Disney has sold Miramax for $660M

[Donut23]

Just saw on my NPR ap on my (I LOVE mine) new Iphone4.

Disney Sells Miramax For $660M
by The Associated Press

July 30, 2010 The Walt Disney Co. says it will sell Miramax Films to an investor group for about $660 million, ending a 17-year association with the studio and a six-month bidding process.

The New York Times and Los Angeles Times report that Disney signed the agreement late Thursday with Filmyard Holding. The investor group is led by construction magnate Ronald Tutor.

Tutor and his partners put down a nonrefundable deposit of $40 million to Disney on Thursday.

Disney had been looking to sell Miramax amid a studio overhaul because it no longer resonated with its other family centric studio units such as Pixar and Marvel.

Miramax's Oscar-laden film library is full of prestigious films such as My Left Foot (1989), Pulp Fiction (1994) and Good Will Hunting (1997).


Holly cow......$40 million is a pretty big non-refundable deposit. Numbers like that make me me dizzy!

 

[DCTooTall]

Call me crazy, but wasn't part of Miramax's purpose to allow the Disney studios to create more "non-family-centric" film fair while not being so closely tied to the Disney name?


You Know... just like Touchstone was created for those PG/PG-13 movies back in the day when Disney was running into issues releasing movies a bit more in the older kid/adult genre but only had the "Walt Disney Studios" label to put on them. People complained because it wasn't some cutesy movie they could take their 5yr to see, or refused to see it because they didn't want to see a "Disney movie".... so Touchstone was created to create a distinction from the classic Disney fair. (Honestly.... Imagine the cries if SPLASH was released under the Disney label......Nude Daryl Hannah! OMG!!!)


I always thought and felt like Miramax was a continuation of that. Disney was the kiddy/family friendly Studio label, Touchstone was the older / more mature studio that still tended to release decent and fun stuff you wouldn't mind letting your older kids see.... a Miramax was the studio for the adults where you could release a film without concern about getting an R rating (or hard R).



So saying they are getting rid of Miramax because it didn't fit with their other "Family Centric" studios kind of says they want to get rid of it because it did was it was designed to do. Would Pulp Fiction been nearly as popular, or been able to do what it did, if it had the Disney name on it more prominently?

(For that matter.... Could part of the Prince of Persia's box office failure possibly be attributed to the fact it was released as a Disney Studio's film with the resulting marketting and creative baggage? ie.... older people not wanting to see a Disney movie because of the strong HighSchool Musical/Hannah Montana / Princesses association or not allowing the creative teams to explore aspects of the character or 'world' that might offend the 'Disney Image')


Sorry for the rant.