On March 29, 2005, after a yearlong negotiation, the Walt Disney Company ended its relationship with Harvey and Bob Weinstein of Miramax Films.
Miramax was founded by the Weinstein brothers in 1979, and was soon established as an up and coming distributor and producer through movies such as Pelle the Conqueror (1989), sex, lies and videotape (1989), and The Crying Game (1992).
In 1993, the Weinsteins sold Miramax to Disney for $80 million in order to gain greater financial stability. It seemed to be an odd pairing due to Miramax’s history with edgy, adult-oriented content and Disney’s family-friendly reputation. However, it began well with the $108 million grossing Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction (1994).
Movies like Good Will Hunting and Shakespeare in Love followed as Disney and Miramax continued to work together. However, discord began to brew after a few unsuccessful films and when the Talk magazine project tanked the New York Times published an article announcing the split between the two companies.
According to the NYT article, the split was decided when Disney refused to distribute Michael Moore’s politically charged Fahrenheit 9/11, financed by Miramax. The controversy developed in the middle of contract negotiations, which ended with Disney as the retainer of the Miramax name and the Weinstein’s with Dimension Films, which produced hits such as Scream and Scary Movie as well as $130 million to start a new film production company.
Interested in further research on Disney, Miramax, or animation in general?
Check out some of Snell’s resources on the subjects:
Walt Disney: Conversations edited by Kathy Merlock Jackson
Dimension Films and the Exploitation Tradition in Contemporary Hollywood by Bradley Schauer
(information for this blogpost was referenced from history.com)