In 1999, after
Seagram merged PolyGram into
Universal Pictures, Interscope Communications was sold to
USA Networks and merged into the recently formed USA Films, which in 2002, would later be merged with other film labels after being acquired by Universal to become
Focus Features.[1]
History
Interscope Communications (the studio shared its name for a former racing team, "Interscope Racing") was founded in 1982 by media mogul
Ted Field, who aimed to create films with mass appeal.[2] Field acted as a
producer or
executive producer on a number of films in Interscope's filmography. The company's first film, Revenge of the Nerds, was released in 1984 and was a box office success.[3] That same year,
Robert W. Cort, a former executive of
20th Century Fox and
Columbia Pictures, joined Interscope and became the president of the company. Cort also co-produced a number of films.[4]
On November 13, 1984, the company received an agreement with
The Walt Disney Studios for a two-year term, to become the company's first independent supplier within the studio, after several years working with an agreement at
20th Century-Fox in order that Interscope would finance films for the studio.[5]
On December 10, 1986, Interscope Communications inked a three-picture domestic feature pact with
United Artists Pictures, whereas production would be jointly financed by UA and Interscope, and that
Interaccess Film Distribution and
Vestron Inc. would participate in Interscope's share of financing, and domestic videocassette rights to Interscope's features going to
Vestron Video, and foreign theatrical, TV and home video distribution of Interscope's films going to
Interaccess Film Distribution.[6]
On May 20, 1987, Interscope Communications rises into the rank as a film supplier, in order to set films from different major film studios, mostly
MPAA members, which included five of the films that were donated by Interscope to the major motion picture studios, such as
Touchstone Pictures,
Tri-Star Pictures,
Warner Bros.,
Orion Pictures,
20th Century Fox and
De Laurentiis Entertainment Group, as well as his involvement with a $1 million in-house development kitty.[7]
In early July 1987, Interscope Communications decided to accelerate its TV production phase from four productions from its first four years of existence to a slate of 13 new projects for the next eighteen months, and which include two movies-of-the week, a miniseries and a conventional series for
NBC, and Patricia Clifford runs the company's television operations for Interscope's television division, acknowledged a markedly pronounced greater receptivity than in previous years to telefilms dealing with black experience in the U.S., and offered a series of failed pilots and television movies on the air.[8]
In 1990,
Nomura Babcock & Brown (NBB) invested $250 million in a joint venture with
The Walt Disney Company and Interscope Communications. The deal called for NBB to co-produce and finance[2] films for Interscope and Disney for four years. The joint venture produced five films between 1992 and 1995, all of which were marketed and released under two of Disney's production banners,
Touchstone Pictures and
Hollywood Pictures.[9] The most successful film co-produced by Interscope and NBB was The Hand That Rocks the Cradle (1992), while other films produced by the joint venture were critical and commercial failures.[4]
Also that year, it purchased Marble Arch Productions from
ITC, and decided that ITC Entertainment would co-finance the projects for U.S. and foreign distribution.[10]
PolyGram
In 1992,
PolyGram bought a controlling interest in Interscope Communications' film unit. Production and marketing budgets were to be paid by PolyGram.[2] Robert W. Cort, president of Interscope, left the company at the end of 1995 believing that PolyGram "took on much more of a corporate environment than it had before and that consequently his role had become more like an executive's than a producer's." Field purchased Cort's 12% stake in the corporation.[4]
Beginning in 1996, Interscope began using PFE's PolyGram Filmed Entertainment Distribution for distribution.[11]
USA Films merger and shut down
In 1998, after PolyGram was bought by
Universal Studios,[12] Interscope's film unit was retained as a subsidiary of Universal until in 1999, it was sold off to
Barry Diller's
USA Networks, which later merged Interscope Communications with
October Films and
Gramercy Pictures to become USA Films. In 2001, Universal acquired USA and its divisions from Diller,[13] resulting in USA Films combining its operations with Universal Focus and
Good Machine to become
Focus Features.[1] Interscope Communications managed to remain in-name-only until it was shut down in 2003. Remaining films that were intended to be produced under the Interscope Communications name were drafted to Focus Features.[citation needed]