Orion Pictures



Orion Pictures Corporation is an American distribution company that produced and released films from 1978 until 1999, and was also involved in television production and syndication throughout the 1980s until the early 1990s. In 2013, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer revived the Orion name for television; a year later Orion Pictures was quietly relaunched by the studio. It was formed in 1978 as a joint venture between Warner Bros. and three former top-level executives of United Artists. Although it was never a large motion picture producer, Orion achieved a comparatively high reputation for Hollywood quality. 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 (1984), Platoon (1986), Dances with Wolves (1990), and The Silence of the Lambs (1991). Only two other Orion films, Hannah and Her Sisters (1986) and Mississippi Burning (1988), were nominated for that same category.