Miramax

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Miramax Films

logo
legal form Private
founding 1979
Seat Santa Monica
management Bill Block ( CEO )
Branch Movies
Website www.miramax.com

Miramax is an American film production and distribution company .

history

Miramax was founded in 1979 by the brothers Harvey Weinstein (* 1952) and Bob Weinstein (* 1954). The company name is a combination of the first names of both parents Miriam and Max .

Miramax was originally founded to distribute films that were made outside of Hollywood : foreign-language films and, above all, so-called independent films that did not find access to the rigid studio system in the 1980s and were considered commercially unattractive.

The documentary The Randall Adams Case , which enabled the condemned Adams to be re-examined and released, made Miramax known nationwide in 1988.

A year later, Sex, Lies and Video won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival . The scandalous films The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover (1989), Tie Me Up! (1990) and Reservoir Dogs - Wild Dogs (1992) increased the awareness of Miramax steadily. In 1994 Pulp Fiction was a great commercial success, the film grossed US $ 214 million worldwide at a production cost of US $ 8.5 million, thus paving the way for other small film studios as well .

The company became a Disney subsidiary in 1993 for a price of US $ 75 million and provided Miramax with a US $ 700 million budget . Much of this amount was used to build up stars like Ben Affleck , Jude Law , Gwyneth Paltrow , Quentin Tarantino and Renée Zellweger , who, as in the old Hollywood system, seldom made films without Miramax. In addition, Bob Weinstein founded the subsidiary Dimension Films , which operates with series such as Scream - Schrei! (1996–2011) and Scary Movie (2000–2006) grossed an additional million at the box office.

Although Miramax was among the top ten most successful studios (their films grossed over $ 2 billion in 2003 alone and were nominated for 40 Academy Awards), Disney made the most important decisions, which ended in public disputes: 1996 had to be risky classified film project Lord of the Rings to be abandoned. The break between the Weinstein brothers and Disney finally came when the distribution of the documentary Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004) was banned. The Weinsteins bought the rights to the project from their private fortune, founded the Fellowship Adventure Group and saw themselves confirmed by the success of the Michael Moore film.

As the Weinsteins Disney could not pay the purchase price of Miramax (2 billion US dollars), both brothers left their company in September 2005: Disney kept the 550 Miramax films in total, but left them with ongoing film productions, Dimension Films and a transfer fee of 140 million US dollars, with which the brothers founded The Weinstein Company . Between October 2005 and January 2010 Daniel Battsek headed the company, which under his leadership could not build on past successes.

On January 29, 2010, the parent company Disney announced that it would close Miramax and lay off all employees. No further films are to be published, although there are still six unpublished and completed productions in the repertoire of the distributor.

On July 30, 2010 it was announced that Miramax was sold by Disney to a group of investors (Filmyard Holding) around Ron Tutor for a sum of 640 million US dollars. The aim of the group is to "[...] produce a few films per year" after making small investments in the studio. As part of the sale, Disney moved the ongoing production of some films to Touchstone Pictures , such as The Tempest, and Gnomeo and Juliet .

On December 16, 2010, Filmyard Holding announced that it had established a new partnership with the Weinstein brothers. In cooperation with The Weinstein Company , sequels to successful Miramax films are to be shot - these include Rounders , Bad Santa and Shakespeare in Love .

Ron Tutor sold his shares in Miramax in late January 2013 to the state co-owner Qatar Investment Authority . In 2016 Miramax was sold by the Qatar Investment Authority to the beIN Media Group based in Doha in the Emirate of Qatar.

The greatest Miramax successes

This table shows the ten most successful Miramax films based on global box office earnings.

rank Movie title year worldwide import
01 Chicago 2002 US $ 306 million
02 Shakespeare in Love 1998 US $ 289 million
03 Scary Movie 2000 US $ 278 million
04th The English patient 1996 US $ 231 million
05 Life is Beautiful 1997 US $ 228 million
06th Good Will Hunting 1997 $ 225 million
07th Aviator 2004 US $ 213 million
08th pulp Fiction 1994 US $ 213 million
09 Master & Commander - To the end of the world 2003 US $ 210 million
10 The Others 2001 US $ 209 million

Oscars

The qualitative strength of Miramax Films and the infamous Oscar - propaganda of tartar in the aggressive style of the old Hollywood resulted in a considerable success in the award of the prices by the Film Academy of the United States . Miramax won the following awards:

2007
2006
2005
  • Tsotsi : Best Foreign Language Film
2004
2003
2002
2001
1999
1998
1997
1996
1995
1994
1993
1992
1991
1990
1989
1988

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ miramax.com: About
  2. ↑ Miramax is closing . moviepilot.de; Retrieved January 29, 2010 from
  3. ↑ Miramax at the end of Cinema .de; Retrieved January 29, 2010
  4. ↑ slashfilm.com ( Memento of the original from August 4, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved July 9, 2010 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.slashfilm.com
  5. ↑ Miramax sold. ( Memento of the original from August 4, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Slashfilm .com; Retrieved July 9, 2010 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.slashfilm.com
  6. ↑ Dylan Stableford: Miramax, Weinstein Co. to Produce Sequels to “Bad Santa,” “Swingers” (updated). The Wrap, December 16, 2010, accessed January 27, 2013 .
  7. ↑ Ron Tutor Sells Stake In Miramax: Report. Hollywood Deadline, January 22, 2013, accessed January 27, 2013 .