Gramercy Pictures
Gramercy Pictures was an American film production and distribution label of Focus Features. It was founded on May 20, 1992 as a joint venture between PolyGram Filmed Entertainment and Universal Pictures. Gramercy was the distributor of PolyGram films in the United States and Canada and also served as Universal's art-house division. After Seagram's buyout of PolyGram, Barry Diller acquired Gramercy, Interscope Communications, and October Films, merging the three companies to form USA Films in 1999. On May 20, 2015, Focus Features revived the name as a label for action, horror and sci-fi genre films; the label was phased out again after the release of the film adaptation of the video game series Ratchet & Clank on April 29, 2016, and a shift from genre films by Focus Features.
History
Origins
Gramercy Pictures was formed on May 20, 1992 as a joint venture between PolyGram Filmed Entertainment and Universal Pictures. Gramercy Pictures released its first film, the Mario Van Peebles western Posse, on May 14, 1993.On January 11, 1996, PolyGram bought the 50% stake owned by Universal thus assuming full control of Gramercy. The distributor also had box office hits in 1994's Four Weddings and a Funeral, 1996's Fargo and 1997's Bean. Several Gramercy releases of the 1990s have grown in stature to become cult classics in the present day: The Big Lebowski, Dazed and Confused, Clay Pigeons and Mallrats. In addition, 1995's The Usual Suspects won two Oscars, for Best Original Screenplay and Best Supporting Actor.
When Seagram acquired PolyGram on May 22, 1998, PolyGram was merged and folded into Universal; as a result, it reacquired Gramercy as it controlled Universal. In turn, Seagram sold the bulk of the PolyGram film library titles released up until March 31, 1996 to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1999, and later on, it sold Gramercy and two other specialty divisions, Interscope Communications and October Films, to Barry Diller's USA Networks, which merged all three companies into USA Films. USA Films was then merged with Universal's own art-house division, Universal Focus, and transformed into Focus Features in 2002 after Vivendi Universal acquired USA Networks from Diller.