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Hollywood Pictures Company

Trade name	Hollywood Pictures
Company type	Label
Industry	Film
Founded	February 1, 1989; 35 years ago (1989-02-01)
Founder	Michael Eisner Jeffrey Katzenberg
Defunct	April 27, 2007; 17 years ago (2007-04-27)
Fate	Defunct
Headquarters	500 South Buena Vista Street, Burbank, California, U.S.
Products	Motion pictures
Parent	Walt Disney Studios
Divisions	Hollywood Pictures Home Entertainment

Hollywood Pictures Company was an American film production label of Walt Disney Studios, founded and owned by The Walt Disney Company. Established in 1989, by Disney CEO Michael Eisner and studio chief Jeffrey Katzenberg, Hollywood Pictures was founded to increase the film output of the Walt Disney Studios, and release films similar to those of Touchstone Pictures. These films, featuring more mature themes, were targeted at adult audiences unlike the family-oriented productions of the studio's flagship Walt Disney Pictures division. After years of hiatus, the label was closed in 2007. The studio's most commercially successful film was M. Night Shyamalan's The Sixth Sense, which grossed over $670 million worldwide upon its release in 1999.

History

Hollywood Pictures Corporation was incorporated on March 30, 1984, and was activated on February 1, 1989. Ricardo Mestres was appointed the division's first president, moving from Disney's Touchstone Pictures. The division was formed to create opportunities for up-and-coming executives and to double Disney's feature-film output in order to fill the gap left by the contraction in the industry, which included the closure of MGM/UA's United Artists and financial problems at Lorimar-Telepictures and De Laurentiis Entertainment Group. With Touchstone aligned with Hollywood Pictures, the two Disney production divisions would share the same marketing and distribution staffs. Hollywood Pictures was expected to be producing 12 films a year by 1991 and to share funding from the Silver Screen Partners IV. The company's first release was Arachnophobia on July 18, 1990.

On October 23, 1990, The Walt Disney Company formed Touchwood Pacific Partners to supplant the Silver Screen Partnership series as their movie studios' primary funding source.

After the collapse of their then-recently renewed deal at Paramount Pictures, Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer moved their production company to Hollywood Pictures on January 18, 1991.

The division issued primarily inexpensive comedies for the first six years with a few box office flops, amongst them Holy Matrimony, Aspen Extreme, Super Mario Bros., Swing Kids, Blame It on the Bellboy, Born Yesterday and Guilty as Sin. The division only had one box office success, The Hand That Rocks the Cradle, and one critical success, The Joy Luck Club, which did not outweigh the general anemic box office record of the division. On April 26, 1994, Mestres was forced to resign after the lackluster performance of the division. Mestres moved to long term production deal with the studio.

On June 27, 1994, Michael Lynton was appointed as new division president after moving from the Disney Publishing Group, where he was senior vice president and oversaw domestic publishing units including Hyperion Books. Mestres left Lynton a few potential hits: Robert Redford's Quiz Show, the Sarah Jessica Parker-Antonio Banderas comedy Miami Rhapsody, and Dangerous Minds, starring Michelle Pfeiffer. In 1997, Lynton left for a position at Penguin Group. When Lynton left, it was briefly transferred to a releasing-only entity, making pictures by third-parties, as well as Caravan Pictures, and Cinergi, and its development slate was transferred to Touchstone Pictures, but David Vogel, who was president of Walt Disney Pictures took on the studio by producing films again. In 1998, the three units were transferred to the Buena Vista Motion Picture Group, and its development slate of projects by Hollywood Pictures, such as Bicentennial Man, and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy was transferred to Touchstone. By 2001, Hollywood Pictures had produced 80 films, but its operation had been phased out and its management was merged with that of the flagship Walt Disney Pictures studio.

After being dormant for five years, the brand was reactivated for low-budget genre films. Films released by the repurposed Hollywood Pictures were two horror films: Stay Alive (released on March 24, 2006), and Primeval (released on January 12, 2007), and one thriller, The Invisible (released on April 27, 2007). After the latter release, Disney stopped producing and distributing under the label as it announced a focus on the company's core brands of Disney, Touchstone, ABC, ESPN, and Pixar.

Filmography

1990s

2000s

See also

• List of Walt Disney Pictures films
• List of Touchstone Pictures films

Notes

1. Owned by Miramax, with distribution currently handled by Paramount Pictures
2. Owned by Films We Like, with U.S. distribution rights licensed to Shout! Studios

References

1. ^ Breman, Phil. "Film/TV Companies: Hollywood Pictures". About.com. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved December 24, 2014.
2. Russel, Irwin E. "Articles of Incorporation of Hollywood Pictures Corporation". Business Entity Search. California Secretary of State. Retrieved June 3, 2019.
3. Harmetz, Aljean (1988-12-02). "COMPANY NEWS; Disney Expansion Set; Film Output to Double". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2019-02-17.
4. Cieply, Michael (December 2, 1988). "Disney Forms New Film Unit in Plan to Double Output". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved December 24, 2014.
5. "Disney, Japan Investors Join in Partnership : Movies: Group will become main source of finance for all live-action films at the company's three studios". Los Angeles Times. Associated Press. October 23, 1990. Retrieved 18 July 2012.
6. Masters, Kim; Pond, Steve (January 18, 1991). "'Top Gun' Team at Disney". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on December 25, 2014. Retrieved December 24, 2014.
7. ^ Eller, Claudia (August 17, 1994). "A Stranger in a Strange Land Is Hollywood Pictures' New Player". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved December 24, 2014.
8. Welkos, Robert W. (April 27, 1994). "Mestres Out as President of Disney Unit". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved December 24, 2014.
9. "Company Town : Hollywood Pictures Gets New President". Los Angeles Times. June 14, 1994. Retrieved March 31, 2017.
10. "AOL Taps Lynton". Los Angeles Times. Times Wire Services. January 6, 2000. Retrieved December 24, 2014.
11. Cox, Dan (1997-09-09). "Vogel: H'wood star". Variety. Retrieved 2024-11-16.
12. Cox, Dan (1998-07-17). "One Mouse House". Variety. Retrieved 2024-11-16.
13. Fixmer, Fixmer (April 25, 2007). "Disney to Drop Buena Vista Brand Name, People Say (Update1)". bloomberg.com. Retrieved 28 November 2012.

• 1989 establishments in California
• 2007 disestablishments in California
• American companies established in 1989
• American companies disestablished in 2007
• Companies based in Burbank, California
• Disney production studios
• Defunct brands
• Defunct American film studios
• Defunct companies based in Greater Los Angeles
• Entertainment companies based in California
• Film production companies of the United States
• Former subsidiaries of The Walt Disney Company
• Mass media companies established in 1989
• Mass media companies disestablished in 2007
• Re-established companies
• Walt Disney Studios (division)
• The Walt Disney Company subsidiaries
• Michael Eisner
• Jeffrey Katzenberg
• Defunct film and television production companies of the United States