Gramercy Pictures

Origins

Gramercy Pictures was formed on May 20, 1992 as a joint venture between PolyGram Filmed Entertainment and Universal Pictures, the latter was Universal's arthouse wing, and the former was PolyGram's US distributor. Before this, Universal had distributed similar films under smaller operations Universal Classics from 1982 to 1984 and the U.S. distribution branch of the Canadian distributor Cineplex Odeon Films (MCA had a 49% in Cineplex Odeon) from 1986 to 1989. Cineplex Odeon would also distribute Gramercy's releases theatrically in Canada, including the PolyGram titles until 1997, when PolyGram would assume Canadian distribution of their titles. 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 (Christopher McQuarrie) and Best Supporting Actor (Kevin Spacey). Universal would later acquire rival October Films in 1997.

In 1997, the company was reorganized. The main US distribution space was taken by PolyGram Films, with Gramercy demoted to arthouse status.

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 (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. USA Films was then merged with Universal's own art-house division, Universal Focus, and transformed into Focus Features in 2002. USA Network was formerly owned by Vivendi Universal from 2002 to 2004 and NBCUniversal from 2004 to 2026. PolyGram Entertainment was founded by Universal Music Group on February 11, 2017 as the successor to both PolyGram and PolyGram Filmed Entertainment and a revival of the "PolyGram" brand.

Relaunch and second closure

On May 12, 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 and later films like Sinister 2 and London Has Fallen. The revived label was later phased out again following the box-office failure of the film adaptation of Ratchet & Clank (2016) and a shift from genre films by Focus Features.