Major history (1984–1998)
The company was formed in 1984 by Stephen Roth, Denis Héroux, John Kemeny, Robert Lantos, Andras Hamori and Susan Cavan as Alliance Entertainment, from a merger of RSL Entertainment Corporation and International Cinema Corporation, with financing from New Century Entertainment's SLM Productions and gave them a $10 million fund.[5][6]
In 1986, the company had completed the first six projects in the first twelve months, and the company's fare was to be shown on the Big Three networks, namely ABC, CBS and NBC, as well as cable channel HBO and Canadian channel CTV, as well as a financing agreement with New Century/SLM Productions. One of Alliance's well known TV projects was Night Heat, and had to develop several television miniseries.[7]
On September 11, 1986, Alliance Entertainment Corporation expanded into a package of seven feature films and television projects for the next twelve months, and John Hirsch made his television acting debut on Alliance's made-for-television movie production, The Sword of Gideon, which aired on CTV and HBO.[8]
In 1987, it attempted to take over the Los Angeles-based production company Robert Cooper Productions, a move that will join the two companies under the Alliance banner, and bring 28 hours of programming donated by Robert Cooper to Alliance, which included HBO projects and several other television films, and distribution of the four Cooper/Alliance joint production ventures would be handled by Carolco Pictures outside of the Canadian market and handled through a $40 million limited partnership with Richard Greenshields of Canada Ltd., which is expected to file within two weeks.[9] The aborted plan for an Alliance/Robert Cooper merger was later scrapped in October 1987.[10] In late November 1987, after an aborted merger attempt between Alliance and Robert Cooper, which end up collaborating on the Return of Ben Casey telefilm, Alliance Entertainment had named Susan Cavan, who was formerly an in-house lawyer to serve as the studio's president, who succeeded Stephen Roth, who was one of the Alliance co-founders, which was ankled to become an industry consultant of the studio.[11]
It acquired a Montreal-based Francophone distribution company, Vivafilm, in 1990, after Lantos bought out the company back from Loewy, renaming it to Alliance-Vivafilm in the process.[12] In 1993, the company expanded its operations to launch its sales arm, Le Monde Entertainment.[13]
In 1995, the company entered the broadcasting business, by first launching Showcase,[14] then launching History Television.[15] In 1997, the company had bought out several assets of Norstar Entertainment, including its title library for $5-10 million.[16]
In February 1997, Alliance Communications announced that they would enter the UK film market by forming a joint-venture with British independent distributor Electric Pictures called Alliance Releasing UK.[17]
In November 1997, Alliance Communications expanded into American television production by acquiring Los Angeles-based American television production company Citadel Entertainment from Time Warner (now Warner Bros. Discovery) owned Home Box Office and Anglia Television owner United Broadcasting & Entertainment after the two decided not to renew their joint venture Citadel Entertainment production company, giving Alliance an American production subsidiary with Citadel CEO David Ginsburg continued to lead the acquired company.[18]
In 1998, it merged with Atlantis Communications, forming Alliance Atlantis Communications.[19]
