Weinsteins can't buy a hit: For a while, you really couldn't
fault the Weinsteins. Seriously, who could conjure a hit out of forgettable fare
like "Lucky Number Slevin," "Factory Girl" or "The Last Legion"? But in the three
years since the brothers Harvey and Bob severed their
... moreties with Miramax, a
company they founded and sold to the Walt Disney Company, a number of films,
such as "Grindhouse," "The Great Debaters," "Miss Potter" and "The Nanny Diaries," came into their hands that would have been
easy hits for other studios. Well, this year, the bottom dropped out. Expected
hits that were supposed to keep the studio afloat, such as "Superhero Movie," "Soul Men" and, stunningly, "Zack and Miri Make a Porno," completely underperformed. In
fact, throw "Zack and Miri" to Universal, Columbia or Fox, and the picture would
have easily done double its domestic take. Ironically, Woody Allen, hardly a hit-maker the past decade,
delivered the brothers a summer surprise with "Vicky Cristina Barcelona," but it
still makes you wonder how much longer these guys can stay in the movie
business. (The Weinstein Company)Close