Company
Reiner named the company in honor of the fictional Maine town that serves as the setting of several stories by Stephen King (which was named after the fictional Castle Rock in Lord of the Flies), after the success of his film Stand by Me, which was based on The Body, a novella by King.
The company was originally backed by The Coca-Cola Company, the then-parent company of Columbia Pictures. Coke and the company's founders jointly owned a stake in the company. Months after the deal, Coke exited the entertainment business, succeeded by Columbia Pictures Entertainment (now Sony Pictures Entertainment).
In 1989, Castle Rock was supported by another backer, Group W, a subsidiary of Westinghouse. Castle Rock later struck a deal with Nelson Entertainment, the company that owned the domestic home video rights to Reiner's This is Spinal Tap, The Sure Thing, and The Princess Bride, to co-finance Castle Rock's films.
Under the deal, Nelson also distributed the films on video in North American markets, and handled international theatrical distribution, while Columbia, which Nelson forged a distribution deal with, would receive domestic theatrical distribution rights. Some of Nelson's holdings were later acquired by New Line Cinema, which took over Nelson's duty.
Columbia, shortly after the company's formation, thereafter had to re-invest with a substantial change in terms when accumulated losses exhausted its initial funding.
Castle Rock has also produced several television shows, such as the successful sitcom Seinfeld and the animated sitcom Mission Hill.
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