Series Rights
The first film, First Blood, was originally released by Orion Pictures, but all ancillary rights at the time were with Mario Kassar and Andrew Vajna (operating as Anabasis Investments). After its initial home video release, the rights reverted to Thorn EMI, which later became Weintraub Entertainment Group. Shortly after that, Anabasis became Carolco Pictures and thus took over the rights to the Rambo franchise. Rambo: First Blood Part II and Rambo III were released through Tri-Star Pictures, with Carolco retaining all other rights, including home video via Live Entertainment. After Carolco's bankruptcy, the rights were passed on to French production company StudioCanal, which continued the partnership with what became Artisan Entertainment. Artisan in turn was sold to Lionsgate, and today Lionsgate continues to hold the home video rights to the first three films under a continuing output deal with StudioCanal, while Trifecta Entertainment and Media (having inherited their rights from CBS Television Distribution and Worldvision Enterprises) handles television rights on behalf of Paramount Pictures.
In 1997, Miramax Films purchased the Rambo franchise; eight years later the studio sold those rights to Nu Image/Millennium Films. Nu Image and Millennium produced the 2008 sequel Rambo, with Lionsgate and The Weinstein Company. Lionsgate also handles video rights to the latest film, and by virtue of its output deal with StudioCanal, a box set of all the "Rambo" films was released on May 27, 2008.
Read more about this topic: Rambo (film Series)
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