Interscope Communications, Inc.

Logo used from 1994 to 2000
Industry	Film studio
Founded	1979; 46 years ago (1979)
Defunct	2000 (2000)
Fate	Assets acquired byRadar Pictures
Successor	Focus Features Radar Pictures
Headquarters	United States
Key people	Ted Field Robert W. Cort Scott Kroopf
Parent	PolyGram Filmed Entertainment (1994–1998) Universal Studios (1998–1999) USA Films (1999–2000)
Subsidiaries	Interscope Records (1990–1996)

Interscope Communications, Inc. (also known asInterscope Pictures) was amotion pictureproduction company founded in 1979 byTed Field. It soon became a division ofPolyGram Filmed Entertainment.

In 1999, afterSeagram merged PolyGram intoUniversal Pictures, Interscope Communications was sold toUSA Networks and merged into the recently formed USA Films.^[1] In 2000, the company was morphed intoRadar Pictures.^[2][3][4]

Interscope Communications (the studio shared its name for a former racing team, "Interscope Racing") was founded in 1979 by media mogulTed Field, who aimed to create films with mass appeal.^[5] Field then hiredPeter Samuelson, who was partner with Field for four years as head of film production.^[6] Field acted as aproducer orexecutive 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.^[7] That same year,Robert W. Cort, a former executive of20th Century Fox andColumbia Pictures, joined Interscope and became the president of the company. Cort also co-produced a number of films.^[8]

On November 13, 1984, the company received an agreement withThe Walt Disney Studios for a two-year term, to become the company's first independent supplier within the studio.^[9]

On December 10, 1986, Interscope Communications inked a three-picture domestic feature pact withUnited Artists Pictures, whereas production would be jointly financed by UA and Interscope, and thatInteraccess Film Distribution andVestron Inc. would participate in Interscope's share of financing, and domestic videocassette rights to Interscope's features going toVestron Video, and foreign theatrical, TV and home video distribution of Interscope's films going toInteraccess Film Distribution.^[10]

On May 20, 1987, Interscope Communications rises into the rank as a film supplier, in order to set films from different major film studios, mostlyMPAA members, which included five of the films that were donated by Interscope to the major motion picture studios, such asTouchstone Pictures,Tri-Star Pictures,Warner Bros.,Orion Pictures,20th Century Fox andDe Laurentiis Entertainment Group, as well as his involvement with a $1 million in-house development kitty.^[11]

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 forNBC, 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.^[12]

In 1990,Nomura Babcock & Brown (NBB) invested $250 million in a joint venture withThe Walt Disney Company and Interscope Communications. The deal called for NBB to co-produce and finance^[5] 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 andHollywood Pictures.^[13] The most successful film co-produced by Interscope and NBB wasThe Hand That Rocks the Cradle (1992), while other films produced by the joint venture were critical and commercial failures.^[8]

Also that year, it purchased Marble Arch Productions fromITC, and decided that ITC Entertainment would co-finance the projects for U.S. and foreign distribution.^[14]

In 1992,PolyGram bought a controlling interest in Interscope Communications' film unit. Production and marketing budgets were to be paid by PolyGram.^[5] In 1993, Adam Leipzig joined the company as a production executive.^[15] 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.^[8]

Beginning in 1996, Interscope began using PFE's PolyGram Filmed Entertainment Distribution for distribution.^[16] In 1997,Chris Van Allsburg, the author ofJumanji had signed a deal with the studio to produce films.^[17] Also that year, BallPark Productions, a company owned byMichael Schiffer, set up a deal with the studio.^[18]

In 1998, after PolyGram was bought byUniversal Studios,^[19] Interscope's film unit was retained as a subsidiary of Universal until 1999, when it was sold off toBarry Diller'sUSA Networks, which later merged Interscope Communications withOctober Films andGramercy Pictures to become USA Films. In 2000, members of the company formed its successorRadar Pictures, that took the existing Interscope library in the company's development slate, thus rendering Interscope as inactive.^[2] The remaining films that were intended to be produced under the Interscope Communications name, includingThe Last Samurai,Le Divorce,^[18]The Heartbreak Kid,^[20] and the scrapped Peter Berg filmTruck 44 were drafted to Radar Pictures.^[2][21]

Interscope Records, however, still exists as part of theInterscope Geffen A&M faction ofUniversal Music Group (whose predecessor,MCA, purchasedAtlantic's stake in the label in 1995).

Interscope Communications has produced 68 films. Of the 68 films produced, only 20 aredirect-to-video ormade-for-television productions. Currently, all of the films that Interscope produced forOrion Pictures, andDe Laurentiis Entertainment Group between 1989 and 1991, as well asPolyGram Filmed Entertainment andGramercy Pictures before March 31, 1996, are owned byMetro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), which acquired the studios in separate transactions.^[22] Films produced for PolyGram or Gramercy after April 1, 1996, are now owned byUniversal Studios or its divisionFocus Features. 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 inUnited States dollars.

¹Direct-to-video release.
² Released as amade-for-television film

• Mass media companies established in 1979
• Mass media companies disestablished in 2000
• Defunct American film studios
• Film production companies of the United States
• 1979 establishments in the United States
• Universal Pictures

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