Gramercy Pictures was a film distributor launched in 1992, a joint venture of PolyGram Filmed Entertainment and Universal Pictures. Gramercy, a so-called "mini-major," was the distributor of PolyGram movies in the United States and Canada. Due to the Universal acquisition by Seagrams in 1999, Gramercy was merged with October Films to briefly become USA Films, until USA Films was transformed into Focus Features in 2002. Gramercy Pictures released its first film, the Mario Van Peebles western Posse, in May 1993. The distributor also had box office hits in 1994's Four Weddings and a Funeral,... 1996's Fargo and 1997's Bean. Several Gramercy releases of the 1990s have grown in stature to become cult classics in the present day: The Big Lebowski, Dazed and Confused, Clay Pigeons and Mallrats. In addition, 1996's The Usual Suspects won two Oscars, for Best Original Screenplay and Best Supporting Actor . There was an earlier, unrelated company which went by the same name in the late 1950s. One of the films they produced was The Monster That Challenged the World.
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