Gramercy Pictures

American production company label owned by Comcast through Focus FeaturesTemplate:SHORTDESC:American production company label owned by Comcast through Focus Features

* May 20, 1992; 31 years ago (May 20, 1992) (original)
* May 20, 2015; 8 years ago (May 20, 2015) (relaunch)
* December 2001; 22 years ago (December 2001) (original)
* 2016; 8 years ago (2016) (relaunch)

**Gramercy Pictures** was an American film production label. It was founded in May 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, Gramercy along with October Films were merged by Barry Diller to form USA Films in 1999. In 2015, Focus Features (the current art-house division for Universal) revived the name as a label for action, horror and sci-fi genre films; the label became dormant after the release of *Ratchet & Clank* in 2016.Template:Citation needed

## History

Gramercy Pictures was formed in 1992 as a joint venture between PolyGram Filmed Entertainment and Universal Pictures. Gramercy Pictures released its first film, the Mario Van Peebles western *Posse*, in May 1993.

In January 1996, PolyGram brought 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 (Christopher McQuarrie) and Best Supporting Actor (Kevin Spacey).Template:Citation needed

When Seagram acquired PolyGram in 1998, the latter 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 another specialty division, October Films, to Barry Diller's USA Networks, which merged both 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.Template:Citation needed

### Revival

In May 2015, Focus Features announced that the Gramercy label has been revived to release action, horror and sci-fi genre films. Its first release was *Insidious: Chapter 3* on June 5, 2015. The revived label was later shut down following the box office failure of *Ratchet & Clank*.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 <templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>Petski, Denise (May 20, 2015). "Focus Features Revives Gramercy Pictures Label For Genre Films". deadline.com. Retrieved May 20, 2015.
2. ↑ Template:Cite journal
3. ↑ Box office information for *Posse* (1993). Box Office Mojo.
4. ↑ Gramercy Sold To Polygram (11 January 1996).
5. ↑ The Telegraph-Herald - Google News Archive Search.
6. ↑ BATES, JAMES (28 September 1999). Universal Adds Division for Specialty Films.

## External links

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