Gracie Films

Gracie Films

Logo used since 1987
Company type	Private
Industry	Film and television animation production
Predecessor	John Charles Walters Company
Founded	1986; 39 years ago (1986)
Founder	James L. Brooks
Headquarters	Fox Studios lot, 10201 West Pico Boulevard Bldg 41/42, Los Angeles CA 90064[1] , United States
Key people	Richard Sakai (President)[2]
Products	The Simpsons
Website	graciefilms.com

Gracie Films is an American film and television production company founded by James L. Brooks in 1986. The company is primarily responsible for producing its long-running flagship animated series, The Simpsons.

The Gracie Films headquarters is located on the Fox Studios lot at 10201 West Pico Boulevard in Los Angeles.^[3]

Overview

James L. Brooks, who had previously founded John Charles Walters Company, founded Gracie Films at 20th Century Fox in 1986, with Polly Platt as executive vice president. Named for comedian Gracie Allen, the company was established to "provide real writers with a vehicle to get their movies made".^[4] Its primary distributor is currently Sony Pictures Entertainment, though it continues to produce The Simpsons at Fox's studio in Century City, Los Angeles.

According to Simpsons Confidential, Brooks gave The Simpsons' writing staff free rein, as he firmly believed they were the most important part of the process,^[5] and "in the legal battles over The Simpsons, it was Fox that was being sued, not Gracie Films".^[6] The company also coordinates international distribution and dubbing for The Simpsons,^[7] "[finding] voices for dubbing that would match those of the original American actors as closely as possible."^[8] Gracie Films’ main production office is at the Sidney Poitier building on the Sony Pictures Studios lot in Culver City, California. In 1989, Gracie Films had struck a deal with ABC.^[9]

Logo

Gracie Films' production logo depicts noisy patrons in a movie theatre (which were the voices of then-CEO of Fox Garth Ancier and music composer Jeffrey Townsend double-tracked to sound like there were more people) being shushed by a woman in the back row (with the shush sound being done by Tracey Ullman). The company's name appears on the screen, accompanied by a brief passage played on keyboard. Audio variations exist on The Simpsons, often with dialogue from the episode or characters such as Homer responding to the shush. The most common audio variation is on the Treehouse of Horror episodes (excluding "Treehouse of Horror" which used the original logo audio and "Treehouse of Horror II" and "Treehouse of Horror III" which has the organ theme only), where the shushing sound was replaced by a woman screaming loudly and the logo's music is played in a minor key on a synth-emulated pipe organ. Originally, the Roland D-50 PN-D50-01 Pipe Organ preset was used for that particular variant and was composed by Alf Clausen. The music was composed by Jeffrey Townsend on a tiny Korg synth rack using a custom programmed preset. Starting from Treehouse of Horror XXVIII, the music was rearranged by Bleeding Fingers Music.

Filmography

Television shows

Years active	Title	Creator(s)	Co-production company(s)	Distributor(s)
1987–1990	The Tracey Ullman Show	James L. Brooks Jerry Belson Ken Estin Heide Perlman	Klasky Csupo / 20th Television	20th Television
1989–present	The Simpsons	Matt Groening	20th Television / 20th Television Animation[10]
1991–1992	Sibs	Heide Perlman	Columbia Pictures Television	Sony Pictures Television
1993–1994	Phenom	Sam Simon Dick Blasucci Marc Flanagan	Columbia Pictures Television / ELP Communications
1994–1995 2000–2001 (revival)	The Critic	Al Jean Mike Reiss	Columbia Pictures Television / Sony Pictures Digital Entertainment
2001	What About Joan?	Ed. Weinberger	Columbia TriStar Television
2014	"The Simpsons Guy"	Seth MacFarlane	Fuzzy Door Productions / 20th Television / 20th Television Animation	20th Television

Films

Year	Title	Director	Co-production company(s)	Distributor(s)	Box office	Ref.
1987	Broadcast News	James L. Brooks	20th Century Fox		$67.3 million	[11]
1988	Big	Penny Marshall			$151.7 million	[12]
1989	Say Anything...	Cameron Crowe			$20.7 million	[13]
	The War of the Roses	Danny DeVito			$160.2 million	[14]
1994	I'll Do Anything	James L. Brooks	Columbia Pictures	Sony Pictures Releasing	$10 million	[15]
1996	Bottle Rocket	Wes Anderson			$560,069	[16]
	Jerry Maguire	Cameron Crowe	TriStar Pictures / Vinyl Films		$273.6 million	[17]
1997	As Good as It Gets	James L. Brooks	TriStar Pictures		$314.1 million	[18]
2001	Riding in Cars with Boys	Penny Marshall	Columbia Pictures		$35.7 million	[19]
2004	Spanglish	James L. Brooks			$55 million	[20]
2007	The Simpsons Movie	David Silverman	20th Century Fox / 20th Century Fox Animation	20th Century Fox	$536.4 million	[21]
2010	How Do You Know	James L. Brooks	Columbia Pictures	Sony Pictures Releasing	$48.7 million	[22]
2016	The Edge of Seventeen	Kelly Fremon Craig	H. Brothers / Tang Media Productions / Virgin Produced	STX Entertainment	$19.4 million	[23]
2018	Icebox	Daniel Sawka	Endeavor Content / HBO Films	HBO	TBA	[24]
2023	Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret.	Kelly Fremon Craig	Lionsgate		$21.5 million	[25]
2025	Ella McCay	James L. Brooks	20th Century Studios	Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
TBA	A Guilty Conscience	Greta Gerwig Kelly Fremon Craig	Amblin Entertainment / Edko Films	A24
TBA	Jiejie	Sean Wang	Amblin Entertainment / China Film Co. Ltd	A24

Theme park

Year	Title	Director	Co-production company(s)	Distributor(s)	Notes
2008	The Simpsons Ride	Mike B. Anderson and John Rice	Blur Studio / Film Roman / Reel FX Creative Studios	Universal Creative	Located in Universal Studios Florida and Universal Studios Hollywood.

Shorts

Year	Title	Director	Co-production company(s)	Distributor(s)	Notes
2012	The Longest Daycare	David Silverman	20th Century Fox Animation / AKOM / Film Roman	20th Century Fox	Shown with Ice Age: Continental Drift.
2020	Playdate with Destiny		20th Century Studios / 20th Century Animation / AKOM	Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures	Shown with Onward.
2021	The Force Awakens from Its Nap		20th Television	Disney+	Exclusive Disney+ short film.
	The Good, the Bart, and the Loki		20th Television Animation / AKOM
	Plusaversary
2022	When Billie Met Lisa		20th Television Animation
	Welcome to the Club
	The Simpsons Meet the Bocellis in "Feliz Navidad"
2023	Rogue Not Quite One		Walt Disney Pictures (logo only) / 20th Television Animation
2024	May the 12th Be with You		20th Television Animation
	The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

References

1. Gracie Films official website with headquarters address (Retrieved 24 December 2022)
2. "Richard Sakai / Variety". Variety. 17 December 2013. Retrieved September 26, 2016.
3. Gracie Films official website with headquarters address (Retrieved 24 December 2022)
4. Alisa Perren, Indie, Inc.: Miramax and the Transformation of Hollywood in the 1990s, p. 159, at Google Books
5. John Ortved, Simpsons Confidential, p. 30, at Google Books
6. John Ortved, Simpsons Confidential: The uncensored, totally unauthorised history of the world's greatest TV show by the people that made it, p. 126, at Google Books
7. Michela Ardizzoni, Chiara Ferrari (eds.), Beyond Monopoly: Globalization and Contemporary Italian Media, p. 101, at Google Books
8. Chiara Francesca Ferrari, Since When Is Fran Drescher Jewish?: Dubbing Stereotypes in The Nanny, The Simpsons, and The Sopranos, p. 73, at Google Books
9. "Golden" (PDF). Broadcasting. 1989-12-04. Retrieved 2021-09-24.
10. "Disney Launches 20th Television Animation, Promotes Veteran Exec Marci Proietto to Run New Unit Responsible for 'The Simpsons' & 'Family Guy'". 30 March 2021.
11. "Weekend Box Office : Appealing to All 'Generations'". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on 2012-11-04. Retrieved 2012-06-05.
12. "Big (1988)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved September 1, 2009.
13. Box Office Information for Say Anything.., BoxOfficeMojo.com; retrieved April 4, 2013.
14. "The War of the Roses". Box Office Mojo. IMDb. Retrieved November 15, 2019.
15. "I'll Do Anything". Box Office Mojo. IMDb. Retrieved November 15, 2019.
16. "Bottle Rocket". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2007-08-07.
17. "Jerry Maguire". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2007-08-07.
18. "Weekend Box Office Results for December 26–28, 1997". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved July 6, 2009.
19. "Riding in Cars with Boys". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved July 6, 2009.
20. "Spanglish". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved July 6, 2009.
21. "Top Single Day Grosses". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved July 28, 2007.
22. "How Do You Know (2010)". Box Office Mojo. Amazon.com. Retrieved 2010-12-31.
23. "The Edge of Seventeen (2016)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved August 10, 2017.
24. "HBO Films Acquires Immigration Drama Icebox". Retrieved December 21, 2019.
25. Fleming, Mike Jr. (February 5, 2020). "Hot Book Package: James L. Brooks, Kelly Fremon Craig On Judy Blume's 'After You There God? It's Me, Margaret'". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved March 30, 2020.