Artisan's releases included Requiem for a Dream, Pi, Killing Zoe, The Blair Witch Project, Grizzly Falls, Startup.com, Novocaine, and National Lampoon's Van Wilder.

[4] In 1983, FHE began operating its new subsidiary U.S.A. Home Video,[5] when tapes were usually packaged in large boxes and included non-family films such as Supergirl, Silent Night, Deadly Night, several Lorimar titles and many B-movies, including those that begin and end with B-actress Sybil Danning talking about the film that is being shown under the Adventure Video label.

The studio hired José Menendez, previously of RCA, as head of IVE; he was responsible for creating product deals with Sylvester Stallone's White Eagle Enterprises and producer Edward Pressman.

[23] In 1988, IVE and FHE consolidated into LIVE Entertainment after a merger with wholesale media distributor Lieberman Enterprises.

[24][25] LIVE formed new ventures outside the home video business, including ownership of retail music and video chains across the East Coast, after the acquisitions of such stores as Strawberries and Waxie Maxie, and its Lieberman subsidiary acquired Navarre Corporation.

The company also formed Avid Home Entertainment, which reissued older LIVE product, as well as ITC Entertainment's back catalogue, on videocassette at discount prices (held to a $15 price point); this division was based out of Denver, CO and had their own sales force, to better distinguish themselves from their parent company.

The company spent more than a million dollars to finance the 1992 film Reservoir Dogs, which marked the directorial debut of Quentin Tarantino.

[30] Much of LIVE's earnings were partially thanks to Carolco's investment in the company, but by 1991, the studio was in such debt that a plan to merge the two companies was called off that December; around this time, the Lieberman assets were sold to another video distributor, Handleman, in an effort to stem LIVE's financial bleeding.

Though Burlage was retained as chairman initially, a new trio of executives took power: former International Creative Management agent Bill Block and former October Films partner Amir Malin became co-presidents, while former Bain Capital financial consultant Mark Curcio handled financial matters.

[43] By 1998, products from Cabin Fever Entertainment were added to the deal after Hallmark purchased and folded the company in March of that year.

The company began releasing products from TSG Pictures around this time, and by September 1998, Artisan signed a deal with Spelling Entertainment Group to distribute films from its Republic Pictures unit for home video release throughout a five-ten year period.

In May 2000, Marvel Studios negotiated a deal with Artisan Entertainment for a co-production joint venture that included rights to 15 Marvel characters including Captain America, Thor, the Black Panther, Iron Fist, and Deadpool.

The resulting production library, which would also include TV series, direct-to-video films and internet projects, would be co-owned.

[52] In May 2003, Artisan and Microsoft jointly announced the first release of a high definition DVD, Terminator 2: Judgment Day (Extreme Edition).