Columbia House was an umbrella brand for Columbia Records ' mail-order music clubs, the primary iteration of which was the Columbia Record Club , established in 1955. The Columbia House brand was introduced in the early 1970s by Columbia Records (a division of CBS, Inc. ), and had a significant market presence in the 1970s, 1980s and early 1990s.
106-508: In 2005, longtime competitor BMG Direct Marketing, Inc. (formerly the RCA Music Service or RCA Victor Record Club) purchased Columbia House and consolidated operations. In 2008, the company (as well as book club operator Bookspan ) was acquired by private investment group Najafi Companies, and its name was changed to Direct Brands, Inc. Although Direct Brands shut down music mail-order operations in mid-2009, it continued to use
212-532: A Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film . Meanwhile, Otello , based on the opera of the same name , also received a Golden Globe nomination that year. Golan and Cannon Films tended to over-promote films that did not live up to expectations. For instance, Lifeforce (1985) was to be "the cinematic sci-fi event of the '80s " and Masters of the Universe (1987) was dubbed "the Star Wars of
318-439: A $ 0.49/video offering. In specified circumstances, "memberships" are available, whereby the customer is not required to respond to Director Selection mailings unless he or she wants to buy the movie. When such memberships expire, the old rules return where a response is required in time to prevent shipping of full-price movies without customer input. Customers are not reminded when those rules change. The customer also has access to
424-525: A $ 10 million agreement with the BBC that August for the latter to broadcast both companies' films. By 1988, a cooling in the film market and a series of box office disappointments—including the multimillion-dollar production of Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (1987), whose original $ 36-million budget was slashed to $ 17 million—had once again put Cannon in financial woes. The company signed an agreement with Warner Bros. to handle part of their assets; however,
530-781: A 16 percent stake in Take-Two. BMG Interactive published the Grand Theft Auto video game series. The joint venture between Sony and Bertelsmann to merge both companies' music divisions was set up in August 2004. It reduced the Big Five record companies to the Big Four record companies . At that time, the company had a 21.5% share in the global music market. Sony Music and BMG remained separate in Japan, although BMG Music Japan
636-487: A bankruptcy auction. In December 2015, Columbia House's owner, John Lippman, announced his intention to begin a vinyl subscription service that will allow subscribers the ability to choose which records and genres of music they receive. While Sony Music still owns the Columbia House trademark, Edge Line Ventures LLC is the current licensee of the Columbia House name. Since Columbia House's beginnings, following
742-588: A business model of buying bottom-barrel scripts and putting them into production. They produced such films in a variety of genres, although their biggest successes were with action films . They tapped into a ravenous market for B movies in the 1980s. After buying the rights to the 1974 film Death Wish , Cannon produced three sequels to it in the 1980s, all starring Charles Bronson . Despite negative reviews, these films were financially successful, especially Death Wish II (1982), which earned over $ 40 million on an $ 8 million budget. Other major hits for Cannon were
848-564: A deal which allowed Pathé to distribute Lambada , Midnight Ride and American Ninja 4 . Under Pearce, Cannon Pictures announced it will keep contracts with players Charles Bronson , Chuck Norris and Michael Dudikoff signed under Golan's management and revealed a slate of films in 1991, Fifty/Fifty now starring Peter Weller and Robert Hays , No Place to Hide with Kris Kristofferson and Drew Barrymore , The Hitman with Chuck Norris , The Human Shield and Rescue Me both with Michael Dudikoff . Richard Inouye joined
954-633: A distinct entity until a reorganization in early 2009 folded the company into Sony Music Japan. Now part of Sony Music Entertainment after the buyout of Bertelsmann 's 50% stake in Sony BMG. BMG Music Publishing (formerly known as RCA Music Publishing ), which was not part of the Sony BMG merger, was a business of the Bertelsmann Music Group until it was sold to Universal Music Group for €1.63 billion in 2007. Universal then folded
1060-661: A documentary about Cannon Films, written and directed by Mark Hartley , and produced by Brett Ratner . That same year, the Israeli documentary The Go-Go Boys: The Inside Story of Cannon Films was launched at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival . As is noted at the end of Electric Boogaloo , Golan and Globus announced The Go-Go Boys shortly after they were approached to appear in Boogaloo , yet in true Cannon fashion, their movie beat Hartley's to release by 3 months. In 2015, Globus sold "Globus Max" and returned to Hollywood to launch
1166-440: A domestic distribution deal with Warner Bros. for its theatrical product. Soon after announcing a new slate of films and the distribution deal with Warner Bros., Parretti made a $ 1.2 billion bid for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer , backed by Crédit Lyonnais . The bid was accepted and Parretti merged Pathé Communications and MGM to create MGM-Pathé Communications . With the merger majority of the former Cannon Group library became part of
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#17327807678821272-416: A few of the fairy tales. Film critic Roger Ebert said of Golan-Globus in 1987, "no other production organization in the world today—certainly not any of the seven Hollywood 'majors'—has taken more chances with serious, marginal films than Cannon." That year, Cannon gained its greatest artistic success: its 1986 Dutch production The Assault won the 1987 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film and
1378-446: A group of investors for $ 14 million. The sale would include the office building at 8200 Wiltshire Blvd, where Cannon Pictures was based. Parretti tried to push the deal through quickly to release some capital for MGM-Pathé, However, the deal fell through less than two months later due to financing problems and MGM-Pathé Communications had been granted an easement on financial conditions that were placed upon it by its lenders as part of
1484-425: A large variety of other movies, which are advertised by mail and online towards the customer. Only full-price purchases deplete that minimum purchase obligation. Purchases are not cumulative, meaning that two movies bought at ten dollars each do not deplete the minimum list price movie purchases by one movie. If the minimum number of movies has not been purchased by the end of the term, the monetary worth of those movies
1590-467: A lengthy period of litigation between Marvel, Sony and several other parties over the film rights. Cannon's films proved to be much more popular in the United Kingdom than in its native United States, which is why Cannon acquired several British cinema chains during the 1980s, and founded the mail-order video distribution service Videolog as a joint venture with Columbia House Europe, Ltd. in
1696-688: A lot of major distributors, such as Joe , starring Peter Boyle . They managed this by tightly limiting their budgets to $ 300,000 per picture—or less, in some cases. The success of Joe brought more attention to the company. As the 1970s moved on, a string of unsuccessful films seriously drained Cannon's capital. This, along with changes to film-production tax laws, led to a drop in Cannon's stock price. By 1979, Cannon had hit serious financial difficulties, and Friedland and Dewey sold Cannon to Israeli cousins Menahem Golan , who had directed The Apple , and Yoram Globus for $ 500,000. The two cousins forged
1802-466: A merger was announced between Columbia House and struggling online retailer CDNow , an independent, publicly owned company that had funding and other partnerships with Columbia House and its owners Sony and Time-Warner. The merger was abandoned in early 2000, with Columbia House's poor finances and stiff competition from online giant Amazon.com cited as factors. Within months, CDNow was purchased by Bertelsmann, which partially merged it with BMG Direct into
1908-403: A minimum number of sales, but were held to exclusive, restrictive contracts, which led to price-fixing allegations against the club in 1962, followed by 7 years of mostly ineffective litigation. The licensing program continued and expanded in the 1960s as the music industry grew and changed. The Columbia Record Club began marketing stereo records and equipment in 1959, reel-to-reel recordings (via
2014-427: A nationwide class action was filed against Columbia House (Direct Brands Inc.) seeking monetary damages and an injunction stopping Direct Brands Inc. alleged business practices of unauthorized credit card charges, inability to cancel, unwanted products being mailed to homes and several other alleged issues. Columbia House offered a point system, where movies bought resulted in "points" or "Fun Cash" ("Dividend Dollars"
2120-409: A new TV show called Sam Bolt: Texas Ranger , which would later become Walker, Texas Ranger . Shortly afterwards, they announced that Joe Lara had been signed to an exclusive 10-picture deal with the new company. Lara was currently in production on American Cyborg: Steel Warrior which would not be included in the overall deal, however no films were made from this deal. By mid-1992, the merger
2226-439: A particular section of the website, which could easily be accessed by deleting a portion of the website address in the address bar, discovered by customer Mark Alway. Upon the discovery of the breach, he emailed the Columbia House staff who were quick to respond to the problem. This event gave rise to concerns over the website's capability of keeping private information secure from hackers or devastating scams. Although no information
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#17327807678822332-568: A pattern of complaints. Specifically, complainants allege receiving merchandise and/or bills for merchandise from BMG/Columbia House for products they did not order. Complainants further allege that they did not join BMG/Columbia House and do not know how the company obtained their information and that the company's phone line and website do not provide live customer service representatives to help resolve these problems. Bertelsmann Music Group Bertelsmann Music Group ( BMG )
2438-469: A railway-accessible city where Columbia had recently opened a record pressing facility. Within a year, the club had 687,652 members and had sold 7 million records ($ 14.888 million net) and, by 1963, it commanded 10% of the recorded music retail market. In the late 1950s, both RCA Victor and Capitol Records also launched record clubs. Initially, the three record clubs sold only their own labels' releases. For example, Columbia recordings were not available from
2544-588: A series of action movies starring Chuck Norris , including Missing in Action (1984), Invasion U.S.A. (1985) and The Delta Force (1986). Missing in Action was criticized heavily as being a preemptive cash-in on the Rambo franchise . James Cameron 's story treatment for Rambo: First Blood Part II was floating around Hollywood in 1983, which Golan and Globus reviewed and were " inspired " by. The writers of MIA even gave Cameron credit saying their film
2650-498: A specific club for this. One could also agree to the regular purchase of box sets of popular TV series. One agreement allows customers access to any of Columbia House's products. Everything can be sourced via the company website. In 2010, this business had an unsatisfactory rating with the Better Business Bureau because of a failure to respond to complaints. The company also has an unsatisfactory record because of
2756-556: A venture called BeMusic. CDNow was taken over and merged into Amazon the following year. By 2001, music clubs accounted for less than eight percent of all CD sales, coinciding with the ascent of Internet shops and retail outlets such as Amazon and Wal-Mart, which offered music at similar discounts without subscriptions. In 2001, a security breach in the Columbia House website exposed thousands of customer names, addresses and portions of credit card numbers, leaving private information about customers vulnerable to exploitation. The issue involved
2862-598: Is charged to the customers' accounts. If any purchases have been made using Columbia House's point of sale device, either credit cards or debit cards linked to credit card accounts, then those accounts are automatically debited. The company will either mail or email a reminder notice prior to the commitment expiring, giving the customer the opportunity to purchase the required purchase obligation before they are charged for any commitment or contract charges. Likewise, backordered movies are automatically debited to those accounts when they become available, without further notification to
2968-512: The 3-D Treasure of the Four Crowns , King Solomon's Mines , and the vigilante thriller sequel Exterminator 2 . The Cannon Group's biggest financial success was with the 1986 action film Cobra , which starred Sylvester Stallone ; not a low-budget film, it earned $ 160 million on a $ 25 million budget. Cannon produced musical and comedy films such as Breakin' , Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo , The Last American Virgin , and
3074-631: The BMG Music Publishing company, the world's third largest music publisher and the world's largest independent music publisher and (since August 2004) the 50% share of the joint venture with Sony Music , which established the German American Sony BMG from 2004 to 2008. In 1994, BMG acquired Italian publisher Casa Ricordi , which had been founded in 1808. In March 1998, BMG sold its video game publisher BMG Interactive to Take-Two Interactive , with Bertelsmann taking
3180-503: The BMG Publishing businesses. Also kept separate from the acquisition by Sony Corporation of America was Sony BMG's wholly owned and operated BMG Japan. Sony Music Japan remained independent from the Sony BMG joint venture, therefore BMG and Sony labelling were kept separate in Japan under the venture. During Sony BMG's buyout, BMG Japan was instead picked up by Sony Music Entertainment Japan . It briefly continued to operate as
3286-492: The Cannes Film Festival each year. Substantial pre-sales of the next years' films were made based on the strong salesmanship skills of Globus. The deposits made from these sales financed production of the first film in the production line-up, which—when completed and delivered to theatre owners around the world—generated enough money to make the next film in the line-up. Slavenburg's bank [ nl ] in
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3392-605: The Superman property) for a 1987 release. Cannon also further expanded their French assets, with the aim of becoming the largest film distributor in France. By 1986, output reached an apex with 43 films in one year. Golan remained chairman of the board, while Globus served as president. In 1986, Cannon attempted to produce film adaptations of the stage plays Zorba and American Buffalo , but these films never materialized. Another film project that ultimately never materialized
3498-571: The '80s." Diversifying from film production, Cannon had begun purchasing film distributors and movie theaters . The purchases ranged from European companies ( Thorn EMI Screen Entertainment , Tuschinski Theatres, a 49-screen theater chain in the Netherlands , and the 53-screen Cannon Cinema Italia ) to the sixth-largest chain in the United States , the 425-screen "marginally profitable" Commonwealth Theaters . Additionally, Cannon owned
3604-509: The Black Eyed Peas , Kenny Chesney , The Game , Mario , Rascal Flatts , Milli Vanilli , No Doubt , Thomas Anders , Jessica Simpson and 50 Cent as well as legends like Bob Dylan , Elvis Presley , Frank Sinatra and Roselyn Sánchez . BMG Music Publishing was the global leader in classical music and was number one in contemporary Christian music . Through international sub-publishing deals, BMG Music Publishing represented
3710-681: The CBS Video Club, which had formed the previous year as the CBS Video Library, became part of the Columbia House family. Also, during that same time period, Columbia House and The Cannon Group founded the UK-exclusive mail-order VHS distribution service Videolog. Sony acquired the CBS Records Group, including Columbia House, in 1988, then at 6 million members. In 1987, BMG had acquired RCA Records and changed
3816-603: The California Superior Court in Los Angeles entered a final judgement in a separate civil suit against Parretti, ordering him to pay $ 1.48 billion to Credit Lyonnais. After Federal prosecutors unsealed an indictment against Parretti and Florio Fiorini accusing them of fraud in 1999, Italian authorities arrested both men and held them for extradition to the United States. Parretti was released by
3922-441: The Columbia House brand to market videos in the U.S. and Canada, selling DVDs and Blu-rays via the controversial practice of negative option billing . DB Media's Canadian assets ceased operating on December 10, 2010, and all staff were dismissed, while U.S. operations continued as usual. In December 2012, the company was sold to Pride Tree Holdings, Inc. In 2013, the company changed its name to Filmed Entertainment Inc. The sale of
4028-793: The Columbia Reel-To-Reel Club) in 1960, 8-track cartridges (via the Columbia Cartridge Club) in 1966, and cassettes (via the Columbia Cassette Club) in 1969. The Columbia Record Club was also notable in continuing to issue product in formats no longer available on the commercial market. After the major record labels discontinued the reel-to-reel tape format in the mid 1970s, Columbia continued to offer select new titles available on reel tape until 1984. The 8-track tape had mostly disappeared by 1982, yet Columbia continued to release new titles in
4134-936: The Cure , the Killer Barbies , Joss Stone , Tom Jobim , Vinícius de Moraes , Elvis Costello , Paul Weller , Sara Evans , Sneaker Pimps , Take That (1991–1996), Five , Westlife , D-Pryde, Louis Tomlinson , Luke Friend and Mikolas Josef . Through Zomba Music Publishing , BMG controlled the rights to Linkin Park , Britney Spears , Iron Maiden , 30 Seconds to Mars , R. Kelly , Justin Timberlake , Michael Jackson , Bowling for Soup , Daft Punk , Katatonia , Ne-Yo , Anthrax , Mudvayne , and Poison . These artists' European rights are currently controlled by Concord Music Publishing , through Imagem . The company's songwriters wrote chart-topping hits for Mariah Carey ,
4240-480: The DVD division at bankruptcy auction was announced August 10, 2015. Columbia Record Club was formed in 1955 by CBS/Columbia Records as an experiment to market music directly by mail, spurring sales to rural consumers and heading off competition from mail-order companies from outside the record industry. New members to the club were enticed with a free record just for joining. To appease brick-and-mortar retailers, titles in
4346-643: The Ice Cave with Michael Moriarty and Sally Kellerman and A Man Called Sarge . The new slate of pictures was expected to cost $ 50 million The company managed to post a small operating profit before the end of the year. JAM was rebranded as Lambada to cash in on the craze and released in 1990. After the MGM-Pathé Communications merger, Parretti agreed to sell Pathé's 60% majority stake in Cannon Pictures to Assonitis and
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4452-745: The Jewel of the East with Richard Chamberlain and Sharon Stone returning to their roles, Return of the Delta Force and American Ninja Apprentice with Michael Dudikoff , David Bradley and Steve James' daughter Debbi, alongside new original projects The Sniper with Mickey Rourke and Bruce Willis and The Golem with Al Pacino and Nastassja Kinski , but Golan died before any were produced. In 2014, there were two documentary films released about Cannon Films. RatPac Entertainment released Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films ,
4558-583: The MGM buyout. At the same board meeting, Assonitis and Cannon Pictures vice-chairman William J. Immerman were fired and replaced by Danny Dimbort. Cannon's marketing and casting operations were shut down by Pathé. All of Cannon Pictures' marketing was placed under Pathé's existing operations. Former Cannon Group production head Christopher Pearce was named as Assonitis' replacement and in November 1990, he bought Pathé's stake in Cannon Pictures for $ 14 million with
4664-651: The MGM library (certain rights for other media and select films during the Thorn EMI merger now lie with other entities). As MGM-Pathé Communications had a distribution deal with Warner Bros. (and who had part financed Parretti's takeover bid), Parretti axed the MGM/UA Home Video department as one of his first acts in charge, resulting in the loss of eighty jobs. Crédit Lyonnais foreclosed on Parretti in July 1991 after he defaulted on loan payments and sued for
4770-560: The Netherlands (which had provided Cannon's start-up capital in 1979) and their principal loan officer, Frans Afman, provided bridge financing until the pre-sales amounts were collected; this role was inherited by Credit Lyonnais after their purchase of Slavenburg's in 1983. In 1982, The Cannon Group, Inc. entered into a relationship with MGM/UA Entertainment Co. with the latter company serving as Cannon's distributor for North American theatrical and video releases; this would not be
4876-594: The Pop/Rock or Easy Listening club members). By the early 1970s, "Columbia House" had become an overarching brand for the various divisions, led by the Columbia Record Club, later renamed the Columbia Record & Tape Club. By 1975, membership was over 3 million. A small CRC was in a conspicuous spot on the media and the cover, which showed that Columbia House was the manufacturer. In 1982,
4982-568: The RCA Victor Record Club, and RCA recordings were unavailable through the Columbia Record Club. In 1958, facing the loss of members who wanted a wider variety of records, the Columbia Record Club began manufacturing and marketing records for some smaller competing labels, including Verve , Mercury , Warner Bros. , Kapp , Vanguard , United Artists , and Liberty . The RCA Victor and Capitol record clubs continued to offer only their own labels' products. Licensors were guaranteed
5088-700: The Tokyo Film Festival. A judge blocked all sales made at Tokyo and blocked any further sales that were due to take place at MIFED 1994. To prevent any fraudulent deals at MIFED, a warning appeared in Screen International and other publications stating all business must be done with the court appointed trustee and not with Pearce. The United States bankruptcy court set a deadline of January 11, 1995 for creditors of Cannon Pictures to submit their claim and evidence of debt. Cannon Pictures, its library of 135 films, as well as 112 films from
5194-638: The Troubadours , Powderfinger , Nelly , Rammstein , Milli Vanilli , Modern Talking , Slayer , Shania Twain , Nikki Webster , Ville Valo , Christina Aguilera , Kelly Clarkson , Coldplay , Yellowcard , Hum , Rob Dougan , the All-American Rejects , Clannad , Iron Maiden , Maroon 5 , Mayra Verónica , Backyard Babies , Hipster Daddy-O and the Handgrenades , Soda Stereo , Gustavo Cerati , Keane , HARD-Fi , Horace Andy ,
5300-568: The U.S. and Canada. The Columbia House name is still owned by Sony Music Entertainment , and is used under license. In December 2010, the Canadian branch went into bankruptcy, and its websites began redirecting visitors to a letter of explanation from the companies' trustees in bankruptcy. The parent of the Columbia House music and DVD clubs announced on August 10, 2015, that it plans to sell its Columbia House DVD Club business, which sells recorded movies and TV series directly to consumers, through
5406-596: The U.S. release of The Apple ; erotic period drama pictures such as Lady Chatterley's Lover (1981), Bolero , and Mata Hari (1985); science fiction and fantasy films such as Hercules , Lifeforce , and The Barbarians ; and serious pictures such as John Cassavetes ' Love Streams , Franco Zeffirelli 's Otello (a film version of the Verdi opera ), Norman Mailer 's Tough Guys Don't Dance , and Andrei Konchalovsky 's Runaway Train and Shy People . During these years, Cannon prominently advertised at
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#17327807678825512-485: The business of recorded music, Bertelsmann continued its strong presence in other areas of the music industry by establishing BMG Rights Management, which specializes in music rights management and by representing artists and authors. It is mainly active in European markets. The basis of the company was formed through BMG's decision to withhold selected European music catalogues from the former Sony BMG joint venture and
5618-439: The catalogues of Famous Music Publishing, Walt Disney , Roadrunner Records , Leiber & Stoller , Fremantle Media , Pete Waterman , and Malaco Records in various territories. BMG Music Publishing acquired Complete Music in 2006. Brentwood-Benson Music Publishing was BMG Music Publishing's Christian publisher and owned over 60,000 copyrights. Like with other assets of BMG Music Publishing acquired by Universal Music, it
5724-545: The club several times under different names with no intention of paying—in extreme cases receiving recordings with a retail value of hundreds of thousands of dollars. Columbia House practiced negative option billing , a form of commercial distribution in which services are automatically supplied to the consumers until a specific cancellation order is issued. The practice has drawn many complaints from consumers. The Federal Trade Commission has published information to protect customers against this practice, specifically referencing
5830-492: The club's catalog were not made available until six months after retail release (later reduced to three months), and retailers that helped recruit members got a 20% commission. By the end of that year, the club had 125,175 members who had purchased 700,000 records ($ 1.174 million net). The operation grew so quickly that, in 1956, it was moved from New York City to a new home base: a distribution center in Terre Haute, Indiana ,
5936-509: The company and two investment bankers, Robert Blake and Runa Alam, by the Independent Artists Picture Corp. The lawsuit claimed interference and breach of contract in connection with IAPCs plans to buy Cannon Pictures stock in a takeover bid, which would have seen Blake purchase Christopher Pearce's stock and Blake and Alam would then take control of the day-to-day operations of the company. During this time, Pearce
6042-675: The company announced and impressive line-up several new productions and releases, Fifty/Fifty , Delta Force 2: The Colombian Connection and TOP KICK with Chuck Norris , WINGS with Michael Dudikoff , American Ninja 4 with Dudikoff and David Bradley , JAM to be directed by Joel Silberg , Dusted (later released as Death Warrant with Jean-Claude Van Damme ), Keaton's Cop with Lee Majors , Midnight Ride with Michael Dudikoff and Mark Hamill , an untitled film starring Charles Bronson , Crack House with Richard Roundtree and Jim Brown , Rockula , The Rose Garden with Maximilian Schell and Liv Ullmann , The Secret of
6148-959: The company in February 1991 as vice-president and CFO. American Ninja V and the unmade Ants of God were added to the slate at the AFM in 1991 and Warner Home Video signed an agreement to distribute Cannon Pictures' output in North America, UK, Japan, Italy and Australia for ten years. Cannon Pictures greatly expanded its slate in time for the Cannes Film Festival in 1991 with a total of 18 films, in addition to those already announced, there was; American Kickboxer 1 , Black Cat Run with Michael Dudikoff , The Borrower , Deep End from Boaz Davidson , Delta Force 3: The Killing Game , Dream Lover from Boaz Davidson , Ninja: The American Samurai , Solemn Oath and Terminal Bliss . When Crédit Lyonnais foreclosed on Parretti in July 1991,
6254-634: The company into Universal Music Publishing Group , and the BMG name was retired. The company had been headquartered at 245 Fifth Avenue in New York , and had 36 offices in 25 countries. BMG Music Publishing controlled over one million copyrights. Writers/artists signed to the company included: Elvis Presley , Ann Wilson , Todd Terry , Julieta Venegas , Anastacia , Kylie Minogue , Jaguares , Diana Yukawa , Kent , Alcazar , Gloria Trevi , Angélica María , Dido , Lee Ryan , Ai Uemura , Julieta Venegas ,
6360-421: The company's previous incarnation, 21st Century Film Distribution officially went up for sale on August 14, 1997 with the auction taking place on September 15. The property was sold to Imperial Entertainment. In February 1998, a judge ruled that Ovidio G. Assonitis had been wrongfully terminated from the company by Parretti and Pathé. The judge awarded Assonitis $ 2.9 million in damages, but by this time, Pathé
6466-553: The company, but shortly after the takeover, a group of creditors including Charles Bronson and Everyvision Inc. sued Cannon Pictures to force it into bankruptcy. The creditors succeeded in pushing the company into Chapter 11 bankruptcy . Soon afterwards, it was discovered Christopher Pearce was selling disputed Cannon titles, including Twin Sitters , Delta Force 3 , American Samurai , Street Knight , Tobe Hooper's Night Terrors and American Cyborg: Steel Warrior at
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#17327807678826572-473: The company, including its Canadian branch, was acquired from BMG by investment firm JMCK Corp., a Najafi Group company based in Phoenix, Arizona, and the name was changed to Direct Brands, Inc. Direct Brands consolidated the remaining facilities, and shut down music mail-order operations on June 30, 2009. However, Direct Brands continued to operate a DVD and Blu-ray Disc club under the Columbia House brand in both
6678-526: The court of appeal in Perugia shortly thereafter, ordered to remain in his home town of Orvieto and report to the police three times a week, even though authorities in Rome had requested he be held pending a decision on the extradition. In 1989, Parretti reorganized Cannon Pictures, Inc. as the low-budget distribution arm of Pathé led by veteran Italian film producer Ovidio G. Assonitis . That year at MIFED,
6784-499: The customers. Failure to clear such purchases result in collections efforts by Columbia House against the customers. In December 2008, BMG Music Service (in December 2008, as yourmusic.com) supposedly sold an unknown number of fraudulent debt claims to a collection agency, National Credit Solutions. Supposed delinquents were not made known of their debt and most had not made purchases with the company for at least five years. Victims of
6890-544: The early 1990s. A settlement in 2002 included the music publishers and distributors; Sony Music , Warner Music , Bertelsmann Music Group, EMI Music and Universal Music . In restitution for price fixing they agreed to pay a $ 67.4 million fine and distribute $ 75.7 million in CDs to public and non-profit groups but admitted no wrongdoing. It is estimated customers were overcharged by nearly $ 500 million and up to $ 5 per album. The Cannon Group The Cannon Group, Inc.
6996-404: The enclosed postcard/order form) with the promise that they would purchase a set number of records or tapes at full club prices plus shipping. There were dozens of small sheets of stamps that were enclosed in the mailer; these stamps had pictures of the actual album cover of the records offered by Columbia House. The customer would tear the stamp off the sheet, moisten the stamp and affix them onto
7102-434: The film rights to Spider-Man , and planned to make a Spider-Man film in the mid-1980s. Golan and Globus agreed to pay Marvel Comics $ 225,000 over the five-year option period, plus a percentage of the film's revenues. The rights would revert to Marvel if a film was not made by April 1990. Marvel and Sony would eventually complete a film in 2002 directed by Sam Raimi after the rights had been re-secured, following
7208-626: The final films produced by Golan and Globus that received a wide release under the Cannon Films banner was the post-apocalyptic action film Cyborg . This film was conceived to use both the costumes and sets built for an intended sequel to Masters of the Universe and the ill-fated live-action version of Spider-Man . Both projects were planned to shoot simultaneously under the direction of Albert Pyun . Not to let that pre-production work go to waste, Pyun wrote Cyborg , with Chuck Norris in mind, suggesting it to Cannon Films. Jean-Claude Van Damme
7314-668: The financial loss was staggering. Following the purchase of the Thorn EMI assets, Cannon Films was severely stretched, and faced bankruptcy ; in May 1987, Cannon sold its 2,000-title Thorn-EMI library for $ 85 million to Weintraub Entertainment Group . Shortly afterwards, Cannon dropped out of the HBO/Cannon Video joint venture with HBO due to Cannon's ongoing financial problems. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission began an investigation into Cannon's financial reports, suspecting that Cannon had fraudulently misstated them. On
7420-477: The format until 1988, and finally, after the major record labels abandoned the vinyl LP format in 1989, Columbia issued select new titles on vinyl until 1992. In all three cases, the new releases on the deleted formats were usually limited to the new Selection of the Month title (although the country music Selection of the Month had never been available on reel tape unless the album had possible crossover appeal to
7526-553: The four films he had made for Cannon. Cannon Pictures posted a net profit of $ 1.3 million for the nine months ending September 1992 and secured a new $ 15 million line of credit from the ING Bank in Amsterdam after Crédit Lyonnais refused to lend more until their loans were fully repaid, which wasn't due for another four years. In February 1993, Cannon ran out of money to continue production of Walker, Texas Ranger , due to
7632-408: The indictments of funding partner Banca Nazionale del Lavoro , then embroiled in a scandal over unauthorized loans to Iraq , and producers were desperately trying to raise more money to complete the miniseries . CBS Productions later stepped in with additional funds to complete the production. In August 1993, Cannon reported a net profit of $ 1 million for its second quarter, double the same period
7738-491: The last time Cannon dealt with MGM. In 1984, Cannon expanded further into Europe, signing with UGC for French distribution, and acquiring Kenneth Rive's Gala Films, which was absorbed into Cannon Group's U.K. distribution arm. On June 25, 1985, Cannon bought the rights to produce future films based on the comic book character Superman from the Salkinds , and struck a distribution assignment with Warner Bros. (owners of
7844-466: The mid-1980s. Cannon Cinemas were a familiar sight in the United Kingdom until the late 1990s, when MGM Cannon cinemas were sold to Virgin who retained the multi screen sites and sold the traditional sites to a new ABC Cinemas . Cannon purchased the Thorn EMI film assets from businessman Alan Bond in April 1986 for £175 million; Cannon Screen Entertainment and archrival The Rank Organization jointly signed
7950-535: The name of Columbia House's only surviving rival, RCA Music Service (formerly RCA Victor Record Club), to BMG Music Service. In 1991, the CBS Records Group was renamed Sony Music Entertainment , and Sony sold half of Columbia House to Time Warner , which contributed Time Life 's video and music clubs to the joint venture. Membership was over 10 million at the end of that year. The influence of Columbia House and other music clubs reached its peak in 1994, accounting for 15.1 percent of all CD sales. In 1996, club membership
8056-478: The next two or three years. There were many underage customers who legally could not be bound to this agreement; Columbia House knew these were unenforceable, but they apparently did not care (though eventually this policy did change). Columbia House (and other music clubs) made it extremely easy to defraud them. There were countless cases of customers joining the music club, receiving free albums and never ordering more albums at full price as agreed. Customers would join
8162-424: The order card. These Columbia House envelopes would arrive as junk mail to countless homes on a regular basis. One recipient might get one type of offer, but a neighbor might receive a more lucrative offer. Many times, the teenagers of the house intercepted this mail. They were easily suckered in with the idea of getting the albums they wanted all at once and all they had to do was to buy three or four albums within
8268-504: The previous year, due to the success of Walker, Texas Ranger . Cannon Pictures was sued for $ 14 million in December 1993 by Pictor Insurance Co. and the Peter Miller Corp. for breach of contract over Cannon pulling out of a financing agreement with the two companies. With this additional pressure, Christopher Pearce began exploring selling his stock in Cannon Pictures, but this resulted in another lawsuit being filed against
8374-559: The publicly traded Cannon Pictures into one single entity called the Cannon Entertainment Group. The merger was announced alongside a slate of pictures including Chicago Loop with James Spader , Cold to the Touch with Chuck Norris , Teen Angel from Boaz Davidson, Ivory to be directed by Aaron Norris , Delta Force IV: The Deadly Dozen directed by Brian Hutton and White Sun with Michael Dudikoff , as well as
8480-436: The removal of Paretti, his wife Maria Cecconi, his daughter Valentina Parretti, Yoram Globus , Florio Fiorini, Danny Dimbort, Antonio Pares-Neira and Lewis Horowitz from the board of directors. Parretti was pushed out of management control of MGM-Pathé Communications and the board and countersued Crédit Lyonnais , claiming they destroyed his ability to make money at MGM-Pathé, in an attempt to wrestle control back. Parretti
8586-468: The sale of Cannon Pictures was questioned by the bank because Christopher Pearce was a board member of MGM-Pathé Communications at the time of the sale and the disclosure of interest of Pearce was not stated in documentation. Crédit Lyonnais' legal filings against Parretti also name Danny Dimbort, a member of the board of both companies, for receiving $ 140,000 "for services rendered, although Mr Dimbort did not perform any services to justify payments". Globus
8692-408: The sale of Columbia House to BMG, and continuing after the sale to Direct Brands, Columbia House has attracted criticism for its business practices, some of which are outlined here: During the first three decades of Columbia House, it had a most unique marketing strategy: Give the customer several albums for free (although most of its early marketing campaigns required the customer to tape a penny to
8798-405: The sale of false debt claims were not made known of either their debt or the account opened with National Credit Solutions. Most victims learned of the collections agency account when they were denied a loan, had credit cards canceled, or checked their credit reports. BMG Music Service parent Direct Brands confirmed on 23 December 2008 that they stopped accepting new members. On August 4, 2011,
8904-625: The verge of failure, Cannon Films was taken over by Pathé Communications , a holding company controlled by Italian financier Giancarlo Parretti . Financed by the French bank Crédit Lyonnais , already involved with Cannon for years, Pathé Communications' takeover of Cannon immediately began a corporate restructuring and refinancing of $ 250 million to pay off Cannon's debt. By 1989, Golan, citing differences with both Parretti and Globus, resigned from his position and left Cannon to start 21st Century Film Corporation , while Globus remained with Pathé. One of
9010-473: Was a division of a German media company Bertelsmann before its completion of sale of the majority of its assets to Sony Corporation of America on 1 October 2008. Although it was established in 1987, the music company was formed as RCA/Ariola International in 1985 as a joint venture to combine the music label activities of RCA 's RCA Records division and Bertelsmann's Ariola Records and its associated labels which include Arista Records . It consisted of
9116-527: Was a live-action film based on Barbie , with planned plotline concerning the doll showing her owner that her dreams could come true. A live-action movie based on the property wouldn't emerge until 2023. Other areas of interest included plans for television adaptation of Cannon properties., and following up their adaptation of Rumpelstiltskin with a total of 12 fairy tale films as the Cannon Movie Tales series; Cannon wound up releasing only
9222-402: Was a middle-management reshuffle at Cannon Pictures with an aim to maximise revenue from Cannon's releases. The Hitman proved to be an early success for the new team. Cannon later sued Vision International and its chairman Mark Damon for $ 15 million over Chuck Norris' involvement in the film, Sidekicks . Cannon Pictures retained Chuck Norris under an "exclusive services" contract that
9328-469: Was also exploring a sale to Panda Pictures, but this deal collapsed in another lawsuit with Panda claiming $ 20 million in damages from Cannon Pictures after Pearce reportedly lied about the company's financial condition. In 1994, Cannon Pictures released its last film, Hellbound in select theatres in Los Angeles. Shortly afterwards, Christopher Pearce sold controlling interest in Cannon Pictures to VMI Acquisitions Inc. The new owners settled some debts at
9434-488: Was an American group of companies, including Cannon Films , which produced films from 1967 to 1994. The extensive group also owned, amongst others, a large international cinema chain and a video film company that invested heavily in the video market, buying the international video rights to several classic film libraries. Some of their best known films include Joe (1970), Runaway Train (1985) and Street Smart (1987), all of which were Oscar -nominated. Cannon Films
9540-480: Was at 16 million. That year, the Columbia House website was launched. Meanwhile, a parallel club, the Columbia Record Club of Canada, was operated by the Canadian branch of Columbia Records from the late 1950s until membership and financial problems led to its apparent demise in 1977. It was relaunched in 1979 as the Canadian Music Club, attracting 100,000 members by the end of that year. In mid-1999,
9646-485: Was bankrupt and had been foreclosed on by Credit Lyonnais. New Cannon, Inc. was formed by Menahem Golan in 2001 and he hired Evgeny Afineevsky to act as the company's president. Afineevsky would be based in Los Angeles, while Golan would be based in Tel Aviv. Crime and Punishment , which was originally shot in 1993 under Golan's 21st Century Film Corporation but was not released before 21st Century's bankruptcy,
9752-475: Was cancelled after the backers couldn't come to an arrangement with Crédit Lyonnais . Cannon continued with development of Walker, Texas Ranger after CBS picked the series up for 13 episodes. Cash flow problems began to have a serious impact on the company. In October 1992, James Spader sued Cannon Pictures over his $ 1 million fee for his Chicago Loop pay-or-play deal; and a suit from Michael Dudikoff followed in December, stating he had not been paid from
9858-819: Was cast in the lead role. Following Golan's departure from Cannon, he became the head of 21st Century Film Corporation , an independent company. The Cannon Group was renamed and restructured by Parretti with Globus being made co-president of Pathé Communications and chairman of Cannon International and Alan Ladd Jr. was brought in as chairman of Pathé Entertainment. In 1989, Pathé greenlit three films, The Russia House with Sean Connery and Michelle Pfeiffer , Quigley Down Under starring Tom Selleck and Fires Within with Jimmy Smits . They also announced Shattered directed by Wolfgang Petersen , Not Without My Daughter with Sally Field , Company Business starring Gene Hackman and Mikhail Baryshnikov as well as Ridley Scott's Thelma & Louise . They signed
9964-541: Was eventually dismissed from the Crédit Lyonnais suits and set up foreign sales company, Melrose Entertainment, which handled much of Cannon Pictures' sales, alongside that of Global Pictures, another company run by Pearce. In the wake of the Crédit Lyonnais foreclosure on MGM-Pathé Communications , Pearce stepped down as president of Global Pictures, being replaced by Avi Lerner. In early 1992, there
10070-407: Was incorporated on October 23, 1967. It was formed by Dennis Friedland and Chris Dewey while they were in their early 20s. They had immediate success producing English-language versions of Swedish soft porn films directed by Joseph W. Sarno : Inga (1968), aka Jag––en oskuld and To Ingrid, My Love, Lisa (1968), aka Kvinnolek . By 1970, they had produced films on a larger production scale than
10176-482: Was inspired by his script treatment. The Cannon Group ignited a worldwide ninja craze with "The Ninja Trilogy", a film series which consisted of Enter the Ninja (1981), Revenge of the Ninja (1983), and Ninja III: The Domination (1984), all starring Sho Kosugi , as well as American Ninja (1985) and its sequel American Ninja 2: The Confrontation (1987). Other action/adventure films they produced included
10282-461: Was later convicted of perjury and evidence tampering in a Delaware court for statements he made in a 1991 civil case, brought by Credit Lyonnais to validate their removal of Parretti, to the effect that a document he claimed allowed him to retain control of MGM was authentic; he fled the country for Italy before he could be sentenced or extradited to France, where he was wanted on criminal charges related to his use of MGM's French assets. In 1997,
10388-527: Was made in the 1980s by Menahem Golan . Cannon Pictures loaned Norris to the makers of Sidekicks for a cameo role under the agreement that he would not appear in more than 30% of the movie and Cannon objected to Norris receiving "above the title billing" for the film. At the Cannes Film Festival in 1992, Pearce and Yoram Globus announced they were merging Globus' privately held Melrose Entertainment, Pearce's privately owned Global Pictures and
10494-538: Was originally founded with capital support of KKR , and later became a wholly owned subsidiary of Bertelsmann. It now serves as a division within Bertelsmann and as a replacement to the defunct Bertelsmann Music Group. Between 1995 and 2000, music companies were found to have used illegal marketing agreements such as minimum advertised pricing to artificially inflate prices of compact discs in order to end price wars by discounters such as Best Buy and Target in
10600-443: Was renamed to Universal Music Brentwood-Benson. It is nowadays managed by Capitol CMG Publishing, Universal Music's christian publishing operations under Capitol Christian Music Group . After Sony bought out Bertelsmann's share in Sony BMG, Bertelsmann was allowed to keep the rights to several recordings from the former joint venture and rights to BMG trademark. These songs served as the foundation to BMG Rights Management. The company
10706-564: Was reported in the Wall Street Journal , Associated Press reports, and trade publications. Although the owners were said to be in talks, the merger never materialized. In 2005, longtime competitor BMG Direct Marketing, Inc., then the current owners of BMG Music Service, acquired Columbia House, renamed the merged company BMG Columbia House, Inc., and consolidated operations under the BMG Music Service name. In 2008,
10812-424: Was reportedly obtained from the temporary breach according to Columbia House, industry professionals were quick to point out that the simple error was the consequence of negligent handling of customer information. In 2002, Sony and AOL Time Warner sold 85% of Columbia House to The Blackstone Group L.P., a New York-based investment firm. The next year, the possibility of a merger of Columbia House and Blockbuster Inc.
10918-969: Was taken over by Vision Films later that year and Afineevsky went on to form New Generation Films to produce Oy Vey! My Son Is Gay!! from a script by Golan. He went on to make documentaries, Cries from Syria and Winter on Fire: Ukraine's Fight for Freedom , which was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature and the Primetime Emmy Award in the Exceptional Merit in Documentary Filmmaking category. Golan continued to produce and direct films after New Cannon, including Children of Wax with Armand Assante and Udo Kier , A Dangerous Dance and Marriage Agreement . In 2013, Golan announced sequels to several films he had produced The Cannon Group, Inc. in partnership with MGM including Allan Quatermain and
11024-526: Was the term used when the movies came in VHS format). There were a number of restrictions to the use of Fun Cash, which generally made regular re-enrollment a lower cost and more tangible option for those interested in savings. Columbia House has made forays into media besides music and movies. For a few years, Columbia House offered a CD-ROM club, allowing customers to buy computer games . It once allowed members to buy video games from its site, but did not offer
11130-618: Was their first offering alongside a slate of new films including Death Game , a remake of Fritz Lang's M , Kumite (later made as Final Combat but never released) and Open Heart (released in 2002 as Return from India ). By the 2002 Cannes Film Festival, New Cannon had completed Death Game and Return from India and announced a new project, Beauty and the Beast to be directed by Pharaoh Phillips alongside sales for previously released films Train to Hell and In Search of A Woman , an unreleased title from PM Entertainment . The company
11236-538: Was wholly owned by Sony BMG. On 27 March 2006, the New York Times reported that Bertelsmann was looking to raise money by leveraging some of its media assets and that executives from both companies were in talks about possibly altering the current venture. In 2008, Bertelsmann sold its 50% share of Sony BMG to Sony Corporation of America for a total of $ 1.5 billion and the company was renamed back to Sony Music Entertainment Inc. While officially withdrawing from
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