Seven Arts Productions

Seven Arts Productions

Seven Arts Productions first logo (1957-1961)
Industry	Film
Genre	Entertainment
Founded	1957
Defunct	1967
Key people	Ray Stark Eliot Hyman
Parent	Warner Bros.-Seven Arts (1967-1969)

Seven Arts Productions was a production company which made films for release by other studios. It was founded in 1957 by Ray Stark and Eliot Hyman.

Among its productions were The Misfits (1961) for United Artists, Gigot (1962) for Twentieth Century-Fox, Lolita (1962) for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962) for Warner Bros., and Is Paris Burning? (1966) for Paramount Pictures.

Over time it expanded its role, becoming equity investors with other studios and partnering with British horror film company Hammer Film Productions on many projects. It also retained ancillary rights on new productions surrendered on earlier films, including Seven Days in May (1964) and Promise Her Anything (1965) for release by Paramount.

Seven Arts also distributed feature films and TV programs for television. Warner Bros. licensed the TV rights to its post-1949 library to Seven Arts in 1960. Seven Arts made similar deals with 20th Century Fox and Universal Pictures. Seven Arts also acquired theatrical reissue rights to some Fox films as well.

In 1967, Seven Arts Productions acquired the controlling interest in Warner Bros. from Jack L. Warner for $32 million. The companies were merged as Warner Bros.-Seven Arts. It was once again renamed Warner Bros. after Kinney National Company bought the company.