The Samuel Goldwyn Company


The Samuel Goldwyn Company, later known as Samuel Goldwyn Entertainment, Goldwyn Entertainment Company, Goldwyn Films, G2 Films and United Artists International, was an American independent film company founded by Samuel Goldwyn Jr., the son of the famous Hollywood mogul, Samuel Goldwyn, on June 16, 1978. It was folded into Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in July 2000.

History

The company originally distributed and acquired art-house films from around the world to U.S. audiences; they soon added original productions to their roster as well, starting with The Golden Seal in 1983.
In succeeding years, the Goldwyn company was able to obtain the rights to all films produced under the elder Goldwyn's supervision, including the original Bulldog Drummond, Arrowsmith, and Guys and Dolls. The company also acquired some distribution rights to several films and television programs that were independently produced but released by other companies, including Sayonara, the Hal Roach–produced Laurel & Hardy–starring vehicle Babes in Toyland, the Flipper television series produced by MGM Television, the Academy Award–winning Tom Jones, and the Rodgers and Hammerstein film productions of South Pacific and Oklahoma!, as well as the CBS Television adaptation of Cinderella.
Animated films include Swan Lake, Aladdin and the Magic Lamp, The Care Bears Movie, The Chipmunk Adventure and Rock-a-Doodle. Among the television programs in the Goldwyn company's library are the television series American Gladiators, Gladiators , Gladiators , Gladiators: Train 2 Win, and Steve Krantz's miniseries Dadah Is Death.
In 1991, after a merger with Heritage Entertainment, Inc., the company went public as Samuel Goldwyn Entertainment. Heritage and Goldwyn attempted to merge during late 1990, but the plans fell apart while Heritage went through a Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The merger also allowed Goldwyn to inherit the Landmark Theatres chain, which was a unit of Heritage.
That company and its library were acquired by Metromedia on July 2, 1996, for US$125 million. To coincide with the purchase, the Samuel Goldwyn Company was renamed Goldwyn Entertainment Company, and was reconstituted as a subsidiary of Metromedia's Orion Pictures unit. That year, Orion and Goldwyn became part of the Metromedia Entertainment Group. Goldwyn became the specialty films unit of MEG, though they would seek out films with crossover appeal. While Orion and Goldwyn would share the overhead costs, the production/acquisition operations would operate independently from each other.
In 1997, Metromedia sold its entertainment group to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer for $573 million, making that company's film library the largest at the time. The Landmark Theatres group, which Metromedia did not sell to MGM, was taken over by Silver Cinemas, Inc. on April 27, 1998.
In September 1997, Goldwyn Entertainment Company was renamed to Goldwyn Films and separated from Orion. The company remained a specialty films unit and an international sales holder. A month later, Samuel Goldwyn Jr. sued MGM and Metromedia, claiming that he was abruptly let go of the company despite promises that he would continue to run it under different ownership. Another concern in the lawsuit was the use of the Goldwyn name, with the defendants being accused of "palming off specialized films produced or acquired by" the unit as though the plaintiff was still involved in its management. As part of the settlement, MGM agreed to change the name of the company to G2 Films in January 1999.
In June 1999, MGM announced that it would restructure United Artists as an arthouse film producer/distributor to solely focus on competing with Disney's Miramax Films. They also announced that G2 Films would be folded under UA and would be renamed as United Artists International, with the same management and staff. UAI's new role would be handling the international sales for UA films overseas. In July 2000, MGM announced that it would close down United Artists International, with the possibility of forming a UK-based production operation in its place. MGM stated that the closure had been planned as early as December 1999, stating that lucrative international TV output deals had affected the box office results for UA's recent films internationally, and that it was easier to handle the distribution of the films under their new overseas distribution agreement with 20th Century Fox that was due to begin in November of that year. After the agreement started, UAI was folded into MGM's own operations.
The younger Goldwyn has since gone on to found Samuel Goldwyn Films. This successor company has continued to release independent films such as What the Bleep Do We Know!? and the Academy Award–nominated The Squid and the Whale. Since the new Goldwyn company was formed, MGM currently holds much of the original Goldwyn Company's holdings that would end up with the library of Orion Pictures, now an MGM division. However, the Goldwyn Productions library is controlled by the Goldwyn family & licensed to Warner Bros., except for The Hurricane, whose ownership returned to its original distributor, United Artists.

Filmography

1970s

1980s

1990s

Other names

  • Samuel Goldwyn Entertainment
  • Goldwyn Entertainment Company
  • G2 Films
  • Goldwyn Films

    Successor

  • Samuel Goldwyn Films
  • United Artists Films, Inc.