NEW YORK — The Walt Disney Co. is selling Miramax Films to a group of investors for $660 million, marking a new phase for a studio that helped launch the career of Quentin Tarantino and push independent movies into the mainstream.
The deal announced Friday ends speculation that founders Bob and Harvey Weinstein — who lent the names of their parents, Miriam and Max, to the company — could regain control of the studio they launched more than three decades ago.
With ownership of the studio passes the rights to a long catalog of Oscar winners, including “Shakespeare in Love” (1998), “Chicago” (2002) and “No Country for Old Men” (2007).
It also comes with challenges, most notably a decline in DVD sales that has put into question the value of Hollywood movie libraries.
Disney had been looking to sell Miramax since January amid a studio overhaul, deciding that the label no longer resonated with its other family-centric brands, such as Pixar and Marvel.
