Weinsteins Buy Stake in Starz, Continue Quest to Own All of Hollywood

Weinsteins Buy Stake in Starz, Continue Quest to Own All of Hollywood

Movie News

By our guest blogger, Nick Hanover

Straight from the ever-reliable Deadline is news that the Weinsteins, freed from the clutches of their captors at Disney, have purchased a 25 percent stake in Starz. Though Starz is perhaps best known by viewers as the cable network that isn't HBO and isn't Showtime, it has quite the presence in the home entertainment market thanks to its subsidiary Anchor Bay Entertainment. Anchor Bay is already feeling flush with excitement from the Weinstein's acquisition, which has reportedly led to Anchor Bay joining TWC in a domestic distribution deal.

While the financial terms of the deal have not been disclosed, it has been revealed that the Weinstein's involvement with Starz is limited to home and digital distribution rather than television. This still has major ramifications for Starz, though, since the Weinsteins are apparently looking to Starz for home and digital distribution of some of their company's biggest productions, including prestige films like "The King's Speech" and "Blue Valentine," as well as new entries in blockbuster franchises "Scream," "Spy Kids" and "Scary Movie." Likewise, Starz is said to now have similar rights for planned reboots of "Hellraiser" and "Halloween." There's also that persistent rumor going around that Netflix is looking to acquire Starz for a figure that could be as much as $3 billion.

For some, the new Starz deal is likely a reminder of a similar announcement the Weinsteins made a couple years back when they entered into a seven-year deal with Showtime that was rumored to have cost in the hundreds of millions. The news is also an indication that the Weinsteins haven't let their failure to buy back Miramax from Disney stop them from remaining major players in Hollywood. After the remarkable success of a few key films in 2010, most notably "Blue Valentine" and "The King's Speech," the Weinsteins are undoubtedly on a roll.