The Weinstein Company Scaling Back on Indie Films to Focus on Television
Zack Sharf
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As The Weinstein Company heads into the holiday season with one of the year’s most acclaimed titles (Todd Haynes’ “Carol”) and one of its most anticipated awards contenders (Quentin Tarantino’s “The Hateful Eight”), it looks like they are already making a surprising New Year’s resolution by announcing they are cutting back on indie films in order to focus more on television production.
According to a Variety article posted earlier today, The Weinstein Company will cut back the number of films it releases from 18 a year to between eight and 10. The news comes on the heels of last week’s news that the company would bet letting go of 40 and 50 staffers, making it quite a month of change for the heavyweight distributor.
Variety has learned that TWC will begin to focus more on acquiring movies in the script stage of development so they can focus on “hands-on development,” which they recently did with the Michael Keaton-starring drama “The Founder.” While TWC will certainly have a presence at major film festivals like Sundance, the cut back in distribution deals means they were make fewer bets in acquiring completed productions.
Moving forward, TWC will compensate by boosting up its presence in television, which has proven to be economically beneficial to the company after 30% of their revenue came from producing credits on shows such as “Marco Polo” and “Mob Wives.” The company is hoping in the future for television to make up at least half of its yearly earnings.
“Our board has been on us to cut our overhead,” Weinstein told Variety. “And it’s a smart thing, but it hurts. Bob and I resisted the cuts for a few years because we still think of ourselves as a mom-and-pop organization. Maybe we need to grow up, but if this is the price of doing it, I hate growing up.”
Head over to Variety for more on the story, and check out TWC’s “The Hateful Eight” in theaters this Christmas. “Carol” is already playing in select theaters.
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