Orion Pictures Corporation was a U.S. movie production company, formed in 1978 as a joint venture between Warner Bros. Pictures and three former top-level executives of United Artists. UA co-chairmen Arthur Krim and Robert Benjamin and chief executive officer Eric Pleskow had resigned after disputes with UA's then parent, Transamerica, caused in part by the gargantuan production costs of Heaven's Gate. Orion's first films included 10, Time After Time, Caddyshack, Arthur, Chariots of Fire, Sharkey's Machine , and A Little Romance.
In 1982, Orion merged with Filmways, Inc. (which had produced well-remembered TV shows in the late 1960s, such as The Beverly Hillbillies, Green Acres, Mister Ed and The Addams Family, but was a second-string studio by the late 1970s and mainly interesting for its ownership of American International Pictures), and became an independent company. It also introduced a new logo, featuring an animated depiction of the Orion star constellation. During the 1980s, its output included Woody Allen films, Hollywood blockbusters such as the first Terminator film and the Robocop films, and Academy Award winners such as Amadeus, Platoon, Dances With Wolves, and The Silence of the Lambs. In 1986, billionaire John Kluge invested in the company as a favor to Krim, and by 1988 his Metromedia organization had become majority owner.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Orion had severe financial problems, and declared bankruptcy in 1992. Silence of the Lambs was almost passed on due to lack of funding, and several other projects in production at the time, such as Car 54 Where Are You? and Clifford, had their release delayed by three years (from 1991 to 1994) because of the bankruptcy filing. Orion was eventually able to exit bankruptcy in 1996, but few of the films released during the four years under bankruptcy protection made much of a critical or commercial impact.
In 1997, Metromedia sold Orion (as well as The Samuel Goldwyn Company and Motion Picture Corporation of America ) to MGM, with the deal finalized in late 1998. Orion remains an in-name-only subsidiary of MGM, and all Orion releases (mostly of the AIP and Filmways backlogs, as well as their own post-1982 library) now bear the MGM name, though in most cases, the 1980s Orion logo is retained (or added on, in the case of the Filmways and AIP libraries). Its back catalog from the 1978-1982 joint venture period remains under the control of Warner Bros.
