Gracie Films

Gracie Films

Logo used since 1987
Company type	Private
Industry	Film and television animation production
Predecessor	John Charles Walters Company
Founded	January 4, 1986;39 years ago (1986-01-04)
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	www.graciefilms.com

Gracie Films, Inc. is an American film and television production company founded by James L. Brooks on January 4, 1986. The company is primarily known for producing its long-running flagship animated series The Simpsons . The company's headquarters is located on the Fox Studios lot at 10201 West Pico Boulevard in Los Angeles.

Overview

James L. Brooks, who had previously founded John Charles Walters Company, founded Gracie Films at 20th Century Fox on January 4, 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". ^[3] 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, ^[4] and "in the legal battles over The Simpsons, it was Fox that was being sued, not Gracie Films". ^[5] The company also coordinates international distribution and dubbing for The Simpsons, ^[6] "[finding] voices for dubbing that would match those of the original American actors as closely as possible." ^[7] 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. ^[8]

Logo

Gracie Films' production logo depicts noisy patrons in a movie theatre being shushed by a woman in the back row. This is occasionally changed or parodied in episodes of The Simpsons, ^[9] particularly in the annual Treehouse of Horror Halloween episodes. ^{[10] [ better source needed ]}

Filmography

Television series

Years active	Title	Genre	Creator(s)	Co-production company(s)	Network(s)
1987–1990	The Tracey Ullman Show	Sketch comedy	James L. Brooks Jerry Belson Ken Estin Heide Perlman	Klasky Csupo (animation production) 20th Television	Fox
1989–present	The Simpsons	Animated sitcom	Matt Groening	20th Television (1989–2021) 20th Television Animation (2021–present) [11]
1991–1992	Sibs	Sitcom	Heide Perlman	Columbia Pictures Television	ABC
1993–1994	Phenom		Sam Simon Dick Blasucci Marc Flanagan	Columbia Pictures Television ELP Communications
1994–1995 2000–2001 (revival)	The Critic	Animated sitcom	Al Jean Mike Reiss	Columbia Pictures Television	ABC (1994) Fox (1995) AtomFilms/Shockwave.com (revival)
2001	What About Joan?	Sitcom	Ed. Weinberger	Columbia TriStar Television	ABC

Television episodes

Title	Series	Director	Writer	Original air date	Network	Co-production company
"The Simpsons Guy"	Family Guy	Peter Shin	Patrick Meighan	September 28, 2014 (2014-09-28)	Fox	Fuzzy Door Productions

Feature films

Year	Title	Director	Writer(s)	Producer(s)	Co-production company(s)	Distributor(s)	Box office	Ref.
1987	Broadcast News	James L. Brooks			20th Century Fox		$67.3 million	[12]
1988	Big	Penny Marshall	Gary Ross Anne Spielberg	James L. Brooks Robert Greenhut			$151.7 million	[13]
1989	Say Anything...	Cameron Crowe		Polly Platt			$20.7 million	[14]
	The War of the Roses	Danny DeVito	Michael J. Leeson	James L. Brooks Arnon Milchan			$160.2 million	[15]
1994	I'll Do Anything	James L. Brooks		James L. Brooks Polly Platt	Columbia Pictures	Sony Pictures Releasing	$10 million	[16]
1996	Bottle Rocket	Wes Anderson	Owen C. Wilson Wes Anderson	Polly Platt Cynthia Hargrave			$560,069	[17]
	Jerry Maguire	Cameron Crowe		James L. Brooks Richard Sakai Laurence Mark Cameron Crowe	TriStar Pictures Vinyl Films		$273.6 million	[18]
1997	As Good as It Gets	James L. Brooks	Story by: Mark Andrus Screenplay by: Mark Andrus James L. Brooks	James L. Brooks Bridget Johnson Kristi Zea	TriStar Pictures		$314.1 million	[19]
2001	Riding in Cars with Boys	Penny Marshall	Morgan Upton Ward	James L. Brooks Laurence Mark Sara Colleton Richard Sakai Julie Ansell	Columbia Pictures		$35.7 million	[20]
2004	Spanglish	James L. Brooks		Julie Ansell James L. Brooks Richard Sakai			$55 million	[21]
2007	The Simpsons Movie	David Silverman	James L. Brooks Matt Groening Al Jean Ian Maxtone-Graham George Meyer David Mirkin Mike Reiss Mike Scully Matt Selman John Swartzwelder Jon Vitti	James L. Brooks Matt Groening Al Jean Mike Scully Richard Sakai	20th Century Fox Animation	20th Century Fox	$536.4 million	[22]
2010	How Do You Know	James L. Brooks		Julie Ansell James L. Brooks Laurence Mark Paula Weinstein	Columbia Pictures	Sony Pictures Releasing	$48.7 million	[23]
2016	The Edge of Seventeen	Kelly Fremon Craig		James L. Brooks Richard Sakai Julie Ansell	H. Brothers Tang Media Productions Virgin Produced	STX Entertainment	$19.4 million	[24]
2018	Icebox	Daniel Sawka		Julie Ansell James L. Brooks Richard Sakai	Endeavor Content HBO Films	HBO	—	[25]
2023	Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret.	Kelly Fremon Craig		James L. Brooks Julie Ansell Richard Sakai Kelly Fremon Craig Judy Blume Amy Lorraine Brooks Aldric La'auli Porter	Lionsgate		$21.5 million	[26]
2025	Ella McCay	James L. Brooks		James L. Brooks Richard Sakai Julie Ansell Jennifer Brooks	20th Century Studios		TBA	[27]
2027	The Simpsons 2	TBA	TBA	TBA	20th Century Animation	20th Century Studios	TBA	[28]

Theme parks

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 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. Alisa Perren, Indie, Inc.: Miramax and the Transformation of Hollywood in the 1990s , p. 159, at Google Books
4. John Ortved, Simpsons Confidential , p. 30, at Google Books
5. 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
6. Michela Ardizzoni, Chiara Ferrari (eds.), Beyond Monopoly: Globalization and Contemporary Italian Media , p. 101, at Google Books
7. Chiara Francesca Ferrari, Since When Is Fran Drescher Jewish?: Dubbing Stereotypes in The Nanny, The Simpsons, and The Sopranos , p. 73, at Google Books
8. "Golden" (PDF). Broadcasting . 1989-12-04. Retrieved 2021-09-24.
9. Gray, Jonathan (2012). Watching with The Simpsons: Television, Parody, and Intertextuality. Routledge. p. 162. ISBN   978-1-134-23320-5.
10. "Gracie Films - Treehouse of Horror Variant (1990-present)". August 4, 2016 – via Internet Archive.
11. "Disney Launches 20th Television Animation, Promotes Veteran Exec Marci Proietto to Run New Unit Responsible for 'The Simpsons' & 'Family Guy'". 30 March 2021.
12. "Weekend Box Office : Appealing to All 'Generations'". Los Angeles Times . Archived from the original on November 4, 2012. Retrieved June 5, 2012.
13. "Big (1988)". Box Office Mojo . Retrieved September 1, 2009.
14. Box Office Information for Say Anything.., BoxOfficeMojo.com; retrieved April 4, 2013.
15. "The War of the Roses". Box Office Mojo . IMDb . Retrieved November 15, 2019.
16. "I'll Do Anything". Box Office Mojo . IMDb . Retrieved November 15, 2019.
17. "Bottle Rocket". Box Office Mojo . Retrieved August 8, 2007.
18. "Jerry Maguire". Box Office Mojo . Retrieved August 8, 2007.
19. "Weekend Box Office Results for December 26–28, 1997". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved July 6, 2009.
20. "Riding in Cars with Boys". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved July 6, 2009.
21. "Spanglish". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved July 6, 2009.
22. "Top Single Day Grosses". Box Office Mojo . Retrieved July 28, 2007.
23. "How Do You Know (2010)". Box Office Mojo . Amazon.com . Retrieved 2010-12-31.
24. "The Edge of Seventeen (2016)". Box Office Mojo . Retrieved August 10, 2017.
25. "HBO Films Acquires Immigration Drama Icebox" . Retrieved December 21, 2019.
26. 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.
27. Kroll, Justin (November 20, 2023). "James L. Brooks New Film Ella McCay Sets All-Star Ensemble That Includes Emma Mackey, Woody Harrelson, Jamie Lee Curtis And Albert Brooks As 20th Century Boards Project". Deadline Hollywood . Retrieved February 15, 2025.
28. @20thcentury (September 29, 2025). "Woohoo! The Simpsons are coming to theaters with an all-new movie on July 23, 2027!" (Tweet) – via Twitter.