 | |
| Industry | Independent film studio |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1997 |
| Founder | Elie Samaha Andrew Stevens Ashok Amritraj |
| Defunct | 2004 |
| Fate | Chapter 11 bankruptcy |
| Successor |
|
| Headquarters | Los Angeles, California, United States[1] |
Key people | Elie Samaha Andrew Stevens |
| Subsidiaries | Franchise Interactive Phoenician Entertainment[2] Franchise Pictures Classics[2] |
Franchise Pictures, LLC was an American independent motion picture production and distribution company, founded in 1997 by Elie Samaha, Ashok Amritraj, and Andrew Stevens. They were known for their production in the action film genre. The company also had a short-lived video game arm, Franchise Interactive.
In 2004, in a case heard before a jury in a Los Angeles federal courtroom, Intertainment Licensing GmbH v. Franchise Pictures, et al.,[3] Judge Stotler awarded a plaintiff's verdict for $121.7 million against Franchise Pictures and Elie Samaha for fraudulent accounting. Samaha vowed to appeal but the fraud judgment destroyed Franchise's viability; the company and its subsidiaries all filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy petitions on August 18, 2004.[4]
As of 2021, half of the Franchise Pictures library, along with that of ThinkFilm, is now owned by Orange Holdings LLC.[5] Another half of the Franchise Pictures library is owned by Revolution Studios (via Morgan Creek Productions).[6][7]
- ^ Los Angeles
- ^ a b "Franchise". Hausegenealogy.com. Archived from the original on 2016-12-20. Retrieved 2017-08-21.
- ^ Adler, Michael S. (n.d.). "Intertainment Licensing GmbH v. Franchise Pictures, et al". morelaw.com. MoreLaw. Retrieved 4 October 2022.
Franchise admitted that the budgets were inflated but contended that Intertainment did not agree to pay on the basis of the budgets.
- ^ Shprintz, Janet; Dana Harris (August 23, 2004). "Elie's new chapter: Samaha's Franchise files for bankruptcy". Variety. Archived from the original on November 4, 2012. Retrieved 2010-07-01.
- ^ "WebVoyage Record View 1". Cocatalog.loc.gov. 2016-06-06. Retrieved 2017-08-21.
- ^ "Morgan Creek wins rights to Franchise pics". IMDb.
- ^ "Films". Morgan Creek Entertainment.