EMKA, Ltd.
| Company type | Subsidiary |
|---|---|
| Industry | Film rights management |
| Founded | 1958 |
| Founder | Music Corporation of America (MCA) |
| Headquarters | United States |
Area served | United States |
| Owner | Universal Television (NBCUniversal) |
EMKA Limited is an entity owned by the Universal Television branch of NBCUniversal, tasked with overseeing the sound feature film collection of Paramount Pictures spanning from 1929 to 1949, with certain exceptions. The company was established in 1958.
History
Nine years following the United States v. Paramount Pictures, Inc. decision, in February 1958, Music Corporation of America (MCA) reached an agreement with Paramount to secure television distribution rights for 750 sound feature films released prior to December 1, 1949. The deal was valued at $10 million, payable over multiple years. At that time, Paramount regarded this as a favorable arrangement, significantly undervaluing its older film catalog. To address antitrust regulations, MCA created EMKA, Ltd. as a shell corporation to manage these films for television purposes.
The Paramount collection under EMKA encompasses famous works such as the initial five Marx Brothers movies (with rights to Animal Crackers only cleared in 1974), the first four Road to... films starring Bob Hope and Bing Crosby, along with celebrated titles including Trouble in Paradise, Shanghai Express, She Done Him Wrong, Remember the Night, Sullivan's Travels, The Palm Beach Story, For Whom The Bell Tolls, Double Indemnity, Going My Way, The Lost Weekend, and The Heiress.
Over the years, MCA earned more than a billion dollars in rental income from this previously undervalued film library. In 1962, MCA purchased the US division of Decca Records, then the parent company of Universal Studios, subsequently divesting its talent agency operations. MCA was acquired by Japan's Matsushita Electric in 1990 and later by Seagram in 1995; Seagram rebranded it as Universal Studios in 1996 before selling it to Vivendi in 2000. In 1997, Universal Television was sold to USA Networks. Five years afterward, on May 28, 2002, its entertainment assets transferred to Vivendi Universal. Vivendi merged its entertainment division with General Electric's NBC in 2004, creating NBCUniversal. Comcast purchased a majority stake of 51% in NBC Universal from Vivendi in 2011 and acquired the remaining 49% from GE in 2013, subsequently renaming it NBCUniversal.
Current status
Currently, EMKA functions under the umbrella of Universal Television, with Universal overseeing theatrical release and home video distribution, while television distribution is managed by NBCUniversal Syndication Studios. Several EMKA-owned films have been remade by Universal, such as Meet Joe Black—a reinterpretation of Death Takes a Holiday—and others have been adapted into television series produced by Revue Studios.