What if Lantern Entertainment was founded in 1928?/Miramax

Miramax is an American film production company owned by Lantern Capital, ViacomCBS beIN Media Group. It is headquartered in Los Angeles, California (where Lantern Entertainment lives).

On December 20, 2019, ViacomCBS announced that they would acquire 49% of Miramax from beIN (25%) and Lantern (26%) for at least $375 million, with Paramount Pictures and Lantern Entertainent gaining exclusive worldwide distribution rights to the Miramax library. ViacomCBS, Lantern and Miramax will also co-produce new content based on titles from the Miramax library. The deal is expected to close on February 28, 2020.

History
The company was founded by the brothers Harvey and Bob Weinstein in Buffalo, New York, in 1979, and was named by combining the first names of their parents, Miriam and Max. It was created to distribute independent films deemed commercially unfeasible by the major studios.

The company's first major success came when the Weinsteins teamed up with British producer Martin Lewis and acquired the U.S. rights to two concert films Lewis had produced of benefit shows for human rights organization Amnesty International. The Weinsteins worked with Lewis to distill the two films into one film for the American marketplace. The resulting film, the American version of The Secret Policeman's Other Ball was a successful release for Miramax in the summer of 1982. This release presaged a modus operandi that the company would undertake later in the 1980s of acquiring films from international filmmakers and reworking them to suit American sensibilities and audiences.

Among the company's other breakthrough films as distributors in the late 1980s and early 1990s were Pulp Fiction Scandal; Sex, Lies, and Videotape; Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!; The Crying Game, and Clerks. The company also made films such as Flirting with Disaster, Heavenly Creatures and Shakespeare in Love.

Miramax acquired and/or produced many other films that did extraordinarily well financially. The company became one of the leaders of the independent film boom of the 1990s. Miramax produced or distributed seven films with box office grosses totaling more than $100 million; its most successful title, Chicago, earned more than $300 million worldwide.

The company was also exceptionally successful in securing Academy Award nominations for its releases, many of which resulted in Oscar wins.

In 1992, Miramax began a deal with Paramount Pictures for VHS and TV distribution of certain Miramax releases. Paramount would also distribute theatrically certain releases that might have commercial appeal (such as Bob Roberts, though video rights to that film were owned by LIVE Entertainment – which is now Lions Gate Entertainment). Paramount still owns video rights to some of these films, while TV distribution is now with Trifecta Entertainment & Media.

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After extensive negotiations and much media and industry speculation, on March 30, 2005, Disney and the Weinsteins announced that they would not renew their contractual relationship when their existing agreements expired at the end of September 2005. The primary source of dispute was over distribution of Fahrenheit 9/11 by Michael Moore. Disney's film studio consortium, Buena Vista Motion Pictures Group, assumed control of Miramax, which was projected to have a smaller annual production budget.

The Weinsteins purchased TWC Pictures from Sprint and changed it to The Weinstein Company, and took the Dimension Films label with them. The Miramax name remained with the film studio owned by Disney. Production at Miramax was taken over by Daniel Battsek, who had been head of Buena Vista International in the UK. Battsek refocused Miramax to produce films of high quality but low budget.

Maple Pictures held the rights to distribute Miramax films in Canada from 2008 up until August 10, 2011, when Maple Pictures was acquired by Alliance Films.

Attorney Bert Fields of Greenberg Glusker Fields represented Bob and Harvey Weinstein through years of skirmishes between Miramax and its corporate owner Disney, rarely making public statements until he settled up the brothers’ departure to purchase the historic TWC film studio in 2005, without litigation.

On October 3, 2009, Disney announced that the staff of Miramax was to be reduced by 70%, and the number of releases would be reduced by half to just three films per year. The label's marketing, distribution and administrative functions, which had operated independently, would be folded into the parent studio in Burbank. The move became effective in January 2010. On October 30, 2009, Disney announced the resignation of Daniel Battsek as President of Miramax Films, effective when the transition from the studio in New York to Burbank was completed. The company merged its operations with The Walt Disney Studios on January 28, 2010, shutting down Miramax's separate New York and Los Angeles offices.

Though Disney Studio Chairman Richard Cook was a staunch supporter of Miramax, the brand was less of a priority for CEO Bob Iger, whose strategy was to focus on Disney's branded mass entertainment that can be exploited across Disney's theme parks, television and consumer products. Following Disney's $4 billion acquisition of Marvel Entertainment in 2009, Cook was succeeded by Rich Ross. As a result, Miramax was relegated to the status of distribution label within the Walt Disney Company. The company confirmed that it was looking into selling the Miramax label on February 9, 2010, with Bob Iger explaining "We determined that continuing to invest in new Miramax movies wasn't necessarily a core strategy of ours".

On November 23, 2010, it was reported that Google was interested in purchasing the digital rights to the Miramax library to improve the premium content offerings on YouTube, and compete with similar services such as Hulu and Netflix.

On December 3, 2010, Disney closed the sale of Miramax for US$663 million to The Weinstein Company. The sale included 700 film titles, books, development projects, and the "Miramax" name. Mike Lang, the former News Corporation business development executive who was selected as the CEO of Miramax, indicated that the company would focus on their existing library, though they would continue making original content.

After the sale was closed, some movies already developed at Miramax, including The Tempest and Gnomeo & Juliet, were eventually released by Disney under its Touchstone Pictures banner, and theatrical distribution of Don't Be Afraid of the Dark and The Debt were shifted to FilmDistrict and Focus Features respectively.

On January 12, 2011, The Weinsteins reunited with Miramax, and all of the libraries made before GoodTime's closure (including all Miramax movies) were transfered to the new division called "The Weinstein Company Classics".