Top 10 Film Industry News Stories of 2005: #3: Weinsteins Separate from Miramax
By Dan Krovich
December 30, 2005
In 1979 two concert-promoter brothers, Harvey and Bob Weinstein, founded a film distribution company and named it after their grandparents, Miriam and Max. The company, Miramax, was to distribute foreign and independent films. Though it may not exactly be the only cause, Miramax is certainly closely linked (along with Sundance) with the growth of independent film through the 1980s, culminating in the watershed moment of the debut of sex, lies, and videotape at Sundance and subsequent release of the film by Miramax in 1989. In 1993 Disney, looking to get into the indie game, purchased Miramax for around $80 million. The Disney-Miramax relationship was always something of a mixed bag. Disney was the target of protests for some of the more controversial Miramax releases such as Priest and Kids, and later passed on releasing Dogma and Fahrenheit 9/11. Miramax also brought in plenty of Oscar glory, providing at least one Best Picture nominee from 1992 through 2002.
Perhaps the biggest conflict between Miramax and Disney arose when the supposed "indie arm" of the company got into the business of $100 million budgets, with films like Gangs of New York and The Aviator. With Disney wanting to rein in Miramax's spending and the Weinsteins wanting to stay in the big-budget business, something had to give, and the Weinstein brothers left the company named after their grandparents. During the final months of their tenure, they mostly spent their time dumping the many titles that had sat on the shelf, some of them years old.
The Weinsteins, after officially leaving Miramax at the end of September, moved on to their new, unimaginatively named The Weinstein Company. The new company didn't waste any time with its first release, Derailed, in November, followed by awards-bait The Libertine, Transamerica, and Mrs. Henderson Presents; the animated Hoodwinked; the horror film Wolf Creek; and the comedy The Matador all hitting screens before 2006. They also announced a slate for 2006 that includes sequels to Sin City and Scary Movie; a remake of a Japanese horror film, Pulse; and Grind House, co-directed by Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez.
Miramax will return to being a more traditional independent/specialty arm, releasing six to ten films per year with budgets more in the $10 million to $12 million range. Their current 2006 slate consists of Tsotsi, South Africa's official Oscar entry; Kinky Boots, a British comedy; and The Heart of the Game, a documentary.
#2: Prospect of Simultaneous Theater/DVD Release
|
|
|
|
Print this column
