Hollywood Pictures Corporation was incorporated on March 30, 1984, and was activated on February 1, 1989. Ricardo Mestres was appointed the division's first president, moving from
Disney's
Touchstone Pictures. The division was formed to create opportunities for up-and-coming executives and to double Disney's feature-film output in order to fill the gap left by the contraction in the industry, which included the closure of
MGM/UA's
United Artists and financial problems at
Lorimar-Telepictures and
De Laurentiis Entertainment Group. With Touchstone aligned with Hollywood Pictures, the two Disney production divisions would share the same marketing and distribution staffs. Hollywood Pictures was expected to be producing 12 films a year by 1991 and to share funding from the
Silver Screen Partners IV. The company's first release was
Arachnophobia on July 18, 1990. After the collapse of their then-recently renewed deal at
Paramount Pictures,
Don Simpson and
Jerry Bruckheimer moved their production company to Hollywood Pictures on January 18, 1991. The division issued primarily inexpensive comedies for the first six years with a few box office flops, amongst them
Holy Matrimony,
Aspen Extreme,
Super Mario Bros.,
Swing Kids,
Blame It on the Bellboy,
Born Yesterday and
Guilty as Sin. The division only had one box office success,
The Hand That Rocks the Cradle, and one critical success,
The Joy Luck Club, which did not outweigh the general anemic box office record of the division. On April 26, 1994, Mestres was forced to resign after the lackluster performance of the division. Mestres moved to long term production deal with the studio. On June 27, 1994,
Michael Lynton was appointed as new division president after moving from the
Disney Publishing Group, where he was senior vice president and oversaw domestic publishing units including
Hyperion Books. Mestres left Lynton a few potential hits: Robert Redford's
Quiz Show, the Sarah Jessica Parker-Antonio Banderas comedy
Miami Rhapsody, and
Dangerous Minds, starring Michelle Pfeiffer. When Lynton left, it was briefly transferred to a releasing-only entity, making pictures by third-parties, as well as
Caravan Pictures, and
Cinergi, and its development slate was transferred to
Touchstone Pictures, but David Vogel, who was president of
Walt Disney Pictures took on the studio by producing films again. In 1998, the three units were transferred to the Buena Vista Motion Picture Group, and its development slate of projects by Hollywood Pictures, such as
Bicentennial Man, and ''
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy'' was transferred to Touchstone. By 2001, Hollywood Pictures had produced 80 films, but its operation had been phased out and its management was merged with that of the flagship
Walt Disney Pictures studio. == Filmography ==