Profile - Anchor Bay Entertainment (Starz Home Entertainment)

Every once in a while, I'm going to profile distribution companies or a production company just for interests sake. I might as well start with Anchor Bay Entertainment, as they seem to release piles of good horror movies, year after year. So far, in 2007, they've released Unholy, Masters of Horror: Season One Box Set, Halloween: Restored Limited Edition... and coming soon: more Masters of Horror, Demons/Demons 2, Dawn of the Dead [Blu-ray], Day of the Dead [Blu-ray], Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn [Blu-ray], Halloween [Blu-ray], Hellraiser: 20th Anniversary Edition (Ws), among others...

History: Anchor Bay Entertainment was formed in 1989, as a division of IDT Entertainment until Liberty Media (the owner of the Starz cable network) purchased IDT Entertainment from IDT Corp. in 2006 and renamed it all Starz Media. At that time, Starz Entertainment had 16 movie channels, the Film Roman, Anchor Bay Entertainment, Starz Animation, Toronto and Manga Entertainment brands of production and distribution companies and then, in the Fall of 2006, they also launched Overture Films, which develops, produces, acquires and distributes motion pictures worldwide. Since re-branding Anchor Bay as Starz Media, they subsequently decided to bring back the Anchor Bay Entertainment name, solely for it's horror titles.

Note of interest: Starz Home Entertainment actually released various editions of the Evil Dead trilogy on DVD, including the two-disc "Army of Darkness (Boomstick Edition)". Before Starz released The Evil Dead, it was not available on video. They later lost the distribution rights to Universal, who owned the film rights. Apparently the Anchor Bar releases are better quality and have better special features...

Notable Anchor Bay Entertainment releases:

Behind the Mask - The Rise of Leslie Vernon
C.H.U.D.
Children of the Corn
Dawn of the Dead (Divimax Edition)
Day of the Dead (Divimax Special Edition)
Demons
Demons 2 - The Nightmare Returns
The Evil Dead
Evil Dead II (Special Edition)
Army of Darkness - Director's Cut
Evilspeak
Halloween [Blu-ray]
Hellraiser: 20th Anniversary Edition (Ws)
The Hills Have Eyes
Masters of Horror: Season One Box Set
Near Dark (2pc) (Ws Spec)
Night of the Living Dead (30th Anniversary Limited Numbered Edition)
Phantasm
Puppetmaster vs. Demonic Toys
Re-Animator
Sleepaway Camp Survival Kit (Movies 1-3)
Suspiria (2-Disc Special Edition)

If you're interested in Anchor Bay Entertainment from a business perspective, check out Liberty Media (NASDAQ:LCAPA)