Whatever happened to Orion?

[Trufire]

Does anyone else remember Orion Studios. They always seemed to come out with some great movies. I don't remember a single movie they distributed that I didn't like. Then again I am only 19 I think the last movie I saw with their banner was made in 91? Were they bought out by a different company or just belly-uped? I miss them

[Rude]

...

They were sold to MGM in 1997~

-Rude

[MrTorso]

They squandered all of their success right into bankruptcy. MGM has the rights to the Orion catalog.

[Trufire]

Well.....at least it isn't Fox

[Rude]

Well.....at least it isn't Fox

Um... 20th Century Fox distributes MGM video.

-Rude

[mrbasehart]

MGM have a pretty lousy history too.  Since the 60's the studio has been struggling.

[Trufire]

I thought Disney owned MGM. MGM doesn't produce great movies but some are all right.

[mrbasehart]

I thought Disney owned MGM. MGM doesn't produce great movies but some are all right.

Time Warner bid for MGM, but ultimately, Sony Pictures managed to buy the studio a couple of years ago.   And MGM has made some great movies, just not so many recently.

[kodiakthejuggler]

Does anyone else remember Orion Studios. They always seemed to come out with some great movies. I don't remember a single movie they distributed that I didn't like. Then again I am only 19 I think the last movie I saw with their banner was made in 91? Were they bought out by a different company or just belly-uped? I miss them

Please tell me you caught Trace's ode to Orion in the beginning of Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie??

[Trufire]

Must have missed that. I'll look for it again. So how does Disney then have an MGM theme park at Disney World?

[kodiakthejuggler]

So how does Disney then have an MGM theme park at Disney World?

MONEY.

It somehow makes money for Disney, otherwise they wouldn't allow it.   

[Trufire]

Mabye MGM is a timeshare studio Each company gets to own it for a movie or two and disney just owns the rights to have the theme park to it. How can that be. Cause they have the on their side 

[ChrisHanel]

Back to the original question... Orion went under a little while after banking on the wrong movies to save them from their financial troubles, including UHF. From UHF's Wikipedia listing:

"According to Yankovic's Behind the Music episode, UHF enjoyed one of the most successful test screenings in Orion's history. Orion Pictures released UHF on July 21, 1989 as a hopeful summer blockbuster, hoping that Yankovic would pull them out of the water. But critical response was negative ('Siskel and Ebert thought I was the antichrist'), and UHF was overshadowed in the theaters by much larger films such as Lethal Weapon 2, Batman and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. As Weird Al states in his commentary of the movie, UHF was thought to be the movie that would "save the studio" for Orion. He was treated very well because of this. He states in the commentary: 'Every morning I would wake up to fresh strawberries next to my bed. Then, when the movie bombed, I woke up and...no more strawberries!' "

It lost money after marketing expenses, and didn't see itself become a profitable movie until the hugely popular DVD release... which MGM got to collect the money for. And the world turns ever on and on...

-Chris

[JonM229]

If you watch UHF with the commentary track on, at the beginning, when the Orion logo appears, Werid Al sings "Orion, Orion, we're bankrupt now" along with the music playing.