Under Walt Disney Co. ownership, the award-winning Miramax Films has become a shadow of its former self.
The studio that under the Weinstein brothers made films such as Pulp Fiction and Good Will Hunting closed its New York and Los Angeles offices on Friday.
About 80 people were laid off and Disney announced Miramax president Daniel Battsek would leave the company.
What remains of Miramax — about 10 people — will move to the Disney studios in Burbank, Calif.
Disney, which has seen shrinking returns this year, said the brand will continue to exist for at least two more years and will issue three films a year. The Baster and Debt are scheduled to come out this fall under the Miramax label.
This is in line with what Disney said would happen when brothers Bob and Harvey Weinstein left the art-house movie company in 2005. Disney bought Miramax in 1993 for $80 million.
For many film fans, it feels like the end of an era.
"I'm feeling very nostalgic right now … I know the movies made on my and my brother Bob's watch will live on…" Harvey Weinstein said on Thursday.
The Weinsteins created the studio in 1979, giving it the combined names of their parents, Miriam and Max.
The studio became synonymous with the independent film scene, helping to launch the careers of filmmakers like Quentin Tarantino and Steven Soderbergh.
The Weinsteins quarrelled with Disney and left the company over the Michael Moore documentary Fahrenheit 9/11.
They went on to form another studio, The Weinstein Co., which last year released the critically acclaimed Inglorious Basterds.
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