Carolco Pictures: Difference between revisions

'''Carolco Pictures, Inc.''' was originally formed in 1976 by film investors Mario F. Kassar and Andrew G. Vajna (the latter of whom previously founded [[Panasia Films Limited|Panasia Films]] in Hong Kong) as '''Anabasis Investments''' to make a major independent competitor to the Hollywood studios producing A-movie products. In 1984, Anabasis Investments was reincorporated as '''Carolco International, N.V.''' The name "Carolco" was purchased from a defunct company based in Panama and "has no meaning," according to Kasser.

Carolco's first major success was the 1982 movie ''First Blood'', an adaptation of David Morrell's novel of the same name. The film made $120 million worldwide and placed Carolco among Hollywood's major players. On May 15, 1984, the company entered a long-term agreement from [[TriStar Pictures|Tri-Star Pictures]], then an up-and-coming film distributor and fledging studio. Through the argeement, Tri-Star would provide North American distribution of Carolco's films, while [[HBO]], one of the original three partners in the Tri-Star venture, would handle pay cable television rights and home video distribution rights would be handled by [[Thorn EMI Video]] (later [[Thorn EMI/HBO Video]] and [[HBO/Cannon Video]]). The agreement started in 1985 with ''Rambo: First Blood Part II'' and lasted until 1994; Carolco's final film distributed by TriStar was ''Wagons East!''.

In addition to its own library, Carolco had the television rights to those of [[The Vista Organization]], [[Hemdale Film Corporation]], [[Island Alive]], [[De Laurentiis Entertainment Group]] (except the Embassy library), and [[Pacific International Enterprises]], as well as several HBO movies, among possible others. Carolco also purchased the [[De Laurentiis Entertainment Group]] production facility when DEG closed, and unsuccessfully attempted to buy both [[Orion Pictures]] and [[Media Home Entertainment]].

'''Visuals:''' Against a starry space background, a blue streak of light zooms out, flashes, and forms a bronze, swirly "C". The process repeats twice, working its way outward, before forming the Carolco logo, which consists of a large, stylized "C" formed by many 3D swirls. Afterwards, the logo shines brightly as the words "{{color|silver|'''CAROLCO'''}}" (in the Hanzel font and in silver) shine in underneath. The logo then sparkles.

'''Technique:''' Computer animation.

'''Visuals:''' Against a black background, a blue laser carves out a series of curves, making its way inward as it slowly turns up, revealing the "C" used in the previous two logos. Then, the logo shines brightly in a "wind tunnel" effect and zooms-out. As the shining ends, the logo is silver, and the word "{{color|silver|'''CAROLCO'''}}" zooms out below. The logo shines once more.

'''Trivia:''' On international prints of ''The Wizard'', this logo didn't actually plaster over the [[Universal Pictures]] logo. Instead, the logo would play as normal with the music and would then be followed by the film with the Universal logo blacked out.

'''Visuals:''' Essentially just a superimposed in-credit logo of Carolco, the "C" in gold with "{{color|gold|'''CAROLCO'''}}" below, in a very small size.

'''Visuals:''' It's essentially the same as the 1988 logo, but this time done with modern CGI effects. The "{{color|silver|'''CAROLCO'''}}" name is also in a thicker font.