Harvey Weinstein can at last lay claim to being king of Hollywood – except that he’s a hard-core New Yorker.
The head of Miramax is celebrating a movie industry record for winning the most Oscar nominations in the shortest time – a total of 205 since he hung up his office sign in a Greenwich Village loft in 1988.
The former upstate rock impresario walked away from yesterday’s Oscar nominations as the event’s biggest winner – with a total of four nominations for best picture and 38 nominations in all categories for this year’s big Oscar jackpot.
“This is clearly the year of Harvey Weinstein,” said box office analyst Anthony Kusich of ReelSource.
“He’s got more leverage now than anyone in the business.”
Just getting a coveted nomination can add tens of millions to the box office take of a picture. “The box office jumps by 25 to 50 percent on a nomination,” said Kusich.
Weinstein flagship picture “Chicago” could reap $100 million in ticket sales from its sweep of 13 nominations – the most for any picture this year – including best picture.
But Disney-owned Miramax is mostly competing with itself in the best picture category, with other nominations including “Gangs of New York” and “The Hours,” co-produced with Paramount. Weinstein and his brother, Bob, share executive producer credits for “The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers,” which they started but handed over to AOL Time Warner’s New Line Cinema.
Weinstein, a bottom-line hawk blessed with uncanny artistic taste, turned his boutique studio and film import business into the kind of overnight hit-maker that Hollywood hadn’t seen for decades.
His first Oscar nominations, in 1988 – his startup year – went to critically adored flick “Pelle the Conqueror,” for best actor (Max von Sydow) and for best foreign film, which it won.
Although he ostensibly runs Miramax with his brother, Bob, it’s high-profile Harvey who has become more closely associated with the house’s hits and misses.
Friends of Weinstein say he’s getting the last laugh on Ken Auletta, who trashed the mogul in a recent New Yorker profile. Auletta reported that Weinstein could never reign over Hollywood because he’d wind up like Mike Ovitz and alienate them all.
“Ovitz never won any Oscars for anyone,” said one Miramax insider.
Weinstein, who’s admitted he once had a temper, has told everyone he’s got all that under control. He’s also made so much money he can afford to hire assistants to be nasty or throw chairs in tantrums.
In addition to “Chicago,” Miramax’s Oscar coups this year included the 10 nominations scored by “Gangs of New York,” the nine for “The Hours,” and six for “Frida.”
Rounding out the list of most-nominated films of the year are Focus Films’ “The Pianist” (which got seven) and New Line’s “The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers” (six).
Even art film “The Pianist” could soar six-fold into a mainstream box office winner.
” ‘The Pianist’ is in just 400 theaters with a gross of $7 million, but that could go over 1,000 screens and add another $30 to $40 million in revenue,” said ReelSource’s Kusich.
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King of the hill
Harvey Weinstein and his Miramax studio, which is controlled by Disney, are back on top with a mountain of Academy Award nominations. Highlights:
* Four of the five for best picture with “Chicago,” “Gangs of New York” and “The Hours,” and “Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers”
* More nominations than any other studio with 38 total.
* 13 for “Chicago” alone, and 10 for “Gangs.”