National General Pictures

National General Corporation (NGC) was a theater chain holding company, film distribution and production company and was considered one of the "instant majors". It was in operation from 1951 to 1974.

Its division National General Pictures (NGP) was a production company which was active between 1967 and 1973. NGP produced nine motion pictures in-house. The company was a division of the National General Corporation (NGC) which started as the spun out Fox Theatre chain of movie houses, which were later sold to the Mann Theatres Corporation.

National General had its own record label, National General Records, that operated for at least three years and was distributed by Buddah Records.^[1]

National General Corporation was a film distribution network and the successor of 20th Century Fox's theater division with 550 theaters when spun off in 1951 and reduced in half by court order six years later.^{[li 1]}

National General entered distribution in 1966 under a three-year waiver from the consent decrees^{[li 2]} with six distribution offices.^{[li 3]} In 1967, the CBS television network decided to produce their own films for theatrical release through their production unit Cinema Center Films (CCF), which were released through National General.

National General also acquired Sy Weintraub's Banner Productions in 1967 which was producing Tarzan films and the TV series.^[2] NGC had also entered theatrical film production under Charles Boasberg in 1967 as National General Pictures (NGP). The ABC television network had done the same thing with Cinerama in the formation of another instant major partnership. In 1969, after a request for an indefinite waiver, the consent decree waiver was extended for another three years. NGC gained another production partner in 1969 with the formation of First Artists Productions (FAP).

The company tried to acquire Warner Bros.-Seven Arts in 1969, but the deal was rejected on antitrust grounds by the Justice Department, Warner Bros. was subsequently sold to Kinney National Service, Inc. in summer 1969, and NGP was closed in 1970.^{[li 2]} By 1970, all the instant majors had each captured 10% of the market.^{[li 3]}

By April 1969 National General had produced five films over two years. The month it received a three year extension from a judge to pursue its role as a produced, distributor and exhibitor. NG's head, Irvin Levin, announced National General would make 13 films, costing $35 million in all. Six of them would be made in Hollywood. These were:^[3]

• The Cheyenne Social Club
• El Condor
• The Schmid Case - based on the Charles Schmid case directed by Barry Sjear
• The Sophomore - a college student gets his girlfriend pregnant, produced by Frank Coe
• Enemy Enemy - based on Bud Freeman play directed by Jerry Paris
• Another Kind of Love - comedy written and directed by Arnold Schulman
• The French Connection - based on the novel by Robin Moore with director William Friedkin - this was made at Fox
• The Valdez Horses based on novel by Lee Hoffman
• I Want It Now based on novel by Kingsley Amis
• Forty Lashes Less One based on novel by Elmore Leonard
• Your Own Thing based on play by Hal Hester
• The Grasshoppper
• A Bird in the Hand directed in England by Peter Collinson about the wife of a young English teacher - this was never made.

Following Cinema Center's closure, NGC was taken over by American Financial Corporation in 1972, but continued distributing films until 1973. In November 1973, American Financial sold NGC/NGP's releasing contracts and film library to Warner Bros.^{[li 2]} National General, then just containing 240 theaters, were sold in 1973 to Mann Theatres.^{[li 1]}

• Cook, David A. (2000). Lost Illusions: American Cinema in the Shadow of Watergate and Vietnam, 1970-1979. University of California Press.