History Creator / TheAsylum

* ''2-Headed Shark Attack'' (2012)

Founded in 1997 by former Village Roadshow executives, The Asylum started out as a run-of-the-mill, low-budget indie studio, specializing in horror films. Their first largely successful film was 2005's ''Creator/HGWells' War of the Worlds'', which was produced to coincide with Steven Spielberg's ''Film/WarOfTheWorlds2005''. This film's success, largely due to movie rental chains buying it in bulk in order to cash in on the Spielberg version, led The Asylum to its current business model. The company achieved Internet notoriety in 2009 with ''Film/MegaSharkVsGiantOctopus'', whose trailer went viral on Website/YouTube. Then in 2013 they repeated this phenomenon, to an even greater degree, with ''Film/{{Sharknado}}''.

* TheWikiRule: [[http://mockbuster.wikia.com/wiki/Mockbuster_Wiki The Mockbuster Wiki]] cover The Asylum.

* TheWikiRule: [[http://mockbuster.wikia.com/wiki/Mockbuster_Wiki The Mockbuster Wiki]] and [[http://awfulmovies.miraheze.org Awful Movies Wiki]] cover The Asylum.

-> ''"I think Mockbusters are like store brands. Say you’ve got a cold and you walk into your local Walgreens for some medicine (and a pap smear). You see the Sudafed, and right next to it, in a box that looks remarkably similar to the national brand, the store’s own 'Nasal Decongestant.' I don’t think most people buy the store brand because they think it’s really Sudafed in a different box. I think they buy it because they think it will be similar to Sudafed, only cheaper.\\
Just like our Mockbusters. They’re similar to big studio films, only cheaper.\\

If that’s possible."''

Founded in 1997 by former Village Roadshow executives, The Asylum started out as a run-of-the-mill, low-budget indie studio, specializing in horror films. Their first largely successful film was 2005's ''Creator/HGWells' War of the Worlds'', which was produced to coincide with Steven Spielberg's ''Film/WarOfTheWorlds''. This film's success, largely due to movie rental chains buying it in bulk in order to cash in on the Spielberg version, led The Asylum to its current business model. The company achieved Internet notoriety in 2009 with ''Film/MegaSharkVsGiantOctopus'', whose trailer went viral on Website/YouTube. Then in 2013 they repeated this phenomenon, to an even greater degree, with ''Film/{{Sharknado}}''.

In 2014 the studio made its first foray into TV production with the typically-shameless ZombieApocalypse [[Series/TheWalkingDead bandwagon]]-[[FollowTheLeader jumper]] ''Series/ZNation'', which [[PlayingAgainstType against pretty much all expectations]] has proven to be... not as completely horrible as its movies. It followed this up with ''Series/BlackSummer'', which was streamed on Creator/{{Netflix}}, of all places.

* NetworkDecay: If you were to look at their output prior to 2005, you would be shocked to find some legitimate titles in their catalog, including stuff the company wouldn't release today. That's because The Asylum started out as a typical distributor/sales agent of independent films, with an emphasis on horror. Unfortunately, due to increasing competition from the likes of Creator/{{Lionsgate}}, they were left with bottom-of-the-barrel stuff. They decided to make their own original films, but what they were releasing was not popular in the DirectToVideo market and was of dubious quality. Then they made an adaptation of ''Literature/WarOfTheWorlds'', around the same time the Creator/StevenSpielberg version was coming out. With the high number of orders coming from Blockbuster Video, The Asylum realized they could make profits releasing films that were derivative of the big studios' blockbusters. Thus, they became the Mockbuster company we all know and love today.

* PublicDomainStories: ''Literature/JourneyToTheCenterOfTheEarth'', ''Literature/TheWarOfTheWorlds'', ''Literature/MobyDick'', ''Princess of Mars'', ''Land That Time Forgot''

* LighterAndSofter: The Christmas movie ''Santa Claws'' from 2014 is the most family-friendly film made by the company's standards.

* LighterAndSofter: The Christmas movie ''Santa Claws'' from 2014 is the most family friendly film made by the company's standards.

* NetworkDecay: If you were to look at their output prior to 2005, you would be shocked to find some legitimate titles in their catalog, including stuff the company wouldn't release today. That's because The Asylum started out as a typical distributor/sales agent of independent films, with an emphasis on horror. Unfortunately, due to increasing competition from the likes of Creator/{{Lionsgate}}, they were left with bottom of the barrel stuff. They decided to make their own original films, but what they were releasing was not popular in the DirectToVideo market and was of dubious quality. Then they made an adaptation of ''Literature/WarOfTheWorlds'', around the same time the Creator/StevenSpielberg version was coming out. With the high number of orders coming from Blockbuster Video, The Asylum realized they could make profits releasing films that were derivative of the big studios' blockbusters. Thus, they became the Mockbuster company we all know and love today.

* ''JourneyToTheCenterOfTheEarth'' (2008)

* ''Film/JourneyToTheCenterOfTheEarth'' (2008)

* ''Film/JourneytotheCenteroftheEarth'' (2008)

* ''Journey to the Center of the Earth'' (2008)

* ''Film/AVHAlienVsHunter'' (2007)

* ''AVH: Alien vs. Hunter'' (2007)

* ''Little Dead Rotting Hood'' (2016)

* ''Film/MonsterVsApe'' (2021)

* ''Princess of Mars'' (2009)

* ''ApeVsMonster'' (2021)

* ''Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes'' (2010)

* TheWikiRule: [[http://mockbuster.wikia.com/wiki/Mockbuster_Wiki The Mockbuster Wiki]] and [[http://awful-movies.wikia.com/wiki/Awful_Movies_Wiki Awful Movies Wiki]] cover The Asylum.