Michael Eisner is opening up about his tenure as Disney CEO, revealing how he dealt with Harvey Weinstein, and offering a dark prognosis for movie theaters.
In an interview on In Depth with Graham Bensinger, Eisner believes the theater business will die over the next 20 years.
“The only thing I don’t like about it is that the movies that do well in the theaters are the big technical extravaganzas,” Eisner said about the dwindling numbers off moviegoers going to the theaters. “And the small independent films from Europe or from the U.S. – Miramax-type films – they really only survive on Amazon or Apple or Netflix. So it’s hard. It’s not a business that I would go into today.”
When asked if theaters could survive, Eisner said, “I don’t know. No, probably not. I don’t know. I mean, it will survive for another 20 years, but at some point, the home is more convenient.”
During his tenure as CEO of Disney, Eisner oversaw the partnership with Harvey Weinstein’s Miramax and worked with the now-convicted sex offender. Eisner didn’t mince his words when asked how it was working with Weinstein.
“He was just a pig. He was rude, but he was a closet intellectual. He looked like a truck driver. He acted like a truck driver. He had great independent film taste, and nobody at Disney would deal with him but me,” Eisner said.
Revealing that working with Weinstein was one of the toughest moments in his career, the former Disney CEO said he regrets making the deal to acquire Miramax.
“He lied about everything. How do you deal with somebody who never tells the truth?” Eisner said, adding, “I never thought about what I learned, but I think I would not make a deal – because I got a good cheap deal at $70 million to buy Miramax – if I’d thought that I’m bringing a wolf into the hen house.”