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Robert Weinstein (born October 18, 1954) is an American film producer. He is the founder and head of
Dimension Films Dimension Films is an American film production company owned by Lantern Entertainment. It was formerly used as Harvey and Bob Weinstein's label within Miramax, which was acquired by The Walt Disney Company on June 30, 1993, to produce and r ...
, former co-chairman of
Miramax Films Miramax, LLC, also known as Miramax Films, is an American film and television production and distribution company founded on December 19, 1979, by brothers Harvey and Bob Weinstein, and based in Los Angeles, California. It was initially a lead ...
and
The Weinstein Company The Weinstein Company (usually credited or abbreviated as TWC) was an American independent film studio, founded in New York City by Bob and Harvey Weinstein in March 2005. TWC was one of the largest mini-major film studios in North America pri ...
, all of which he co-founded with his older brother, Harvey. He has focused on making action and horror films.


Early life

Weinstein was born in
Flushing, Queens Flushing is a neighborhood in the north-central portion of the New York City borough of Queens. The neighborhood is the fourth-largest central business district in New York City. Downtown Flushing is a major commercial and retail area, and the i ...
, in
New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
. He was raised in an
Ashkenazi Jewish Ashkenazi Jews ( ; he, יְהוּדֵי אַשְׁכְּנַז, translit=Yehudei Ashkenaz, ; yi, אַשכּנזישע ייִדן, Ashkenazishe Yidn), also known as Ashkenazic Jews or ''Ashkenazim'',, Ashkenazi Hebrew pronunciation: , singu ...
family. His parents were Max Weinstein, a diamond cutter, and Miriam (''
née A birth name is the name of a person given upon birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name, or the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a birth certificate or birth re ...
'' Postel). He grew up with his older brother, Harvey Weinstein, in a housing co-op named
Electchester Pomonok is a working class neighborhood in the New York City borough of Queens. This large public housing development in South Flushing was built in 1949 on the former site of Pomonok Country Club. The name comes from a Native American word for ...
in New York City. and attended
John Bowne High School John Bowne High School is a public high school located in Flushing, New York City and has an enrollment of nearly four thousand students.Harvey Weinstein, and Corky Burger independently produced rock concerts as Harvey & Corky Productions in Buffalo through most of the 1970s. Both Weinstein brothers had grown up with a passion for movies, and they nurtured a desire to enter the film industry. In the late 1970s, using profits from their concert promotion business, the brothers created a small independent film distribution company called
Miramax Miramax, LLC, also known as Miramax Films, is an American film and television production and distribution company founded on December 19, 1979, by brothers Harvey and Bob Weinstein, and based in Los Angeles, California. It was initially a lea ...
, named after their parents Miriam and Max. The company's first releases were primarily music-oriented concert films, such as
Paul McCartney Sir James Paul McCartney (born 18 June 1942) is an English singer, songwriter and musician who gained worldwide fame with the Beatles, for whom he played bass guitar and shared primary songwriting and lead vocal duties with John Lennon. One ...
's ''
Rockshow ''Rockshow'' is a 1980 concert film released by Paul McCartney and Wings, filmed during the band's 1976 North American tour. The film features 30 songs from segments of four concerts of the tour: New York, on 25 May (four songs); Seattle, Washin ...
''. In the early 1980s, Miramax acquired the rights to two British films of benefit shows filmed for the human rights organization
Amnesty International Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says it has more than ten million members and s ...
. Working closely with Martin Lewis, the producer of the original films, the Weinstein brothers edited the two films into one movie tailored for the American market. The resulting film, released as '' The Secret Policeman's Other Ball'' in May 1982, became Miramax's first hit. The movie raised considerable sums for
Amnesty International Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says it has more than ten million members and s ...
and was credited by Amnesty with having helped to raise its profile in the US. The Weinsteins slowly built upon this success throughout the 1980s with arthouse films that achieved critical attention and modest commercial success. Harvey Weinstein and Miramax gained wider attention in 1988 with the release of
Errol Morris Errol Mark Morris (born February 5, 1948) is an American film director known for documentaries that interrogate the epistemology of its subjects. In 2003, his documentary film '' The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNama ...
' documentary '' The Thin Blue Line'', which detailed the struggle of
Randall Adams Randall Dale Adams (December 17, 1948 – October 30, 2010) was an American man wrongfully convicted of murder and sentenced to death after the 1976 shooting of Dallas police officer Robert W. Wood. His conviction was overturned in 1989. Throu ...
, a wrongfully convicted inmate sentenced to
death row Death row, also known as condemned row, is a place in a prison that houses inmates awaiting execution after being convicted of a capital crime and sentenced to death. The term is also used figuratively to describe the state of awaiting execution ...
. The publicity that soon surrounded the case resulted in Adams' release and nationwide publicity for Miramax. The following year, their successful launch release of
Steven Soderbergh Steven Andrew Soderbergh (; born January 14, 1963) is an American film director, producer, screenwriter, cinematographer and editor. A pioneer of modern independent cinema, Soderbergh is an acclaimed and prolific filmmaker. Soderbergh's direct ...
's '' Sex, Lies, and Videotape'' propelled Miramax to become the most successful independent studio in America. Miramax continued to grow its library of films and directors until, in 1993,
Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...
offered Harvey and Bob $80 million for ownership of Miramax. Agreeing to the deal that would cement their Hollywood clout and ensure that they would remain at the head of their company, Miramax followed the next year with their first blockbuster,
Quentin Tarantino Quentin Jerome Tarantino (; born March 27, 1963) is an American film director, writer, producer, and actor. His films are characterized by stylized violence, extended dialogue, profanity, dark humor, non-linear storylines, cameos, ensembl ...
's '' Pulp Fiction''. 1996 brought Miramax's first
Academy Award for Best Picture The Academy Award for Best Picture is one of the Academy Awards presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) since the awards debuted in 1929. This award goes to the producers of the film and is the only categ ...
with the victory of '' The English Patient''. This would start a string of critical successes that would include '' Good Will Hunting'' and '' Shakespeare in Love''. On March 29, 2005, it was announced that the Weinstein brothers would leave Miramax on September 30 and would form their own production company,
The Weinstein Company The Weinstein Company (usually credited or abbreviated as TWC) was an American independent film studio, founded in New York City by Bob and Harvey Weinstein in March 2005. TWC was one of the largest mini-major film studios in North America pri ...
. Five years later, in 2010, Disney sold Miramax to the Qatari group Filmyard Holdings, who in turn sold it to another Qatari entity, the
beIN Media Group beIN Media Group ( /ˈbiːɪn/; Arabic: مجموعة بي إن الإعلامية‎, ''Majmū‘at Bī’in al-I‘lāmiyyah'') is a state-owned global sport and entertainment network headquartered in Doha, Qatar. beIN distributes entertain ...
, in 2016. On December 4, 2017, Bob Weinstein filed a trademark application for Watch This Entertainment. Almost two years later, Weinstein announced his new production company to the world, with a focus on "family films, comedies and upscale adult thrillers", and a first project of an animated feature titled ''Endangered'', with Téa Leoni serving as co-producer and voicing a lead character.


Personal life

Weinstein has been married and divorced twice. He married Anne Clayton, a former book editor, in 2000. They lived in a large apartment in The Beresford at 7 West 81st Street on the Upper West Side. Anne filed for divorce in April 2012, and sought a protective order because she feared "bodily harm". Weinstein issued a statement from Washington-based interventionist Don Sloane, denying that Weinstein was a danger to his wife, and alleging that she was reacting to a family intervention conducted to address her
alcoholism Alcoholism is, broadly, any drinking of alcohol that results in significant mental or physical health problems. Because there is disagreement on the definition of the word ''alcoholism'', it is not a recognized diagnostic entity. Predomi ...
. Her lawyers denied that she suffered from any addiction and said that Sloane was her husband's "paid agent" and that the two had never met. In October 2017, Weinstein talked about the recent allegations of sex crimes against his brother Harvey and said he was "sick and disgusted" by his brother's actions. He denied knowing about any of the allegations, and said he had rarely spoken to him in the previous five years because he "could not take his cheating, his lying and also his attitude toward everyone".


Sexual misconduct allegations

In October 2017, at the same time multiple women accused Weinstein's brother Harvey of sexual assault, sexual harassment, and rape, Bob Weinstein was also accused of sexual harassment by Amanda Segel, who had worked as a
showrunner A showrunner (or colloquially a helmer) is the top-level executive producer of a television series production who has creative and management authority through combining the responsibilities of employer and, in comedy or dramas, typically also the ...
on the Weinstein Company-produced
Spike TV Paramount Network is an American basic cable television channel owned by the MTV Entertainment Group unit of Paramount Media Networks. The network's headquarters are located at the Paramount Pictures studio lot in Los Angeles. The channel was ...
miniseries '' The Mist''. Segel alleged that Weinstein made several unwanted sexual overtures to her beginning in June 2016 and continued for three months. Weinstein's attorney Bert Fields issued a statement denying the allegations.


Selected filmography


Executive producer


Producer

* '' Playing for Keeps'' (1986) * '' Restoration'' (1995), co-producer * '' Mimic'' (1997) * '' Reindeer Games'' (2000) * '' Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World'' (2003), co-producer (uncredited) * '' Bad Santa'' (2003)


Director

* ''Playing for Keeps'' (1986)


Writer

* '' The Burning'' (1981)


Broadway credits

Note: In all productions Weinstein has functioned as a co-producer with other producers. * '' The Real Thing'' (2000 revival) – play – produced by
Miramax Films Miramax, LLC, also known as Miramax Films, is an American film and television production and distribution company founded on December 19, 1979, by brothers Harvey and Bob Weinstein, and based in Los Angeles, California. It was initially a lead ...
Tony Award for Best Revival of a Play,
Drama Desk Award The Drama Desk Award is an annual prize recognizing excellence in New York theatre. First bestowed in 1955 as the Vernon Rice Award, the prize initially honored Off-Broadway productions, as well as Off-off-Broadway, and those in the vicinity. F ...
for Outstanding Revival of a Play * '' The Producers'' (2001) – musical – Tony Award for Best Musical,
Drama Desk Award The Drama Desk Award is an annual prize recognizing excellence in New York theatre. First bestowed in 1955 as the Vernon Rice Award, the prize initially honored Off-Broadway productions, as well as Off-off-Broadway, and those in the vicinity. F ...
for Outstanding New Musical * '' Sweet Smell of Success'' (2002) – musical – Tony Nomination for Best Musical, Drama Desk Nomination for Outstanding New Musical * '' La bohème'' (2003 revival) – opera – Tony Nomination for Best Revival of a Musical, Drama Desk Nomination for Outstanding Revival of a Musical * ''
All Shook Up "All Shook Up" is a song recorded by Elvis Presley, published by Elvis Presley Music, and composed by Otis Blackwell. The single topped the U.S. ''Billboard'' Top 100 on April 13, 1957, staying there for eight weeks. It also topped the ''Bil ...
'' (2005) – musical – produced by Bob Weinstein &
Miramax Films Miramax, LLC, also known as Miramax Films, is an American film and television production and distribution company founded on December 19, 1979, by brothers Harvey and Bob Weinstein, and based in Los Angeles, California. It was initially a lead ...
* ''
The Color Purple ''The Color Purple'' is a 1982 epistolary novel by American author Alice Walker which won the 1983 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the National Book Award for Fiction.
'' (2005) – musical


Accolades


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Weinstein, Bob
1954 births Living people 20th-century American Jews American film producers American film studio executives American film production company founders American theatre managers and producers Businesspeople from Connecticut Businesspeople from New York City Miramax people People from Queens, New York The Weinstein Company people Golden Globe Award-winning producers American independent film production company founders 21st-century American Jews American Ashkenazi Jews