Did Harvey Weinstein try to ruin Robin Williams' career? Book spills SHOCKING secret
Matt Damon and Ben Affleck‘s smash feature film 'Good Will Hunting', a 1997 Gus Van Saint drama, earned more than $225 million at the box office and won two Oscars, but not without some drama involved after the filming was over. According to 'Mallrats' filmmaker and 'Good Will Hunting' executive producer Kevin Smith, disgraced Miramax founder Harvey Weinstein wanted to pull the film from theater screens in an attempt to ruin Robin Williams' career. In 51-year-old Smith's new book, titled 'Kevin Smith’s Secret Stash', he revealed that a back-end deal that Williams had, said Williams would cash in a larger portion of the profits if the film grossed over $100 million. He would then split that money with Miramax.
In an interview with Daily Beast, the director said he is “not sure if it was a 50/50 split.” “I remember the day when ‘Good Will Hunting’ was leaving theaters and it felt weird because it was like, ‘Wait? There’s all this Oscar buzz, so why would you pull it if it was just making money?’ And they did it because keeping it in theaters meant that more of the money would go to Robin, whereas the moment it went to video the split wasn’t Robin-heavy. It was hamstrung because [of] greed," Williams said.
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"I remember they pulled that movie out of theaters while it was still earning at the time. It was doing incredibly well, and the deal that they’d made with Robin was a high-percentage first-dollar gross—a movie-star deal—and it was great, because instantly by putting Robin in the movie their pre-sales paid for the whole f**king film. So, the movie was paid for and then the movie was making money hand over fist and made over $100 million. From what I remember, Robin’s split would be even greater and he’d get a bigger percentage if it crossed $100 million, so every dollar the movie made at the theatrical box office would have to be split—I’m not sure if it was a 50/50 split—with Robin Williams. I was on the movie as a co-executive producer, so we were privy to some details," he said.
A number of Smith's cult films, like 'Clerks', 'Chasing Amy', 'Jersey Girl' and 'Dogma' have been produced by Weinstein and Miramax. Some of these movies had Affleck, 49, and Damon, 51, as the stars. Although 'Good Will Hunting' was made on a budget of only $10 million, the movie scored nine Academy Award nominations, and Affleck and Damon won for Best Screenplay, and Williams for Best Supporting Actor.