Miramax
Miramax, LLC (also known as Miramax Films) is an American entertainment company, known for producing and distributing feature films and television shows. It is based in Los Angeles, California. Miramax was founded in 1979 by brothers Bob and Harvey Weinstein, and was a leading independent motion picture production and distribution company before it was acquired by The Walt Disney Company on June 30, 1993. The Weinsteins operated Miramax with more creative independence and financial than any other division of Disney until September 30, 2005, when they left the company and founded a new studio, The Weinstein Company. Miramax was sold by Disney to Filmyard Holdings, a joint venture of Colony NorthStar, Tutor-Saliba Corporation and Qatar Investment Authority, in 2010, ending Disney's 17 years of ownership of the studio. In 2016, the company was sold to beIN Media Group. In 2019, beIN agreed to sell a 49% stake in the company to Paramount Global (through its Paramount Pictures unit).
History
He was independent (1979–1993)
The company was founded by brothers Harveyy and Bob Weinstein in Buffalo, New York, in 1979, and was named after combining the names of their parents, Miriam and Max. It was created to distribute independent films deemed commercially unviable by major studies.
The company's first major success came when the Weinsteins teamed up with British producer Martin Lewis and acquired the US rights to two concert films Lewis had produced for charity programs for the human rights organization Amnesty International. The Weinsteins worked with Lewis to put the two films together into one film for the US market. The resulting film, the American version of The Secret Policeman's Other Ball, was a successful release for Miramax in the summer of 1982. This release heralded a modus operandi that the company would undertake later in the 1980s to acquire films from international filmmakers and rework them to suit American sensibilities and audiences.
Among the company's other breakthrough films as a distributor in the late 1980s and early 1990s included Pulp Fiction Scandal; Sex, Lies, and Videotape; Tie me up!; The Crying Game and Clerks. The company also made films such as Flirting with Disaster, Heavenly Creatures and Shakespeare in Love.
Miramax acquired and/or produced many other films that performed very 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 totaling more than $100 million; its most successful title, Chicago, grossed more than $300 million worldwide.
The company has also been exceptionally successful, earning Academy Award nominations for its releases, many of which have resulted in Oscars.
In 1992, Miramax entered into an agreement with Paramount Pictures for VHS and television distribution of certain Miramax releases. Paramount would also distribute certain films that might have commercial appeal (such as Bob Roberts, although the video rights to that film were owned by LIVE Entertainment, which is now Lions Gate Entertainment). Paramount still owns the video rights to some of these films, while television distribution is now with Trifecta Entertainment & Medium.
Disney era (1993–2010)
On June 30, 1993, The Walt Disney Company purchased Miramax for $60 million, paving the way for Disney to enter the independent film market. 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 from other Disney subsidiaries, and as a result had more autonomy than the other Disney-owned companies. Disney, however, had the final say on what Miramax could release (see Fahrenheit 9/11 and Dogma, for examples). Disney's Buena Vista Home Entertainment division launched the Miramax outlet.
In addition to owning Miramax between 1993 and 2010, Disney also owned the rights to Miramax's pre-1993 catalog at the time.
With a more stable budget, Miramax began to move beyond acquisitions and distribution to feature film productions. Until September 30, 2005, the company also operated the Dimension Films label, which was founded solely by Bob to specialize in teen films, horror, and other genres, and created the Scream film franchises. and Scary Movie. Harvey financed bigger projects and up-and-coming directors like Robert Rodriguez, Gus Van Sant, and Quentin Tarantino. Some of the films won Oscars.
In 1997, Miramax joined Peter Jackson as a major financial backer in trying to get the Lord of the Rings films produced. Disney did not like the cost of a two-part film and requested that it be produced as a single film. Jackson and Saul Zaentz turned down Disney's request and sought another studio or financier. Therefore, Miramax sold the rights to Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit to New Line Cinema in August 1998 for approximately $12 million, leading to The Lord of the Rings to be produced as a trilogy. Miramax retained a 5% share of the films' gross, then gave 2.5% to the Weinsteins.
Through Miramax, Harvey founded Talk magazine with Tina Brown in 1998 (it closed in 2002), though without the approval of then-Disney boss Michael Eisner, which upset Eisner.. Also that year, 30 former employees filed suit for unpaid overtime wages.
By 2003, Miramax was less active in the independent film market and became a large retailer as the company only acquired 3 films while producing Cold Mountain for $80 million. The Weinsteins claimed the company was profitable, but The Walt Disney Co. Chairman Robert Iger indicated in June 2004 that they did not properly account for "standard account overhead, distribution fees, bonuses that we pay Bob and Harvey. Nor are they applying current accounting standards."
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 main source of dispute was the distribution of Fahrenheit 9/11 by Michael Moore. smaller annual production budget. The Weinsteins started a new film production company called The Weinstein Company, taking Dimension Films with them. The Miramax name remained with the Disney-owned film studio. Production at Miramax was taken over by Daniel Battsek, who had been head of Buena Vista International in the UK. Battsek refocused Miramax to produce high-quality, low-budget movies. Maple Pictures held the rights to distribute Miramax films in Canada from 2008 until August 10, 2011, when Alliance Films acquired Maple Pictures.
Greenberg Glusker Fields attorney Bert Fields represented Bob and Harvey Weinstein through years of skirmishes between Miramax and its corporate owner Disney, rarely making public statements until he settled the brothers' departure in 2005, without litigation.
On October 3, 2009, Disney announced that Miramax's staff would be reduced by 70%, and the number of new releases would be cut in half to just three films per year. The brand's marketing, distribution and management functions, which had operated independently, would be incorporated into the parent studio in Burbank. The move took effect in January 2010. On October 30, 2009, Disney announced the resignation of Daniel Battsek as president of Miramax Films, an achievement as the studio's transition from New York to Burbank was completed. The company merged its operations with The Walt Disney Studios on January 28, 2010, closing Miramax's separate offices in New York and Los Angeles.
Although Disney Studios Chairman Dick Cook was a strong supporter of Miramax, the brand was less of a priority for Disney CEO Bob Iger, whose strategy was to focus on mass Disney-branded entertainment that can be exploited in the Disney theme parks, televisions and consumer products. Following Disney's $4 billion acquisition of Marvel Entertainment in 2009, Cook was succeeded by Rich Ross. As a result, Miramax was relegated to the status of a distribution brand within The Walt Disney Company. The company confirmed that it was looking to sell the Miramax brand on February 9, 2010, with Bob Iger explaining "We determined that continuing to invest in new Miramax films was not necessarily our core strategy".
On November 23, 2010, it was reported that Google was interested in buying the digital rights to Miramax's catalog to enhance premium content offerings on YouTube and compete with similar services such as Hulu and Netflix.
Post-Era Disney (2010–present)
On December 3, 2010, Disney closed the sale of Miramax for $663 million to Filmyard Holdings, an investment group and a joint venture of Colony NorthStar, Tutor-Saliba Corporation and the Qatar Investment Authority. The sale included 700 movie titles, books, projects in development and the "Miramax" name. Mike Lang, the former News Corporation business development executive who was selected as CEO of Miramax, indicated that the company would focus on its existing catalog, though they would continue to create original content.
After the sale closed, some films already in development at Miramax, including The Tempest and Gnomeo & Juliet, were eventually released by Disney under its Touchstone Pictures subsidiary, and the theatrical distribution of Don't Be Afraid of the Dark and The Debt moved to FilmDistrict and Focus Features respectively.
On February 11, 2011, Miramax signed a home entertainment agreement with Lions Gate Entertainment and StudioCanal to distribute more than 550 titles from the Miramax catalog on DVD and Blu-ray. Lionsgate will handle distribution in the United States, and StudioCanal will handle distribution in Europe. On February 17, they reached an agreement with Echo Bridge Home Entertainment to distribute the company's additional catalog of 251 titles worldwide. national DVD/Blu-ray. The last deal expired in October 2014, after which Lionsgate expanded their current deal to include the Echo Bridge catalog collection; thus, Lionsgate has full home entertainment distribution of the entire Miramax catalog in North America. From 2012 to 2017, Warner Home Video took over Japanese home entertainment distribution of the Miramax catalog.
On March 1, 2011, Miramax renewed its Canadian distribution agreement with Alliance Films, which had been a distributor of Miramax releases in Canada from 1987 to 2008 and will replace Maple Pictures (which had distributed Miramax releases from 2008 to 2011). Alliance will have access to all the titles in the company's catalog again and the distribution rights to new Miramax films produced in the next five years.
On March 25, 2011, Miramax entered into licensing discussions with several premium digital services, including Netflix, Amazon, Google and Hulu, for the digital distribution of the former company's film catalogue.
On September 6, 2011, Miramax announced that hundreds of its film titles were available digitally in Latin American territories, including Brazil, Mexico, and Argentina, under a multi-year agreement with Netflix. Miramax on September 28 signed a multi-year agreement to bring a wide range of its films to Hulu subscribers in Japan. On November 16, 2011, Miramax announced a multi-year digital licensing agreement to stream a wide range of films to Netflix members in the United Kingdom and Ireland, and on November 21, 2011, NetMovies and Brazil's Miramax reached a multi-year film streaming deal.
During 2011, Miramax raised funds through a film-backed securitization that valued the company at more than $800 million.
On January 29, 2012, Panasonic announced that the Miramax app would be one of the new apps to join Viera Connect in 2012, allowing users to access the Miramax movie catalog. On January 31, 2012, Miramax signed a video-on-demand deal with BT Vision giving BT Vision Unlimited subscribers instant access to a range of Miramax's award-winning films.
On March 16, 2012, Mike Lang stepped down as CEO of Miramax. Miramax CFO Steve Schoch led the company until 2016.
In March 2012, the UK's Miramax-branded multi-channel broadcaster, UKTV, announced a licensing agreement under which a number of the studio's hit films will be made available to UKTV subscribers via its basic channels pay and DTT.
On April 1, 2012, Miramax and Sky Italia, Italy's leading pay-TV platform, announced an agreement under which the network will broadcast many of the top titles in the Miramax collection across all of its broadcast channels. pay television in Italy. On April 2, 2012, Miramax and the Samuel Goldwyn Jr. Family Trust announced that Miramax's Global Sales team will manage the global licenses of the catalog produced by Samuel Goldwyn on a wide range of digital platforms and of television.
On January 22, 2013, Ron Tutor sold his interest in Miramax to the co-owner of the Qatar Investment Authority.
On December 16, 2013, Miramax reached an agreement with The Weinstein Company of Bob and Harvey Weinstein to develop and distribute select derivative works of the former studio's films. Sequels, TV series or stage productions of titles such as Rounders and Shakespeare in Love are among the projects said to be part of this deal.
In October 2014, Miramax announced that it will license television and digital distribution rights to the Revolution Studios catalogue, which also includes the Morgan Creek International catalogue.
On July 17, 2015, Qatar and Colony NorthStar put Miramax up for sale for a $1 billion offer. dollars. Harvey and Bob Weinstein reportedly regained interest in reacquiring the studio through TWC in September. On March 2, 2016, Miramax was sold to beIN Media Group, a spin -off from Al Jazeera Media Network (formerly owned by its namesake beIN Sports).
In a July 2016 interview, Harvey Weinstein stated that he was still interested in combining TWC's film catalog with Miramax's, after the latter's acquisition by beIN.
After Miramax co-founder Harvey Weinstein was accused of sexual assault, Miramax became one of 60 parties to bid for The Weinstein Company on January 16, 2018. On April 27, Miramax and Lantern Capital emerged as the strongest contenders to acquire TWC's assets. Ultimately, it was Lantern who acquired the TWC catalogue.
On June 7, 2019, beIN began the process of selling approximately 50% of Miramax in an effort to offer it for growth. Lionsgate (which currently distributes Miramax titles on home video), Spyglass Media Group (owners of the Weinstein Company catalogue, inherited through its deal with Lantern) and Viacom (the parent company of Paramount which merged with CBS Corporation on December 4, 2019 to form ViacomCBS) are seen as the top contenders to acquire a stake in the company. However, on August 19, 2019, Lionsgate and Viacom were the only contenders, as Spyglass Media Group dropped out of contention. On September 11, 2019, it was announced that Lionsgate had withdrawn its bid, making Viacom the sole bidder for the stake in Miramax. But on November 8, 2019, Viacom pulled out of negotiations to acquire the stake. After merging with CBS Corporatio n to become ViacomCBS, the combined company resumed talks with Miramax.
On December 20, 2019, ViacomCBS announced that it would acquire 49% of Miramax from beIN for at least $375 million, with Paramount Pictures obtaining exclusive worldwide distribution rights to the Miramax catalogue, as well as the Dimension catalogue. Films prior to October 2005. ViacomCBS and Miramax will also co-produce new content based on titles from the Miramax catalog. The deal is expected to close in the first quarter of 2020.
Criticism
The company has been criticized for delaying or withholding the release of Asian films to which it acquires US distribution rights by attempting to prohibit retailers from legally exporting authentic DVDs of the films.
In a 2005 interview, director Hayao Miyazaki recounted that Harvey Weinstein aggressively sought a large number of edits of Miyazaki's animated film Princess Mononoke for the film's US release. Miyazaki stated that his producer sent Weinstein a samurai sword with the message & # 34; No cuts & # 34; attached to the sheet. According to Miyazaki, the film was released without the edits Weinstein wanted. Weinstein has always insisted that such editing be done in the interest of creating the most economically viable film. "I'm not cutting scenes for fun", Weinstein said in an interview. Im cutting them to make the shit work. All my life I served one master: the movie. I love movies".