significantly increase its production. The company arrived at the American Film Market in February touting 36 new releases. Titles produced in this period included Dolls, Ghoulies II, Prison, and Robot Jox. Empire also switched video distributors, from Vestron to New World Video, which would release titles under the Empire Video label. Two new divisions of Empire were launched in 1987. The first was Urban Classics, which produced films such as Slave Girls from Beyond Infinity, Galactic Gigolo, and Space Sluts in the Slammer. Urban Classics released movies both theatrically, and subsequently on home video, marking the first time that Empire had produced its own home video releases, rather than partnering with another company. The second subsidiary was Infinity Film Sales, headed by Maura Hoy. Its purpose was to distribute to the foreign market a set of low-budget films that had been offered to Wizard Video, yet another Empire division. Later that year, Australian home video veteran Walter Lehne would purchase Infinity's 14 titles in a $1 million deal that included movies from Filmtrust, Intercontinental Releasing Corporation, and others as well. Also in 1987, Empire partnered with Cinema Home Video Productions to develop ten films. Most of the movies were planned to have a budget of $1 million each, but at least two would have $2–3 million in funding, and be shot at Empire's Italian studio. Distribution would be handled by Urban Classics domestically, and by Infinity overseas. On September 8, 1987, Empire reduced the staff of its publicity department from three people to one. The studio planned to outsource the marketing of special projects. Empire began to collapse in mid-1988, due to financial problems, including long-term debt obligations to Crédit Lyonnais. Once it became clear that the studio could not weather these difficulties, it was seized by the bank, and absorbed into Eduard Sarlui's Epic Productions in May 1988. As a result, the releases of the titles that were in production, such as Stuart Gordon's Robot Jox, Peter Manoogian's Arena, and David Schmoeller's Catacombs, were delayed by several years. Band would form a new company, Full Moon Entertainment, in the autumn of 1988. Like Empire, Full Moon specializes in horror and fantasy films. As of 2017, MGM is the owner of most of Empire's library, by way of Polygram Entertainment. These films are being released on DVD and Blu-ray by Full Moon, under license from MGM. The rise and fall