Film Report Card: Miramax

By VARIETY STAFF

Harvey Weinstein may not have gotten his candidate into the White House this year, but things have gone well at his day job. Miramax's mix of mainstream and arthouse entertainment grew more profitable in 2000, Weinstein told Daily Variety. Among the titles that sent profits soaring -- B.O. was up more than $100 million over the previous year -- were "Scary Movie," "Scream 3" and "The Legend of Drunken Master," plus the end runs on "The Cider House Rules" and "The Talented Mr. Ripley."

Miramax also trotted out its Oscar hopefuls in its end-of-the-year release ritual: Billy Bob Thornton's "All the Pretty Horses" and Lasse Hallstrom's "Chocolat."

While "Chocolat" garnered four Golden Globe noms, "Pretty Horses" suffered from mixed reviews and received just one nomination, for best original score.

Miramax showed little appetite for its old stomping grounds in the acquisitions arena as it backed big-budget co-productions like "Gangs of New York" and "Four Feathers," but foreign-language acquisitions are still part of the Miramax mix. The Spanish-language "Butterfly" grossed $2.1 million in the U.S. last summer, and Giuseppe Tornatore's "Malena" is currently in release.

For 2001, Miramax is placing its bets on "Bridget Jones' Diary," the U co-production "Captain Corelli's Mandolin" and the aforementioned "Gangs." Its Dimension division is readying a "Scary Movie" sequel as well as the Antonio Banderas starrer "Spy Kids" -- the first Miramax release ever to have a promotional tie-in campaign, with McDonald's -- and John Cusack starrer "Serendipity."

Gill was optimistic that such 2001 Miramax releases as "Gangs of New York," "Bridget Jones' Diary" and "Serendipity" would each find a large aud. "This has become a business where companies are defined by their crossover hits," Gill said. In 2000, "We had 'Cider House Rules,' and in 2001 we hope to have two or three."

Disappointments in 2000 included "The Yards," which overran its $17 million budget by $7 million, and "Reindeer Games," which earned just $23 million domestically and has had to look to strong video and DVD numbers to blunt the pain of its production and P&A costs.

Miramax Domestic box office
Film	Release date	2000 gross*
Princess Mononoke	1999	0.001
Music of the Heart	1999	0.1
Mansfield Park	1999	2.3
Holy Smoke	1999	1.7
The Cider House Rules	1999	53.3
Diamonds	1999	0.08
Down to You	Jan. 21	20.1
Scream 3	Feb. 4	89.1
Reindeer Games	Feb. 25	23.4
East Is East	April 14	4.2
Committed	April 28	0.04
Human Traffic	May 5	0.1
Hamlet	May 12	1.6
Love's Labour's Lost	June 9	0.3
Boys and Girls	June 16	21.8
Butterfly	June 16	2.1
Scary Movie	July 7	157.0
The Wisdom of Crocodiles	July 14	0.001
Highlander: Endgame	Sept. 1	12.8
Backstage	Sept. 6	1.2
The Legend of Drunken Master	Oct. 20	11.5
Calle 54	Oct. 20	0.06
The Yards	Oct. 20	0.9
Bounce	Nov. 17	36.7
A Hard Day's Night**	Dec. 1	0.7
Chocolat	Dec. 15	4.2
Wes Craven Presents Dracula 2000	Dec. 22	21.6
All the Pretty Horses	Dec. 25	9.0
Malena	Dec. 25	0.5
Vatel	Dec. 25	0.03
TOTAL		476.4
** reissue * - figures in millions

2001 slate
Film	Release date
With a Friend Like Harry	Jan. 26
About Adam	March 2
Accidental Spy	March 4
Blow Dry	March 9
Spy Kids	March 30
Get Over It	March
Bridget Jones' Diary	April 13
Scary Movie 2	July 4
Birthday Girl	2nd quarter
Imposter	2nd quarter
Texas Rangers	2nd quarter
O	2nd quarter
Waking Up in Reno	2nd quarter
The Third Wheel	2nd quarter
Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back	3rd quarter
40 Days and 40 Nights	3rd quarter
Serendipity	3rd quarter
Heaven	3rd quarter
Daddy & Them	3rd quarter
Gangs of New York	4th quarter
The Shipping News	4th quarter