The Downfall of Trimark Pictures

0:03 [Music] anyone who grew up in the 1980s and '90s can likely remember taking trips to the video store in the days before high-speed internet and streaming services video rental stores were required destinations for those wishing to watch movies at home the on thriving home video industry gave way to the rise of corporate Giants companies that emerged out of obscurity to become household names trar was one such company an independent film studio that grew to become a recognizable brand in the mid '90s before disappearing completely by the early 2000s so what exactly

0:49 happened today's video is brought to you by leaps and rebounds the company providing you with highquality trampolines for all of your workout needs whether you're looking to improve balance in circulation increase strength or simply tone up leaps and rebounds has you covered each trampoline is lightweight and easy to transport and includes a lifetime warranty plus their website features dozens of free workouts to get you started and if it's not for you return it within 30 days for a full refund risk-free working out should be fun so take the leap towards Better Health today and order your very own fitness trampoline from leaps and rebounds use promo code Surfer 10 at the checkout for 10% off your order or or simply click the link in the description home video was first

1:35 introduced in Japan in the mid1 1970s with the VHS and betamax formats both of which made their way to the US market shortly after the new technology employed the use of magnetic cassette tapes which could record store and play back video with the help of a VCR short for video cassette recorder the technology was originally marketed to the public as a means of recording and rewatching programs from television which would enable viewers to build their own home video library while only blank cassette tapes were initially sold pre-recorded tapes featuring theatrical films were introduced in 1977 with 20th Century Fox licensing 100 films from their library to be sold on the new format the tapes were sold at a steep $50 a piece the equivalent to

2:20 $253 today this prompted a Los Angeles entrepreneur named George Atkinson to purchase copies of the video cassettes and rent them out to the public allowing customers to keep the movies for $10 per night a fraction of the purchase price with Atkinson naming his store the video station the video rental store had been established and a new era of entertainment was ushered in as similar stores popped up all across the country consumers could not only purchase and own films for the first time but they could also rent them with the same ease as checking out a book from the library allowing audiences to consume more movies than ever before in history other film studios followed Fox by releasing their catalogues on home video and video retailers popped up like wildfire most of these retailers were family-owned businesses and many unrelated businesses

3:07 got in on the action with convenience stores and grocery stores offering video rental services entrepreneur Mark Amin had never worked in the film business before but had always had a passion for movies the Iranian born businessman had attended college in the United States before moving back to his home country but as the Iranian Revolution occurred Amin found himself settling in Los Angeles permanently just as the Home Video Revolution was gaining traction by 1980 there were an estimated 900 video retailers across the country the following year mark Amin and several of his friends founded 2020 video a video rental store which grew to become a prominent chain in Los Angeles the stores offered video cassettes for rent as well as video equipment like VCRs for rent and for sale and by this time a

3:54 natural symbiosis between film Distributors and video rental stores had developed video stores would buy tapes outright from the Distributors for full retail price usually $60 to $90 per unit then rent them out to customers for around $2 to $3 while the Distributors wouldn't see any of the revenue from rentals they were guaranteed a certain number of sales for their home video releases by the mid 80s there were over 25,000 video retailers in the us alone so if a distributor released a film on VHS or betamax and each of these stores bought just one copy for $70 each the distributor would earn earn $1.75 million on rental copies alone on top of revenue from sell through the term used for tapes that were sold directly to customers but the idea of owning movies

4:40 was still a novel concept most of the American public was accustomed to watching films at the theater or on television where unlimited OnDemand viewings of one film was not an option owning a film on home video was seen as the domain of ciles and hardcore film nerds particularly because of the high price of owning a movie so rental stores Flor as they offered the average consumer an affordable way to view a large variety of films with his video store chain thriving Mark Amin saw an opportunity to grab an even bigger piece of the rental pie around 1985 Amin and four other investors co-founded vidmark entertainment a company which would acquire and distribute films exclusively for the Home Video Market vidmar's primary business was selling home video units to video stores who would then put

5:26 them on the shelves for rent but the company also offered its products on the sell through Market allowing customers to buy their films outright for an average of $70 to $90 per tape due to the high demand from rental stores and consumers for Home Video in general the company was able to succeed by releasing be movies films that were lowbudget and more obscure often incorporating exploitative elements many of vidmar's early releases were TV movies as a deal with ABC enabled them to distribute a string of the networks made for television films vidmark benefited highly from the ' 80s video store boom as retailers expanded their shelf space to give their customers the most diverse inventories possible and the company quickly became known in the industry for their marketing prowess acquiring low-budget films and using them to

6:12 create successful home video releases but some of their tactics were criticized the company's video packaging avoided any reference to their films originally being made for TV with fidm Mark often submitting the films to the MPAA to be given theatrical ratings that it could include on the box this result resulted in some customers believing that they were renting theatrically released movies which tended to have higher budgets and more artistic Marathon films made for TV at the time vidmar's marketing manager was quoted by the Los Angeles Times as saying quote we don't play up the fact that these are TV movies but we don't hide it either this isn't a crime whether this tactic was unscrupulous or not it worked to vidmar's benefit with its home video release of the 1986 TV movie Stage Coach shipping 45,000 copies at the time

7:00 making it the bestselling TV movie on the Home Video Market the company also distributed specialty tapes like the joys of talking an instructional series that taught viewers different languages but vidmark best became known for its Acquisitions of independent and foreign films which were often lowbudget but sometimes featured names recognizable to mainstream audiences science fiction and horror films particularly became an early Bedrock for the company and in 1988 the company entered into the financing side of the film industry for the first time with Mark Amin producing the ultra lowbudget straight to video horror film demon warp 1988 was also the year that vidmark entered the theatrical Market releasing the slasher film American Gothic to theaters before its home video release a few months later

7:45 the extra promotion and public awareness that came with a theatrical release was beneficial as films that consumers recognize were easier to sell to the video stores by the late 1980s video retailers were shifting away from be movies in general the consumer demand for Blockbuster Studio films was growing prompting stores to stock up on extra copies of big movies rather than giving shelf space to be movies with a lower demand while B movies made up 50% of the Home Video Market in the mid1 1980s by 1989 they had dropped to only 25% selling low-budget titles with no-name actors and minimal promotion was becoming very challenging still vidmark recognized the need for video stores to have diverse inventories so with its 1988 release of lethal Obsession a German produced film

8:32 picked up for video distribution by vidmark the company offered a special deal to video rental stores if the tape was not rented 15 times during the first month of release the company would refund the Store 50% of the purchase price with no limit on the number of copies applicable this insurance policy would guarantee that the video store would make money on Films which had no theatrical release and that despite their lack of Big Marketing budgets vidmark believed that their straight to video films would succeed the strategy ultimately paid off with lethal obsessions selling 25,000 copies and only 350 copies being returned still the Home Video Market was changing and vidmark would have to evolve with it in order to survive in June of 1990 vidmark became a public company offering 1.5

9:18 million shares at $12.50 each but by September the stock had dropped over 50% to $587 per share as their fourth quarter profits had taken in a dive the decline was blamed on an overall home video market decline the ongoing conflict in the Middle East was reportedly causing more people to watch the news rather than rent videos and fears of a recession had stalled consumer spending on video product in general while vidmar continued to focus on acquiring films for home video release it also continued with an overall strategy to diversify 1991 would be a watershed year for vidmark as a new division entitled trar pictures was formed regular theatrical releases were the next logical step for the growing company as

10:03 it would not only bring in more revenue and allow for larger film budgets but also provide a marketing boost to the company's lucrative home video division TR Mark's first release was the supernatural horror film Warlock starring Julian Sans the film was produced in the late 1980s by New World pictures which had shelv the film's US release due to the company's financial trouble warlock was subsequently acquired by vidmar who wanted a bold film to Christen its new theatrical division the film was a huge hit for the company grossing over $9 million domestically at the box office but beyond its theatrical release fitmark now had exactly what it needed a popular film with name recognition that would attract buyers on the Home Video Market the company would ship 124,000 copies of

10:48 warlock on Home Video in North America alone the highest number of units sold for a film in vidmar's history while 70% of vidmar's Revenue still came from home video warlock's success encouraged it to step even further into the theatrical realm the company released a diverse slate of films theatrically in 1991 though none came anywhere close to warlock's success but the theatrical Market was creating a buzz for their movies and once audiences were aware of a film the company could leverage that awareness to shift their product into the stores one of trar next prominent releases 1991's [ __ ] created a stir due to its depiction of Los Angeles sex workers prompting the MPAA to give it an nc17 rating while this rating limited

11:33 its theatrical success vidmark took full advantage of the controversy releasing four different versions of the film on home video to take full advantage of every possible Market the theatrical nc7 version was released along with an unrated version that featured 2 minutes of footage deemed too steamy for theaters due to the fact that the Major Video Store chain Blockbuster had a policy against carrying nc7 films and R-rated version was also released that cut out 5 minutes of footage and for retailers that refused to carry the movie altogether due to its highly provocative name a fourth version entitled if you can't say it just see it was released while highly excessive the home video release of whr was a success shipping 990,000 copies to become vidmar's second most popular title 1992

12:21 would be the biggest year yet for the home video industry as consumer spending on sales and rentals reached $17 billion even though the sell through Market was growing increasing 26% from the year prior fidm Mark's year-to-year unit sales were flat as larger corporations were encroaching on the market Disney's VHS release of Beauty and the Beast had sold the whopping 19 million copies in 1992 alone and on the retail end large video store chains were taking over a market previously dominated by Mom and Pops with major chains now owning 15% of the rental business Blockbuster had even purchased a 35% stake in Republic picture enabling the rental giant to enter into film production and distribution in order to stay relevant in a corporate dominated industry vidmark would have to

13:07 Branch out as well in May of 1992 vidmark Inc announced that it would be changing its name to Trimark Holdings Incorporated however the vidmark name would still exist as the company's home video distribution wing and while none of trar theatrical releases broke out in 1992 the company had a plan to get a bigger piece of the film pi the company decided to shift gears towards theatrical Film Production and set out to find lowbudget projects with easy marketing hooks that would yield High returns as warlock had proved that horror could be very lucrative for trar the company brought in television writer Mark Jones to write and direct leprechaun starring Warick Davis as the title character and a then unknown Jennifer Aniston as the lead the film would write a wave of creature films

13:53 that had kicked off in the 1980s and with a marketing campaign geared toward a horror audience Le lechon was released in January of 1993 grossing $8.5 million domestically to nearly match the success of Warlock the film was even more successful on home video as leprechaun shipped 115,000 copies and generated a record 8 million in one day for vidmark the company now had two hits in the horror genre that had the potential to become franchises and Trimark was beginning to look Beyond film to exploit its properties in Spring of 1993 the company announced the creation of trar interactive a video game division which planned to release 16-bit games on Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo as well as other burgeoning formats the video game

14:40 industry had grown to become a $6 billion Market with consumer spending on games nearly matching that of movie tickets with rental stores like Blockbuster carrying video games trar saw this as the next logical step in growing their company the division would release several games over the next few years obtaining the rights for several releases is based on existing intellectual properties an adaptation of trar warlock was developed by real-time Associates and released in 1994 with the Trimark interactive label but the division never fully took off and it was folded around 1996 on the theatrical front leprechaun would be followed by several other horror films in 1993 including Peter Jackson's zombie film Dead Alive and Return of the Living Dead 3 along with the sequel to warlock which was the

15:26 company's largest national release on 1,00 screens while the film failed to match the success of its predecessor trar expanded its overall theatrical offerings in 1993 as in-house Productions along with independent film Acquisitions created more variety profits subsequently went up 50% for the 1993 fiscal year with overall revenues exceeding $60 million the next couple of years saw triar theatrical slate grow even more with the release of Leprechaun 2 grossing significantly less than its pred essor overall the studio was veering into new genres releasing a string of films by upand cominging directors with Indie credibility but the Home Video Market continued to evolve and the primary business that trar relied on was disintegrating the average

16:13 price of sell through units had fallen considerably over the years with some tapes being sold for as low as $10 sell through now accounted for 50% of the Home Video Market as consumers were becoming more interested in building a home library of movies due to their falling cost cost and the average filmgoer was only interested in owning films that they had heard of making the B titles released by vidmark less appealing to make matters worse major Studios were now getting involved in the straight to video Market which had previously been the domain of Indie studios in 1994 Disney released a straight to video sequel to its 1992 theatrical hit Aladdin entitled The Return of Jafar benefiting from the popularity of the first film The heavily promoted sequel sold 10 million copies

16:58 leading Disney to commission straight to video sequels to its other films other Studios jumped on the bandwagon producing higher budget heavily promoted films for the video Market The increased competition meant less space on video store shelves for obscure films with no recognizable characters or actors the very types of films that trar specialized in additionally the small family-owned video stores which tended to carry more diverse inventories were being bought up by larger chains many of which were going public and making plans for long-term expansion these corporate chains wanted quick returns so they focused on Stocking new hit films in large quantities rather than small films with no stars that were not guaranteed to attract renters to combat this trar focused on acquiring older lowbudget

17:44 films featuring actors who would later hit it big as a way to entice customers trar also ventured into several new territories to increase its value in the sell through Market releasing children's content under the kid Mark label and getting into alter alternative Sports content putting out Ultimate Fighting Championship which reportedly pre-booked 100,000 units additionally trar leaned into controversy as a means of creating a buzz for its films paying $5 million to acquire the home video rights to Larry Clark's kids the film was originally picked up by Miramax for distribution but was dropped after receiving an nc7 rating for its gritty depictions of Teenage life which mirror Max's parent company Disney did not want to be associated with this prompted Miramax chairman Bob and Harvey

18:31 Weinstein to form their own Distribution Company to release the film theatrically with trar handling the home video release through the vidmark label another NAB for trar was the director's cut of Oliver Stone's Natural Born Killers which had acquired for a home video release during its theatrical release the film had received a similar public outcry for its violent content but Mark Amin defended the film saying quote it's a misunderstood film which has been an easy target for politicians bashing Hollywood we think this is an important film and needs to be seen in the original uncensored version the old adage that all press is good press turned out to be true in this case as trar shipped a whopping 125,000 copies of the movie but overall trar was still struggling to find footing in this new

19:16 home video ecosystem in early 1997 it was reported that the company had posted an 8 million doll loss in its latest fiscal year with Trimark pictures executive VP Tim Swain saying quote the domestic Home Video Market is by far the toughest it's ever been the average budget of straight to video films had doubled from $1 million to $2 million and several prominent companies in that market had recently filed for bankruptcy if trar was going to survive it would have to up its theatrical game with films that would put it on the map in the process the vidmark division's name would be changed to Trimark home video as the company coalesced its efforts into turning itself into a mainstream Studio this strategy came with risks however as many big studios of this era

20:02 were cutting back on Film Production in general due to a crowded Marketplace but survival in the marketplace required trar to step it up as it lined up a roster of theatrical films that each appealed to a specific audience on this roster was Meet Wally Sparks a comedy featuring legendary stand-up comic Rodney Dangerfield who had starred in numerous hit films in the 1980s sprung was an urban comedy which hoped to capitalize on the way of similar films like Friday and star kid was a science fiction film which was marketed to the family audience trar even hoped that it could create a new breakout comedy star to rival Jim Carrey as it signed comedian Carrot Top to a three- picture deal the first of which would be entitled chairman of the board with a lineup of mainstream films poised for

20:48 box office success in 1997 and 1998 trar seemed Destin for greatness meet Wally Sparks was first up which cost the studio $12 million to distribute and market and was released in January of 1997 the film which opened on 1500 screens in North America was a critical and Commercial disaster grossing only $4 million sprung released several months later was also a box office disappointment along with 1998 star kid and chairman of the board the film that was supposed to launch the next big name in comedy fared the worst of them all costing $7 million to make but grossing amazely $300,000 while trar Art House films during this time received some positive feedback none were the breakout hits that the

21:34 studio needed with one notable exception evees Bayou a drama film that trar financed itself and released in late 1997 proved to be a sleeper hit costing $ million to produce and earning $14 million domestically the film was unique in that it was an art housee film featuring an all African American cast something other Studios had traditionally shied away from trar marketed the film to the best of its ability creating different trailers to reach African-American movie goers the art housee crowd and mainstream audiences the strategy paid off with EES Bayou becoming not only one of the biggest indie films of the year but earning the title of Trimark highest grossing theatrical film of all time EES Bayou was also a critical hit receiving legitimate Oscar buzz and demonstrating

22:20 that if trar wasn't able to score a mainstream hit it was capable of platforming prestige art housee films on the heels of Eve's success trar vowed to switch its focus from mainstream films to Niche specialty films that had the potential for Oscar buzz but tark's entry into the prestige Indie Market came at a time when every other major Studio was doing the exact same thing following the unexpected success of 1994's Pulp Fiction submissions for the Sundance Film Festival more than doubled going from 250 films in 1994 to 600 films in 1997 and the price tag for acquiring these indie films had Skyrock Ed as Distributors inundated the festival circuit paying inflated sums of money in hopes of acquiring the next big art housee hit major corporations had

23:07 also created their own indie film labels which were forces to be reckoned with making it harder for smaller companies like trar to compete of the films that trar was able to acquire from the festivals none were able to match the success of EES Bayou while EES Bayou had thrust Trimark into the spotlight as a baby Indie Studio rival Studios were already predicting trar downfall with one Indie executive calling Mark Amin a used vacuum cleaner salesman due to his association with B films and another executive asserting that evees Bayou was trar 15 Minutes of Fame by mid 1998 the company was still struggling posting a net loss of $5 million for the fiscal year ending June 30th despite High revenues exceeding $80 million thanks to its still lucrative home video

23:54 Department as its fora into mainstream films had failed trar was forced to cut back laying off 15% of its staff rumors began swirling that Trimark Holdings was up for sale as Mark Amin had reportedly talked with Artisan entertainment about a possible acquisition Amin eventually told the press that he would not sell the company but that tark's priorities will be specialized theatrical releases as well as production and distribution of genre films for worldwide television and Home Video markets by late 1998 the company was fairing better posting a $700,000 profit in its first fiscal quarter thanks to the strong performance of straight to video films like a kid in Aladdin's Palace as well as the company's first releases on the new DVD format and trar was even looking Beyond

24:40 DVDs to the future of Home Video consumption in early 1999 the company signed a deal with broadcast.com to distribute 50 films from the company's library to the internet for streaming Mark Amin saw the potential for the internet to be a new method of distribution for film comparing it with the rise of television in the 1950s and the Home Video Revolution of the 1980s while the technology was not fully there yet trar wanted to be amongst the first Studios to explore this new terrain the experiment was reportedly a success with traffic to its page being 10 times higher than expected trar then launched its own website cinemanow.com to stream its library of small Niche films on the home video side Trimark signed a deal with NBC to release compilations of the

25:27 sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live on DVD and video These titles were hugely successful reportedly selling a million units and helping trar to boost its overall profits but trar was still lacking in the theatrical Department as none of its newer Niche films had matched the success of EES Bayou while Trimark had tried to follow in the footsteps of Miramax and new line Cinema to become the next major player in indie film the company was never able to establish a specific identity but the company's home video division was still going strong releasing several popular titles in 1999 as well as launching a new division trar Ultra Sports to provide more variety to retailers in May of 2000 it was announced that Lion's gate entertainment

26:12 was in talks to acquire triar Holdings Lionsgate had been founded in 1997 in Vancouver and had recently acquired several Motion Picture companies positioning itself as a powerful entity in the world of independent cinema the purchase of Trimark would give Lions Gate an established infrastructure for home video distribution along with an extensive library of over 600 films in June of 2000 the two companies came to an agreement with Lionsgate agreeing to pay $50 million in cash and stock to acquire trar assuming its $35 million debt load Mark Amin would become the vice chairman of Lionsgate and tark's Theatrical division would be phased out with the label being used exclusively for home video releases under the Lionsgate Empire trar closed out its

26:59 last year as an independent entity in good form earning $5.7 million in profits a market improvement over the previous years but the studio was now a part of a much larger entity one that had quickly established itself as an important force in independent cinema through box office hits like American Psycho and critically acclaimed films like Gods and Monsters and affliction Lionsgate had become the studio that trar always wanted to be winning over audiences with popcorn flicks but also achieving critical respect and Academy Award nominations filmmaker Kevin Smith who had recently released his film Dogma through Lion's gate called Lion's gate a major game in town for Indie Cinema saying the studio had taken the place of Miramax as the premier buyer of indie films by late 2000 the merger was

27:46 complete but the Trimark label would not last long under its new parent company many of its employees were laid off during the transition and the name Trimark was dropped completely by the end of 2001 Mark Amin however would remain an important Force at Lionsgate serving as an executive producer on notable releases like Freda and the prince and me before departing the company in 2009 with an established home video Distribution Company under its belt in a vast library of titles Lionsgate was able to expand even further releasing oscar-winning films like Monsters ball and developing several successful franchises Mark Amin's prediction that the internet would become the primary distribution method for film came to fruition in the early 2010s as video stores went out of

28:32 business in favor of streaming services the film business continued to evolve and in 2012 lions gates acquisition of summit entertainment would give it ownership of the immensely popular Twilight series and with its release of the Blockbuster hit the Hunger Games that same year Lionsgate had officially entered the big leagues solidifying itself as the biggest independent studio in Hollywood to this day the studio remains a large presence in the film industry but lion Gate's rise to power was undoubtedly aided by its acquisition of trar and while trar never reached the heights that Mark amine and its staff had likely hoped for it still occupied a significant role in the landscape of the film industry for those who grew up in the 1980s and 1990s the trar brand will always invoke a specific feeling of a

29:19 film studio that was mainstream but still on The Fringe when that released genre films that appealed to popular Trends but maintained enough autonomy to take risk putting out controversial films that no one else would touch while Mark Amin and the executives at Trimark may have been pursuing money and profitability more than the creation of art these two forces were able to meet happily in the 1990s as the company's bottom line grew with the release of offbeat and inventive films while the studio never achieved a breakout hit its Legacy will always live in the pantheon of nostalgia amongst the fallen giants that changed the film industry forever if you'd like to see more videos like this please hit the like And subscribe button if you'd like to support me on patreon you can find the link in the

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