21st Century Film Corporation
 |
|
| Industry | Motion Picture Production & Releasing |
|---|---|
| Fate | Bankruptcy |
| Founded | 1971 |
| Defunct | 1996 |
| Headquarters | Los Angeles, CA |
|
Key people
|
Menahem Golan (CEO), Ami Artzi & Giancarlo Parretti |
| Products | Motion Pictures |
| Parent | Independent Pathe Communications Public (pink sheets) |
21st Century Film Corporation was a theatrical distribution company formed sometime in 1971 as a production company and distributor.
It was formed sometime in 1971 as a production company and distributor as 21st Century Distribution Corporation.
In the late 1980s, while filing for bankruptcy, it was purchased by Giancarlo Parretti. Pathe had also recently purchased The Cannon Group, which was renamed Pathe Communications, and he eventually handed 21st Century Film Corporation and Spider-Man and Captain America film rights (held by Cannon) over to Israeli filmmaker Menahem Golan as part of Golan's severance package from Cannon.
Golan's goal was to release high-quality motion pictures to the American and worldwide film audiences, but 21st Century only enjoyed small-scale success releasing low-budget, art-house films like Eraserhead, as well as remakes of The Phantom of the Opera and Night of the Living Dead.
In April 1989, Twenty-first Century Film and Pathe Communications ended their film production contract. As part of the termination, 21st Century Film received rights to two feature-length movies: the completed "Mack the Knife", in production "Phantom of the Opera" plus other projects and scripts rights. While Pathe would no longer have any financial obligations to 21st Century.
Captain America was filmed and was given only a limited theatrical release worldwide, despite its major budget.
Looking for funding for the Spider-Man for which direct funding was difficult, 21st Century sold the film's TV rights to Viacom, the home-video rights to Columbia and theatrical rights to Carolco. In 1993, Golan triggered a series of lawsuits for 21st Century over Spider-Man as he feared being pushed out. Bankruptcy followed within the year for the company. In 1995, the judge ruled that the Spider-Man film rights expired and reverted to Marvel.
In 1993, it released a few more movies including, Deadly Heroes and most notably Death Wish V: The Face of Death, which was not only the last in the series but Charles Bronson's final theatrical film.
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