Miramax owners said to be exploring sale

The owners of Miramax, the film company behind movies such as “Pulp Fiction” and “Good Will Hunting,” are exploring a possible sale.

Colony Capital and Qatar Holding, the investors that control Santa Monica-based Miramax, are in talks with investment banks to help guide the process, according to people with knowledge of the situation who were not authorized to speak publicly.

Representatives for Miramax and Colony declined to comment.

The exploration of a sale, reported by Bloomberg News, would be the latest development in the long-running saga of ownership changes for the studio founded by Harvey and Bob Weinstein.

The Weinstein brothers from Queens founded the company in 1979, naming it after their parents, Miriam and Max. They built Miramax into a prominent independent studio with such critically acclaimed movies as “sex, lies and videotape” and “Reservoir Dogs” before selling to Walt Disney Co. in 1993.

They left in 2005 after a bitter dispute with Disney over creative control, and then formed the Weinstein Co.

An investor group led by real estate magnate Ron Tutor, Colony and Qatar bought Miramax in 2010 for $660 million. The Weinsteins had tried to win back the studio they founded, but lost out in their bid when they lowered their offer at the last minute. Tutor later sold his stake to Qatar holding.

The potential sale comes at a time when the value of Miramax’s film library could be on the way up, thanks to rising demand for content on digital streaming apps and websites.

Miramax owns more than 700 movies, and is responsible for Oscar winners including “The English Patient,” “Shakespeare in Love,” “Chicago” and “No Country for Old Men.”

According to the Bloomberg report, one person said Miramax could fetch as much as $1 billion, but people close to other Hollywood studios said that price would likely prove too high.

The studio is nowhere near the hit-generator it once was, but Miramax’s business is not limited to its library. It has had its hands in recent movies such as the Kevin Hart comedy “The Wedding Ringer” and the new Ian McKellen film “Mr. Holmes.”

Its TV series “From Dusk Till Dawn,” based on the Robert Rodriguez vampire movie from 1996, is starting its second season on the El Rey cable network, which is a joint venture between Rodriguez and Univision.

The Weinstein brothers in 2013 returned to their roots through a deal with Miramax to collaborate on films, television shows and live stage productions.

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