Revolution Studios Distribution Company, LLC, operating as Revolution Studios, is an American independent motion picture and television studio headed by Chief Executive Officer Scott Hemming, founded in 2000, and based in Los Angeles, California.[3]
 | |
| Revolution Studios | |
| Company type | Subsidiary |
| Industry | Film Television |
| Founded | January 12, 2000 (as film studio) March 30, 2001 (as television studio) |
| Founder | Joe Roth |
| Headquarters | 10877 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 620 Los Angeles, California, United States |
Key people | Scott Hemming (CEO)[1] |
| Products | Motion pictures Television series |
| Parent | Content Partners LLC[2] |
| Website | Official Website |
The company focuses primarily on the distribution, remake, and sequel rights to titles in its library, which it continues to add to through acquisitions and new productions.
Company history
On January 12, 2000, after a successful run at Walt Disney Studios, and his time at 20th Century Fox and Caravan Pictures, Joe Roth left Disney, to create a yet-unnamed venture.[4] On February 17, 2000, Roth signed an agreement with actress Julia Roberts to star in their films as well as producing through their Shoelace Productions banner.[5]
On June 7, 2000, Roth officially decided to name his new venture Revolution Studios and announced that Tomcats was the first film to be produced by the studio.[6] On the same day, the studio entered into an agreement with Sony Pictures Entertainment—which also owned a stake in the company—to distribute and market Revolution's films. Roth owned the controlling interest in Revolution. Other equity owners included Hollywood executives Todd Garner, Rob Moore, Tom Sherak and Elaine Goldsmith-Thomas, as well as Starz Entertainment and 20th Century Fox.
On January 5, 2005, it signed a television syndication distribution deal with Debmar-Mercury to market their library to syndication.[7]
Coinciding with the end of its six-year distribution deal with Sony in 2007, Revolution turned its attention to exploiting the remake, sequel and television rights to films in its library. Joe Roth suddenly decided to move into a producing deal with Sony Pictures to start his own production company.[8]
In August 2006, Revolution announced that it had licensed to Universal Pictures the sequel rights to its comic-book-inspired hit Hellboy (2004).[9] Universal released Hellboy II: The Golden Army in the United States in 2008.
Revolution produced a sitcom based on its comedy feature Are We There Yet?, which ran from 2010 to 2012 on TBS, as well as a sitcom adaptation of Anger Management, which ran from 2012 to 2014 on FX.[10][11]
In June 2014, Roth announced that he had sold Revolution Studios to funds managed by Fortress Investment Group for roughly $250 million. Roth continues to serve as a strategic adviser and develops television projects for the studio through a first-look deal. Concurrent with the sale, former Chief Operating Officer Vince Totino was promoted to CEO, and former finance executive Scott Hemming was named COO.[3]
After the sale, the newly recapitalized Revolution Studios began adding to its library through a series of acquisitions. In October 2014, it acquired the foreign rights and copyrights of Morgan Creek Productions.[12]
In October 2015, Revolution acquired Cross Creek Pictures' 50% interests in feature films Black Swan and The Ides of March.[13] Later that month, Revolution purchased the eight-film Cold Spring Pictures film library, including the 2009 Academy Award nominee and Golden Globe Award winner Up in the Air.[14]
Also in 2015, Revolution announced a partnership with Universal Pictures Home Entertainment to produce non-theatrical sequels, prequels, or other spinoffs based on the titles in Revolution's library.[15]
In June 2016, Revolution expanded its library to 126 films when it acquired worldwide rights to five films produced by Graham King's GK Films: Hugo, The Tourist, Edge of Darkness, The Rum Diary and The Young Victoria. The rights were previously held by Dallas-based Tango Films.[16] In January 2017, the studio returned to film production with their release XXX: Return of Xander Cage, the company's first film since 2007's The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep.[17][18]
In January 2017, Content Partners LLC and its affiliate CP Enterprises acquired Revolution Studios from investment funds managed by affiliates of Fortress Investment Group for an undisclosed price.[19]
Corporate partnerships
In October 2014, Revolution Studios forged a global licensing pact with Miramax, wherein the latter company would sell the worldwide television and digital distribution rights to Revolution's library. Miramax has been handling U.S. sales of the Revolution library since June 2012.[20]
In May 2016, Revolution announced that it had made a seven-figure investment for a stake in Spanish-language digital services company Latin Everywhere, agreeing to license Spanish-dubbed versions of its library titles to Latin Everywhere's video streaming platform Pongalo (Spanish for "play it").[21]
In October 2019, Revolution signed a worldwide television and digital distribution deal with Sony Pictures Television, covering the Revolution and Morgan Creek libraries.[22]
Films
Here is a list of films independently produced by Revolution:
Theatrical films
| Release Date | Title | Notes | Budget | Gross (worldwide) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| March 30, 2001 | Tomcats[23] | co-production with Eagle Cove Entertainment | $11 million | $23,430,766 |
| June 1, 2001 | The Animal[23] | co-production with Happy Madison Productions | $47 million | $84,772,742 |
| July 20, 2001 | America's Sweethearts[23] | co-production with Face Productions, Roth-Arnold Productions and Shoelace Productions | $46 million | $138,191,428 |
| November 2, 2001 | The One[23] | co-production with Hard Eight Pictures | $49 million | $72,689,126 |
| December 28, 2001 | Black Hawk Down[24] | co-production with Jerry Bruckheimer Films and Scott Free Productions | $92 million | $172,989,651 |
| May 10, 2002 | The New Guy[25] | $13 million | $31,167,388 | |
| August 2, 2002 | The Master of Disguise[26] | co-production with Happy Madison Productions | $16 million | $43,411,001 |
| August 9, 2002 | XXX | co-production with Original Film[24] | $70 million | $277,448,382 |
| September 13, 2002 | Stealing Harvard[27] | co-production with Imagine Entertainment | $25 million | $14,277,032 |
| November 1, 2002 | Punch-Drunk Love[27] | co-production with New Line Cinema | $25 million | $24,665,649 |
| December 13, 2002 | Maid in Manhattan[24] | co-production with Red OM Films | $55 million | $154,906,693 |
| January 24, 2003 | Darkness Falls[28] | co-production with Distant Corners | $11 million | $47,488,536 |
| March 7, 2003 | Tears of the Sun[28] | co-production with Cheyenne Enterprises | $75 million | $86,468,162 |
| April 11, 2003 | Anger Management[24] | co-production with Happy Madison Productions | $75 million | $195,745,823 |
| May 9, 2003 | Daddy Day Care[24] | co-production with Davis Entertainment | $69 million | $164,433,867 |
| June 13, 2003 | Hollywood Homicide[28] | $75 million | $51,142,659 | |
| August 1, 2003 | Gigli[28] | co-production with City Light Films and Casey Silver Productions | $75 million | $7,266,209 |
| October 24, 2003 | Radio[28] | co-production with Tollin/Robbins Productions | $35 million | $53,293,628 |
| November 26, 2003 | The Missing[28] | co-production with Imagine Entertainment | $60 million | $38,364,277 |
| December 19, 2003 | Mona Lisa Smile | co-production with Red OM Films | $65 million | $141,337,989 |
| December 25, 2003 | Peter Pan[28] | co-production with Universal Pictures (USA/Canada/UK/Ireland/Australia/New Zealand/France/South Africa), Columbia Pictures (International), Red Wagon Entertainment and Allied Stars Ltd. | $130 million | $121,975,011 |
| April 2, 2004 | Hellboy[24] | co-production with Lawrence Gordon Productions and Dark Horse Entertainment | $66 million | $99,318,987 |
| April 23, 2004 | 13 Going on 30[28] | $37 million | $96,455,697 | |
| June 23, 2004 | White Chicks[24] | co-production with Wayans Bros. Entertainment | $37 million | $113,086,475 |
| August 6, 2004 | Little Black Book[28] | $35 million | $22,034,832 | |
| September 24, 2004 | The Forgotten[28] | co-production with The Jinks Cohen Company | $42 million | $117,592,831 |
| November 24, 2004 | Christmas with the Kranks[28] | co-production with 1492 Pictures | $60 million | $96,572,480 |
| January 21, 2005 | Are We There Yet?[28] | co-production with Cube Vision | $32 million | $97,918,663 |
| February 25, 2005 | Man of the House[28] | $40 million | $21,577,624 | |
| April 29, 2005 | XXX: State of the Union[24] | co-production with Original Film | $87 million | $71,022,693 |
| September 9, 2005 | An Unfinished Life[28] | co-production with Miramax Films, Initial Entertainment Group and The Ladd Company | $30 million | $18,618,284 |
| October 14, 2005 | The Fog[28] | $18 million | $46,201,432 | |
| October 21, 2005 | The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio[28] | co-production with DreamWorks Pictures and ImageMovers | $12 million | $689,028 |
| November 23, 2005 | Rent[28] | co-production with 1492 Pictures and Tribeca Productions | $40 million | $31,670,620 |
| February 17, 2006 | Freedomland[28] | co-production with Scott Rudin Productions | $30 million | $14,655,628 |
| April 7, 2006 | The Benchwarmers[28] | co-production with Happy Madison Productions | $33 million | $64,957,291 |
| June 23, 2006 | Click[28] | co-production with Columbia Pictures, Happy Madison Productions and Original Film | $82.5 million | $237,681,299 |
| July 14, 2006 | Little Man[28] | co-production with Wayans Bros. Entertainment | $64 million | $101,595,121 |
| August 11, 2006 | Zoom[28] | co-production with Team Todd Films and Boxing Cat Films | $35 million | $12,506,188 |
| December 20, 2006 | Rocky Balboa[28] | co-production with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Columbia Pictures | $24 million | $155,721,132 |
| April 4, 2007 | Are We Done Yet?[28] | co-production with RKO Pictures and Cube Vision | $28 million | $58,388,068 |
| April 13, 2007 | Perfect Stranger[28] | $60 million | $73,090,611 | |
| April 27, 2007 | Next[28] | co-production with Saturn Films, Virtual Studios and Initial Entertainment Group, distributed by Paramount Pictures | $70 million | $76,066,841 |
| August 8, 2007 | Daddy Day Camp[28] | co-production with TriStar Pictures, Davis Entertainment and Blue Star Entertainment | $6 million | $18,197,398 |
| September 7, 2007 | The Brothers Solomon[28] | co-production with Carsey-Werner Productions, theatrically distributed by Screen Gems | $10 million | $1,035,056 |
| October 12, 2007 | Across the Universe[28] | co-production with Team Todd | $45 million | $29,367,143 |
| December 25, 2007 | The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep[28] | co-production with Walden Media, Beacon Pictures and Ecosse Pictures | $40 million | $103,071,443 |
| January 20, 2017 | XXX: Return of Xander Cage[29] | co-production with Paramount Pictures, One Race Films and Roth/Kirschenbaum Films | $85 million | $338,678,346 |
Direct-to-video films
| Release Date | Title | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| October 28, 2006 | Hellboy: Sword of Storms | co-production with Film Roman |
| March 17, 2007 | Hellboy: Blood and Iron | co-production with Film Roman |
| January 29, 2019 | Benchwarmers 2: Breaking Balls | co-production with Universal 1440 Entertainment |
| February 5, 2019 | Grand-Daddy Day Care | co-production with Universal 1440 Entertainment |
Television
| Start Date | End Date | Title | Network | Notes | Seasons | Episodes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January 10, 2003 | May 16, 2003 | Queens Supreme[30] | CBS | as Revolution Television; co-production with Red Om Films, Shoelace Productions, Shadowland Productions, CBS Productions and Spelling Television | 1 | 13 |
| June 2, 2010 | March 1, 2013 | Are We There Yet?[31] | TBS | co-production with 5914 Productions, Ltd., Cube Vision and Debmar-Mercury | 3 | 100 |
| April 11, 2011 | June 3, 2011 | Drew Carey's Improv-A-Ganza[32] | GSN | as Revolution Television; co-production with Three Foot Giant Productions and International Mammoth Television | 1 | 40 |
| November 29, 2011 | July 23, 2012 | Una Maid en Manhattan[33] | Telemundo | co-production with Sony Pictures Television | 1 | 163 [34] |
| June 28, 2012 | December 22, 2014 | Anger Management[35] | FX | co-production with Mohawk Productions, Estevez/Sheen Productions, Twisted Television, Debmar-Mercury and Lionsgate Television | 2 | 100 |
Television movies/specials
| Release Date | Title | Network | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| November 23, 2004 | Samantha: An American Girl Holiday[36] | The WB | as Revolution Television; co-production with Red Om Films, American Girl and Warner Bros. Television |
| November 29, 2005 | Felicity: An American Girl Adventure[37] | ||
| November 26, 2006 | Molly: An American Girl on the Home Front[38] | Disney Channel | |
| January 27, 2019 | Rent: Live[39] | Fox | co-production with Marc Platt Productions, Sony Pictures Television and 20th Century Fox Television |