The Miramax Waste Dumping Program
Claudia Eller wrote about the Miramax dump today, raising little new except for the idea that a Wall Sreet analyst would be stupid enough to lower expectations for Disney based on what is, essentially, bookkeeping.
Miramax has alreasy dumped 5 movies on fewer than 10 screens. 3 of the 9 films left to release should get similar treatment.
If The Weinsteins actually talked Disney into dropping $20 million in P&A into the long-shelved The Great Raid after half a dozen critics liked it, their skill as salesment remains as great as ever.
The Brothers Grimm is tracking, but if they are spending more than $10 million there, more insanity.
An Unfinished Life and Proof are not going to do enough business to demand real P&A and both shold be platformed in big cities only before they go away.
The Underclassman should be going direct to video and the studio’s alleged plan to go wide is nuts.
And then there is The Libertine, scheduled for December awards hopefulness, will quietly dissapear if the critics don’t bite and bite hard…. unless keeping Johnny happy becomes the first priority… which would be a fiscally sound choice.
Meanwhile, The Brothers Not-So-Grim are still looking for funding for their business. And while I agree that this run of colon cleansing is not going to hurt them, the fact that they have basically run out of people who are willing to bite on the big vision they have of themselves is a real problem that may well lead to a much smaller vision being forced on them by a movie-company-snakebit Wall Street.
Why didn’t Disney just let Bob and Harvey take these titles with them and just get a percentage of the grosses in return, regardless of whether they make money or not.
I would hate to find out that one or more of these titles are good and was just buried because the two companies want to put things behind them before the divorce.
Out of all of the titles here, I would like to see An Unfinished Life the most, mostly because of Morgan Freeman. Wasn’t this supposed to be a top Oscar contender last year or the year before?
It’s sad to see some supposedly quality titles get the shaft and a piece of shit like Dukes of Hazzard gets tons of money to spend. Oh well, what else is new in Hollywood?
you need to let Disney dump your Munity movies. They are an embarrassment. Making you look foolish. Lose it. An experiment did not work. You will trivialize your site.
the weinsteins are smart guys. they got out and made their money when they could. now they’re free of listening to any corporate folks and can do what they want. there winning touch has taken a beating though.
They’re dumping some really bad movies here. At least when Miramax dumps them it gives the movies at least a few weeks in a theatre. Even something that looks as bad as the Underclassman.
I think we’ll see a big awards push for the Libertine. Even if its subpar. It is their only chance this year and they’ll try to feed off of Johnny again.
Did anyone else read this recent quote regarding last year’s dump of DARKNESS from Bob Weinstein?
“‘I released this movie The Darkness last year at Christmas. It’s the worst movie I’ve ever seen in my life, but it’s a great slot. Darkness made 22 million. So I’m putting Feast in the Darkness slot…F****** Feast is Citizen Kane compared to The Darkness. (Laughs)”
Regardless of whether you liked DARKNESS or not, this quote just shows the contempt the Weinsteins have for the films they sit on.
Is there a logical explanation of why foreign producers kept selling to them even when they knew Miramax wasn’t releasing the product? Was it just that the initial $$$ were so much or something else?
Maybe it was the $$$, but for the longest time, Miramax was the only game in town for foreign producers. Miramax’s early releases brought a lot of attention for their foreign producers. It’s in recent years that people realized Harvey was hoarding these films just because he didn’t want other studio indies to have them.
It’s all about $$ with the brothers. That and cultivating relationships with people who can make them money now and in the future. All the movies they sit on won’t make money. Thats why they sit on them.
Wait… Herbie & Sharkboy are box office disappointments now? ‘Slump’ is used again to coverup the fact that neither of these reached $100 million? Whhaaa?
How is a movie supposed to ‘open big’ with only 800 theaters in mid-August? Who in the hell agreed to this release schedule from, well, hell? Why does Underclassman even exist? Disney’s stranglehold over this new division almost sounds like a mercy kill. Miramax has always bit off more than it can chew, and now the final days of this era make it crystal clear that it could never sell anything other than Oscar bait.
“All the movies they sit on won’t make money. Thats why they sit on them.”
They paid 3 million for DARKNESS and it grossed 22 million. How is that not making money?
Just because a movie doesn’t hit 100 million$ doesn’t mean its not a success. Herbie has to be considered a success.
Weinsteins are cash first, consequences later (at least in my dealings with their crazed company). It’s finally bitten them in the ass.
They bought it for 3. They probably put in 10 in PA. They do alright. Definately. There strategy of holding films and sitting on them works on some of these absolute stinkers.
Miramax sat on Hero for two years and released it in the last week of August 2004. It opened with $18 mil from over 2,000 screens and went on to gross $54 mil domestic. Of course, Tarantino’s name was attached but it helped. Most of the films they sit on should only be so lucky.
I didn’t think The Darkness was too great even before Dimension cut it to shreds and lost about 10 minutes of footage – but the worst movie he’s ever seen? Did he not bother watching PHANTOMS or CURSED?
Actually I wouldn’t blame him.
i want to see The Brother’s Grimm and hope it’s at least a fun Gilliam ride…he hasn’t let me down in the past…though the bumpy history with the movie and some of the early reviews have been less than inspiring…
I saw Grimm a few weeks ago. It’s a huge mess and for the most part quite bad, unfortunately.
Know It All –
First, I don’t think that “trivializing” the site is an issue. I don’t think the pieces are trivial and people have choices.
Second, have you looked at the Amy Adams piece or any of the directors’ pieces? I can understand some discontent on the character pieces… they are up and down, though some of them were quite good. But the junket stuff has all been, in my opinion, quite good and quite refreshing and I am very proud to be associated with them and Jamie, who has shown the skill and initiative that will have him making features while others just keep talking.
hero gets made out to be titanic by some people. it did 54. its budget was 31. thats without the press and ads. lets not try rewriting history here and calling it a smash.
It’s not Titanic, Bikey. But Miramax treated it like a dump… a money loser… and it will make a significant DVD profit domestically instead. It is also a huge number for foreign language. So in many ways, it should be loudly lauded.
it also had a pretty big star in jet li. and wasn’t a bad movie. but it wasn’t like a smash hit. maybe if miramax gave it some love it would have made 100mill instead of it sitting on a shelf. because we all know that once a movie gets that stink of sitting on a shelf it gets bad vibes and tainted with the term “bomb”. i know i heard that hero sat on a shelf for a yr and didn’t see it because of that.
I still don’t understand why everyone is so eager to agree with the studio heads, that if a movie gets shelved it must be a stinker, in contrast to the consistently high level of quality of the movies that get released all the time. Sometimes a shelved movie is just one with a harder marketing angle, that they can’t figure out what to do with.
The budget for HERO might have been 31 million but Miramax didn’t finance the entire thing — they only paid for a portion of this for their share of the rights. Anyone know exactly how much Miramax was in for?
Boxofficemojo states that Miramax paid $21 million for the rights to Hero.
Was that just for the U.S. rights or did they get a chunk of the International as well?
A chunk of international as well. The UK and a few other territories.
If Miramax can’t find an angle to attack in marketing then it doesn’t exist. Those guys have a great knack for it.
Since 9/11/2001 Miramax has been the most right-wing studio in Hollywood.
Rick Sands was the one who got out at the right time. As the VP in charge of day-to-day operations he enforced a right-wing policy on Miramax:
“Buffalo Soldiers” — sabotaged (spoof of US Army), dumped.
“The Quiet American” — nearly sabotaged (critical of US foreign policy), grudgingly released (due to pressure by star and director).
“People I Know” — sabotaged (critical of Rudolph Giuliani), dumped.
“Gangs of New York” — flag-waving jingoism, got whipped at the box office.
“Prozac Nation” — sabotaged (critical of pharmaceutical industry), pulled 4 days prior to planned release, had US premiere on cable.
“Cold Mountain” — flag-waving pro-war movie, got whipped at the box office.
“Fahrenheit 9/11” — dumped on orders of Disney corporate (for being critical of Bush gov’t).
“Hero” — released to coincide with the 2004 Republican Party convention.
“The Great Raid” — flag-waving pro-war movie that has tanked.
In no way do I see how Gangs of New York and Cold Mountain were flag-waving jingoistic pro-war movies.
Also aren’t the Weinsteins big donors to the Democratic Party? Their release schedule has more to do with money and pressure from Disney.
The company that fought a very vicious, public battle to get “Fahrenheit 9/11” into theatres is the most right-wing studio in Hollywood???!!! Now I’ve heard it all.
The Weinsteins are huge Liberal and Democrat providers. They only do things for money. Not ideology. Like every company out there.
Terence, I can’t tell if you’re defending or attacking the Weinsteins.
This has been a Miramax strategy since Day 1. Sometimes they make out and the movie does better than they hoped. If it fails and the movie bombs they blame it on the movie and not their marketing. Its win-win.
“The company that fought a very vicious, public battle to get “Fahrenheit 9/11″ into theatres is the most right-wing studio in Hollywood???!!! Now I’ve heard it all.”
Do you really believe that? I don’t. A “very vicious, public battle”? Come on. That was all for publicity. There was never a second where they thought they weren’t going to get 911 released. Don’t be naive.
I can’t believe they spent 20million on marketing for The Great Raid. What did they spend it on? No one’s heard of the bloody movie. It’s being talked about on several right-wing blogs by people claiming it’s actually pretty good as well as politically incorrect. And all people can say is why didn’t they ever hear about this film? No one’s heard of it. Apparently, they even talked about how they’d never heard of it on even Rush Limbaugh’s show. They all think the movie got dumped.
lindenen, IMHO the very fact that they took on and humiliated Eisner qualifies it as a vicious public battle.
Even if you don’t agree, the main point is still the same: No studio with a supposed right-wing agenda would ever release a movie like “Fahrenheit 9/11.”
Nobody with a right-wing agenda would have been involved in the production of such a film all the way up to its release, either.
I still want to know how Gangs and Cold Mountain were right-wing screeds.
As a right winger, I don’t know how those movies were right wing. Gangs was good. Mountain too long. But right wing? Why? Because they had to fight for what they believed in and weren’t dove/peace mongers who wouldn’t fight? Ok, you got it.
“lindenen, IMHO the very fact that they took on and humiliated Eisner qualifies it as a vicious public battle.”
When did that happen?
The Great Raid got dumped. It was in the can over a year ago. Has two sorta name stars. A classic story. A good director. Yet Miramax holds off and waits to dump it. It must be great.
lindenen, it sure seemed vicious and public at the time. (Where were you?) Miramax took on Eisner by financing the movie despite his specific edict that Disney didn’t want to have anything to do with it. Then he rufused to distribute it, and they had to negotiate a buy-back of the film. They ended up humiliating him with the spectacular tonnage of money the film ended up making. (Has that been part of any of the Disney shareholder suits? Could’ve been, but probably wouldn’t be a winning shareholder derivative claim.)
It’s spelt refused. Not rufused. Come on now.
Duly noted, Sanchez.
There isn’t a lot of fighting-for-what-they-believe-in in Cold Mountain. Jude Law deserts the war to head back to Nicole Kidman. I agree the movie was too long.
Not only was “Cold Mountain” not about fighting for what you believe in, but, possibly quite the opposite, its male lead was an army deserter. Not one of the main characters was fighting for a cause. They were only fighting to survive under the dangers of their immediate circumstances.
the movie stunk up the joint. it made jude laws genitalia shrink.
Cold Mountain was about boredom. Boredom from running away from a fight so you can go home and get laid because you’re a chicken. Real heart warming.
Anthony Mingella is one of those directors who needs a strong producer and a really good editor with him. Otherwise we stare at 4 hours of film and plots that go on forever.
He does have a really good editor, Walter Murch, who won two Oscars for The English Patient. So he’s got an incentive to do what Minghella says.
Bruce: you do remember that the fight he’s running away from was the Civil War, on the Confederate side? While it is a virtue to stay loyal to your fellow soldiers, there’s not a lot of glory in sticking with the cause of supporting slavery in a losing war.
Jude Law was a wuss in that movie. Any soldier who leaves his fellow soldiers is a wuss. You think the rest of them didn’t want to run into Nicole’s arms?
the great raid is an epic disaster…it had to have cost at least $80-90 million and I bet even more…it will be luck to get to $16-18 domestic…that’s a horrific failure and it’s amazing to me that more people drone on and on about the failure of THE ISLAND or STEALTH when the great raid will loose MILLIONS more than either one of those movies.
No way that cost 90 mill. I can’t see it. Actually , you’re right. It says 80mill budget on Mojo. Wow.
Chester, I honestly don’t think it was vicious. I think they planned it that way so Disney could fund it but then get away without appearing to take a possibly controversial political stance just in case the Republicans in Congress decided to make them pay for the nose for it. I guess I just ascribe more Machiavellian motives to Eisner and Miramax.
“Gangs of New York” was released amid a drumbeat for war, thus the movie was sold as jingoism. “Cold Mountain” was released while the US military was in Iraq, thus the movie was sold as pro-war. For proof check out the New York Times or any big-city newspaper on microfilm.
Miramax’s jingoism has turned off the arthouse/upmarket crowd. The Clairidge Cinema in Montclair NJ dropped “The Great Raid” after only one week; the UA East Hampton on Long Island is playing that movie at the last show only (10 PM).
According to Box Office Mojo, COLD MOUNTAIN did $95,600,000 domestic and $77,400,000 foreign for a total of $173,000,000. GANGS did $77,800,000 domestic and $115,900,000 foreign for a total of $193,700,000. How much more would they have to have done to NOT be “whipped” at the box office?
I don’t recall either movie being sold as pro-war, I don’t even see how that could be done. I remember Gangs was sold with an emphasis on street warfare, Cold Mountain as a period romance with explosions. And regardless of the marketing, it was deceptive because the content of neither movie is pro-war.