Miramax Films: Difference between revisions

In 1979, '''Miramax Films''' was started by Bob and Harvey Weinstein. The company was named by combining the names of their parents: '''Mir'''i'''a'''m, for their mother, and '''Max''', for their dad. In 1987, they went full throttle as far as producing/distributing movies are concerned. In 1992, Bob created a subsidiary of Miramax called [[Dimension Films]]. In 1993, Miramax, along with Dimension, was purchased by Disney, though they still licensed home video rights to Live Entertainment (which had already been distributing select Miramax titles, beginning with ''Hostile Takeover'', on videocassette) until they formed a new home video division specifically to release new Miramax product in late 1994.  

On March 29, 2005, however, the Weinstein brothers decided to leave both Disney and Miramax, taking the Dimension label with them (the split was consummated on September 30 that same year), and in October 2005, they made another film company called "[[The Weinstein Company]]". In January 2010, its offices were shut down in New York and Los Angeles and moved operations to Burbank, where Disney is based. The move caused 70 people to lose their jobs and 10 people to keep running the label. Disney also cut releases each year from 6 to just 3. Dick Cook, former Disney Studio Chairman wanted to keep Miramax but resigned, with his successor (Rich Ross) deciding on selling Miramax. Bob Iger confirmed this on a conference call when questioned about a possible Miramax sale.  

On December 3, 2010, The Walt Disney Company finalized the sale of Miramax to Filmyard Holdings, LLC, a joint venture between Colony Capital, Tutor-Saliba Corporation, and Qatar Investment Authority. On January 22, 2013, Ron Tutor sold his stake in Miramax to Qatar Investment Authority. On March 2, 2016, the studio was sold to the beIN Media Group, a spin-off of the Al-Jazeera Media Network's sports assets. From 2011 to 2019, [[Lionsgate Home Entertainment]] handled the US home media distribution of the Miramax library, while European home media rights were with [[StudioCanal (France)|StudioCanal]]. In December 2019, [[ViacomCBS]] acquired a 49% stake in Miramax, which puts its film library under the ownership of [[Paramount Pictures]].