Motion Picture Corporation of America

History

The Motion Picture Corporation of America got its start in 1986, founded by longtime partners Brad Krevoy and Steve Stabler. Early projects included the 1988 family film Purple People Eater with Ned Beatty, the 1989 action thriller Back to Back starring Bill Paxton and Apollonia Kotero, and the 1992 sex comedy Miracle Beach. After every major studio turned them down, the Farrelly brothers brought their script for Dumb and Dumber to MPCA, which released it in 1994. The comedy hit number one at the U.S. box office and held that spot for four weeks, earning $127 million domestically and $120 million overseas on a $16 million budget, for a worldwide total of $247 million. With video and ancillary sales, it is thought to have brought in over half a billion dollars. That success let the Farrellys make their passion project Kingpin, released in July 1996 with Woody Harrelson, Randy Quaid, and Bill Murray. Kingpin was a box office disappointment, taking in only $27 million against a $25 million budget, but critics liked it—Roger Ebert gave it three and a half stars—and it became a cult hit on home video. MPCA then moved into bigger-budget studio comedies, including Beverly Hills Ninja with Chris Farley and Jungle 2 Jungle with Tim Allen. It also produced the autobiographical comedy Threesome, written and directed by Andrew Fleming and starring Lara Flynn Boyle and Stephen Baldwin, which earned just under $15 million domestically; Ebert gave it three stars, praising its honest characters and strong dialogue. In November 1995, MPCA signed a first-look producing deal with Paramount Pictures, and a later first-look deal with Sony Pictures in the late 1990s led to more than ten films. In 1996, John Kluge’s Metromedia International Group bought MPCA, having just purchased Orion Pictures out of Chapter 11 bankruptcy. After the merger, Krevoy and Stabler became co-presidents of Orion Pictures and got a six-picture deal.