just an FYI...........

[dalt01]

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=a7qXVFlkNOhs

 

[Renysmom]

What are you linking too? I and many here won't click on an unexplained link.

Thanks

 

[mikelan6]

Disney Shuts Miramax, Indy Studio Weinsteins Led to Oscar Glory

.

 

[gr8leg8]

Disney Shuts Miramax, Indy Studio Weinsteins Led to Oscar Glory
Jan. 29 (Bloomberg) -- Walt Disney Co., the world’s biggest media company,
closed its Miramax offices and made plans to distribute the six remaining pictures
from the film studio founded by brothers Harvey and Bob Weinstein.

The moves were part of a restructuring announced in October, Burbank, California-based Disney said yesterday in an e-mailed statement.
The unit had offices in New York, London and Los Angeles.
An estimated 80 people lost their jobs, according to TheWrap.com, which reported the action earlier yesterday.

Miramax made its name taking art and foreign films and turning them into hits.
It won four Oscars for best picture, including “Chicago,” “Shakespeare in Love” and “The English Patient.”
The Weinsteins left in 2005. Their new studio has struggled and was in talks with potential partners last month,
David Glasser, a company executive, said in a Dec. 31 interview.

“I know the movies made on my and my brother Bob’s watch will live on,” Harvey Weinstein, 57, said yesterday in an e- mailed statement.”
Chief Executive Officer Robert Iger has been restructuring Disney’s money-losing film operations since October
when he named Rich Ross chairman, replacing Dick Cook.
Ross said in October Miramax chief Daniel Battsek would leave in January and has consolidated live-action, animation and home-video.
The company is shrinking film production to focus on family titles.

“Miramax worked best when it was an independent company where every single film was nurtured by Harvey Weinstein,” said David Davis, managing partner of Santa Monica, California-based Arpeggio Partners, which advises movie industry investors.

220 Oscar Nominations
The Weinsteins left Disney after clashes with then-Chief Executive Officer Michael Eisner.
It was founded 29 years ago and named after the Weinsteins’ parents, Miriam and Max, Harvey Weinstein said.
The name still holds sentimental value for the two filmmakers.

“If there is ever an opportunity to make a deal to buy it back, we would certainly take it
and there isn’t much in the world that would make our 83-year-old mother happier,” Harvey Weinstein said in the statement.

From Disney’s 1993 acquisition of Miramax until the Weinsteins left,
the studio garnered 220 Oscar nominations for films including “Pulp Fiction,” “The Aviator” and “Life Is Beautiful,”
according to a 2005 Disney statement.
“Harvey used a portfolio that had about one out of every 10 movies pop out and make the whole company profitable for the year,”
Davis said in an interview.

Fewer Movies
Miramax released five movies last year that took in a total of $39.6 million in U.S. box-office sales,
according to Box Office Mojo, a film researcher based in Sherman Oaks, California.
Eight films released in 2008 collected $66.2 million in U.S. ticket revenue.

“Chicago” was Miramax’s top-grossing movie, collecting $307 million in worldwide ticket sales following its December 2002 release,
according to Box Office Mojo.
In addition to best picture, the movie also produced a best supporting actress award for Catherine Zeta-Jones.
Disney gained 3 cents to $29.35 yesterday in New York Stock Exchange composite trading.
The stock advanced 42 percent in 2009.
To contact the reporter on this story: Andy Fixmer in Los Angeles at afixmer@bloomberg.net

 

[WaltD4Me]

Intresting. I wondered if they tried bringing the Weinsteins back to Mirimax after Eisner left.

And I loved the part about Mirimax being named after the parents Miriam and Max.

 

[dalt01]

What are you linking too? I and many here won't click on an unexplained link.

Thanks

sorry never gave that a thought. i just go about willy nilly clicking on anything. thats why i have to reload windows every once in a while