The Weinstein Company will cut between 40 and 50 employees from its film units in the coming days, an individual with knowledge of the situation told TheWrap Sunday.
The cuts will be focused on the studio’s film operations, including its genre label TWC-Radius, and spare senior management. Most of the layoffs will be low-level staffers and a few mid-level executives.
The publicity, distribution and legal departments will be reduced across the studio’s New York, Los Angeles and London offices.
Questions have been swirling in Hollywood about TWC’s cash situation since August, TheWrap previously reported, as multiple vendors complained about missing payments and several small film releases were delayed.
At the time, Harvey Weinstein told TheWrap it was the strain of releasing several movies consecutively at the top of 2015.
“I’ve been dealing with this for 30 years. Put six films out together for an independent film company, there will be a moment with tough cash flow,” he said.
Despite cashflow problems — and now layoffs — the film division boasts a library of 525 titles worth more than $300 million. But it has been a mixed year at the box office.
The family film “Paddington,” the Helen Mirren drama “Woman in Gold” and Jake Gyllenhaal‘s boxing drama “Southpaw” connected early in the year. However, the Pierce Brosnan action film “No Escape” and Bradley Cooper‘s chef comedy “Burnt” have missed since. Three smaller films — “Shanghai,” “The Young and Prodigious T. S. Spivet” and “Eva” — failed to gain traction.
That puts the focus on three releases remaining: the Todd Haynes-directed drama “Carol,” starring Cate Blanchett, on Nov. 20; “Macbeth (2015)” starring Marion Cotillard and Michael Fassbender on Dec. 4; and “The Hateful Eight,” written and directed by Quentin Tarantino, which opens on Christmas Day.
The prospects for Tarantino’s drama are in question due to a planned boycott of the film by police groups across the nation, angry over comments made by the “Pulp Fiction” director at a rally against police brutality.
TWC’s TV division is in robust health thanks to hits like the “Project Runway” franchise, “Mob Wives” and the Netflix acquisition “Marco Polo.” That division yielded $118 million in revenue in 2014, and stands to make $39 million in profit this year.
Variety posted the initial story Sunday on the layoffs.