Business Notes Hollywood

Turning out Academy Award-winning films is no guarantee of financial success, or even survival. Just ask Orion Pictures, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last week. Despite such recent commercial and artistic hits as Dances with Wolves and Silence of the Lambs, the studio, known for * allowing directors considerable creative freedom, was unable to support $570 million in debt and other obligations. The bankruptcy was triggered when bondholders decided to halt final negotiations on a deal to swap $285 million of debt for 70% of the motion-picture studio's stock.

Unlike its main competitors, Orion, founded in 1982, lacks a rich corporate parent to help finance the skyrocketing cost of film production, marketing and distribution. To make ends meet, Orion even had to sell off the theatrical rights to a major film it had developed, The Addams Family, which already has grossed more than $67 million for rival studio Paramount Pictures.