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Touchstone Pictures, Inc. was an American
film production Filmmaking (film production) is the process by which a motion picture is produced. Filmmaking involves a number of complex and discrete stages, starting with an initial story, idea, or commission. It then continues through screenwriting, cast ...
label of Walt Disney Studios, founded and owned by
The Walt Disney Company The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on Octobe ...
. Feature films released under the Touchstone label were produced and financed by Walt Disney Studios, and featured more mature themes targeted towards adult audiences than typical
Walt Disney Pictures Walt Disney Pictures is an American film production company and subsidiary of Walt Disney Studios, which is owned by The Walt Disney Company. The studio is the flagship producer of live-action feature films within the Walt Disney Studios unit ...
films. As such, Touchstone was merely a brand of the studio and did not exist as a distinct business operation.Letter signed by
Thomas O. Staggs (Senior Executive Vice President & Chief Financial Officer, The Walt Disney Company) to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, March 1, 2007. Retrieved on May 6, 2013.
Established on February 15, 1984, by then-Disney CEO Ron W. Miller as Touchstone Films, Touchstone operated as an active film production division of Disney during the 1980s through the early 2010s, releasing a majority of the studio's PG-13 and R-rated films. In 2009, Disney entered into a five-year, thirty picture distribution deal with DreamWorks Pictures by which DreamWorks' productions would be released through the Touchstone banner; the label then distributed DreamWorks' films from 2011 to 2016. Following the release of '' The Light Between Oceans'' and prior to the acquisition of
21st Century Fox Twenty-First Century Fox, Inc., doing business as 21st Century Fox (21CF), was an American multinational mass media corporation that was based in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It was one of the two companies formed on June 28, 2013, fo ...
assets by Disney, Touchstone Pictures went defunct on December 20, 2017 after 33 years in operation.


History


Background and conception

Due to increased public assumption that Disney films were aimed at children and families, films produced by the Walt Disney Productions began to falter at the box office as a result. This began in 1975 with the release of '' Escape to Witch Mountain'' and its 1978 sequel. In late 1979, Walt Disney Productions released ''
The Black Hole ''The Black Hole'' is a 1979 American science fiction film directed by Gary Nelson and produced by Walt Disney Productions. The film stars Maximilian Schell, Robert Forster, Joseph Bottoms, Yvette Mimieux, Anthony Perkins and Ernest Borgn ...
'', a science-fiction movie that was the studio's first production to receive a PG rating (the company, however, had already distributed via Buena Vista Distribution its first PG-rated film, '' Take Down'' almost a year before the release of ''The Black Hole''). Over the next few years, Disney experimented with more PG-rated fare, such as the horror-mystery '' The Watcher in the Woods'', the spy-themed comedy '' Condorman'' and the
Paramount Pictures Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film and television production company, production and Distribution (marketing), distribution company and the main namesake division of Paramount Global (formerly ViacomCBS). It is the fifth-oldes ...
co-produced fantasy epic ''
Dragonslayer A dragonslayer is a person or being that slays dragons. Dragonslayers and the creatures they hunt have been popular in traditional stories from around the world: they are a type of story classified as type 300 in the Aarne–Thompson classific ...
''. With Disney's 1982 slate of PG-rated films, which included the thriller drama '' Night Crossing'' and the science-fiction film '' Tron'', the company lost over $27 million. ''Tron'' was considered a potential ''
Star Wars ''Star Wars'' is an American epic space opera multimedia franchise created by George Lucas, which began with the eponymous 1977 film and quickly became a worldwide pop-culture phenomenon. The franchise has been expanded into various film ...
''-level success film by the film division. In late 1982, Disney vice president of production Tom Wilhite announced that they would produce and release more mature films under a new brand. Wilhite elaborated to ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'': "We won't get into horror or exploitive sex, but using a non-Disney name will allow us wider latitude in the maturity of the subject matter and the edge we can add to the humor." He stated that one of the first films that would be released under this new brand was ''
Trenchcoat A trench coat or trenchcoat is a variety of coat made of waterproof heavy-duty fabric, originally developed for British Army officers before the First World War, and becoming popular while used in the trenches. Originally made from gabardine, ...
'', a comedy caper starring Margot Kidder and Robert Hays; however, the new brand had not yet been created by the time of the film's release in March 1983, so it was instead released by Walt Disney Productions, but with no production company credited in the released prints. A loss of $33 million was registered by the film division in 1983 with the majority resulting from such films as the horror-fantasy adaptation of
Ray Bradbury Ray Douglas Bradbury (; August 22, 1920June 5, 2012) was an American author and screenwriter. One of the most celebrated 20th-century American writers, he worked in a variety of modes, including fantasy, science fiction, horror, mystery, and ...
's novel '' Something Wicked This Way Comes'', the horror-comedy '' The Devil and Max Devlin'' starring
Elliott Gould Elliott Gould (; né Goldstein; born August 29, 1938) is an American actor. He began acting in Hollywood films during the 1960s. Elliott's breakthrough role was in the '' Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice'' (1969), for which he received a nomination ...
and Bill Cosby, and the dramas '' Tex'' and ''
Never Cry Wolf ''Never Cry Wolf'' is an account of the author's experience observing wolves in subarctic Canada by Farley Mowat, first published in 1963 by McClelland and Stewart. It was adapted into a film of the same name in 1983. It has been credited for dra ...
'', the latter being a PG release that featured male nudity, did well as the studio downplayed the film's association with the Disney brand.


Touchstone Films

Touchstone Films was founded by then-Disney CEO Ron W. Miller on February 15, 1984, as a label for their PG films with an expected three to four movies released under the label. Touchstone's first film was '' Splash'', a huge hit for grossing $68 million at the domestic box office was released that year. Incoming Disney CEO
Michael Eisner Michael Dammann Eisner (born March 7, 1942) is an American businessman and former chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of The Walt Disney Company from September 1984 to September 2005. Prior to Disney, Eisner was president of rival film s ...
and film chief Jeffrey Katzenberg considered renaming the label to "Hollywood Pictures", which went on to become a separate Disney film label on February 1, 1989. In 1986, '' Down and Out in Beverly Hills'' was another early success for Touchstone and was Disney's first R-rated film, followed in 1987 by Disney's first PG-13 rated film, '' Adventures in Babysitting''. Disney increased the momentum with additional PG-13 and R-rated films with '' Ruthless People'' (1986), '' Outrageous Fortune'' (1987), '' Tin Men'' (1987), and other top movies. In April 1986, movies by Touchstone Films were licensed to Showtime/The Movie Channel for five years starting in 1987.


Touchstone Pictures

Touchstone Films was renamed Touchstone Pictures after the release of ''Ruthless People'' in 1986. With the Touchstone movies, Disney moved to the top of box office receipts beating out all the other major film studios by 1988. On April 13, 1988, Touchstone became a unit of Walt Disney Pictures with newly appointed president Ricardo Mestres. On October 23, 1990, The Walt Disney Company formed Touchwood Pacific Partners I to supplant the Silver Screen Partners partnership series as their movie studios' primary funding source. With several production companies getting out of film production or closing shop by December 2, 1988, the Walt Disney Studios announced the formation of the Hollywood Pictures division, which would only share marketing and distribution with Touchstone, to fill the void. Mestres was appointed president of Hollywood. On July 27, 1992, Touchstone agreed to an exclusive, first-look production and distribution agreement with Merchant Ivory Productions to last three years. Following the success of the Disney-branded PG-13-rated '' Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl'' in 2003, and other films that in the 1980s and 1990s would have been released as Touchstone or Hollywood Pictures films, Disney weighed distribution of films more toward Disney-branded films and away from Touchstone Pictures, though not entirely disbanding them as it continued to use the Touchstone label for R and most PG-13 rated fare. In 2006, Disney limited Touchstone's output to two or three films in favor of Walt Disney Pictures titles due to an increase in film industry costs. Disney indicated scaling back on using multiple brands in 2007 with the renaming of Touchstone Television to
ABC Television Studio ABC Signature is an American television production studio that is a subsidiary of Disney Television Studios, a division of Walt Disney Television, which is part of the Disney General Entertainment Content division of The Walt Disney Compan ...
in February and the outright elimination of the
Buena Vista Buena Vista, meaning "good view" in Spanish, may refer to: Places Canada *Bonavista, Newfoundland and Labrador, with the name being originally derived from “Buena Vista” *Buena Vista, Saskatchewan * Buena Vista, Saskatoon, a neighborhood in ...
brand in April. On January 14, 2010, Sean Bailey was appointed the president of live-action production at Walt Disney Studios, overseeing all films produced by
Walt Disney Pictures Walt Disney Pictures is an American film production company and subsidiary of Walt Disney Studios, which is owned by The Walt Disney Company. The studio is the flagship producer of live-action feature films within the Walt Disney Studios unit ...
and Touchstone.


Distribution label

In 2009, Disney repurposed Touchstone as a distribution label for films produced by DreamWorks Studios. Disney financed DreamWorks productions with $90 million more available under its agreement if DreamWorks could not get additional equity funding. In 2012, Disney reportedly was in early stages in considering Touchstone's fate, including a possible sale. Following Disney's decision not to renew their long-standing deal with
Jerry Bruckheimer Films Jerry Bruckheimer Films Inc. (JBF) is an American independent film production company of Jerry Bruckheimer, formed in 1995, after cutting his ties with film producer Don Simpson, before his subsequent death in 1996. It produced hits such as ...
in 2013, producer Jerry Bruckheimer revealed that he insisted on revitalizing the Touchstone label for production. Disney was uninterested, with studio chairman Alan Horn admitting that Touchstone's output had been reduced to only distributing DreamWorks' films as those films were in the label's interest. In addition to DreamWorks' films, Touchstone also released non Disney-branded animated films such as ''
Gnomeo & Juliet ''Gnomeo & Juliet'' is a 2011 computer-animated romantic comedy film directed by Kelly Asbury from a screenplay by Rob Sprackling and John Smith. It is loosely based on the play ''Romeo and Juliet'' by William Shakespeare and features the voice ...
'', ''
The Wind Rises is a 2013 Japanese animated historical drama film written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki, animated by Studio Ghibli for the Nippon Television Network, Dentsu, Hakuhodo DY Media Partners, Walt Disney Japan, Mitsubishi, Toho and KDDI. It was rel ...
'', and '' Strange Magic''. By the end of the DreamWorks deal in August 2016, Disney had distributed 14 of DreamWorks' original 30-picture agreement, with thirteen through Touchstone. The deal ended with '' The Light Between Oceans'' being the final theatrical film released by Disney under the Touchstone banner.
Universal Pictures Universal Pictures (legally Universal City Studios LLC, also known as Universal Studios, or simply Universal; common metonym: Uni, and formerly named Universal Film Manufacturing Company and Universal-International Pictures Inc.) is an Americ ...
then replaced Disney as DreamWorks' distributor. Disney retained the film rights to these DreamWorks films in perpetuity as compensation for the studio's outstanding loan. As of 2017, following the release of ''The Light Between Oceans'', the label became defunct. Since then, several other Disney divisions have produced or are developing television series and films based on previous Touchstone properties—such as ''
Turner & Hooch ''Turner & Hooch'' is a 1989 American buddy cop comedy film starring Tom Hanks and Beasley the Dog as the eponymous characters respectively. The film also co-stars Mare Winningham, Craig T. Nelson and Reginald VelJohnson. It was directed by ...
, High Fidelity,'' '' Three Men and a Baby'', '' Sister Act'', and ''
Real Steel ''Real Steel'' is a 2011 American science fiction sports drama film starring Hugh Jackman and Dakota Goyo and co-produced and directed by Shawn Levy for DreamWorks Pictures. The film is based on the short story "Steel", written by Richard Mat ...
—''for
Disney+ Disney+ is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service owned and operated by the Media and Entertainment Distribution division of The Walt Disney Company. The service primarily distributes films and television se ...
and
Hulu Hulu () is an American subscription streaming service majority-owned by The Walt Disney Company, with Comcast's NBCUniversal holding a minority stake. It was launched on October 29, 2007 and it offers a library of films and television series ...
. Following the acquisition of the entertainment assets of
21st Century Fox Twenty-First Century Fox, Inc., doing business as 21st Century Fox (21CF), was an American multinational mass media corporation that was based in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It was one of the two companies formed on June 28, 2013, fo ...
in 2019, both
20th Century Studios 20th Century Studios, Inc. (previously known as 20th Century Fox) is an American film production company headquartered at the Fox Studio Lot in the Century City area of Los Angeles. As of 2019, it serves as a film production arm of Walt Dis ...
(formerly 20th Century Fox) and Searchlight Pictures (formerly Fox Searchlight Pictures) labels currently release the majority of adult and mature content produced by Walt Disney Studios.


Film library

Some well-known Touchstone Pictures releases include ''
Beaches A beach is a landform alongside a body of water which consists of loose particles. The particles composing a beach are typically made from rock, such as sand, gravel, shingle, pebbles, etc., or biological sources, such as mollusc shells ...
'', ''
Turner & Hooch ''Turner & Hooch'' is a 1989 American buddy cop comedy film starring Tom Hanks and Beasley the Dog as the eponymous characters respectively. The film also co-stars Mare Winningham, Craig T. Nelson and Reginald VelJohnson. It was directed by ...
'', '' Splash'', '' The Waterboy'', '' The Color of Money'', '' Good Morning, Vietnam'', ''
Who Framed Roger Rabbit ''Who Framed Roger Rabbit'' is a 1988 American Live-action animated film, live-action/animated comedy film, comedy mystery film directed by Robert Zemeckis, produced by Frank Marshall (filmmaker), Frank Marshall and Robert Watts, and loosely ad ...
'', '' Dead Poets Society'', ''
Pretty Woman ''Pretty Woman'' is a 1990 American romantic comedy film directed by Garry Marshall, from a screenplay by J. F. Lawton. The film stars Julia Roberts and Richard Gere, and features Héctor Elizondo, Ralph Bellamy (in his final performance) ...
'', '' Sister Act'', ''
Ed Wood Edward Davis Wood Jr. (October 10, 1924 – December 10, 1978) was an American filmmaker, actor, and pulp novel author. In the 1950s, Wood directed several low-budget science fiction, crime and horror films that later became cult cla ...
'', ''
Dick Tracy ''Dick Tracy'' is an American comic strip featuring Dick Tracy (character), Dick Tracy (originally Plainclothes Tracy), a tough and intelligent police detective created by Chester Gould. It made its debut on Sunday, October 4, 1931, in the ''De ...
'', '' The Insider'', ''
The Royal Tenenbaums ''The Royal Tenenbaums'' is a 2001 American comedy-drama film directed by Wes Anderson and co-written with Owen Wilson. It stars Danny Glover, Gene Hackman, Anjelica Huston, Bill Murray, Gwyneth Paltrow, Ben Stiller, Luke Wilson, and Owen Wi ...
'', '' Sweet Home Alabama'', '' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy'', '' The Help'', '' War Horse'', '' Lincoln,'' and '' Bridge of Spies''. Its highest-grossing film release is '' Armageddon''. Although animated films produced by Walt Disney Studios are primarily released by Walt Disney Pictures, Touchstone's animated releases include the original theatrical release of '' The Nightmare Before Christmas'', ''
Gnomeo & Juliet ''Gnomeo & Juliet'' is a 2011 computer-animated romantic comedy film directed by Kelly Asbury from a screenplay by Rob Sprackling and John Smith. It is loosely based on the play ''Romeo and Juliet'' by William Shakespeare and features the voice ...
'', ''The Wind Rises'', and ''Strange Magic''. Six Touchstone films have received an Oscar nomination for Best Picture; ''Dead Poets Society'', ''The Insider'', ''The Help'', ''War Horse'', ''Lincoln'', and ''Bridge of Spies''. Through Touchstone, Disney's first R-rated film, ''Down and Out in Beverly Hills'', came on January 31, 1986, and was a large box-office success. ''Ruthless People'' followed on June 27, 1986, and was also very successful. Both of these pictures starred
Bette Midler Bette Midler (;'' Inside the Actors Studio'', 2004 born December 1, 1945) is an American singer, actress, comedian and author. Throughout her career, which spans over five decades, Midler has received numerous accolades, including four Golden ...
, who had signed a six-picture deal with Disney and became a major film star again with these hits as well as ''Beaches'' and ''Outrageous Fortune''. One of the key producers behind Touchstone films was Jerry Bruckheimer, who had a production deal with Disney from 1993 to 2014. His Touchstone titles include ''
The Ref ''The Ref'' (''Hostile Hostages'' in some countries) is a 1994 American black comedy film directed by Ted Demme, starring Denis Leary, Judy Davis, Kevin Spacey and Glynis Johns. Plot On Christmas Eve in an affluent Connecticut hamlet, Lloyd and ...
'', '' Con Air'', ''Armageddon'', '' Enemy of the State'', '' Gone in 60 Seconds'', '' Coyote Ugly'', and ''
Pearl Harbor Pearl Harbor is an American lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. It was often visited by the Naval fleet of the United States, before it was acquired from the Hawaiian Kingdom by the U.S. with the signing of the ...
''. In addition, Bruckheimer has also produced several other films released under the Disney and Hollywood labels. Releases from Touchstone Pictures were distributed theatrically by
Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, formerly known as Buena Vista Pictures Distribution, Inc. until 2007, is an American film distribution studio within the Disney Media and Entertainment Distribution division of The Walt Disney Company. It h ...
and through home media platforms by Buena Vista Home Entertainment (branded as "Touchstone Home Entertainment").


Highest-grossing films


Related units


Touchstone Television

Touchstone Television served as Touchstone Pictures' counterpart label for television programming, producing television series including ''
The Golden Girls ''The Golden Girls'' is an American sitcom created by Susan Harris that aired on NBC from September 14, 1985, to May 9, 1992, with a total of 180 half-hour episodes, spanning seven seasons. With an ensemble cast starring Bea Arthur, Betty Wh ...
'', ''Blossom'', ''Home Improvement'', ''
My Wife and Kids ''My Wife and Kids'' is an American sitcom that ran on ABC from March 28, 2001, to May 17, 2005. The series was produced by Touchstone Television. It starred Damon Wayans as Michael Kyle, the patriarch of an African-American family. Wayans and ve ...
'', ''
Desperate Housewives ''Desperate Housewives'' is an American comedy-drama soap opera television series created by Marc Cherry and produced by ABC Studios and Cherry Productions. It aired for eight seasons on ABC from October 3, 2004, until May 13, 2012, for a t ...
'', ''
Lost Lost may refer to getting lost, or to: Geography * Lost, Aberdeenshire, a hamlet in Scotland *Lake Okeechobee Scenic Trail, or LOST, a hiking and cycling trail in Florida, US History *Abbreviation of lost work, any work which is known to have bee ...
'', '' Grey's Anatomy'', '' Scrubs'', ''
Criminal Minds ''Criminal Minds'' is an American police procedural crime drama television series created and produced by Jeff Davis (writer), Jeff Davis. The series premiered on CBS on September 22, 2005, and originally concluded on February 19, 2020; it was r ...
'', and ''
Monk A monk (, from el, μοναχός, ''monachos'', "single, solitary" via Latin ) is a person who practices religious asceticism by monastic living, either alone or with any number of other monks. A monk may be a person who decides to dedic ...
''. In 2007, the company was renamed ABC Studios, as part of a move by Disney to re-align its studios around core brands such as ABC. On August 10, 2020, Disney announced that it would revive the Touchstone Television brand as a renaming of Fox 21 Television Studios, as part of its phase-out of the "Fox" brand from the studios it acquired from
21st Century Fox Twenty-First Century Fox, Inc., doing business as 21st Century Fox (21CF), was an American multinational mass media corporation that was based in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It was one of the two companies formed on June 28, 2013, fo ...
. At the same time, the existing ABC Studios was renamed ABC Signature. However, about four months later on December 1, 2020, Disney announced the revived Touchstone Television label would be folded into 20th Television.


Touchstone Games

By the end of 2007, Disney's
video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This feedba ...
subsidiary
Buena Vista Games Disney Interactive Studios, Inc. was an American video game developer and publisher owned by The Walt Disney Company through Disney Interactive. Prior to its closure in 2016, it developed and distributed multi-platform video games and interactiv ...
began to produce material under its own Touchstone imprint. It is a short-lived video game division of Touchstone Pictures. As is the case with its motion picture and television counterparts, Touchstone Games merely acted as a label/imprint of Disney Interactive and not its own entity. The only title it released was the ''Turok'' video game in 2008.


References


Further reading

* * {{Authority control 1984 establishments in California 2016 disestablishments in California American companies established in 1984 American companies disestablished in 2017 Disney production studios Film production companies of the United States Entertainment companies based in California Companies based in Burbank, California Mass media companies established in 1984 Mass media companies disestablished in 2017 Defunct brands Walt Disney Studios (division) The Walt Disney Company subsidiaries Defunct film and television production companies of the United States