In September it was announced that Dylan Sellers is stepping down as President of Production after three years at TWC to pursue his producing career. Sellers is responsible for such titles as award winning August: Osage County and the recent release, St. Vincent.
Stephen Bruno has served as President of Marketing for TWC for the past three years. He has recently been offered a position by Netflix to head their marketing department. After 7 years with TWC, his contract is up at the end of the year.
The Weinstein Company released 14 films to date in 2014. In the US market these films have brought in $132,955,985 so far, making TWC the 8th highest grossing studio with 2% market share. TWC was ranked eighth in 2013, but they are down 2.5% market share from 2013. Though the summer was a flop for films such as Begin Again with Adam Levine, The Giver, and Sin City: A Dame to Kill For, TWC has five promising new titles in theaters this fall that could raise revenues and bring in awards for the studio. These titles include, The Disapearance of Eleanor Rigby, St. Vincent, Tracks, The Imitation Game and One Chance.
 Staring Bill Murray, Melissa McCarthy, Naomi Watts, and Chris O’Dowd, St. Vincent is the story of an unlikely friendship between two neighbors as they both struggle to find their way in the world.
The quirky comedy has already received Oscar buzz and high praise upon its debut at the Toronto Film Festival. It was released limitedly on October 10th in 4 theaters and saw $109, 878 in box office sales.Upon it’s wide release on October 24th, St. Vincent saw $7,746,596 in revenue in 2,282 theaters, ranking #6 in the box office overall that weekend. In its 9th week, St. Vincent has made $40,749,905 domestically, and $41,346,602 worldwide. Just 1.4% of revenue was seen internationally. This may have to do with Netflix’s deal with TWC to release the feature film for streaming on Netflix in France the same day as the US wide release. The week leading into its wide release, Variety reported that St. Vincent lead the week in TV ad sales, spending $5.1 million .
The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Him and Her shows both sides of the story in this classic tale of two people falling out of love.
The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Them stands completely alone from Him and Her with a fresh perspective on Conor and Eleanor’s relationship.
The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby is The Weinstein Company’s attempt to break the traditional templates of production. The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby follows the relationship of Jessica Chastain and James McAvoy and consists of three feature length films from three different perspectives; his, her’s, theirs. Each film was created explicitly through editing, yet each film tells a completely different story and can stand on its own as a feature film. Him and Her were released on September 12th as a two part, 200 minute film, and Them was released on September 4th as a 123 minute film. Though Eleanor Rigby has created quite a bit of buzz in the industry, the box office results have been anything but stellar. To date, the total revenue has been $985,007 worldwide. 59.7% of that revenue was seen domestically. Originally only in four theaters, by its 3rd week Eleanor Rigby was in 139 theaters, but is now only available in two.
Tracks tells the true story of Robyn Davidson, the woman who journeyed across the Australian Outback.
The Weinstein Company acquired the rights to Tracks, directed by John Curran after its premier in the Venice Film Festival. It premiered in the United States during the Telluride Film Festival and also made a favorable impression at the Toronto Film Festival. Tracks was released in seven theaters on September 19th and grossed $21,544 opening weekend. After ten weeks in theaters, the film has grossed $4,878,242. Notably, only 10.5% of that revenue is from the domestic box office.
One Chance tells the story of Britain’s Got Talent’s first winner, Paul Potts. It was originally released to stream on Yahoo before debuting in theaters. This was an attempt by TWC to capture more audiences as the landscape of movie viewing is vastly changing. The financials of the TWC/Yahoo deal were not released, but ads were shown throughout the online screening.Theater chains were reportedly unhappy with this deal. When One Chance hit the box office on October 10th, it saw $33,405 in 43 theaters. To date, it has grossed $10,889,830 worldwide, with only 0.8% domestic sales.
 Benedict Cumberbatch stars in the biopic of Alan Turing, a brilliant mathematician condemned for his homosexuality.
The Imitation Game is yet another British biopic about Alan Turing, a mathematician responsible for breaking Nazi codes during WWII. The film was produced by two first timers, Nora Grossman and Ido Ostrowsky. There is already much Oscar buzz surrounding this film, and it was listed as one of AFI’s top films of 2014. It was released on November 18th, and has already grossed $18,676,784. However, again only a small portion of those sales were domestic (5.5%).
The Weinstein Company has always been known to push boundaries and play by their own rules. Due to the rapidly changing landscape of the media, TWC has attempted to capture audiences using unique distribution models. This fall, TWC announced they would be partnering with Netflix to release Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon: The Green Legend. The second installment of the Crouching Tiger franchise will simultaneously be released in IMAX theaters and become available to screen at home on Netflix.The industry saw similar shake ups with TWC’s Yahoo release of One Chance and the Netflix release of St. Vincent in France. As platforms continue to develop and media viewing continues to change, we should expect similar distribution disturbances and innovations from The Weinstein Company.