Miramax

"Miramax" redirects here. For the book publisher, see Miramax Books.

Miramax Film Corp.

Miramax logo
Company type	Private
Industry	Film
Founded	1979
Founder	Harvey Weinstein, Bob Weinstein
Headquarters	New York City, NY (1979–2010); Burbank (2010) ; Santa Monica (2010–present)
Key people	Richard Nanula, Chairman; Michael Lang, CEO
Owner	Independent (1979–1993) The Walt Disney Company (1993–2010) Filmyard Holdings, LLC (2010–present)
Website	www.miramax.com

Miramax Films is an art-house/independent film production company that both produced and distributed films including foreign films over its 31-year history. For its first 14 years the company was privately owned by its founders, Bob and Harvey Weinstein. In 1993, the company was acquired by The Walt Disney Company.

Founded in 1979 by Bob and Harvey Weinstein and headquartered in New York City and Cambridge, Massachusetts, Miramax was a leading independent film motion picture distribution and production company before it was acquired by The Walt Disney Company in 1993. The Weinsteins operated Miramax with more creative and financial independence than any other division of Disney, until 2005 when they decided to leave the company and founded The Weinstein Company. Miramax was sold by Disney to Filmyard Holdings LLC in 2010, ending Disney's involvement with the studio for the first time in 17 years.

History

Founded by the brothers Harvey and Bob Weinstein in Buffalo, New York in 1979, the company was named by combining the first names of their parents Max and Miriam, and was originally created to distribute independent films deemed commercially unfeasible by the major studios.

The company's first major success came when the Weinsteins teamed up with British producer Martin Lewis and acquired the U.S. rights to two concert films Lewis had produced of benefit shows for human rights organization Amnesty International. The Weinsteins worked with Lewis to distill the two films into one film for the US marketplace. The resulting film The Secret Policeman's Other Ball (US Version) was a successful release for Miramax in the summer of 1982. This release presaged a modus operandi that the company would undertake later in the 1980s of acquiring films from international filmmakers and reworking them to suit US sensibilities.

Among the company's other breakthrough films as distributors in the late 1980s and early 1990s were Scandal, sex, lies, and videotape, Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!, The Crying Game and Clerks. The company also made films such as Pulp Fiction, Heavenly Creatures and Shakespeare in Love.

In addition to those successes, Miramax acquired and/or produced many films that did extraordinarily well financially. The company became one of the leaders of the independent film boom of the 1990s. Miramax produced or distributed seven films with box office grosses totalling more than $100 million; its most successful title, Chicago, earned more than $300 million worldwide.

The company was also exceptionally successful in securing Academy Award nominations for its releases and a large number of the nominations resulted in Oscar wins.

In 1992, Miramax began a deal with Paramount Pictures for VHS and TV distribution of certain Miramax releases. Paramount would also distribute theatrically certain releases that might have commercial appeal (such as Bob Roberts, though video rights to that film were owned by Live Entertainment - which is now Lions Gate Entertainment). Paramount still owns video rights to some of these films today, while TV distribution is now with Trifecta Entertainment & Media.

Disney era

In 1993 Miramax was purchased for $80 million by The Walt Disney Company. Harvey and Bob Weinstein continued to operate Miramax until they left the company on September 30, 2005. During their tenure, the Weinstein brothers ran Miramax independently of other Disney companies. Disney, however, had the final say on what Miramax could release (see Fahrenheit 9/11, Kids and Dogma, for examples). Disney's Buena Vista Home Entertainment division releases Miramax output.

Miramax operated, until 2005, the label Dimension Films, specializing in genre films and created the Spy Kids, Scream and Scary Movie film franchises.

After the acquisition by Disney, the Weinsteins started to have problems with Disney CEO, Michael Eisner, on creative and financial matters. Eisner was reluctant to give as much creative freedom and financial support for the Weinsteins, who over the years increased the budget for their productions. Disagreements between the two sides came to the point that negotiations to extend the contract with the Weinsteins in Miramax ended in failure.

After extensive negotiations and much media and industry speculation, on March 30, 2005, Disney and the Weinsteins announced that they would not renew their contractual relationship when their existing agreements expired at the end of September 2005. The primary source of dispute was over distribution of Fahrenheit 9/11 by Michael Moore. Disney's film studio consortium, Buena Vista Motion Pictures Group assumed control of Miramax, which was projected to have a smaller annual production budget. The Weinsteins started a new film production company called simply The Weinstein Company, and took the Dimension Films label with them. The Miramax name remained with the film studio owned by Disney. Production at Miramax was taken over by Daniel Battsek, who formerly was head of Buena Vista International in the UK. Battsek refocused Miramax to produce films of high quality but low budget. Maple Pictures now hold the rights to distribute Miramax films in Canada in 2008.

Shake up and sale

On October 3, 2009, Disney announced that the staff of Miramax was to be reduced by 70%, and the number of releases would be reduced by half to just three films per year. The label's marketing, distribution and administrative functions, which had operated independently, would be folded into the parent studio in Burbank. The move became effective in January 2010. On October 30, 2009, The Walt Disney Company announced the resignation of Daniel Battsek as President of Miramax Films, effective when the transition from the studio in New York to Burbank was completed. The company merged its operations with Walt Disney Studios on January 28, 2010, shutting down Miramax's separate New York and Los Angeles offices.

Dick Cook, former Disney Studio Chairman wanted to keep Miramax but resigned, with most likely new Disney Studio Chairman (Rich Ross) deciding on selling Miramax. Bob Iger said on a conference call that when questioned about possible Miramax sale, "We determined that continuing to invest in new Miramax movies wasn't necessarily a core strategy of ours".

Several companies indicated an interest in purchasing Miramax including Destination Films, Summit Entertainment, and Qualia Capital, Amir Malin's investment fund. Bob and Harvey Weinstein via The Weinstein Company also took an interest in buying back Miramax.

Finally, on December 5, 2010, Disney closed the sale of Miramax to Filmyard Holdings, an investment group comprising Ron Tutor (CEO of Tutor-Saliba Corporation), Tom Barrack (CEO of Colony Capital), Qatar Investment Authority and The Weinstein Company; the primary financier of the investment is Barclays PLC. Mike Lang, former business development executive at News Corporation, was selected as the CEO of Miramax, and the sale, estimated around US$663 million, includes 700 film titles, as well as books, development projects and the "Miramax" name. However it may return to Disney.

Criticism

One reason for the delays and non-releases of films was an accounting scheme the Weinsteins used to shift potential money-losing films to future fiscal years and ensure they would receive annual bonuses from Disney, while trying to bar retailers from legally exporting authentic DVDs of the films.

As a result of the Weinsteins' actions, a number of Asian producers who sold their distribution rights to the company refuse to do so for their subsequent films.

"I'm not cutting for fun", Harvey Weinstein said in an interview. "I'm cutting for the shit to work. All my life I served one master: the film. I love movies."

Miramax is also accused of ignoring their more artistic, less audience-friendly films, especially when directors refuse to re-cut them to make them less challenging. Dead Man, which director Jim Jarmusch refused to re-cut, got a very limited release and critics have accused the Weinsteins of burying the film. Tarantino, among other directors working with Miramax, have happily re-cut their films to the Weinsteins' liking.

Miramax Family

Miramax Family (also known as Miramax Family Films) was the family division of Miramax Films created in 1991 and shut down in 2006. Some films distributed by them are:

• My Scene Goes Hollywood: The Movie (2005)
• Pokémon: Destiny Deoxys (2005)
• Chestnut: Hero of Central Park (2004) (DVD only)
• The Adventures of Tom Thumb and Thumbelina (2002)
• The Best of Tokyo Pig (2002)
• In Search of Santa (2002)
• The Toys Who Saved Christmas (1997)
• Hugo The Movie Star (1996)
• Gordy (1995)
• The Thief and the Cobbler (1995)
• The NeverEnding Story III: Escape from Fantasia (1994) (Moved to Warner Bros.)
• Little Buddha (1994)
• Tom and Jerry: The Movie (1993) (Moved to Warner Bros.)
• Freddie as F.R.O.7 (1992)

List of Miramax films

Main article: List of films released by Miramax Films

Squeeze (1997)

Further reading

• Down and Dirty Pictures: Miramax, Sundance, and the Rise of Independent Film by Peter Biskind (Simon & Schuster, 2004)

External links

• Official website
• Template:Imdb company
• Miramax From Box Office Mojo