[1][2] Vestron was founded in 1981 by Austin Owen Furst Jr. (born 1943), an executive at HBO, who was hired to dismantle the assets of Time-Life Films.

Furst's daughter suggested the moniker "Vestron," a portmanteau combining the name of Roman goddess Vesta and "Tron", which means "instrument" in Greek.

At its high point sales approximated $350 million annually, and the company sold video movies in over 30 countries either directly or through sub-licensing agreements.

[citation needed] Eventually they recognized the market potential and film products became increasingly harder for Vestron to acquire.

[11] Also that year, Vestron signed a deal to pick up several feature films from Artists Releasing Corporation, namely Vigilante and The House on Sorority Row.

[19] The company soon dropped its PDO tag, and announced output deals with Zupnik Enterprises, Taft-Barish Productions, and a picture-by-picture agreement with RKO Pictures.

The deal represented the first three titles delivered by PSO after the agreement was signed, such as The Princess Bride, and two RKO productions Hamburger Hill and Hot Pursuit, and a remake of the 1956 film And God Created Woman.

This deal included serials The Jewel in the Crown and Brideshead Revisited, together with special compilations from Granada's own ITV franchisee programme Coronation Street.

[22] On June 3, 1987, the Vestron Video-Hemdale Film Corporation lawsuit was challenged by a rival home video distributor Nelson Entertainment.

Nelson filed the countersuit because it also held video rights to the 12 Hemdale pictures under almost identical terms as the arrangement Vestron attempted to enforce, adding High Tide in that deal by extension.

[26] On November 26, 1986, Vestron rejected a takeover bid from the magazine publisher National Lampoon, which the company tried to purchase earlier that year.

The announcement came after Gregory Cascante has resigned as president of Interaccess Film Distribution, and the operation would have more centralizing Vestron offices in those regions.

[32] The company had its first top-selling title in 1988 with the hit release of the home video version of the hit Vestron Pictures film Dirty Dancing, a top title retailing for the then-industry-standard price of $89.98, marking the company's first big film to handle sponsorship in excess of Vestron's home video standards.