Artisan Entertainment Inc. was a privately held independent American movie studio until it was purchased by a Canadian studio, Lionsgate, in 2003. At the time of its acquisition, Artisan had a library of thousands of films developed through acquisition, original production, and production and distribution agreements. Its headquarters and private screening room were located in Santa Monica, California. It also had an office in TriBeCa, Lower Manhattan, New York City.^[1]

The company owned the home video rights to the film libraries of Republic Pictures, and Carolco Pictures. They also owned Family Home Entertainment (FHE), and its motion picture subdivision, FHE Pictures for a first-feature film Jonah: A VeggieTales Movie.

Artisan's releases included Requiem for a Dream, Pi, Grizzly Falls, Killing Zoe, National Lampoon's Van Wilder, The Blair Witch Project, Novocaine, and Startup.com.

History[link]

Artisan, unlike most movie studios, had its roots in the home video industry.

1980s[link]

Artisan Entertainment was founded in 1981 by Noel C. Bloom as Family Home Entertainment, Inc.. In 1983, FHE began operating its new subsidiary USA Home Video, when tapes were usually packaged in large boxes and included non-family films such as Supergirl, Silent Night, Deadly Night, and many B-movies, including those that begin and end with B-actress Sybil Danning talking about the film that is being shown under the Adventure Video label.

1n 1985, U.S.A. launched ThrillerVideo to make video series.

In 1986, Family Home Entertainment, Inc. became known as International Video Entertainment (IVE), with the IVE name used for non-family releases, and the FHE name used as a subsidiary of IVE for family releases.^[2] In the late 1980s, the company branched into film distribution for television.

In 1987, IVE was acquired by Carolco Pictures.^[2] The unrated release of Angel Heart was the first Carolco film released by IVE on video. The first two Carolco films (First Blood and Rambo: First Blood Part II) were released under the Thorn/EMI/HBO Video name, but were rereleased in 1990 and 1988, respectively, under IVE.

In 1988, IVE and FHE consolidated into Live Entertainment. Live formed new ventures outside the home video business, including an ownership of retail music and video chains across the East Coast.^[2]

1990s[link]

In 1990, IVE became Live Home Video. Carolco formed its own home video division under partnership with Live. The company also formed Avid Home Entertainment, which reissued older IVE product, as well as ITC Entertainment's back catalogue, on videocassette at discount prices.

In 1990, Live Entertainment decided to branch into film production. The company spent more than a million dollars to finance the 1992 film Reservoir Dogs, which marked the directorial debut of Quentin Tarantino.^[3] Other films included Paul Schrader's Light Sleeper.^[2]

In 1991, the company took over Vestron after its downfall; Vestron had been known best for Dirty Dancing, which had been the second highest-grossing independent film of all time. Also, for several years starting in 1993, Live Entertainment distributed anime released by Pioneer Entertainment, including Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-Ohki and the first Tenchi Muyo! movie, Tenchi Muyo! in Love.

In 1995, when Carolco ceased to exist as a company, StudioCanal got full rights to their film library and thus Live (under a new deal with the French-based production company) continued to distribute Carolco's films for video.

Other ex-video distributors that had been owned by and absorbed into Live Entertainment included Tenth Avenue Video (And Platinum Productions), and Magnum Entertainment.

In April 1998, the company became Artisan Entertainment, and began to expand to include the Hallmark Entertainment and Hallmark Hall of Fame movies on VHS and DVD and Discovery Communications releases.

2000s[link]

In May 2003, Artisan and Microsoft jointly announced the first release of a high definition DVD, Terminator 2: Judgment Day (Extreme Edition). The release was a promotion for the Windows Media version 9 format; it could only be played on a personal computer with Windows XP. Artisan had released the movie in 2002 on D-VHS.

In the summer 2003, Marvel Enterprises placed an offer for Artisan.^[4]

After Lionsgate agreed to acquire Artisan in 2003, video releases through Artisan have now been rereleased under the Lionsgate banner.

Filmography[link]

As LIVE Entertainment

• Reservoir Dogs^[2][3] (1992)
• Trees Lounge (1996)
• The Arrival (1996)
• The Substitute (1996)
• Open Your Eyes (1997)
• Dirty Dancing: 10th Anniversary Edition (1997)
• Hotel de Love (1997)
• Critical Care (1997)
• Wishmaster (1997)
• Caught Up (1998)
• Suicide Kings (1998)

As Artisan Entertainment

• Pi (1998)
• Permanent Midnight (1998)
• Belly (1998)
• Ringmaster (1998)
• The Blair Witch Project (1999)
• Grizzly Falls (1999)
• Stir of Echoes (1999)
• Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 (2000)
• Cecil B. Demented (2000)
• Requiem for a Dream (2000)
• The Way of the Gun (2000)
• Made (2001)
• Startup.com (2001)
• Soul Survivor (2001)
• Novocaine (2001)
• Jonah: A VeggieTales Movie (2002)
• National Lampoon's Van Wilder (2002)
• Boat Trip (2003)
• Step into Liquid (2003)
• House of the Dead (2003)
• Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights (2004)
• The Punisher (2004)

See also[link]

	Greater Los Angeles portal
	Companies portal
	Film portal

• List of Artisan Entertainment video releases

References[link]

External links[link]

• Press release about High-Definition DVD release

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (January 2007)

Avinoam "Avi" Lerner (born 13 October 1947)^[1] is an Israeli-born film producer, primarily of American action movies.

Life and career[link]

Avi Lerner was born in Haifa in 1947 and grew up on Hatzionut Boulevard. He joined the army in 1966 and served in the Six-Day War and in the Paratroopers Brigade. In an interview with Pnai Plus Lerner said he took part in the battle for the town of Rafah before penetrating as far as the Suez Canal.^[2]:68 He served in the 1973 Yom Kippur War as a reservist.^[3]

Lerner originally worked in movie theaters in Tel Aviv^[2]:66 but later relocated to South Africa,^[3] where he produced several films and also owned a chain of movie theaters until relocating once again to Los Angeles in the early 1990s. In 1991, he served as President of the independent production/distribution company, Global Pictures.

Lerner founded two production companies, Nu Image and Millennium Films, with Trevor Short, Danny Dimbort and Danny Lerner. The companies have a varied output, though the vast majority are action films. Most of the action films Avi produces are filmed in Bulgaria, where he owns a studio.

Nu Image and Millennium Films bought independent film studio First Look Studios in 2007 and have restructured the organization to distribute their specialty films.^[3]

Until his success with The Expendables (2010), Lerner's reputation was of a B movie producer.^[3] Lerner has complained that Israel is the only country where his work is criticized, and he avoids giving interviews to Israeli reporters.^[2]:65

Lerner describes his approach to the film industry as purely business-oriented: unlike Hollywood's larger film studios, which invest much larger sums of money to cover production expenses but also lose money from time to time, Lerner's team carefully calculates the potential revenue of a given film and tailors the production costs accordingly.^[2]:66

Action stars[link]

The bulk of Lerner's films featured action stars who were at their peak in the late 1980s-1990s: Jean-Claude Van Damme, Steven Seagal, Wesley Snipes, Dolph Lundgren, and Chuck Norris, usually released as direct-to-video. Lerner produced Rambo starring Sylvester Stallone, and Righteous Kill starring Robert De Niro and Al Pacino for Millennium Films and Emmett Furla Films.^[4] He produced The Expendables, directed by Stallone.

Other features Lerner has had a hand in include: End Game, starring Cuba Gooding Jr. and James Woods; Edison, starring Morgan Freeman, Kevin Spacey, and Justin Timberlake, 16 Blocks, The Black Dahlia, The Wicker Man, and even Werner Herzog's Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans, starring Nicolas Cage. He is also listed as a producer in the thriller Trespass.

References[link]

External links[link]

• Avi Lerner at the Internet Movie Database
• Nu Image / Millennium Films