The History of Rogue Pictures

Added: 2026-06-01

[00:00:01]With the ever-changing Hollywood landscape and so many mergers and acquisitions that happened in that town, it's probably not crazy to learn about a label that's jumped from owner to owner.

[00:00:10]Nonetheless, the journey that Rogue Pictures has gone on is a fascinating one. In 1998, Rogue was introduced as a genre label within October Films, a company that specialized in independent films which Universal had a majority stake in. Although this was not the first time October had done something like this, as prior to being owned by Universal, they had a label named Mad Dog which served a similar function.

[00:00:30]With Rogue, they wanted to release all kinds of movies from horror films to comedies. Their first release was Trey Parker's comedy Orgazmo, which was produced independently and filmed well before he hit it big with South Park.

[00:00:41]Rogue picked it up after premiering at the Toronto International Film Festival, probably hoping to attract South Park fans. However, seeing an NC-17 rating from the MPAA which prevented Rogue from putting the movie into many theaters, and film was only able to gain an audience on video. Funnily enough, in between Orgazmo's premiere at TIFF and the film's eventual release the following year, Trey Parker would film and appear in the Universal movie BASEketball. Meanwhile, October picked up the script to the horror movie Cherry Falls with principal photography beginning in early 1999 and acquired the crime movie Thick as Thieves at the Sundance Film Festival. Before those movies could be released though, Rogue Pictures would be affected by corporate decisions beyond their control. In April 1999, Universal sold Gramercy Pictures, Interscope Communications, and October Films to Barry Diller, who merged the companies to create USA Films. So, what happened to the films Rogue was planning on releasing? Well, the comedy Trippin' was released as scheduled the following month and did okay business. However, Thick as Thieves would end up playing on HBO instead, while the drama Brick Was Bond was given only a small release. As for Cherry Falls, while the initial plan was to give the film a wide theatrical release, that did not happen. Despite getting okay reviews from critics and even being released in theaters over in Europe, the decision was made to premiere the movie on the USA Network instead. Not long after this, USA Films and labels like Gramercy and Rogue ended up back under Universal in 2004. Focus Features would revive Rogue Pictures and try to return to its focus on releasing genre films that maybe did not quite fit under Focus. The first movie released under the re-launched Rogue was Edgar Wright's zombie comedy Shaun of the Dead. It fit exactly what Focus was looking to do with the label as it was a modestly budgeted film that mixed comedy and horror and could appeal to a young hip crowd. Shaun of the Dead quickly developed cult following and especially grew on video. Rogue also sought to release sequels and remakes in addition to original titles. While Universal had released the prior Child's Play sequels, Rogue would take over on Seed of Chucky.

[00:02:31]That movie would end up disappointing at the box office, but it would attain a sizable following especially within the LGBTQ community. In a curious twist, the Rogue Pictures label was also added to direct-to-video sequels to Universal releases such as Carlito's Way: Rise to Power, White Noise 2, and a few American Pie movies. Rogue would release a remake of John Carpenter's Assault on Precinct 13, which received mixed reviews and disappointing box office, as well as the Jet Li action movie Unleashed, which also underperformed. They end up doing better with smaller budget films like the horror movie Cry Wolf, the concert film Dave Chappelle's Block Party, and the thriller The Hitcher. Rogue would re-team with Edgar Wright on his police action comedy Hot Fuzz, which received acclaim for its clever comedy and homage to buddy cop movie tropes. The film proved to be a nice word-of-mouth hit further cementing Wright's relationship with both Focus Features and Universal.

[00:03:16]Another comedy that foreign modestly enough was the ping pong movie Balls of Fury, a project that started development at Universal but was then shifted over to Rogue was the horror movie The Strangers. They chose to place the movie in the summer season serving as counter-programming and even though the reviews were mixed, it pulled in solid numbers at the box office. Within the Focus Features slate, Rogue only occupied a small part typically releasing about three or four movies per year. Eventually, Universal decided to sell the label and found quite a few interested buyers including Spyglass and Lakeshore Entertainment. In January 2009, Relativity Media acquired the label as they planned that pushed towards distributing their own films. As part of the deal, they also acquired the rights to some of the completed films, as well as the scripts that were in development there. However, Universal would continue to serve as a distributor on the Rogue Pictures movies through their contract with Relativity. The first of these was The Unborn, which was actually released the week of the sale and pulled in strong numbers. Next came the remake of Wes Craven's The Last House on the Left, which performed modestly. Although there were some box office disappointments, like the action movie Fighting and the thriller A Perfect Getaway. A notable flop was the comedy MacGruber, based on the Saturday Night Few people were interested in seeing the movie and theaters did not waste much time in removing it from their screens, and today remains the last movie based on the SNL sketch. MacGruber did develop a bit of a cult following later, with even Christopher Nolan turning out to be a big fan. The documentary Catfish did receive some attention though, and is even where that internet term originated. There was also the science fiction movie Skyline, which was made on a small budget and managed to make a nice profit. When Relativity got the distribution operations up and running, they started to handle the release of the Rogue Pictures movies themselves.

[00:04:50]These included Wes Craven's horror film My Soul to Take, the adventure film Season of the Witch, and the long-shelved comedy Take Me Home Tonight. Although Universal would retain distribution rights to the latter in several international territories. As Relativity continued to grow their slate, the Rogue label was not one they seemed to use a lot of, only sporadically releasing movies under it from time to time. One was the action movie Limitless, which was a hit. They also handled distribution for the 3D shark movie Shark Night, although that disappointed at the box office. There was additionally the infamous gross-out comedy movie Movie quickly came and went from theaters, but it was at least cheap. Next came the horror movie The Disappointment Room, which was stuck on the shelf for a while as Relativity dealt with their financial issues, including filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. While Relativity did consider selling that movie off, they decided to keep it just so there could be something to release when they emerged from bankruptcy. After being moved around the schedule a bunch, The Disappointment Room would finally be released in September 2016 to terrible reviews and box office. A project that was in development at Rogue, even back when it was still in the Universal, was a sequel to The Strangers. called Relativity would inherit the script and continue trying to get it off the ground. Eventually, the newly formed distributor Abram Pictures acquired the distribution rights to The Strangers: Prey at Night just before filming started, with Rogue Pictures receiving it in association with credit. After which, the franchise would then move to Lionsgate. Following that, you might think we would never see that name in front of a movie again. And yet, it has popped up a few times since then, as Relativity has tried to bounce back this decade. All the films they've been releasing tend to be ignored. The first movie they distributed again under the Rogue name was the drama Violet, starring Olivia Munn, which had a quiet release in 2021. And earlier this year, Rogue Pictures released the thriller The Dutchman, that was similarly a film that did not cross people's radars. As you can see, it's been hard going for this label and the way it's been bounced around, as its owners attempt to figure out its purpose. Rogue at least has some cult favorite comedies and horror movies to its name, and so even though things did not quite work out, we at least got a few worthwhile films out of it. See you next time.

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