Vestron Pictures, Part Three (1989–1990): Debt, Decline and the End of an Independent Studio - The 80s Movie Podcast

The 80s Movie Podcast concludes its Vestron Pictures series with Part Three, covering the company's final releases from 1989 through its bankruptcy filing in 1991. Host Edward Havens traces how a studio that needed one more hit instead got a string of commercial disappointments, including Bob Balaban's cult horror comedy Parents, Bernard Rose's Paperhouse, the Corey Feldman and Corey Haim vehicle Dream a Little Dream, Ken Russell's The Rainbow, and Julien Temple's musical comedy Earth Girls Are Easy, the De Laurentiis pickup starring Geena Davis, Jeff Goldblum, Jim Carrey, and Damon Wayans. Furthermore, the episode examines how the Lightning Pictures imprint's Far From Home, starring a 14-year-old Drew Barrymore, opened on the same day Vestron's bank terminated its $100 million line of credit and effectively ended the company's theatrical operation in a single afternoon.

However, the collapse of Vestron's distribution arm is only part of the story. Along the way, Edward traces what happened to the titles left behind when the company folded, including films sold off to other distributors and others that went directly to video without any theatrical release at all. At the same time, the episode follows Vestron's assets through bankruptcy court to Live Entertainment, then to Artisan Entertainment, and finally to Lionsgate, explaining why so many of the films Vestron released remain nearly impossible to find today. Consequently, the Vestron story becomes a case study not just in how independent studios fail, but in how film history gets buried under successive waves of corporate ownership.

In addition to the release histories, this episode surfaces several remarkable footnotes. Earth Girls Are Easy gave Jim Carrey and Damon Wayans enough chemistry that Wayans later pushed for Carrey to join In Living Color, a decision that changed the course of American comedy. Wonderland featured an early Hans Zimmer score and an early role for Robbie Coltrane. And Paperhouse launched the career of the director who would go on to make Candyman. For listeners who followed the full Vestron series, this episode delivers a fitting and genuinely surprising conclusion.