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Deluxe Media

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Deluxe Media Inc.[1]
Company typeSubsidiary
Industry
Founded1915;109 years ago(1915)
FounderWilliam Fox
Headquarters
Burbank, California
,
United States
Area served
Worldwide
Key people
Cyril Drabinsky (CEO)
Products
Services
OwnerPlatinum Equity
Number of employees
3,500
WebsiteOfficial website

Deluxe Media Inc.,also known simply asDeluxeand formerlyDeluxe Entertainment Services Group, Inc.,is an Americanmultinationalmultimediaand entertainment service provisions company[2]owned byPlatinum Equity,[3]founded in 1915 byHungarian-born Americanfilm producerWilliam Foxand headquartered inBurbank, California.

The company services multiple clients in the film, television, digital content and advertising industries across the globe, and has been recognized with 10Academy Awardsfor scientific and technical achievements, including developments inCinemaScopepictures (as part of20th Century Fox) and more recently for a process of creating archival separations from digital image data.[4]

History

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Deluxe began as a film processing laboratory established in 1915 by William Fox under the nameDe Luxeas part ofhis eponymous film conglomerate corporationinFort Lee, New Jersey.[5][6]

In 1916, Fox Film Corporation opened its studio inHollywood[7]on 13 acres at Sunset and Western.[6]The first Deluxe film laboratory on the west coast was built on the south side of the lot (Fernwood and Serrano), and the laboratory was moved to the new Fox studios building on Manhattan's west side in 1919, where it remained for over 40 years. The "business manager" (later president) of the laboratory wasAlan E. Freedman,who guided the company into the 1960s.[8]

In 1927, Fox (Deluxe) received a patent for sound-on-film, the Fox Movietone process.[6]In 1927, "Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans," an early Movietone film, opened.[6]Fox Movietone News, ran weekly in theaters until 1963.[6]

During theGreat Depression,Fox Film Corporation encountered financial difficulties. Among the actions taken to maintain liquidity, Fox sold the laboratories in 1932 to Freedman, who renamed the operation Deluxe.[9][10]Under Freedman's leadership, Deluxe added two more plants in Chicago and Toronto. In January 1934, Fox was granted an option to rebuy DeLuxe before December 31, 1938. On 31 May 1935, underSidney Kent,Fox merged his film company withTwentieth Century Picturesto form The Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation following a bank-infused reorganisation. The merged company then exercised this option in July 1936, with Freedman remaining as president.[6][5]

In 1953, Deluxe developed the widescreen formatCinemaScope.[6]Titles included "There's No Business Like Show Business" (1954) and "The Seven Year Itch" (1955).[6]Other innovations included the processing and sound striping ofCinemaScope,and were patented and/or received Academy awards.[11]

In 1962 Freedman retired. In the 1960s, Deluxe closed its New York plant, followed by its plants in Chicago and Toronto, as motion picture production declined on the East Coast.[6]

In 1972, Deluxe began large volume videocassette production, with a billion by 1996.[6]

In 1990,The Rank Organisationacquired Deluxe from Fox.[6][12][13]

In 2000, Deluxe began large volume DVD production.[6]

In 2006,The Rank Organisationsells Deluxe Film Group toMacAndrews & Forbes,renamed Deluxe Entertainment Services Group.[6][14][15]

On 9 February 2012, Deluxe acquiredHong Kong–based visual effects and post-production company, Centro Digital Pictures, with its founder John Chu remaining as president while reporting to Alaric McAusland, managing director for Deluxe in Australia.[16][17][18][19]

In May 2014, Deluxe shut down its Los Angeles plant at Sunset & Western Studios complex, where other studios themselves were demolished way back in 1971. Also that same year, Deluxe closed the Hollywood film labs,[20]and they gave thousands of orphaned film elements to theAcademy Film Archive.The Deluxe Laboratories Collection at the Academy Film Archive consists of over 7,500 35mm and 16mm film elements of various motion pictures dating back to the early 1960s.[21]

On 22 April 2015, Deluxe and its longtime competitor,Technicolor S.A.,announced that they had entered into a binding agreement to create a new joint venture known asDeluxe Technicolor Digital Cinemawhich will specialize in cinema mastering, distribution and management services.[22]

Deluxe got acquired on 4 September 2019 by creditors in a debt-for-equity swap to avoid bankruptcy.[23]

On 3 October 2019, Deluxe filed for bankruptcy, pending in the Southern District of New York. The same month on the 24th, the company received court approval to emerge from bankruptcy with a comprehensive restructuring plan.[24][25]

On July 1, 2020,Platinum Equityagreed to acquire the distribution division of Deluxe and re-unite with former CEO Cyril Drabinsky who would merge CineVizion, a film distribution company he founded after leaving Deluxe in 2016, into it. The companiesCompany 3andMethod Studioswhich formed the creative divisions of Deluxe were sold toFramestorein November 2020.[3][26]

See also

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References

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  1. ^"Meet Deluxe".Deluxe Media.RetrievedAugust 3,2020.Copyright © 2022 Deluxe Media Inc.
  2. ^"Deluxe's Company 3, EFILM and Deluxe Toronto Post Major Entries in Cannes Film Festival".SHOOTonline.May 16, 2016.RetrievedMay 19,2016.
  3. ^abGoldsmith, Jill (July 1, 2020)."Tom Gores' Platinum Equity Buys Deluxe Entertainment Distribution Business".Deadline Hollywood.Penske Media Corporation.RetrievedMay 30,2021.
  4. ^"Deluxe Entertainment Services Group Inc. Company Profile | Burbank, CA | Competitors, Financials & Contacts".Dun & Bradstreet.RetrievedAugust 19,2022.
  5. ^ab"20th Century Fox: Chronology".The Studio Tour.RetrievedJuly 18,2022.
  6. ^abcdefghijklm"Deluxe: In Living Color".Film Journal International.July 17, 2009. Archived fromthe originalon September 14, 2015.RetrievedJuly 17,2022.
  7. ^Fox FolksVol. I, No. 4, August 1922.
  8. ^Fox FolksVol. I, No. 4, August 1922. Also, Vol. III, No. 7, July 1924, p. 12 and back outside cover, and Vol. III, No. 8, August 1924, p. 8.
  9. ^Image, Deluxe Laboratories, Inc. check 101 to Fox Film Corporation for $2,000,000.
  10. ^"Freedman Group Buys Fox Film Laboratories".The Film Daily.New York City.April 3, 1932. p. 1.RetrievedJanuary 23,2022– viaInternet Archive.
  11. ^The Hollywood Reporter,May 6, 1980, p. 170.
  12. ^"Fox completes sale of DeLuxe to Rank".United Press International.December 17, 1990.RetrievedJuly 18,2022.
  13. ^"List of Principal Subsidiaries of the Company".FOX ENTERTAINMENT GROUP, INC.U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.September 10, 2004.RetrievedJuly 18,2022.
  14. ^Egan, Jack (January 6, 2006)."Perlman Buys Deluxe".Below the Line.
  15. ^Baker, Liana B. (January 27, 2017)."Hollywood effects firm Deluxe Entertainment looks to China for deal".Reuters.
  16. ^Giardina, Carolyn (February 9, 2012)."Deluxe Acquires Hong Kong's Centro".The Hollywood Reporter.Penske Media Corporation.RetrievedMay 18,2022.
  17. ^Dagar, Nick (February 12, 2012)."Deluxe Acquires Centro Digital Pictures".Digital Cinema Report.RetrievedJuly 22,2022.
  18. ^"Deluxe Acquires Centro"(Press release). Deluxe Entertainment Services. February 10, 2012.RetrievedJanuary 30,2022– viaPR Newswire.
  19. ^Shackleton, Liz (February 10, 2012)."Deluxe acquires Hong Kong's Centro Digital Pictures".Screen Daily.RetrievedJuly 28,2022.
  20. ^"Deluxe Laboratories to close Hollywood film processing shop".L.A. Observed.March 6, 2014.RetrievedJuly 17,2022.
  21. ^"Deluxe Laboratories Collection".Academy Film Archive.Academy Awards.October 14, 2015.RetrievedJuly 22,2022.
  22. ^"Deluxe and Technicolor Launch Joint Venture in Digital Cinema".Technicolor.RetrievedOctober 11,2020.
  23. ^Maddaus, Gene (September 4, 2019)."Deluxe Entertainment to Avoid Bankruptcy with Debt-for-Equity Swap".Variety.RetrievedMay 30,2021.
  24. ^"ORDER (I) APPROVING THE DISCLOSURE STATEMENT FOR AND CONFIRMING THE JOINT PREPACKAGED PLAN OF REORGANIZATION OF DELUXE ENTERTAINMENT SERVICES GROUP INC. AND ITS DEBTOR AFFILIATES PURSUANT TO CHAPTER 11 OF THE BANKRUPTCY CODE AND (II) GRANTING RELATED RELIEF".Prime Clerk.RetrievedOctober 24,2019.
  25. ^Maddaus, Gene (November 6, 2019)."Deluxe Entertainment Gets New CEO as It Emerges From Bankruptcy".Variety.RetrievedMay 10,2020.
  26. ^Giardina, Carolyn (November 18, 2020)."Framestore CEO On How Company 3 Deal Alters VFX Landscape:" This Is An Exercise In One Plus One Equals More "(Q&A)".The Hollywood Reporter.Penske Media Corporation.RetrievedDecember 3,2020.
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