Company History:
Focus Features is a large scale art house film division of Universal Studios. It is currently owned and operated by its parent company, NBC Universal and was formed in 2002 through a divisional merger of USA Films, Universal Focus and Good Machine.
USA Films was the film division originally created by Barry Diller in 1999. It was a combination of October Films, Gramercy Pictures, and USA Home Entertainment. Vivendi sold the studio, among other entertainment assets, to GE in 2004 to form NBC Universal.
What They Do:
Focus Features is a film production, film financing and worldwide distribution company. They can produce and distribute a film from start to finish. Perhaps their most successful release to date is the film Brokeback Mountain (2005), which earned an amazing $83,043,761 at the box office.
Through their Rogue Pictures banner, they produce and distribute a number of low budget action/horror films.
Major Players:
Focus Features is much like the Miramax corporation, but a company like this is only as good as the people that lead it. Focus Features has two dynamic leaders in:
- David Linde: Co-President
and
- James Schamus: Co-President