TriStar Pictures: Difference between revisions

<u><br />Background</u>: TriStar Pictures (originally spelled "Tri-Star") was formed in 1982 as a joint venture between [[Columbia Pictures]] (then owned by the Coca-Cola Company), HBO, and CBS, hence the name of the studio. Originally it was known as "Nova Pictures" until the name was changed on May 16, 1983 in order to avoid confusion with PBS's hit science series Nova. CBS was the first joint-owner who dropped out venture on November 15, 1985 and sold its interest to Columbia Pictures for $48 million. In 1986, HBO sold its shares in Tri-Star to Columbia as well and formed HBO Pictures. On December 21, 1987, Tri-Star Pictures, Inc. was renamed to "Columbia Pictures Entertainment, Inc." and Coke merged Tri-Star and Columbia to become "Columbia/Tri-Star", of which Coca-Cola owned 80% of its stock. In late 1987, most of Tri-Star's releases were copyrighted under the "Columbia Pictures Entertainment, Inc." name until mid-1988, when it was reverted back to "Tri-Star Pictures, Inc.", as a new entity with that name was incorporated on April 13. In January 1988, CPE's stocks fell a little and Coke decreased its shares in CPE to 49%. On November 8, 1989, Sony Corporation of Japan acquired Columbia Pictures Entertainment for $3.4 billion. On August 7, 1991, under Sony Pictures Entertainment, the hyphen (-) was taken off of the name to refer it to the current CamelCase-style name, "TriStar". Early on, (with a few exceptions), TriStar's films were released on Home Video by either [[Sony Pictures Home Entertainment|RCA/Columbia Pictures Home Video (now Sony Pictures Home Entertainment)]], CBS/FOX/[[Key Video]] (now [[20th Century Fox Home Entertainment]]), occasionally [[Vestron Video]]/[[Lightning Video]] (now [[Lionsgate Home Entertainment]]), or [[Thorn EMI Video (UK)|Thorn-EMI]]/[[HBO/Cannon Video]]/[[HBO Home Entertainment|HBO Video (now HBO Home Entertainment)]], among other companies. In 1988, following Columbia's buyout of TriStar, Home Video distribution of films produced by the studio moved exclusively to RCA/Columbia. From 1985 until 1994, TriStar also distributed films produced by [[Carolco Pictures]]; these were released on the [[Artisan Entertainment|International Video Entertainment and Live Home Video]] labels (now [[Lionsgate Home Entertainment]]), often with TriStar's logo cut. Cliffhanger is the only Carolco film in which the rights were retained by the original distributor.