Orion Pictures is an American motion picture producer owned by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. In its original operating period, the company produced and released films from 1978 until 1999 and was also involved in television production and syndication throughout the 1980s until the early 1990s.
History[]
It was formed in 1978 as a joint venture between Warner Bros. and three former senior executives at United Artists. During this early period, Orion was considered a mini-major studio.
Woody Allen, James Cameron, Jonathan Demme, Oliver Stone, and several other prominent directors worked with Orion during its most successful years from 1978 to 1992. Of the films distributed by Orion, four won Academy Awards for Best Picture: Amadeus, Platoon, Dances with Wolves, and The Silence of the Lambs. Two other Orion films, Hannah and Her Sisters and Mississippi Burning, were nominated for that same category.
Since 1997, Orion has been owned by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. In 2013, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer revived the Orion name for television; a year later, Orion Pictures was relaunched by the studio.