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Kevin Smith says Harvey Weinstein stiffened him with royalties from his hit Clerks for seven years after the 1994 movie hit with $ 3.2 million.
The 49-year-old director told Variety how the producer (currently serving 23 years on his rape conviction) was tough on the business relationship with him.
Smith said he “found” trouble getting Weinstein to pay him his fair share, who “was known to” leave people penniless.
The latest: Kevin Smith, 49, says Harvey Weinstein, 68, stiffened him with royalties from his hit Clerks for seven years after the 1994 film’s $ 3.2 million hit.
Smith said he “still doesn’t have any money” on what he owes him for his work with the disgraced producer.
He went into detail about finances involving employees, the independent love that told the story of an employee named Dante (Brian O’Halloran) as he navigated his day through a maze of mundane situations; and introduced the characters Jay and Silent Bob (played by Jason Mewes and Smith).
He said Weinstein ‘bought’ Clerks ‘for $ 227,000 … and the movie came out and made $ 3 million at the box office,’ but the rewards were not quickly reaped.
“It took us seven years to see any benefit from that movie,” he said. “For seven years, they said,” No, the movie still doesn’t make a profit. “And we were like,” How? “And then there were things.
Trademark: Clerks introduced the characters Jay and Silent Bob (played by Jason Mewes and Smith)
Comeback: Mewes and Smith revived the characters for last year’s Jay and Silent Bob reboot
Smith noted that the Weinstein company with his brother Bob, Miramax, billed employees at the same level as Pulp Fiction, which earned $ 213 million worldwide, for questionable expenses at the Cannes Film Festival that year.
“We all went to Cannes,” said Smith. Miramax brought four films to the Cannes Film Festival in 1994: Fresh, The Picture Bride, Clerks and Pulp Fiction. Miramax did not get the employees. We were in the International Critics ‘Week section, which we actually won.’
He recalled: ‘The festival flies over me. They gave me a free hotel room from the festival. This is a long way of saying that Miramax did not have to pay for anything. There was a yacht, the Miramax yacht, it was called. That’s where all the stars were. We kept that, we dated Quentin [Tarantino] after he won his Palme d’Or and stuff. But that yacht was not for us.
Flashback: Weinstein posed with Smith and Jason Mewes in 1997 in LA
Overdue: Smith said he “still doesn’t have money” on what he owes him for his work with the disgraced producer
Smith said that “when the festival ended,” Miramax “had taken the entire Cannes ticket, everything they spent at Cannes, and divided it into four and Clerks was charged as much as Pulp Fiction. So we all paid an equal share.
He said that his lawyer had advised him to audit the company, but replied: ‘No, I cannot audit the people I am in business with. That’s gross. ‘
Smith said his camp was never audited. [Miramax] for years until after Clerks 2 ‘, which earned $ 24 million in the United States and another $ 2.8 million abroad in 2006.
“Then we audited them years later and we got a lot of money,” he said. ‘If I were a better business person, I would have gone for more money. But it felt like, “Oh, there it is. That’s your process. Movie math.”
The New Jersey native added, “The nature of this business is that everyone wants to keep as much money as possible.”
Smith said he continued working with Weinstein because [he] I was paid upfront for each movie ‘and’ got ridiculously increasing salaries’ as their movies performed well with the home video audience.
He said, ‘Trust me, I’m not crying poor … the money up front was so good. I never thought, “Hey man, where are those nickels and nickels on the back?” And maybe that’s why they kept making movies with me, even though my movies were not profitable at the box office.
‘Home video, they were gold mines. That’s why they really kept me close. “
