Disney for Adults: The Story Behind Touchstone Pictures
By: Charlene Dekalb
Tags: Films, Disney, Movies, Features, Culture

Enter Touchstone.

After Walt Disney’s death in 1966, the studio struggled to cope without its founder and leader and subsequently made safe and uninspiring films. After the retirement of Walt’s brother and partner, Roy Disney, the mantle passed to Card Walker and then to Walt’s son-in-law, Ron Miller, who became president of the company in 1980. Miller first started working with Disney because Walt saw the potential in him despite his inexperience in the film industry. He started out in 1954 running plans for Disneyland from Burbank to Anaheim and then shifted to working at the studio in 1957 where he was assistant director on the Old Yeller and Zorro TV series.

Miller’s experience with both the company and with Walt helped him see the potential of the movie business after his father-in-law passed away. Miller himself remembers that “one day, Walt called and said, ‘I’ve got a film I’m running tonight, why don’t you come on over?’ So Diane and I, we went over there. The film was To Kill a Mockingbird. When it was over Walt said ‘damn, I wish I could make a film like that.’ But he couldn’t.” [6]

While not all of Ron Miller’s decisions as CEO brought success to the Walt Disney Company, his decision to create a separate movie label for “more adult, more mature” content proved to be a turning point. [4] It was first established as Touchstone Films — touchstone because “it represents a criterion for determining quality or genuineness of a thing.” [7] After the release of Ruthless People in 1986, it was renamed Touchstone Pictures.

Tom Hanks & Darryl Hannah in SPLASH (1984), Touchstone’s first release

“To the average movie-goer, the name Disney has special meaning, imagery and identification. The Walt Disney name is probably the most definitive and, at the same time, the most highly favorable of any of the motion picture companies with respect to unsurpassed family oriented entertainment of the highest quality. However, the strength of the Disney association with fine family entertainment can have a pronounced adverse effect on our ability to broaden our marketing and production horizons. I believe that some very fine Disney films in recent years, with more adult themes, have faltered at the box office because of it. For example, films like Night Crossing, Tex and Tron. Also, as I have said previously, Touchstone will allow us to maintain the inherent strength of the Disney tradition without tampering with the legacy.” — Ron Miller [7].

In 1984, Touchstone released its first film, Splash, starring Tom Hanks and Daryl Hannah. Rated PG, it was described as a “sensuous love story” and included instances of nudity and profanity. Nothing on the screen or in the publicity identified it as “a Disney movie”. And the film was a hit, topping the domestic box office on its opening weekend and earning $6M. Compared to the domestic opening weekend for some of Disney’s major productions just a year or two before like Tron ($4M) and the unfortunate Something Wicked This Way Comes ($2M) this was a wonderful turnout and showed that Disney could produce quality entertainment that also appealed to adults. It also showed that moving beyond family-friendly could be profitable for the company.