American Zoetrope (also known as Omni Zoetrope from 1977 to 1980 and Zoetrope Studios from 1980 until 1990) is a privately run American film production company, centered in San Francisco, California and founded by Francis Ford Coppola and George Lucas.
Opened on December 12, 1969, the studio has produced not only the films of Coppola (including Apocalypse Now, Bram Stoker's Dracula and Tetro), but also George Lucas's pre-Star Wars film THX 1138, as well as many others by avant-garde directors such as Jean-Luc Godard, Akira Kurosawa, Wim Wenders and Godfrey Reggio. American Zoetrope was an early adopter of digital filmmaking, including some of the earliest uses of HDTV.
Four films produced by American Zoetrope are included in the American Film Institute's Top 100 Films. American Zoetrope-produced films have received 15 Academy Awards and 68 nominations.
Formation
Initially located in a warehouse at 827 Folsom Street on the second floor of The Automatt building, the company's headquarters have, since 1972, been in the historic Sentinel Building, at 916 Kearny Street in San Francisco's North Beach neighborhood.
Coppola named the studio after a zoetrope he was given in the late 1960s by the filmmaker and collector of early film devices, Mogens Skot-Hansen. "Zoetrope" is also the name by which Coppola's quarterly fiction magazine, Zoetrope: All-Story, is often known.
In 1980, the company bought General Service Studios in Hollywood, California, and became Zoetrope Studios, to produce and distribute films, as did later DreamWorks studio.
In 1999, it signed a deal with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer for a first-look financing and production agreement. In 2000, it signed a 10-year financing pact with VCL Film + Meiden to handle foreign sales of their own titles.
By 2007, ownership of American Zoetrope had been passed to Coppola's son and daughter, directors Roman Coppola and Sofia Coppola.
In 2010, Lionsgate announced a deal to distribute American Zoetrope films, including classics like “The Conversation” and “Apocalypse Now,” in North America on DVD, Blu-ray, electronic-sell-through, VOD as well as broadcast distribution rights. The only movies from the Coppola canon that won’t be released as part of the pact are the “Godfather” trilogy, which is owned by Paramount.
Zoetrope.com, the Coppola family's website, was created around 1996 and became an online community for writers. In 2016, Francis Ford Coppola announced its relaunch as a "virtual studio".