Interscope Communications

Interscope Communications (also known as Interscope Pictures) was a motion picture production company founded in 1982 by Ted Field. Its divisions included Interscope Records (which was founded in 1990 as a joint venture with Atlantic Records).

History
Interscope Communications was founded in 1982 by media mogul Ted Field, who aimed to create films with mass appeal.[1] 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.[2] 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.[3]

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[1] 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.[4] 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.[3]

PolyGram
In 1992, PolyGram bought a controlling interest in Interscope Communications' film unit. Production and marketing budgets were to be paid by Polygram.[1]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.[3]

Beginning in 1996, Interscope began using PFE's PolyGram Filmed Entertainment Distribution for distribution.[5] In 1998, after PolyGram was bought by Universal Studios,[6] Interscope's film unit was retained as a subsidiary of Universal until it was shut down in 2003. Interscope Recordshowever, still exists as part of Universal Music Group (whose predecessor MCApurchased Atlantic's stake in the label in 1995).

Filmography
Interscope Communications has produced 56 films. Of the 56 films produced, only 14 are direct-to-video or made-for-television productions. Currently, all of the films that Interscope produced for Orion Pictures, and De Laurentiis Entertainment Group between 1989 and 1991, as well as PolyGram Filmed Entertainment and Gramercy Pictures before March 31, 1996, are owned by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, which acquired the studios in separate transactions.[7]Films produced for PolyGram or Gramercy after April 1, 1996 are now owned by Universal Studios. Note that in all cases the distributor or distributors are also co-producers. The box office column reflects the worldwide gross for the theatrical release of the films in United States dollars.