Sex, Lies and Marketing: Miramax and the Development of the Quality Indie Blockbuster Author(s): Alisa Perren Source: Film Quarterly, Vol. 55, No. 2 (Winter, 2001-2002), pp. 30-39 Published by: University of California Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1213686 Accessed: 05/11/2008 07:10 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use. Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=ucal. 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University of California Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Film Quarterly. http://www.jstor.org - 1:1 :iuii I I **UIe] : [.1 N &YL.I.] 'KU Alisa Perren sex, lies and marketing Miramax and the Development of the Quality Indie Blockbuster The origins of an American Beauty are in 1989 with Steven Soderbergh doing that kind of movie. -Harvey Weinstein, 20001 In 1989, the world of independent distribution was ceived as central to the development of New Holly- in disarray. While the appearance of the video mar- wood aesthetics, economics, and structure.3 sex, lies ket in the 1980s had helped spur the emergence and and videotape ushered in the era of the "indie block- expansion of a number of independent distributors, by busters"-films that, on a smaller scale, replicate the the end of the decade several of these same compa- exploitation marketing and box-office performance of nies-including Vestron, Island, and Cinecom-had the major studio high-concept event pictures.4 On a overextended themselves by investing heavily in larger cost-to-earning ratio, Steven Soderbergh's creation budget, in-house productions. Consequently, by 1989, -with its $1.1 million dollar budget and $24 million many within the industry were predicting the death of plus in North American box office-was a better in- the independent distributor. However, what seemed to vestment than Batman, which-at an investment of be the decline of independent distribution was actually $50 million-returned $250 million in domestic box an "independent shakedown," a label presciently at- office.5 tached to the period by Los Angeles Times writer These figures begin to suggest how sex, lies and Daniel Cerone in June 1989.2 Cerone saw that it was videotape helped to set the standard for low-budget, a transitional time within the independent world. While niche-based distribution in the 90s and to lay the the vast majority of independent distributors who had groundwork for a bifurcation within the entertainment thrived in the 80s were forced to declare bankruptcy by industry.6 In the ten years following the release of sex, the end of the decade, a few companies were positioned lies and videotape, each major studio or media con- to make a mark significant on the industrial structure glomerate created or purchased at least one specialty and aesthetics of low-budget filmmaking in the 90s. division. These divisions generally operated relatively At the head of the was pack Miramax. autonomously from the studio in terms of production The 1989 August release of sex, lies and video- and distribution. In the wake of Disney's April 1993 tape by Miramax marked a turning point in American purchase of Miramax, a number of studio-based niche independent cinema. In fact, the film should be per- operations emerged, including Universal Focus, Para- Film Quarterly,Vol. no. 55, Issue no. 2, 30-39. ISSN: 00 15-1386. ? 2001 The pages by Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved. Send requests for 30 permission to to: and Permissions, of reprint Rights University California Press, Journals Division, 2000 Center Street, Suite 303, Berkeley, CA 94704-1223. mount Classics, and Fox Searchlight. The studios fo- Because the company's executives were so skilled cused predominantly on the distribution of big-budget at selling positive images of themselves and their films spectacles, while studio-based subsidiaries (which Mi- (including sex, lies and videotape), reconstructing a ramax became in 1993, when Disney purchased the history of Miramax becomes a complicated task. It is company) focused predominantly on smaller-scale often hard to distinguish legitimate claims from exag- quality pictures that centered on the foibles of well- geration. Yet in spite of Miramax's effective integration developed characters.7 While the majors favored pro- of myth and fact, a number of details about the contours jects such as The Rock (1996), Con Air (1997), and of the company's development can be untangled from Enemy of the State (1998), studio subsidiaries devel- the mix. oped such films as Shine (1996), Good Will Hunting During the 80s, Miramax consistently released (1997), and The Cider House Rules (1999). But it was three to four films per year. Except for a few failed ef- sex, lies and videotape, in the skillful hands of Mira- forts in production, including the 1986 co-directorial max, that redefined the label of "independence" as it effort Playing for Keeps (released through Universal), was used by the press and the entertainment industry. the company focused mainly on acquiring and distrib- During the years that followed its release, a number of uting films produced by outside companies. Miramax films would replicate its financial success and media at- was interested in a range of documentary, foreign- tention. And the vast majority of these would be the- language, and art house-oriented films, basing their atrically distributed in the U.S. by Miramax. choices on three criteria. First, they selected movies that could be promoted as quality pictures-films that Miramaxin the 1980s aspired to the status of "art" in terms of style and nar- rative construction. These movies were often promoted Founded in downtown Buffalo, New York, in 1979 by at least in part on the merits of their director's unique brothers Harvey and Robert (Bob) Weinstein, Mira- vision. Such films-examples are Lizzie Borden's max began, like many low-budget distributors of the Working Girls (1987), Bille August's Pelle the Con- late 70s and early 80s, by booking live rock-and-roll querer (1987), and Errol Morris's The Thin Blue Line acts as well as exhibiting classic films and concert (1988)-had the potential for garnering critical sup- movies. But the Weinsteins soon branched out, first port from the outset, a crucial component for distribu- with film festivals that screened cult favorites and for- tors working with limited advertising budgets. Second, eign-language films, and then by moving into produc- Miramax selected nonclassical films that focused on tion and distribution. They made the kinds of movies unconventional subjects and styles: Working Girls was that the studios weren't interested in but that had de- a hard-edged critique of prostitution, while The Thin veloped into profitable ventures by virtue of the emer- Blue Line was a documentary about a man on death gence of the home video market. As they slowly row whom Morris proved to be wrongly accused. Both expanded during the course of the 80s, the Weinsteins films' documentary aesthetic also set them apart from and their staff grew increasingly adept at selling posi- most slick, glossy Hollywood product. Third, Mira- tive images of themselves and their company along max found marketing hooks that could help the films with their films. They became known for employing transition from the art house to the multiplex. With exploitation marketing tactics to promote their movies, Working Girls, for example, the Weinsteins "deter- with publicity stunts ranging from encouraging mined how to sell the sex in a film that was utterly, Erendira (1983) actress Claudia Ohana to pose for demonstrably unsexy," while with The Thin Blue Line Playboy to setting up actor Daniel Day-Lewis, who Harvey Weinstein pledged, "Never has Miramax had portrayed cerebral palsy sufferer Christy Brown in My a movie where a man's life hangs in the balance."8 Foot to Left (1989), testify before Congress on behalf Thus, by appealing to multiple niches and using of the Americans With Disabilities Act. sex, violence, and controversy as sales strategies, the 31 Scandal:Christine Keeler in 1963 Scandal:Joanne Whalley-Kilmer as Christine Keeler Weinsteins gained a foothold in an increasingly com- producing them. Their first in-house production through petitive marketplace and attracted the attention of pro- this arrangement was the aptly titled Scandal (1989), a ducers and financiers looking for a distributor.As much film about British defense minister John Profumo's af- as Miramax's success can be interpreted as an accident fair with teenager Christine Keeler. The controversy, or side effect of a more broadly shifting industrial struc- with its rumors of the betrayal of state secrets, may have ture, such an interpretation must be balanced by atten- contributed to the fall of the Conservative government tion to the business savvy and acute judgment of in 1963, but it helped Miramax produce a hit.