Miramax Company

Résumé du document

The world of the cinema is a very peculiar one. And because it is a very peculiar one, I choose to study the most peculiar firm on this market: Miramax. This choice has been motivated by the fact that this firm had a very strange story which determines its strategy. While at the beginning it was a very small independent production firm, it is today, one of the most important one on the US cinema market because of its acquisition by Walt Disney Pictures. Because of its story the firm is no more what it used to be, but it is also not the opposite. In fact, today, Miramax is a strange mix between the independent movie firm and a big major like New Line or even Universal. Miramax was created in 1979 by the brothers Harvey and Robert Weinstein in order to distribute independents films. The name of the company is the combination of the first names of the parents of the two brothers: Max and Mira. The firm is based in New York. It is the 8th American studio. On June 30th 1993 Disney bought Miramax for $75 million with the Weistein brothers who remained directors of it. Miramax Corp Films becomes a production company and the distributor of Walt Disney Company's Cinema. The success of this subsidiary company was very important thanks to the liberty of action left to the Weistein brothers.

Extraits

[...] Or rather the former Miramax . Indeed, the shareholders of the company always wanting to choose the different projects instead of the real managers Robert and Harvey Weinstein managed to make them leave the company. Eventually, they decided to create their own firm and, at last, we can wonder if they weren't the real key of success of Miramax . - Time: if we look to some other production firm we can see that once they are older than fifty years they are becoming less and less interesting. [...]

[...] Then again, Miramax didn't forget to include it in its decisions. All along the history of Miramax, we are able to notice that the social factor always helped Miramax to decide if would have been wise to produce a movie. On 1992, the decision of producing Pulp Fiction was intelligent. Drugs were a society problem growing bigger and bigger and through this movie Miramax speak directly to its audience. The message was quite clear : drug never help. The inverse is surer. [...]

[...] Regarding to Miramax, it concentrates on children and animated films. It plays quality. The films have style and often blow heart of the public in the festivals, they are also more original, daring. If Dimension does not need to release more than five or six movies a year to ensure its development and its incomes, Miramax will have to develop around about thirty films a year. Bob Weinstein has also another advantage: to be able to make continuations of certain films. [...]

[...] This success happened also because the managers were able to play with the star system, the investors and the different parts of this peculiar market. However, we can wonder what will happen to Miramax after the leaving of its two founders. Whatever, the consequences are quiet direct because when Luc Besson one of the most famous French director used to work with Miramax to export his movies, decided to confide the promotion and the distribution of his last movie Arthur and the Invisibles to the new company of the Weinstein brothers : The Weinstein Company. [...]

[...] - New Line : This firm was created in 1967 by Robert Shaye and Michael Lynne. In 1996, she is bought by the Time Warner Company and known its first worldwide success thanks to the adaptation of the novel of J.R.R Tolkien : The Lord Of The Rings by Peter Jackson on 2001. New Line is mainly specialised in Independent movies. Among the most famous movies produced by this firm there are The Mask, Se7en, American history X and eventually all the Freddy series. [...]