The Guber-Peters Entertainment Company was a film and television production company formed by Peter Guber and Jon Peters in 1982 when they left PolyGram Pictures. It is best known for Rain Man, The Color Purple and Batman, among others. The company was sold to Columbia Pictures Entertainment in 1989 when Sony Corporation of America bought out the studio, and it was dissolved as its production entity in 1991.
In 1982, Jon Peters and Peter Guber decided to sell their stakes in their production company PolyGram Pictures following a series of flops. Therefore they launched its own independent company at Warner Bros., while continuing their relationship with Universal Pictures, but its relationship with Universal never lasted long. One of their first projects were Six Weeks and D.C. Cab, two of the projects initially started under PolyGram's contract with Universal via the producers. Like their tenure at PolyGram Pictures, many of the company's films had flopped at the box office.
In 1984, the company launched their television unit, sometimes called Guber-Peters Video. Many of their productions was in partnership with Centerpoint. Only three out of them in the partnership were the 1984 CBS television movie The Toughest Man in the World, the CBS television series Dreams and the NBC documentary series OceanQuest.
The company's first major hit was The Color Purple (1985). Guber-Peters owned the property of the book and hired Steven Spielberg to direct the film. Spielberg had barred the duo from the set. The company's next hits were The Witches of Eastwick, Rain Man, and Batman, all of which were box office hits. In 1986, the company partnered with Mark Damon to start Vision International, a film sales financing, but Guber and Peters decided to sell their stakes later.
In January 1988, Barris Industries merged with the Guber-Peters Company to form Barris/Guber-Peters. Guber-Peters made an aborted attempt to buy MGM/UA Communications Co. in 1988, but it failed. On March 31, 1989, Burt Sugarman sold his shares of Barris Industries to Westfield Group and Northern Star Holdings Ltd., the owners of Network Ten of Australia owned by Frank Lowy for $34.5 million.
On September 7, 1989, Barris Industries was renamed as the Guber-Peters Entertainment Company, Barris Program Sales was renamed as Guber-Peters Program Sales, and Barris Advertising Sales was renamed as Guber-Peters Advertising Sales. On September 29, 1989, a day after Sony Corporation of Japan announced to acquire Columbia Pictures Entertainment, Sony announced to acquire the Guber-Peters Entertainment Company for $200 million. The sale was completed on November 9, 1989 after Sony's acquisition of Columbia Pictures Entertainment a day earlier.
As a result, many of the films Guber-Peters was developing at Warner Bros., including The Bonfire of the Vanities, Batman Returns, This Boy's Life, With Honors, and Contact, was kept by the studio, although Guber and Peters were demoted to executive producers.
On November 5, 1990, CPE folded its first-run syndication unit Guber-Peters Television into Columbia Pictures Television Distribution.