Early years The Weinstein Company was founded on March 10, 2005, and officially launched that October, following the departure of
Harvey and
Bob Weinstein from
Miramax Films, which they had co-founded in 1979, and sold to
the Walt Disney Company on June 30, 1993. The Weinsteins retained ownership of the
Dimension Films label. Their first releases in 2005 included the dramatic thriller
Derailed (starring
Jennifer Aniston,
Vincent Cassel and
Clive Owen), the offbeat comedy-drama
Transamerica (starring
Felicity Huffman) the animated family film
Hoodwinked, the World War II–era comedy-drama
Mrs Henderson Presents (starring
Judi Dench and
Bob Hoskins), and the caper comedy
The Matador (starring
Pierce Brosnan and
Greg Kinnear). In February 2006, TWC announced a distribution pact with
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM). MGM distributed the product domestically in theatres, while TWC retained long-term ownership of their product. On July 13, 2006, the Weinsteins and
Robert L. Johnson announced the creation of a joint venture studio titled
Our Stories Films, which distributed
African-American-oriented films. On November 17, 2006, TWC announced a three-year deal with
Blockbuster Video to give Blockbuster exclusive rights for rentals starting on January 1, 2007. However, under the
First Sale Doctrine of United States copyright law, other rental companies are able to rent copies of the company's movies purchased at retail. TWC is the co-producer, along with Miramax, of the
Lifetime reality series
Project Runway, which for its first five seasons aired on
Bravo. The series won a
Peabody Award in 2007. On May 23, 2007, TWC announced the launch of three new direct-to-video labels: the Miriam Collection, Kaleidoscope TWC, and Dimension Extreme. On February 8, 2008, TWC launched a distributor, Third Rail Releasing, that released films aimed mainly at the home video market. On September 25, 2008, TWC ended its three-year distribution pact with MGM three months before the December 31 end date. This happened in part because TWC had struck a television output deal with
Showtime, though not through MGM's output deal with them. During the span of their pact, TWC paid for marketing and prints, while MGM received a distribution fee for booking theatres.
Financial restructuring On June 5, 2009, TWC announced the hiring of a financial adviser to restructure the finances of the company. After July 2009, many layoffs occurred at TWC, and the release dates of some films were pushed back. On September 14, 2009, TWC sold its stake in
Genius Products, which served as TWC's home video distributor from 2006 to 2009. Genius, however, had announced to exit the home video distribution business and the DVD rights that were distributed by Genius were sold to
Vivendi Entertainment. TWC also struck a deal with Vivendi. The same year, it won a
Peabody Award for ''
The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency''. On January 13, 2010, TWC announced more layoffs at the company after the box office failure of
Nine. On February 21, 2010, TWC made a deal with
Sony Pictures Home Entertainment releasing the DVDs through
Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions Group. Bob and Harvey Weinstein attempted to buy back Miramax Films from Disney in 2010, but the attempt was unsuccessful. An ownership interest in TWC's library, at that point consisting of 200 titles, was sold off to
Goldman Sachs and Assured Guaranty in 2010. The sale freed TWC from bankruptcy, and Goldman Sachs' stake in the library was purchased by
AMC Networks in 2015. According to
Deadline Hollywood: "The library will revert to the Weinstein Company itself when the remaining debt has been paid off by the films in question." On January 4, 2011, TWC agreed to acquire a 25% stake in
Starz Media. Because of this, Starz Media subsidiary
Anchor Bay Entertainment became the home video distributor for all TWC films. On February 3, 2011, the Weinsteins extracted a $75 million
consolation prize from their former parent company, Disney, thus improving their filmmaking careers. As a result, Disney handed over its 50% stake in
Project Runway, and reduced its share in four jointly owned films, including
Scary Movie and
Spy Kids, from 50% to 5%. On February 27, 2011, TWC-distributed film ''
The King's Speech'' brought to the company their first Academy Award for Best Picture at the
83rd Academy Awards, after the brothers' last Best Picture Oscar winner
Chicago had won in 2002 when Bob and Harvey Weinstein were at Miramax Films, controlled by then corporate owner Disney. Their previous Best Picture nominees for TWC were 2008's
The Reader and 2009's
Inglourious Basterds, the latter film a co-production with
Universal Pictures and
A Band Apart. On March 25, 2011, the company formed a video game division named TWC Games. TWC Games formed a strategic consultancy with Beefy Media, a video game production company, to foster relationships with publishers and create high-quality games. TWC distributed films on multiple formats (including
video-on-demand) through its Radius-TWC brand. On September 13, 2013, Bob and Harvey Weinstein launched the TWC-Dimension label to distribute projects of mutual interest They first released the TWC-Dimension label on
Paddington on January 16, 2015. On November 4, 2013, TWC announced they had picked up U.S. distribution rights to the British drama series
Peaky Blinders from
Endemol. On December 16, 2013, Miramax and TWC entered a 20-year joint-venture agreement to develop and produce films, television series, and stage shows. The deal would allow the Weinsteins to exploit the 700-film Miramax library. Sequels to
Rounders and
Shakespeare in Love were among the films being developed under this new deal, and series based on
Good Will Hunting and
Flirting with Disaster were being planned as well. Other developments included a
Noah Hawley-written film titled
The Alibi, and an adaptation of
Liz Jensen's novel
The 9th Life of Louis Drax, that late filmmakers
Anthony Minghella and
Sydney Pollack intended to make. Miramax would put up the financing and handle international sales while the Weinstein Company would develop the projects and distribute the titles domestically. On May 7, 2014, TWC announced a multi-year, multi-picture co-financing deal with
Worldview Entertainment. However, Worldview only invested in the period drama
Tulip Fever due to the departure of CEO
Christopher Woodrow. In April 2015, the Weinstein Company was closing in on a deal to sell its television division to British network
ITV for $950 million, but the deal was grounded in May. That same year, the company announced that around 40–50 layoffs would occur due to the box office failure of the comedy-drama
Burnt among other factors. Shortly after, TWC announced they would no longer release the normal 18 films per year; instead, the company would release 8–10 films per year and would make fewer acquisitions at film festivals. On July 31, 2015, TWC COO and president David Glasser briefly left the company amid a string of company exits, but then in September, he rejoined the company and planned to stay as its COO and president until 2018. Harvey Weinstein also openly expressed interest in reacquiring Miramax and merging the film and television libraries of both companies when the latter went up for sale in July. On February 23, 2016, TWC decided to put its film library of 520 titles as well as a majority stake in its television division up for sale, and later signed investment banks
Moelis & Company and Thomas Dey's ACF Investment Bank to handle the television sale (which was resumed nine months after the failed talks with ITV) by looking for strategic investors. Meanwhile, in March, Miramax had been acquired by
BeIN Media Group, but in a later July interview, however, Weinstein said that he was still interested in merging TWC with Miramax and combining the two companies' libraries in order to build a larger film library, even after the BeIN acquisition. On June 21, 2016,
James L. Dolan exited TWC's board of directors and was replaced by hedge fund billionaire and
Milwaukee Bucks co-owner
Marc Lasry. Later, on August 1, Opus Bank's media and entertainment banking division funded a $400 million
credit facility into TWC. On August 18, 2017, TWC launched Mizchief, a film label dedicated to producing animated films. When Harvey Weinstein, co-founder of TWC, was explaining the origin of the name of Mizchief, he said that it was based on how one of his kids pronounced the word, "Mischief". The only film to be released under the label was the French-Canadian animated film
Leap!, released on August 25, 2017.
Sexual abuse allegations against Harvey Weinstein On October 5, 2017,
The New York Times reported that dozens of women, including more than 60 women in the film industry, had
accused Harvey Weinstein of sexual harassment, sexual assault or rape. On October 6, three of the company's nine members of the board of directors (including Lasry) resigned after the allegations were published. Harvey Weinstein also announced that he would take an indefinite leave of absence. On October 7, Paul Tudor Jones became the fourth member of the company's board of directors to resign. On October 8, TWC announced that Weinstein had been fired. Soon after, TWC executives announced that Harvey Weinstein will not receive credit on upcoming releases, and it may consider renaming the company. On October 12, board of directors member Richard Koenigsberg, who was one of the four signatories of a board of directors statement defending Weinstein, resigned from the company as well. This was contradicted by TWC president and COO David Glasser and a spokesman for company investor Goldman Sachs. On October 17,
The Mist producer Amanda Segel accused Bob Weinstein of
sexual harassment. His lawyer Bert Fields has denied the accusations. Bert Fields and colleague Charles Shephard petitioned a court to leave a rights dispute in which Greenberg Glusker Fields was representing the Weinstein Company due to unpaid bills on December 14, 2017. The firm underscored that it is not involved in the ongoing sexual scandals. "TWC has failed to pay Greenberg Glusker for its legal services in this matter and has stated that it will be unable to pay for its services as the cases [sic] progresses," writes Shephard in a Wednesday filing. The attorneys also note that TWC has been a Greenberg Glusker client for a long time. So, when the firm was asked to handle this matter, it agreed – even though, at that time, TWC already owed the firm substantial money for prior services. "Because of the manner in which plaintiff was pursuing the case, because of the size of Greenberg Glusker's receivable, and because of some new and significant issues unrelated to this litigation which had arisen and with which TWC was required to deal (issues that have received a lot of national press and issues which do not involve Greenberg Glusker in any way, and in which Greenberg Glusker played no role whatsoever), Greenberg Glusker became concerned about being paid for its services," states the filing. Bob Weinstein told Greenberg Glusker TWC would make a substantial payment on November 20, but it never came, according to the filing, and TWC executive vice president Sarah Sobel later told the firm TWC wouldn't be able to pay. Bert Fields and several other attorneys at the Greenberg Glusker Fields law firm represented the Weinstein Company from 2005 to December 2017. Reuters reported on October 16, 2017 that TWC had entered talks with private equity firm
Colony Capital for the sale of its assets. On November 7, 2017, Colony Capital pulled out of acquiring the Weinstein Company. Other persons and companies that had expressed interest in acquiring TWC included rapper
Jay-Z,
Yucaipa Companies,
Viacom,
Lionsgate (the current home video distributor of TWC and
Miramax which ended up buying a 20% stake of Spyglass Media Group in July 2021 including the Weinstein Company films),
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (the former U.S theatrical distributor of TWC),
A&E Networks,
Administrator of the Small Business Administration Maria Contreras-Sweet, Killer Content,
Shamrock Holdings,
Vine Alternative Investments,
Anchorage Capital Group,
MSD Capital,
beIN Media Group (the current co-owner of Miramax),
Sony Pictures Television, and Versa. Contreras-Sweet had proposed turning TWC into a studio run by women, while Killer Content would donate the studio's profits to assault victims. If anyone acquired the Weinstein Company, the studio would change its name, and Bob Weinstein agreed to leave the company; he was expected to retain the
Dimension Films label. All the interested parties had to submit their first-round bids by December 20, 2017. On January 4, 2018, the Weinstein Company narrowed its bids down to six parties, with a sales price of below $500 million. The studio's owners would not receive any cash from the sale. As of November 8, 2017, the Weinstein Company had a debt load of $520 million, including $220 million from its film and television credit facilities, $150 million from production loans, $50 million in corporate debt and $100 million owed to performers. The studio expected to find a buyer without declaring for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, against the expectations of most of the interested parties. After it appeared that talks collapsed, the company announced it would file for bankruptcy. In order to raise funds, TWC has sold the rights to three of its films,
Paddington 2,
In the Heights, and
The Six Billion Dollar Man, to
Warner Bros. Pictures and was removed from the production of
Artemis Fowl and television shows such as
The Graham Norton Show,
Peaky Blinders,
Yellowstone and
Waco with its production company and producer removed from Disney and the film as a result of the allegations. On January 19, 2018, TWC indefinitely postponed the releases of some of their films and upcoming projects (e.g.
The Current War,
The War with Grandpa,
The Upside,
Hampstead,
Mary Magdalene,
Scream,
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,
Polaroid,
The Boys in the Boat and
Hotel Mumbai).
STX Entertainment later acquired the distribution rights to
The Upside, while
Scream was sold to
Paramount Pictures,
Hotel Mumbai was sold to
Bleecker Street,
The Current War and
The War with Grandpa were sold to 101 Studios,
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood was sold to
Sony Pictures/
Columbia Pictures,
Polaroid was sold to
Vertical Entertainment,
The Boys in the Boat was sold to
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and
Hampstead and
Mary Magdalene were sold to
IFC Films. As of February 2018, several companies had sued TWC, including
American Express ($1.4 million), chocolatier
Lindt & Sprüngli ($133,333), and Canadian film distributor
Entertainment One ($7.2 million for
Paddington 2), On March 20, 2018, shortly after the studio filed for Chapter 11 protection, the Bankruptcy Court in Delaware published a 394-page list of creditors owed money from TWC; including the estate of rock musician
David Bowie, film director
Michael Bay, and former First Daughter of the United States
Malia Obama. Several Russian studios, including
Central Partnership, Paradiz and Volga, and
Timur Bekmambetov's
Bazelevs Company, were also owed money from the studio. On January 7, 2019, Lantern Entertainment said that it was not responsible for TWC's unpaid debts. On March 19, 2018, the Weinstein Company announced that it had declared bankruptcy, and is considering a $310 million
stalking horse offer with
Lantern Capital. The company's bankruptcy auction began on May 4, 2018. Twenty-three bidders had expressed interest in buying certain assets from the studio. On April 27, Miramax and Lantern emerged as the frontrunners in the company's bankruptcy sale. On June 22, 2018, Lantern lowered its acquisition price to $287 million. On July 9, 2018, several actors, directors, producers and writers protested Lantern's acquisition, asking a U.S. Bankruptcy Court judge not to approve the purchase price for TWC's assets without first extracting a guarantee of payment to the creditors who are still owed money by the studio. On July 16, 2018, the bankruptcy judge agreed to convert the bankruptcy into a
Chapter 7 bankruptcy with an appointed
trustee to oversee
liquidation, and TWC's assets were sold to the Dallas-based equity firm Lantern Capital Partners for $289 million. A newly formed studio,
Lantern Entertainment, assumed the rights to TWC's 277-film library. As of July 11, 2018,
Netflix terminated its output contract with the Weinstein Company and would no longer accept deliveries or make payments to the studio. This affected the release schedule for the third season of the
MTV series
Scream (produced by
Dimension Television, and billed as a
Netflix Original internationally). On June 24, 2019, it was announced that the rebooted
Scream series would be moving to
VH1 ahead of the premiere of the third season. The third season premiered on July 8, 2019. Two other Weinstein series;
Peaky Blinders and
Spy Kids: Mission Critical; remained available for streaming. In February 2019, Lantern was reported to be reaching a settlement with
The Walt Disney Company, regarding several films that Lantern did not acquire (including
Scream 4 and
The Matador). On July 15, 2019, Spyglass settled two major claims, including $11 million for
Viacom regarding the television series
Scream and the film
Sin City 2 (which Lantern did not acquire).
Civil rights investigation On October 23, 2017, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman launched a civil rights investigation into whether the Weinstein Company violated state civil rights and New York City human rights laws in its handling of sexual harassment complaints and other types of
discrimination against employees. The attorney general's Civil Rights Bureau sent the company a subpoena seeking a long list of documents, including any documents and communications related to private out-of-court settlements struck with accusers. A group of Weinstein Company employees published a public statement in
The New Yorker asking to be released from their signed
non-disclosure agreements, which prohibit them from speaking out about their time at the company. In their statement, they wrote, "We all knew that we were working for a man with an infamous temper. We did not know we were working for a serial sexual predator." They asked the company to lift their NDAs so they could "speak openly, and get to the origins of what happened here, and how." On February 11, 2018, Schneiderman filed a civil rights lawsuit against the company, Harvey and Bob Weinstein, just shortly before an anticipated announcement that the company would be purchased by an investor group led by
Maria Contreras-Sweet. In the lawsuit, the company and both Weinsteins were accused of violating civil rights and gender discrimination laws, stating that it had "repeatedly and persistently treated female employees less well than male-employees through gender-based hostile workplace harassment, quid pro quo harassment, and discrimination" by maintaining "a group of female employees whose primary job it was to accompany HW (sic) to events and to facilitate HW's sexual conquests". In addition, the lawsuit includes information that the company's Chief Operating Officer communicated with the Human Resources Director about complaints where settlements and non-disclosure agreements were needed, with the H.R. Director not being involved in any investigation or resolution process "on more than one occasion", and details on verbal abuse and threats by Harvey Weinstein that he would (in substance) kill employees, directly or indirectly via claims that he "had connections to the Secret Service who could solve problems for him". In filing the lawsuit, Schneiderman sought to force the company to address several points: to give up non-disclosure agreements with past employees, provide better protection for employees "who would be reporting to some of the same managers" On February 16, 2018, the Weinstein Company fired President and COO David Glasser "for cause". Glasser filed a counter-suit on February 20 against the company and remaining board members, stating that no reasons other than "for cause" were given for the firing, which was described as "nothing more than a desperate attempt to deflect attention away from the very people who were empowered to halt Harvey Weinstein's abusive behavior".
Lantern Entertainment Following the sale of all assets to Lantern Capital subsidiary, Lantern Entertainment, on July 16, 2018, the Weinstein Company was completely shut down along with its website; its last film was the
historical drama The Current War on October 25, 2019 in the United States. On November 13, 2018, Lantern acquired full control of three
Quentin Tarantino films,
Inglourious Basterds,
Django Unchained and
The Hateful Eight, originally released by the Weinstein Company, for $6.1 million. On July 31, 2018, Lantern Entertainment signed a distribution deal with
Lionsgate for the Weinstein Company's library. On March 13, 2019,
Gary Barber and Lantern Entertainment revived
Spyglass Media Group with other investors, including
WarnerMedia/
AT&T's
Warner Bros.; Lantern made a majority investment, including licensing their film library, to Spyglass. On March 20, 2020, a federal judge ruled that Spyglass was not responsible for any of TWC's outgoing royalties. On July 15, 2021, Spyglass sold most of TWC's catalogue and distribution rights to
Lionsgate, as part of an acquisition deal in which Lionsgate also purchased a 18.9% equity stake in Spyglass and signed a first-look television deal with the studio. == Radius-TWC ==