YEARS OF HITS, MISSES COMES TO CLOSE; MGM EXPECTED TO ACQUIRE STRUGGLING ORION STUDIO TODAY : ORION.

Byline: Dave McNary Daily News Staff Writer

MGM is expected to take over Orion Pictures today, marking the end of Orion's 19-year roller-coaster ride through Hollywood that saw four Best Picture Academy Awards and oceans of red ink.

Orion is a shell of its former self: a prestigious mini-major studio that hit a hot streak for most of the 1980s. The current operation - which distributes mostly movies made for under $10 million - is expected to live on only through its library of 2,000 film and TV titles. Those include ``Amadeus,'' ``Platoon,'' ``Dances With Wolves'' and ``The Silence of the Lambs,'' winners of the Oscars for Best Picture in 1985, 1987, 1991 and 1992, respectively.

Other than the Orion employees who are nearly certain to lose their jobs, the biggest loser is also one of the world's richest men, John Kluge. Since the late 1980s, Orion has inflicted losses of about $300 million on Kluge, whose fortune is estimated at more than $7 billion.

Shareholders of Kluge's Metromedia International Group are scheduled to meet this morning in Los Angeles to approve a $573 million sale of Orion and producer Goldwyn Entertainment. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer is making the deal mostly for the libraries, and is expected to fire many of the 260 employees at Orion and Goldwyn.

For Kluge, who made his fortune in the restaurant, radio, television and telecommunications businesses, the adventure in Hollywood has been a humbling experience and an aberration in an otherwise successful career that began in 1946 with the $15,000 purchase of an AM radio station in Maryland.

Orion was created in 1978 by the late Arthur Krim, a respected executive who left United Artists after clashing with studio owner Transamerica Corp. Krim took along other key executives.

Ironically, Transamerica sold UA in 1981 to Kirk Kerkorian's MGM after taking a massive loss on ``Heaven's Gate.''

Orion thrived from Krim's skills as a savvy picker of projects and his strong relationsips with talent. Besides the Oscar winners, its hits included ``Ten,'' ``Arthur,'' ``Terminator,'' and ``Bull Durham.''

But finances were always a problem. ``They tried to become big time without any capital,'' recalls Arthur Rockwell, an analyst with Yaeger Capital Markets.

By the late 1980s, a combination of crushing debt, escalating costs and bad luck caught up with Orion as it lost heavily on high-priced projects like ``Valmont,'' ``Great Balls of Fire'' and ``She-Devil,'' while selling the rights to future hit ``The Addams Family'' to Paramount to meet expenses. Krim convinced his friend Kluge to help bail out the studio but even ``Dances With Wolves'' and ``The Silence of the Lambs'' could not stop the bleeding.

Orion filed for bankruptcy in late 1991 and emerged a year later with Kluge owning 70 percent and making a $200 million infusion to keep it going as a low-budget specialist. In late 1995, Kluge folded in Orion with several other holdings - including his Eastern European telecommunications holdings and sporting goods business - to form Metromedia International, and later added Goldwyn and Motion Picture Corp. of America, producer of ``Dumb and Dumber.''

But after ``The Silence of the Lambs,'' Orion never had another hit. Its dozen 1996 releases grossed less than $50 million combined. A few films such as ``Blue Sky'' and the current ``Ulee's Gold'' gained critical support, but many of its films were duds like ``Car 54 Where Are You?'' and ``Eight Heads in a Duffel Bag.''

Two months ago, Kluge agreed to the MGM deal, leaving Metromedia with only the telecommunications businesses and the 50-theater Landmark chain.

For MGM, the purchase is its first major deal since being sold last summer for $1.3 billion to a group led by Kerkorian. French bank Credit Lyonnais gained control of the legendary studio in 1991 after Italian financier Giancarlo Parretti defaulted on loans he took out to buy MGM from Kerkorian in 1989.

MGM, once Hollywood's leading studio, was able to regain some of its lost status in recent years with ``The Birdcage,'' ``GoldenEye'' and ``Get Shorty,'' but its pipeline of movies has been mostly dry this year because of last year's auction. However, the next James Bond movie, ``Tomorrow Never Dies,'' has strong prospects, and its library will now have close to 4,000 titles.

``This deal was a case of a motivated seller and a motivated buyer,'' Rockwell said, noting the libraries will provide a consistent source of profits and fit nicely with Kerkorian's plans to use the titles to develop new projects.

Analysts believe MGM has regained enough credibility that it will be able to tap into public markets successfully soon with an initial public offering of stock. ``This deal accelerates the time frame for an IPO,'' Rockwell said.

The glory years

1979 - ``10''

1981 - ``Arthur''

1984 - ``Amadeus''

1986 - ``Platoon''

1986 - ``Hoosiers''

1987 - ``Robocop''

1988 - ``Mississippi Burning''

1990 - ``Dances With Wolves''

1991 - ``The Silence of the Lambs''

The declining years

1992 - ``Love Field''

1993 - ``Boxing Helena''

1993 - ``Robocop 3''

1994 - ``Blue Sky''

1994 - ``Car 54 Where Are You?''

1996 - ``The Arrival''

1997 - ``Eight Heads in a Duffel Bag''

CAPTION(S):

4 Photos, Box

Box: (Color) ORION: The glory years; The declining years (See text)

Photo: (1--Color) HIT: ``THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS''

(2--Color) HIT: ``DANCES WITH WOLVES''

(3--Color) MISS: ``SHE-DEVIL''

(4--Color) MISS: ``GREAT BALLS OF FIRE''