learning Corporation of America. By this time New World Pictures changes its name to New World Entertainment to better reflect its range of subsidiaries besides the film studio, including its purchase of Marvel Comics. Also that year New World almost purchased two toy companies, Kenner Products and Mattel, but both planned acquisitions never materialized (although Hasbro would acquire Kenner in 1991). In the fall of 1987, New World became the third in the list of prime time series producers to the network after Lorimar-Telepictures and MCA. In 1988, Michael Mann, executive producer of the hour-long television program Crime Story, filed a lawsuit against New World.
Around this time, New World faced a major financial slump and the company began restructuring itself. Facing insolvency, management appealed to New World's principal lender, GE Capital, for a comprehensive debt restructuring, which would have wiped out the company's equity and left GE holding a 90% ownership stake. GE demurred, preferring an insolvency workout, and tried to force the company to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Another equity firm, Sloan And Kupin, instead pursued an aggressive program of divestitures and sales, which ultimately yielded a substantial profit to management while leaving the debt holders struggling. This began with the sale of Marvel Entertainment Group to Andrews Group (run by financier Ronald Perelman) in 1989; Marvel Productions was excluded from the sale. In an ironic twist, Perelman acquired New World Entertainment, with Four Star Television becoming a unit of the company, later that year. The bulk of its film and home video holdings were sold in January 1990 to Trans-Atlantic Pictures, a newly formed production company founded by a consortium of former New World executives. Highgate Pictures and Learning Corporation of America were shut down in 1990. On October 7, 1991, New World sold much of its "network" assets to Sony Pictures Entertainment. Some television programs produced by New World such as Santa Barbara and The Wonder Years would remain in production by the company until their cancellations in 1993; New World would not return to producing programs for the major broadcast television networks until early 1995.
In December of that year, New World formed two new divisions, New World Family Filmworks and New World Action Animation, to increase production for the growing family market by $20 million; Marvel Productions President Rick Ungar was appointed to head the two divisions. Following Marvel Entertainment Group's acquisition of ToyBiz in 1993, that company's CEO Avi Arad was named President and CEO of both New World Family Filmworks and Marvel Films,[16] a new unit formed as a joint venture between Marvel and New World (which included an animation studio, Marvel Films Animation); Marvel Productions was renamed New World Animation in 1993.
New World Communications (1993-1997)[]
See also: Fox affiliate switches of 1994
In 1993, New World Entertainment purchased stakes in program distributor Genesis Entertainment and infomercial producer Guthy-Renker. Later that year, GCI Broadcast Services, Inc. (formerly known as Gillett Communications, and previously Storer Broadcasting) was folded into New World, and the company changed its name to New World Communications. The television station group was originally composed of:
- WAGA-TV - Atlanta;
- WSBK-TV - Boston;
- WJBK-TV - Detroit;
- WJW-TV - Cleveland;
- WITI-TV - Milwaukee;
- KNSD - San Diego;
- and WTVT - Tampa.
A number of major deals involved New World in 1994, including one which would change the face of American broadcasting. The year began with the acquisition of Argyle Television (formerly Times-Mirror Broadcasting, and partially related to Argyle Television Holdings II, which merged with Hearst Broadcasting to form Hearst-Argyle Television in 1997). Argyle's stations included:
- KTBC-TV - Austin, Texas;
- WVTM-TV - Birmingham, Alabama;
- KDFW-TV - Dallas; and
- KTVI - St. Louis.
A month later, New World acquired four stations from Citicasters (formerly known as Taft Broadcasting):
- WBRC-TV - Birmingham, Alabama;
- WGHP - High Point, North Carolina;
- WDAF-TV - Kansas City, Missouri;
- and KSAZ-TV - Phoenix.
Because of Federal Communications Commission ownership rules at the time, New World decided to acquire WBRC and WGHP and then place them in a trust for sale to another company. That company would eventually be the News Corporation, who purchased the two stations in 1995.
Less than a month after the Citicasters acquisition, and in the wake of Fox's acquisition of the rights to National Football League games (announced some time earlier), News Corporation (Fox's parent company) made a deal with New World which moved the Fox affiliations to most of New World's stations.
Three New World stations were not included in the Fox deal. In Boston, where New World owned WSBK-TV, Fox was already affiliated with WFXT, a station it would later reacquire. In Birmingham, WVTM was not included because WBRC would be sold to Fox directly, and would switch to Fox when its affiliation contract with ABC expired. And, in San Diego, KNSD did not switch because Fox was already on a VHF station, Tijuana, Mexico-based XETV. Both KNSD and WVTM retained their NBC affiliations.
Later that year, former NBC Entertainment president Brandon Tartikoff joined the company, and as a result New World acquired his production company. Also, New World acquired the remainder of Genesis Entertainment, which gave New World television distribution capabilities as well as production.
In 1995, New World sold WSBK-TV in Boston to Viacom. As well, Genesis Entertainment was renamed New World-Genesis Distribution. Later, it signed a distribution deal with NBC (Access Hollywood was the only program that came out of the deal, it is now distributed by NBC Universal Television) which also called for ten-year NBC affiliation renewals on the Birmingham and San Diego stations. That year also brought in the acquisition of Cannell Entertainment and Premiere magazine.
In 1996 New World sold the Birmingham and San Diego stations to NBC. In July of that year, News Corporation announced the purchase of the remainder of New World Communications.
In January 1997, News Corporation completed its acquisition of New World Communications, and New World's television stations placed in the Fox Television Stations division. Though most of the new stations switched their incorporation names to reflect their new Fox ownership, several of the former New World stations continue to use the New World Communications of (city/region name), Inc. name for d/b/a and licensing purposes only.
After the acquisition, New World's production division was shut down; it was able to finish production on existing programs up until that May. In most cases, the individual successor companies normally include their logo in the closing credits in place of the New World globe.
Current rights to New World Pictures/Entertainment/Television library[]
1971-1983 films[]
- TV - CBS Television Distribution
- Video - New Horizons Home Video
1984-1991 films[]
- TV - Warner Bros. Television and Lakeshore Entertainment
- Video - Anchor Bay Entertainment
Television programs[]
- Broadcast - 20th Television (The Big Valley, Real Stories of the Highway Patrol); Lakeshore Entertainment; NBC Universal Television Distribution (Access Hollywood); Sony Pictures Television (Get a Life, Tour of Duty); Warner Bros. Television (Crime Story, The Wonder Years); Anchor Bay Entertainment (Sledge Hammer!); Disney, previously Saban Entertainment (Marvel Action Hour, Spider-Man, Iron Man, the pre-1992 library of Marvel Productions/Marvel Films [excluding licensed properties like The Transformers, Muppet Babies, etc.], and the all-original pre-1981 DePatie-Freleng made-for-TV cartoon library); pre-1994 first-run and off-net syndicated programming from Genesis Entertainment (later New World-Genesis Distribution); and New World's station group.
- Video/DVD - 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment; Anchor Bay Entertainment; Rhino Home Video; Sony Pictures Home Entertainment; and Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment.
Former New World-owned television stations[]
| DMA# | City of license/Market | Station | Channel TV / DT |
Years owned | Affiliation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5. | Dallas - Fort Worth | KDFW-TV | 4 / 35 | 1995-97 | Fox owned-and-operated (O&O) |
| KDFI-TV | 27 / 36 | * | My Network TV O&O owned by Fox | ||
| 7. | Boston | WSBK-TV | 38 / 39 | 1993-95 | Independent owned by CBS Corporation |
| 8. | Atlanta | WAGA-TV | 5 / 27 | 1993-97 | Fox owned-and-operated (O&O) |
| 11. | Detroit | WJBK-TV | 2 / 58 | 1993-97 | Fox owned-and-operated (O&O) |
| 12. | Phoenix | KSAZ-TV | 10 / 31 | 1994-97 | Fox owned-and-operated (O&O) |
| 13. | Tampa - St. Petersburg | WTVT | 13 / 12 | 1993-97 | Fox owned-and-operated (O&O) |
| 17. | Cleveland | WJW-TV | 8 / 31 | 1993-97 | Fox affiliate owned by Local TV |
| 21. | St. Louis | KTVI | 2 / 43 | 1995-97 | Fox affiliate owned by Local TV |
| 28. | San Diego | KNSD | 39 / 40 | 1993-96 | NBC owned-and-operated (O&O) (joint venture with LIN Television) |
| 31. | Kansas City, Missouri | WDAF-TV | 4 / 34 | 1994-97 | Fox affiliate owned by Local TV |
| 35. | Milwaukee | WITI-TV | 6 / 33 | 1993-97 | Fox affiliate owned by Local TV |
| 40. | Birmingham, Alabama | WBRC-TV | 6 / 50 | ** | Fox affiliate owned by Local TV |
| WVTM-TV | 13 / 52 | 1995-96 | NBC affiliate owned by Media General | ||
| 46. | High Point - Greensboro - Winston-Salem, N.C. |
WGHP | 8 / 35 | ** | Fox affiliate owned by Local TV |
| 49. | Austin, Texas | KTBC-TV | 7 / 56 | 1995-97 | Fox owned-and-operated (O&O) |
- *--Station owned by a third party but operated by KDFW-TV under a local marketing agreement.
- **--Stations acquired with the purchases of KSAZ-TV and WDAF-TV, but placed in a trust for sale to another company (which turned out to be Fox). New World continued to provide management oversight for these two stations until Fox took over via time-brokerage agreements several months later.
Filmography[]
- The Big Doll House (April 30, 1971) (with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer)
- The Velvet Vampire (October 13, 1971)
- Night of the Cobra Woman (January 1, 1972) (with Premiere Productions)
- Beyond Atlantis (September 21, 1973) (with Dimension Pictures and Ambassador Film Distributors)
- The Arena (March 13, 1974) (with Florida Cinematografica)
- Dirty Duck (July 8, 1974) (with Murakami-Wolf Productions)
- Candy Stripe Nurses (September 25, 1974) (with Embassy Pictures)
- Tidal Wave (May 23, 1975) (with Toho)
- White Line Fever (July 16, 1975) (with Columbia Pictures and International Cinemedia Center)
- Alice in Wonderland (December 10, 1976) (with 20th Century Fox, General National Enterprises, Playboy Enterprises, Essex Film Company and Cruiser Productions)
- Moonshine County Express (June 1, 1977)
- Grand Theft Auto (June 16, 1977)
- A Hero Ain't Nothin' But a Sandwich (February 3, 1978) (with Paramount Pictures)
- The Evil (May 5, 1978) (with Embassy Pictures and Rangoon Productions)
- Jokes My Folks Never Told Me (May 26, 1978) (with Embassy Pictures, MarLyn Investments and SA Vail Productions)
- Autumn Sonata (October 18, 1978) (with ITC Entertainment)
- Love on the Run (April 6, 1979) (with Warner Bros. Pictures)
- The Prize Fighter (November 16, 1979) (with TriStar Pictures)
- The Tin Drum (April 11, 1980) (with Hallelujah Films)
- Battle Beyond the Stars (September 12, 1980) (with Orion Pictures)
- Jimmy the Kid (November 12, 1982) (with Zephyr Productions)
- Space Raiders (July 15, 1983) (with Warner Bros. Pictures)
- The Warrior and the Sorceress (September 7, 1984) (with New Horizons and Aries Cinematográfica Argentina)
- The Kindred (May 29, 1987) (with Vestron Pictures and Kindred Limited Partnership)
- Warlock (January 11, 1989) (with Trimark Pictures and Dream Quest Images)
- Always (December 22, 1989) (with Universal Pictures, United Artists, Gibraltar Releasing Organization, Amblin Entertainment and Film Futures Troopstar)
- Warlock (January 11, 1991) (with Trimark Pictures)
- Warlock: The Armageddon (September 24, 1993) (with Trimark Pictures and Tapestry Films)
- Hot Tub Time Machine (March 26, 2010) (with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, C2 Pictures, United Artists, Rysher Entertainment, New World Pictures, Nelson Entertainment and Rhino Films)
External links[]
- News Corporation
- New World Pictures at the Internet Movie Database