Gramercy Pictures

Gramercy Pictures

Company type	Label
Industry	Film
Founded	May 20, 1992; 32 years ago (May 20, 1992) (original) May 20, 2015; 9 years ago (May 20, 2015) (relaunch)
Defunct	1999; 25 years ago (1999) (original) 2016; 8 years ago (2016) (relaunch)
Fate	Merged with Interscope Communications and October Films to form USA Films (original) Shut down (relaunch)
Successor	Focus Features
Headquarters	Universal City, California , United States
Products	Motion pictures
Parent	PolyGram Filmed Entertainment (1992–1998) Universal Pictures (1992–1996, 1998–1999) Focus Features (2015–2016)

Gramercy Pictures was an American film production label. 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, Gramercy along with October Films and Interscope Communications^[1] were merged by Barry Diller to form USA Films in 1999. On May 20, 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 was shut down after the release of Ratchet & Clank on April 29, 2016.

Gramercy Pictures was formed on May 20, 1992 as a joint venture between PolyGram Filmed Entertainment and Universal Pictures.^[2] Gramercy Pictures released its first film, the Mario Van Peebles western Posse, on May 14, 1993.^[3][4]

On January 11, 1996, PolyGram bought the 50% stake owned by Universal thus assuming full control of Gramercy.^[5] 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).^{[citation needed]}

When Seagram acquired PolyGram on May 22, 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 (MGM) 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.^[6][7][1] 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.^{[citation needed]}

On May 20, 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.^[2] The revived label was later shut down following the box office failure of Ratchet & Clank and a shift from genre films by Focus Features.

Focus Features owns the distribution rights to Gramercy's films unless otherwise mentioned.