The Asylum

1997–2009

The Asylum was founded in 1997 by David Latt, David Rimawi, and Sherri Strain. Rimawi and Strain had been fired by Village Roadshow Pictures, and Latt was working for an education software company called Chimera Multimedia. Latt and Rimawi had previously worked together on the 1992 film Sorority House Party, and together with Strain, launched the Asylum as a film distribution company. The Asylum's first release was Bellyfruit in 1999, a comedy drama about a teen pregnancy. The company's initial goal was to distribute low-budget drama films like Bellyfruit to video rental chains like Blockbuster and Hollywood Video, but their approach changed in the early 2000s, as video rental chains were more interested in direct-to-video horror films. Also in 1999, The Asylum partnered with Australian distributor Tribe Enterprises and video rental chain Hollywood Video to set up the First Rites label. The Asylum struggled to break into the distribution market, as larger companies like Lionsgate Films would routinely offer filmmakers more money. This led to a change in their business model in 2002, with a focus on in-house productions. Their goal was to produce one film per month, starting with the 2002 crime thriller King of the Ants. Strain left the company in 2002, and was replaced by former Screen Actors Guild employee Paul Bales.

According to Film International, the Asylum's first hit film was Vampires vs. Zombies in 2004. Although the film was marketed as an adaptation of the 1872 novella Carmilla, Vampires vs. Zombies's poster bore a striking resemblance to Freddy vs. Jason's poster, which came out the year before. Film International writer Wheeler Winston Dixon described Vampires vs. Zombies as the Asylum's first mockbuster, a film that closely resembles another film with a similar title and premise in order to capitalize on its popularity. Around the same time, Latt began working on an adaptation of the 1898 novel The War of the Worlds, but learned that Steven Spielberg was also working on a film adaptation of the novel. Latt was prepared to end production until Blockbuster ordered 100,000 copies of the film, roughly seven to eight times the normal order for Asylum films. Latt's film, titled H. G. Wells' War of the Worlds, was released on June 28, 2005, one day before Spielberg's film.

Emboldened by the success of H. G. Wells' War of the Worlds, the Asylum started producing low-budget films to capitalize on the popularity of similar major studio films. The Asylum marketed their films as "tie-ins", although journalists and critics often referred to them as rip-offs or mockbusters. Among the company's early releases within this business model were King of the Lost World (based on King Kong), Snakes on a Train (based on Snakes on a Plane), The Da Vinci Treasure (based on The Da Vinci Code), and Transmorphers (based on The Terminator not Transformers). In 2008, the Asylum increased their meager production budget, and partnered with Syfy for a television release of The Day the Earth Stopped, based on The Day the Earth Stood Still. 20th Century Fox filed a cease and desist letter against the Asylum for the similarities between The Day the Earth Stopped and The Day the Earth Stood Still, although nothing came of the letter. Film titles are usually not protected under United States trademark law, which allows the Asylum to produce films with similar titles so long as they can argue that they did not try to deceive consumers.

2010–present

With the rise of video on demand (VOD) services in the early 2010s, the Asylum focused on digital distribution. Since VOD services would often categorize their films in alphabetical order, the Asylum added numbers or typographical symbols to the beginning of their film titles in order to be seen first, such as #1 Cheerleader Camp and 2-Headed Shark Attack. The Asylum also released the film Hold Your Breath (stylized as #HoldYourBreath) in 10 AMC Theatres, as VOD services prioritized films with theatrical releases. Pluto TV became the studio's largest source of revenue, with an entire channel dedicated to Asylum films. Another VOD service, Tubi, commissioned the Asylum to produce 12 original films after the surprise popularity of the film Titanic II. Rimawi estimated that by 2012, 70 percent of the studio's films were original ideas.

The Asylum's biggest success came in 2013 with the film Sharknado, which is about a waterspout that lifts sharks out of the ocean and drops them over Los Angeles. The over-the-top premise went viral, with over 387,000 mentions on social media. Today co-hosts held a dramatic reading of some of the film's lines, and the mayor of Los Angeles Eric Garcetti joked about it on Twitter. Sharknado spawned five sequels, and when combined with merchandising and licensing sales, nearly quadrupled the Asylum's revenue from three years earlier. According to Bales, "Up until that point, even with the notoriety that we had, if you'd speak to anyone and be like, 'Hey, I'm a filmmaker, have you seen anything I've made?' the answer would be, 'No,' but with Sharknado we became known." Latt added, "We still talk about how to exploit it in every production meeting."

In response to the popularity of Sharknado, Syfy commissioned the Asylum to produce a zombie television series called Z Nation, the studio's first foray into episodic content. Loosely based on the Asylum film Rise of the Zombies, Z Nation revolves around a group of survivors who escort a man who is immune to the zombie virus to the last known Centers for Disease Control research lab. Journalists often compared Z Nation to The Walking Dead, especially given the Asylum's penchant for mockbusters. Z Nation ran for five seasons on Syfy, and was followed by the spinoff series Black Summer on Netflix. Bales felt that the production costs for Z Nation were too high, and decided that the Asylum's next potential television series, titled Crisis Earth, would be written as three separate low-budget films that can then be cut into six individual episodes. The script for Crisis Earth went up for sale at the 2022 American Film Market.

According to the Asylum's website, the studio has released more than 500 films, including 300 original films. Their catalog encompasses virtually every major genre, although the studio primarily focuses on disaster films, horror films, and science fiction films. Rimawi stated, "The only thing we haven't done is straight drama. In other words, good films."

Among their more notable releases include:

In 2025, Australian director Anthony Frith was engaged to make The Land That Time Forgot. Alongside making the film, Frith made a feature documentary, titled Mockbuster, about his experience of making the film. The film includes scenes with the Asylum executives as well as actors and other crew.