So Why Does Miramax Have All Those Asian Films Collecting Dust In Their Vault?

Posted by Todd Brown at 7:09pm.

Posted in Film News .

Fans of Asian film have long been rabidly anti-Miramax. They’ve organized boycotts, run petitions and generally smeared the Weinsteins at every available opportunity. The reason for that is simple. Ol’ Bob and Harv have a long, long history of acquiring titles apparently for the sole purpose of locking them away, and on those rare occassions when something managed to escape the Miramax vault it was generally chopped to bits, poorly dubbed, often largely re-written during the dubbing process, or released with some completely unrelated film maker’s name in great big letters on the marquee. Hello, Quentin. But I’ve always found Miramax’s buy and bury policy more than a little bit puzzling ... let’s be clear here, we’re not talking a film or two here, we’re talking literally dozens of titles building up over years with no hope of a release in site. How does this make sense? Buying the film is the expensive part ... even if you get a porr return does it not make sense to at least give the vault titles at least a DVD release to recoup at least part of your expenses?

Apparently not, and Slate’s Edward Jay Epstein has got the scoop on why. Hello, phantom economics. Would you believe that Bob and Harv made better bonuses by NOT releasing films than they would have if they did? Here’s some bizarre economics for you: they had to spend money to get money, but actually releasing most of these films would’ve killed their personal bonuses, so they simply didn’t. Brutal, brutal stuff and a fascinating read ...

The Great Illusionist, by Edward Jay Epstein

Thanks to Maria for the pointer.

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Reader Comments

DMack 10/13/2005 @ 10:44pm

so… angry…
Adam Lopez 10/14/2005 @ 1:07am

So much of being the champions of indie international cinema. Turns out they were more a buncha bean counters! Grrr!!
Wise Kwai 10/14/2005 @ 5:37am

I think I’m going to be sick. Still, it explains what the heck has been going on, and why films like Tears of the Black Tiger have been held under lock and key for years now. I wonder if the vaulted films have a better chance of being released after Bob and Harvey have fully ended their relationship with Disney?
xris 10/14/2005 @ 6:20am

It’s insane, infuriating and down right appalling… but you gotta admit, to do that to Disney, that took some balls. Big balls. Balls that need wheelbarrows in order for them to get around anywhere.

Well thats my interpretation. Every sentence I kept reading of that article, I thought to myself “my god, what balls!”
joey6666 10/14/2005 @ 11:38am

Is there a list of Asian movies that Miramax has kept in his vaults?
Kurt 10/14/2005 @ 1:37pm

Here is a partial, but **nowhere near complete** list: http://www.twitchfilm.net/archives/002133.html