Disney Shutters Miramax

Last October, Disney announced that it would be downsizing Miramax Films, its specialty movies division. On January 27, 2010, as Sundance Film Festival draws to a close, the end of Miramax and the loss of jobs for its 80 employees became a reality. Both the New York and Los Angeles offices will be shut down.

Miramax Films, which released eight movies in 2009, has six movies awaiting distribution. The fate of those movies is now very much up in the air. Completed movies such as The Tempest, The Debt, and Last Night, may be shelved indefinitely.

Bob and Harvey Weinstein founded Miramax in 1979. It grew to become one of the leading independent film production and distribution companies in the world. In 1993 it was acquired by Disney. In 2005, the Weinstein brothers left Miramax Films and founded The Weinstein Company.

The Weinsteins have attempted to buy back the name Miramax from Disney but have never received a response. The Walt Disney Company is willing to sell Miramax Films in its entirety for nearly $1.5 billion.

Miramax has developed some of cinema’s most famous and endearing films, such as Chicago, Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs, Shakespeare in Love, and The English Patient.