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titles.50 All of Troma’s film titles are available on its
website, and there are distribution materials such as advertising
slicks for them. Not all of Troma’s films, however, are in
current distribution.51
D. Troma’s Distribution of the EBD Film Library
1. Distribution History
SMHC and SMP distributed no films prior to forming their
relationship with Troma. Troma was the only distributor of SMHC
films. Of the 65 film titles in the EBD film library, Troma
ultimately distributed six films: “Astro Zombies”, “Banana
Monster”, “Battle of the Last Panzer”, “Escape from Hell”, “Fist
of Fear, Touch of Death”, and “Plutonium Baby”.52
Several of these distributions ran into legal troubles. On
March 27, 1998, Epic Productions informed Troy & Gould that
SMHC’s rights had expired in “Astro Zombies”, “Banana Monster”,
50 There are several stars in Troma’s films, including Billy
Bob Thornton and Kevin Costner. The character “Toxic Avenger” is
Troma’s ‘Mickey Mouse’, having been featured in four action
movies and a children’s cartoon that Troma distributed.
51 About 200 to 220 of Troma’s film titles have actually
been authored and digitized and are out in U.S. distribution on
DVD. The remaining film titles are not in distribution because
the process of preparing them for distribution is costly, and
because Troma needs to be sure that the market can absorb the
number of films that it presents for distribution on a monthly
basis.
52 Troma created distribution materials for the eight film
titles in the “Wisdom” library.
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