Viva Films
Viva Films is a Filipino film production company founded on November 11, 1981 by Vicente del Rosario, Jr. It is owned by Viva Entertainment.
History
Veering away from the Sharon Cuneta-Gabby Concepcion tandem, Viva became home of quality dramatic films. The "glossy" production of films such as Sinasamba Kita, Palimos ng Pag-ibig, Saan Darating Ang Umaga?, Kung Mahawi Man Ang Ulap and Paano Ba Ang Mangarap? garnered critical and commercial acclaims. Viva Films also made a documentary film on the Puerto Rican boy group Menudo on their visit to the Philippines in 1985.Viva launched then-supporting actor Phillip Salvador as an action star in the movie Boy Negro. It was also instrumental in introducing to the public Robin Padilla and Raymart Santiago as new action heroes. Meanwhile, veteran action stars Eddie Garcia, Rudy Fernandez, Bong Revilla Jr. and Fernando Poe, Jr. also made movies for Viva.
Viva also made "glossy" comedy films like Working Girls and Sa Totoo Lang which featured serious actors and actresses as main characters instead of comedians. The company also gambled on new comedians as the '80s decade was about to end. Comedy flicks such as Puto, Jack en Jill, Humanap ka ng Panget and I Love You Three Times a Day launched the respective careers of Herbert Bautista, Andrew E. and Jimmy Santos. In the 1990s, Viva launched the careers of Dennis Padilla and Janno Gibbs as solo comedians while reviving the film careers of veteran comedians Redford White, Chiquito and Joey de Leon.
Viva also made a comeback movie with Vic Sotto for the movie Basta Ikaw, Naninigig Pa! with sexy actress Rosanna Roces, Valentin, Val Sotto, Nova Villa & Yoyong Martirez in 1999.
Viva was also known as home to quality youth-oriented films, starting with the 1984 breakthrough flick, Bagets. The movie was top billed by William Martinez and launched the careers of then unknowns J.C. Bonnin, Herbert Bautista, Raymond Lauchengco and Aga Muhlach. With its box-office success, the company produced a sequel Bagets 2 with Ramon Christopher, Jon Hernandez and Francis Magalona joining the original cast, the success of the two Bagets film made it the flagship movie of VIVA films & it set the trend for youth-oriented movies in the 80's which other film companies copied, but they never matched nor equaled the success brought about by thehe two Bagets films.
In 1989, Viva introduced its second batch of young stars via the youth-oriented comedy Estudyante Blues. It introduced to the public young stars & That's Entertainment mainstays such as Vina Morales, Gelli de Belen, Keempee de Leon, Raymart Santiago and Dingdong Avanzado. The movie was also a resounding success, despite the fact that Estudyante Blues became an earlier hit via the Philippine music airwaves as a single sung by Freddie Aguilar.
Viva later on entered into television production by partnering with GMA Network. Their first venture together was the sitcom Ober Da Bakod in 1992 with then rising young talents Donita Rose, Gelli de Belen, and Janno Gibbs and Anjo Yllana as main stars, followed by the soap opera Villa Quintana in 1994 with Donna Cruz and Keempee de Leon as lead stars. However, it was the 1995 youth-oriented series TGIS that gave Viva its biggest success as a television producer. Headlined by Angelu de Leon, it gave birth the careers of Bobby Andrews, Michael Flores, Onemig Bondoc, Red Sternberg, Raven Villanueva and Ciara Sotto. The success of the TV series was later translated to the big screen, when the TGIS group became box-office stars via the movies Takot Ka Ba sa Dilim? and TGIS the Movie. This was followed by the Viva Teen Barkadas headed by Dingdong Dantes, Anne Curtis, Sunshine Dizon, Kim Delos Santos, Antoinette Taus, Polo Ravales, Dino Guevarra, Chubi del Rosario.
Viva Films made a comeback by co-producing with new players GMA Films and Star Cinema while producing its own films. Among the movies that the company co-produced or solely produced were Till I Met You, Wag Kang Lilingon, Ang Cute ng Ina Mo, Paano Kita Iibigin, Ouija, Apat Dapat Dapat Apat: Friends 4 Lyf and Death, Ikaw Pa Rin: Bongga Ka Boy, When Love Begins, A Very Special Love, recently in 2009, Status: Single, You Changed My Life, and Patient X, and on 2010, Babe, I Love You, Working Girls, Hating Kapatid, In Your Eyes, and Petrang Kabayo. Patient X marks the first Viva movie of rising young actor Richard Gutierrez followed by In Your Eyes and also the first Viva movie of teen actress-turned sexy star Cristine Reyes after signing a contract with Viva Entertainment, while Working Girls marks the first Viva movie of 1st Starstruck princess Jennylyn Mercado after she signed a contract with Viva Entertainment.
In 2011, Catch Me, I'm in Love, No Other Woman, The Unkabogable Praybeyt Benjamin, Won't Last A Day Without You, and Moron 5 & A Crying Lady were released. On 2012, Of All the Things was released.
In 2013, It Takes a Man and a Woman, Momzillas, and Girl, Boy, Bakla, Tomboy were released.
In 2014, The Amazing Case of Vince Irenea & and a remake of Magnum Muslim: 357 were also released.
In 2015, Felix Manalo, a biopic of Iglesia Ni Cristo Founder was released in October.
On 13 March 2019, Viva Communications joined the local-language film consortium Globalgate Entertainment, which is led by American mini-major film studio Lionsgate.
Films
Highest-grossing films
Viva movies on TV
During the early 1980s, Viva tied up with IBC-13 to air their early releases every Saturday nights. The movie block, titled Viva Box Office Hits, showed early movies of Sharon Cuneta and Gabby Concepcion and other early releases by the company, In 1988, "Viva Box Office Hits" was one of the Viva shows that transferred to ABS-CBN after its original home IBC-13 was sequestered by the Aquino administration. Despite "Viva Box Office"'s cancellation in 1989, succeeding movies produced by Viva Films and its subsidiaries continued to air on ABS-CBN through the network's movie blocks "Tagalog Movie Greats" and "Star Cinema Presents" until 1992.In 1992, Viva switched networks by partnering with GMA-7 where their latest movie releases starting in 1991 onwards were shown every Thursday nights. The movie block was renamed Viva Sinerama. The said partnership initially caused controversy after former media partner ABS-CBN filed an injunction to block the partnership as the network launched their own motion picture company Star Cinema a year later. The said injunction affected the airing of the 1991 box-office hit "Maging Sino ka Man" which was supposed to be Viva's maiden offering on "Viva Sinerama". After the court decided in favor of the Viva-GMA partnership, the said movie finally aired after six months. It was also during the GMA era where Viva aired another movie block on Monday nights called MVP in 1994, primarily to compete with ABS-CBN's then top-rating movie block Regal Presents.
During the new millennium, Viva diversified its movie library where it was aired randomly on IBC-13 and ABC-5 .
From free TV, Viva was able to tie up with Star TV and Fox International Channels Philippines to create an all-Filipino international movie channel on May 6, 1996, called Viva Cinema. Viva Cinema aired over 300 movies coming from the Viva library, including latest releases. It also aired behind-the-scenes outtakes and refreshing entertainment shows. The partnership between Viva and Star TV ended on July 31, 2003 when Viva created its own movie channel, PBO and entrusted the entire Viva movie library to ABS-CBN by allowing it to air over. Viva Prime Channel air mostly action and Drama movies at 7:00 p.m. only every other week of the month. Viva Cinema return on February 2009 along with the launch of Philippine DTH's Cignal Digital TV of the same month. Aside from Viva entrusted the entire Viva library to ABS-CBN co-productions of Viva and Star Cinema are also aired exclusively via ABS-CBN's movie block Kapamilya Blockbusters and ABS-CBN Sports and Action's movie blocks Movie Action Zone and Lunch Blockbuster, and via Viva Cinema, Viva Prime Channel, and PBO. While co-productions of Viva and GMA Films are exclusively aired via GMA's movie blocks Kapuso Movie Festival and/or Kapuso Movie Night, GMA News TV's movie block Takilya Blockbuster, and via Viva Cinema, Viva Prime Channel, and PBO.
In 2015, Viva partnered with TV5 to provide entertainment content. This transpired after the TV network dissolved its entertainment department to make room for blocktimers and content providers. It is said that Viva will be the biggest content contributor for the network. However, its partnership with TV5 terminated between July and August 2016 as former Gilas Pilipinas and PBA head coach, Vicente "Chot" Reyes takes over as President and CEO of TV5 until he stepped down in June 2019.