Starting in the 1970s, Band formed Charles Band Productions. Dissatisfied with distributors' handling of his films, Band created Empire Pictures in the early 1980s. Through Empire, he could produce and distribute his films ensuring proper distribution and return on profits. Empire entered the video market with Wizard Video during this time, which released films by others in addition to Empire product. At the height of its run, Empire produced 12 theatrical and 12 direct-to-video films a year. Wizard produced two games for the Atari 2600 in 1982: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Halloween based on the films of the same names and both quite controversial at the time for the levels of violence. Citing the fall of the Italian lira, the Rome-based Empire closed its doors in the late 1980s and Band returned to the States. There he formed Full Moon Productions which was quickly changed to Full Moon Entertainment and later became Full Moon Studios and Full Moon Features before settling on the current Full Moon Pictures.
During this time, Band produced exclusively with Paramount Home Video before parting ways with that company in 1994. Since then, Full Moon has been an independent company, producing and distributing solely for the home market. Notable side companies have included Moonbeam Entertainment, Filmonsters, Action Xtreme, and Pulsepounders all of which produced films aimed at kids and tweens as well as Torchlight Entertainment and Surrender Cinema which produced soft-core films for the adult market. In addition, Monster Island Entertainment produced low-budget "man in a rubber suit" Monster movies, Alchemy Entertainment later Big City Pictures created urban horror, and Pulp Fantasy Productions specialized in non Full Moon type horror. For a short time in the early 2000s, Full Moon became Shadow Entertainment when Band felt the company's product had strayed too far from the brand that he had created. During this time, many of the films were produced by J. R. Bookwalter's Tempe Entertainment. Since 2004, Band has taken a more active hand in the company, producing and directing almost every film released. In 2004, the Wizard Video line was reintroduced.
