In late 1979, Walt Disney Productions released The Black Hole, a science-fiction movie that was the studio's first production to receive a PG rating (the company, however, had already distributed via Buena Vista Distribution its first PG-rated film, Take Down, almost a year before the release of The Black Hole).

[8] Over the next few years, Disney experimented with more PG-rated fare, such as the horror-mystery The Watcher in the Woods, the spy-themed comedy Condorman,[citation needed] and the Paramount Pictures co-produced fantasy epic Dragonslayer.

In late 1982, Disney vice president of production Tom Wilhite announced that they would produce and release more mature films under a new brand.

Wilhite elaborated to The New York Times: "We won't get into horror or exploitive sex, but using a non-Disney name will allow us wider latitude in the maturity of the subject matter and the edge we can add to the humor."

The company registered a loss of $33 million in 1983, resulting primarily from such films as the adaptation of Ray Bradbury's horror-fantasy novel Something Wicked This Way Comes, the horror-comedy The Devil and Max Devlin starring Elliott Gould and Bill Cosby, and the dramas Tex and Never Cry Wolf, the latter a PG release that featured male nudity, which did well as the studio downplayed the film's association with the Disney brand.

Disney increased the momentum with additional PG-13 and R-rated films with Ruthless People (1986), Outrageous Fortune (1987), Tin Men (1987), and other top movies.

[10] On April 13, 1988, Touchstone became a unit of Walt Disney Pictures under newly appointed president Ricardo Mestres.

[23][24] The deal ended with The Light Between Oceans being the final theatrical film released by Disney under the Touchstone banner.

Since then, several other Disney divisions have produced or are developing television series and films based on previous Touchstone properties—such as Turner & Hooch, High Fidelity, Three Men and a Baby, Sister Act, and Real Steel—for Disney+ and Hulu.

[28][29][30][31] Some well-known Touchstone Pictures releases include Beaches, Turner & Hooch, Splash, The Color of Money, Down and Out in Beverly Hills, Good Morning, Vietnam, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Dead Poets Society, Dick Tracy, Pretty Woman, Sister Act, Ed Wood, Up Close & Personal, The Waterboy, The Insider, The Royal Tenenbaums, Sweet Home Alabama, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, The Prestige, The Help, War Horse, Lincoln, and Bridge of Spies.

Six Touchstone films have received nominations for the Academy Award for Best Picture: Dead Poets Society, The Insider, The Help, War Horse, Lincoln, and Bridge of Spies.

[32] Through Touchstone, Disney's first R-rated film, Down and Out in Beverly Hills, was released on January 31, 1986, and was a box office success.

[33][34] Touchstone films produced by Bruckheimer include The Ref, Con Air, Armageddon, Enemy of the State, Gone in 60 Seconds, Coyote Ugly, and Pearl Harbor.

[43] Before the idea could progress further, however, the so-called "Disney Implosion" (the result of poor sales and aggressive overexpansion) forced the company to cut back on its comic book ambitions, and Touchmark was scrapped.

[44] Young subsequently returned to DC and helped launch the Vertigo imprint in 1993, using many of the intended projects from Touchmark.