Empire International Pictures

Sensing the emerging theatrical market for independently produced horror and science-fiction films, producer Charles Band opted to create a mini-studio that rivaled the studio system of the major Hollywood companies. The first mention of the name Empire Pictures came in May 1983 at Cannes when Band sought funding for Parasite II, the proposed sequel to his successful Parasite from the previous year.[1]

Initial Empire Pictures productions included Swordkill (aka Ghost Warrior) and The Dungeonmaster, which both received limited theatrical releases in 1984. Also that year, Empire Pictures signed a five-title agreement with Vestron Video, obtaining worldwide video rights to the five Empire-produced motion pictures.[2]

Empire's first box office success came in early 1985 with the release of Ghoulies. Released in several major markets, the film had grossed up to $3,455,018 by February 1985; upon release in New York City the film grossed over $1 million in that city alone its first weekend.[3] This theatrical success paved the way for the company to showcase future cult hits Trancers and Re-Animator in theaters.

Flush with cash, Band ended up purchasing Castello di Giove, a 12th-century castle located in Giove, Italy.[4] The intention was to use the castle as a European base of operations and a filming location. During this time period Band also purchased Dino de Laurentiis Cinematografica, the studio founded by Dino De Laurentiis in 1946, for an alleged $20,000,000. The company also teamed up with Vestron Video subsidiary Lightning Video to create the Force Video banner, releasing six action/adventure videocassettes in the summer of 1985.[5]

1986 saw the company's biggest output in terms of theatrical releases with Eliminators, From Beyond, TerrorVision, and Troll. The latter proved to be Empire's biggest success that year, grossing $5,450,815 when released in nearly 1,000 theaters.[6] In 1986, the company decided that they would expand its growth.[7] Empire's agreement with Vestron Video continued; Vestron spent $35–$40 million on the worldwide video rights to one of the company's future films.[8] In 1986, Empire named Albert Band as production head of the studio, a position he had held until the company was sold off in May 1988.[9]

On September 10, 1986, CBS/Fox Video and Empire Entertainment provided a seven-picture agreement which cost $10 million each for the CBS/Fox-Empire agreement, but none of these films would eventually came out of the deal, and served for some of the world, including the USA, Canada, Austria, Switzerland, France, West Germany and Australia.[10] Also, on October 1, 1986, Vestron is increasing the film stash of Empire Entertainment, which brought back 40%-60% of its negative costs of the films, in exchange for worldwide video rights on all but one of its films, and the Vestron-Empire film agreement would have a range of $2.5-$5 million.[11]

On October 22, 1986, at the MIFED convention, Empire Entertainment had provided them as "definitely our strongest market" with 40 films on board, and had potential buyers, and the deal is busy with upcoming projects, which included a two-year, seven-picture agreement with Frank Yablans and the first of the pictures will be delivered to Empire International by early 1987, and had reached a second production agreement with producer Stuart Gordon to offer more films for the Empire market.[12]

With a studio secured in Italy, 1987 saw the company significantly increase the amount of production. Empire showed up at the American Film Market in February 1987 touting 36 new releases to offer companies. Titles produced during this time included Dolls, Ghoulies II, Prison, and Robot Jox. Empire also switched video distributors from Vestron to New World Video, who would release titles under the Empire Video label.[13]

In 1987, Empire decided to launch a new sales division of the studio, Infinity Film Sales, in order to handle the cheaper film titles to the foreign market, and Maura Hoy would start heading up the new division of the studio, and Infinity would receive 15 titles, that were offered to Wizard Video, which was another subsidiary of Empire Entertainment, and none of these titles would came from the Empire catalog.[14] That year, Australian home video veteran Walter Lehne bought out the 14-title package from the Empire International subsidiary Infinity Film Sales, as well as pickups from Filmtrust, Intercontinental Releasing Corporation and others and his shopping bill would receive $1 million.[15]

That year, the company had set up a new subsidiary, Urban Classics Video, the company that insures a video home for such pictures for all productions via the new Urban Classics branch for the theatrical business, like Slave Girls from Beyond Infinity, Galactic Gigolo and Space Sluts in the Slammer, and marked the first time that Empire would control its own video production, manufacturing and distribution, after prior efforts at making Empire brought over to video, like Wizard Video, which has releases through Vestron Video, and also licenses a number of Empire titles to CBS/Fox Video.[16]

Also that year, the company had teamed up with Cinema Home Video Productions, whereby the latter would develop ten films, which was to be developed with Empire, and the majority of the pictures offered in the deal will have a budget of only $1 million, but at least two will be shot at the Empire studios in Rome with a $2–3 million budget, and distribution of the titles will be handled by Urban Classics, the newly formed domestic theatrical distribution of Empire, specializing in a separate line of fantasy-oriented product, and Beyond Infinity Film Sales, an arm of Empire International, which represents the films globally.[17] On September 8, 1987, the three-member Empire Entertainment publicity department became a one-member operation, trimming it in the process, and two members were part of layoffs that were set by Empire, and the rehiring of an outside publicist to handle special projects that was supplied by the Empire studio.[18]

Empire Pictures began to collapse in mid-1988 due to financial problems and long-term debt obligations to Crédit Lyonnais. Once it became clear that Empire could not last, the company was seized by the bank and taken over by Eduard Sarlui's Epic Productions in May 1988.[19] This led to in-production titles such as Stuart Gordon's Robot Jox, Peter Manoogian's Arena, and David Schmoeller's Catacombs to be delayed in release by several years. The following fall of the same year, Band formed another company, Full Moon Entertainment, which also specializes in horror/fantasy genre films.

The studio's rise and subsequent fall are covered in the book Empire of the 'B's: The Mad Movie World of Charles Band written by Dave Jay, Torsten Dewi, and Nathan Shumate. The story is also the subject of the upcoming documentary Celluloid Wizards in the Video Wasteland by Daniel Griffith. As of 2017, MGM via Polygram Entertainment is the current owner of a majority of the Empire Pictures library.[20] The library is currently being released on DVD and Blu-Ray by Full Moon Pictures under license from MGM.[21]