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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 as Deluxe and formerly Deluxe Entertainment Services Group, Inc., is an American multinational multimedia and entertainment service provisions company[2] owned by Platinum Equity, [3] founded in 1915 by Hungarian-born American film producer William Fox and headquartered in Burbank, California.

The company services multiple clients in the film, television, digital content and advertising industries across the globe, and has been recognized with 10 Academy Awards for scientific and technical achievements, including developments in CinemaScope pictures (as part of 20th 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 name De Luxe as part of his eponymous film conglomerate corporation in Fort Lee, New Jersey.[5][6]

In 1916, Fox Film Corporation opened its studio in Hollywood[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 was Alan 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 the Great 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, under Sidney Kent, Fox merged his film company with Twentieth Century Pictures to 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 format CinemaScope.[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 of CinemaScope, 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 Organisation acquired Deluxe from Fox.[6][12][13]

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

In 2006, The Rank Organisation sold Deluxe Film Group to MacAndrews & Forbes, renamed Deluxe Entertainment Services Group.[6][14][15]

On 9 February 2012, Deluxe acquired Hong 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 the Academy 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 as Deluxe Technicolor Digital Cinema which 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 Equity agreed 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 companies Company 3 and Method Studios which formed the creative divisions of Deluxe were sold to Framestore in November 2020.[3][26]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Meet Deluxe". Deluxe Media. Retrieved August 3, 2020. Copyright © 2022 Deluxe Media Inc.
  2. ^ "Deluxe's Company 3, EFILM and Deluxe Toronto Post Major Entries in Cannes Film Festival". SHOOTonline.com. May 16, 2016. Retrieved May 19, 2016.
  3. ^ a b Goldsmith, Jill (July 1, 2020). "Tom Gores' Platinum Equity Buys Deluxe Entertainment Distribution Business". Deadline Hollywood. Penske Media Corporation. Retrieved May 30, 2021.
  4. ^ "Deluxe Entertainment Services Group Inc. Company Profile | Burbank, CA | Competitors, Financials & Contacts". Dun & Bradstreet. Retrieved August 19, 2022.
  5. ^ a b "20th Century Fox: Chronology". The Studio Tour. Retrieved July 18, 2022.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m "Deluxe: In Living Color". Film Journal International. July 17, 2009. Archived from the original on September 14, 2015. Retrieved July 17, 2022.
  7. ^ Fox Folks Vol. I, No. 4, August 1922.
  8. ^ Fox Folks Vol. 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. Retrieved January 23, 2022 – via Internet Archive.
  11. ^ The Hollywood Reporter, May 6, 1980, p. 170.
  12. ^ "Fox completes sale of DeLuxe to Rank". United Press International. December 17, 1990. Retrieved July 18, 2022.
  13. ^ "List of Principal Subsidiaries of the Company". FOX ENTERTAINMENT GROUP, INC. U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. September 10, 2004. Retrieved July 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. Retrieved May 18, 2022.
  17. ^ Dagar, Nick (February 12, 2012). "Deluxe Acquires Centro Digital Pictures". Digital Cinema Report. Retrieved July 22, 2022.
  18. ^ "Deluxe Acquires Centro" (Press release). Deluxe Entertainment Services. February 10, 2012. Retrieved January 30, 2022 – via PR Newswire.
  19. ^ Shackleton, Liz (February 10, 2012). "Deluxe acquires Hong Kong's Centro Digital Pictures". Screen Daily. Retrieved July 28, 2022.
  20. ^ "Deluxe Laboratories to close Hollywood film processing shop". L.A. Observed. March 6, 2014. Retrieved July 17, 2022.
  21. ^ "Deluxe Laboratories Collection". Academy Film Archive. Academy Awards. October 14, 2015. Retrieved July 22, 2022.
  22. ^ "Deluxe and Technicolor Launch Joint Venture in Digital Cinema". Technicolor. Retrieved October 11, 2020.
  23. ^ Maddaus, Gene (September 4, 2019). "Deluxe Entertainment to Avoid Bankruptcy with Debt-for-Equity Swap". Variety. Retrieved May 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. Retrieved October 24, 2019.
  25. ^ Maddaus, Gene (November 6, 2019). "Deluxe Entertainment Gets New CEO as It Emerges From Bankruptcy". Variety. Retrieved May 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. Retrieved December 3, 2020.
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