Robin Williams Was Screwed Over by Harvey Weinstein Pulling GOOD WILL HUNTING Out of Theaters Early
Producer Harvey Weinstein has quite the reputation for being a vindictive asshole. Hollywood hates him now, but there was a time when everyone in Hollywood turned a blind eye to his behavior, even defended him, and some worshipped the ground he walked on. They probably still would if the women he hurt didn’t start speaking out.
Well, it turns out that Robin Williams was one of the victims of Harvey Weinstein’s douchebaggery. Williams was screwed over by Weinstein when he pulled Good Will Hunting out of theaters early, while it was still making lots of money. The reason he intentionally pull it out of theaters? To save them from having to give Williams more money on the back-end.
This information comes from Kevin Smith, who was an executive producer on the project. This is what he shared in an interview with The Daily Beast:
"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 fucking 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, and 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 greed."
Damn. Williams was supposed to reunite with both his Good Will Hunting co-star Matt Damon and The Fisher King director Terry Gilliam for The Brothers Grimm in the sidekick/antagonist role of Cavaldi. But, he ended up dropping out when the Weinsteins tried to screw him over again by low-balling him on his offer. Because of that, he walked away from the project and Gilliam was pissed. Williams ended up being replaced by Peter Stormare.
Hollywood is a slightly better place without the Weinsteins involved.