Is Raleigh Studios a scam?

S

snmarton

New member
Hey,

I'm a journalist based in Budapest, Hungary and in need of information on a Hollywood-based Raleigh Studios.

Story is, Raleigh, self-proclaimed to be the largest independent Hollywood studio operator in the US, is setting up a high-profile production complex in Budapest, with the financial support (taxing benefits) of the government.

Today a press conference was held, CEO Michael Moore (not that Michael Moore) was blabbing about building a market leading studio complex, creating jobs, boosting GDP blah blah blah. He also had the US ambassador talking some bullshi* about how fantastic Hungarian people are.

Point is, as far as I know (and I'm not a film industry expert) Raleigh Studios is not that a big fish as it pretends. They claimed that they worked on Avatar and Iron Man, while IMDB does not know about the Avatar stuff and shows that they earned a special thanks (among a hundred other companies) for their surely very important contribution to Iron Man.

I need to know what you think about Raleigh Studios. I am especially interested in their Detroit-based Motown Motion Picture / Raleigh Michigan facility, because it shares a lot of characteristics with my story. Do they produce movies? Are they the "biggest independent studio" in Hollywood (what the heck does that mean, anyway)? Are they well-approved? Do they create jobs and boost economics? Are they really able to bring some of the biggest movie projects to Budapest, Hungary? Please, help me out with your answers.

Thanks,

Sarkadi-Nagy Márton
Budapest, Hungary
journalist
 
Raleigh has been around forever in Hollywood. Can't speak for other places but the studios in Hollywood are across the street from Paramount Pictures and stuff shoots there constantly. I've had many a screening as well and been to many a screening there. They are the real deal.
 
Say, Raleigh are not a scam. But after checking their filmography on IMDB, I am not quite convinced that they can support a 52-acre complex with continuous projects.

There was another project alike this, investors got the financial benefits, monstrous studio complex built near Budapest in 2007, Andy Vajna involved among others. Since then, Hellboy 2 and a Hungarian movie was shot there, nothing else.

this line is taken from the LA Business Journal via thefreelibrary.com: "For Raleigh, building a new studio would be a challenge because lenders are generally hesitant to underwrite such properties, which like hotels rely on temporary sources of revenue".

Now they're building from a Hungarian governmental loan. If they bring a new Hellboy spinoff here in every three years, it simply does not worth it.
 
snmarton said:
Say, Raleigh are not a scam. But after checking their filmography on IMDB, I am not quite convinced that they can support a 52-acre complex with continuous projects.

There was another project alike this, investors got the financial benefits, monstrous studio complex built near Budapest in 2007, Andy Vajna involved among others. Since then, Hellboy 2 and a Hungarian movie was shot there, nothing else.

this line is taken from the LA Business Journal via thefreelibrary.com: "For Raleigh, building a new studio would be a challenge because lenders are generally hesitant to underwrite such properties, which like hotels rely on temporary sources of revenue".

Now they're building from a Hungarian governmental loan. If they bring a new Hellboy spinoff here in every three years, it simply does not worth it.
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Well, now you are asking about a very specific political, business issue, which I don't feel qualified to answer. But your initial concern was, are they a scam, and from all I know they are a very legit company. They aren't some guys with a warehouse pretending to be a studio so they can fleece governments. They've been around Hollywood since the 1920's.
 
this is going sideways, but whatever.

according to the aforementioned la business article, Raleigh was "founded in 1955 by Rosenthal's father George as a tract homebuilder (...) the firm got into the studio business in 1979".

i'd like to add, it is really hard to judge responsibly from here and i am really grateful that you shared your opinion with me.
 
Raleigh Studios certainly have the largest facilities I've seen outside of a studio lot, and even stack up pretty well in comparison to the Warner and Universal lots, so their claim of being the largest independent stage operator makes sense to me.
 
According to the Hollywood Reporter (not available online without a subscription), as of 2008, Marvel Studios leases facilities at Raleigh Studios for its primary HQ office space and at least some of the production of its next four comic book films, and Iron Man 2 was one of them.

They are the real deal.
 
snmarton said:
this is going sideways, but whatever.

according to the aforementioned la business article, Raleigh was "founded in 1955 by Rosenthal's father George as a tract homebuilder (...) the firm got into the studio business in 1979".

i'd like to add, it is really hard to judge responsibly from here and i am really grateful that you shared your opinion with me.
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My mistake. The original Hollywood studio was called Famous Players and was started in 1915, then was later taken over by Raleigh Enterprises.
 
msorrels said:
These out of CA/Hollywood studio projects have a pretty long history of failure. Here's one I thought was worth bookmarking.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/ma...rand_studio_dream_runs_headlong_into_reality/

Doesn't have anything to do with this directly, but I'd say the themes are similar.
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Sad story, from Head of Paramount's movie division to bankruptcy!....But if you're comparing, one studio was being pushed by a single bankrupt individual. Raleigh studios is a corporation that's still in business. I'm not going to vouch for Raleigh and the original poster has legitimate concerns, but certainly David Kirkpatrick's endeavor strikes a lot more alarm bells than this one. Certainly anytime a government is going to hand over big sums of money in these tough times those deals should be scrutinized to the fullest extent.
 
Interesting. I was going to say I drive by the Raleigh Studio building at least 2-3 times a month, and they have huge building.

But as to their viability in another country? Couldn't say. But if they have a good production, typically they could see a better profit margin. I wonder what they have planned? Usually studios don't just go out and establish something like this without a definite project in mind.
 
My experience is that I have shot on several of their stages many times throughout the years (both their Hollywood and Manhattan Beach facilities). I can tell you that it is sometimes hard to book a stage - they are in demand.
 
Isn't it amazing how Hollywood can woo governments and foreign countries to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars at taxpayers expense?
 
Raleigh Studios is legitimate, however, they don't bankroll or initiate productions. They're not going to be bringing movies to Hungary. It's up to the major production companies to do that. Raleigh will build a facility that those people can rent, but Raleigh themselves don't make their own movies (as far as I know).
 
Next Four Marvel Films At Raleigh Studios

http://www.latinoreview.com/news/next-four-marvel-films-at-raleigh-studios-5492


LA Times article: Raleigh Studios is expanding into Eastern Europe

http://articles.latimes.com/2009/nov/04/business/fi-ct-raleigh4

Raleigh Studios · Hollywood, CA United States

5300 Melrose Ave.
Hollywood, CA
90038
United States
Phone: 323-466-3111
Fax: 323-871-5600

Raleigh Studios is a film production facility that operates studio lots in California (Hollywood, Manhattan Beach, and Playa Vista) and Louisiana (Baton Rouge). The company leases its sound stages to independent and major companies and provides a host of production and post-production services, such as lighting, stage equipment rentals, set construction, sound and editing, office space, dressing rooms, and screening rooms. Its operations include divisions and subsidiaries such as Hollywood Rentals (lighting equipment), Olesen Lighting (theatrical lighting), and ESS (production equipment). The company, which also offers production services in Europe through Raleigh Film, Budapest, can trace its roots to 1915.
 
I think it's been covered, but Raleigh is a facility. Like Screen Gems, EUE, here in NC, they just provide production offices, stages and support. Other studios do the same and you can shoot your feature, TV show or infomercial on the Universal or Paramount lot if that appeals to you (and your budget). The whole place is for rent, along with the production support services that reside there.

The key difference is that Raleigh probably doesn't have a slate of their own or a library of legacy entertainment. But Raleigh had been around for a long, long time when I worked in Hollywood - and that was in the late 80s. There is a high demand for studio space in LA, but the jury is out on whether incentive markets like New Mexico, Louisiana or former soviet-bloc countries can support the same level of production. I don't have any numbers to support it, but my bet is that regular series work keeps much of LA humming - not the transient features that come and go for 60 - 120 days at a time.
 
Raliegh is not a scam. I have worked on feature and television production on both their Hollywood and their Manhattan Beach lots. The Manhattan Beach facility is the more modern of the two and is very well-designed and managed. I don't recall any Avatar work going to Raliegh, but there might very well have been pickup or second-unit work done there, that I just didn't hear about. Iron Man II was across the street from us while I was on Medium (a tv series) and friends on that project appeared to be quite satisfied with the support there.

We are taking our present feature project - a sizeable build with substantial stage and support requirements - to Raliegh's Baton Rouge facility at the end of this month. The initial plan was to go to the Raliegh lot in Australia, but for various reasons Louisiana turned out to be the place, instead. But, Raliegh either way...

They're quite real enough, for our purposes.
 
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I have worked at their Baton Rouge facility. It is very nice and seems to stay very busy. I understand from friends that I work with that the same is true of the Detroit location. Both of these were driven by lucrative state incentive programs.
 
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