New Venture Will Market Lower-Budget Films : Entertainment: Universal and Polygram form a firm to sell and distribute movies that cost under $13 million.

Seeking a cheaper and more effective way to market lower-budget movies, Universal Pictures and Polygram Filmed Entertainment are launching a North American distribution venture, the companies announced Wednesday.

The joint venture, named Gramercy Pictures, will market and distribute films that are supplied by both partners. Gramercy will be headed by Russell Schwartz, the former executive vice president of Miramax Films.

“I have been exploring the idea of an alternate marketing and distribution operation since I got here,” said Thomas Pollock, chairman of the MCA Motion Picture Group, parent of Universal.

The joint venture in part reflects Pollock’s and other major studio heads’ desire to better exploit modestly budgeted films--a trend eyed with trepidation by high-priced stars and directors.

If it succeeds, Gramercy would allow Universal to circulate more lower-budget movies--movies that also may be marketed at less cost.

“It gives you the ability to spread your costs over a wider base of product,” said Lisbeth R. Barron, a securities analyst with S. G. Warburg & Co. in Manhattan. Another major studio, Paramount Pictures, has entered a similar joint arrangement with Miramax.

Fearing high-budget box office bombs, studio executives have become increasingly vocal in challenging star-vehicle movies. As an alternative, the executives often cite the success of such frugally made films as Universal’s “Fried Green Tomatoes” or Disney’s “The Hand That Rocks the Cradle.”

Schwartz, speaking from New York, said he expected that Gramercy would distribute films to “fill a mid-range area,” adding that they would be “the kind of films . . . that are probably produced in the $7-million to $12-million range. Not necessarily commercially driven. They must be driven by, A, a good story; and by not necessarily A-plus talent (actors and directors), but B-plus and A talent.”

Michael Kuhn, president of Polygram’s film division, said Wednesday in announcing the joint venture: “Polygram is committed to producing entertaining pictures, which do not necessarily rely on exploitative high concepts or expensive stars.”

For his part, Pollock said that the Gramercy venture will not affect Universal’s standard lineup of about 20 films per year. The goal, Pollock said, “is to be able to try to attack the cost problem from a marketing and distribution standpoint . . . (to) do it differently, at less expense. . . . This is to operate as a totally separate” entity from Universal Pictures.

The joint venture encompasses movies shown at theaters in the United States and Canada only. Revenue from home video or other ancillary markets “will be handled . . . outside of the joint venture,” according to a statement issued by Polygram and Universal.

By striking the deal with Universal, London-based Polygram has found the United States distribution arm that it needed to expand its film business. Polygram, 80% owned by Philips Electronics of the Netherlands, is best known as a distributor of popular music, with acts such as Def Leppard and Bon Jovi.

Polygram announced last September that it would seek to increase its Hollywood presence and spend $200 million through 1994 on film projects. Polygram’s stock closed unchanged Wednesday, at $28.375, in New York Stock Exchange trading.