Miramax CEO Stephen Schoch is stepping down before the end of the year and will be replaced by chairman Nasser Al-Khelaifi on an interim basis, the company announced Tuesday.
Schoch has served as Miramax CEO since 2012, and previously worked as chief financial officer for two years before that.
Disney, which had acquired Miramax from co-founders Bob and Harvey Weinstein in 1993, sold the indie unit to a group of investors for $660 million in 2010. BeIN Media Group, which is owned by Qatar’s Al Jazeera, then acquired the company in March of this year.
“I would like to thank Steven for his many years of leadership at Miramax and we wish him well for his future plans,” Al-Khelaifi said in the statement.
Miramax recently acquired the rights to Black List script “I, Tonya,” about disgraced Olympic figure skater Tonya Harding. “Suicide Squad” actress Margot Robbie is attached to star in the lead role.
This year, the company’s theatrical releases have consistently underperformed at the box office.
The raunchy Billy Bob Thornton comedy “Bad Santa 2,” distributed by Broad Green, grossed $17.7 million on an estimated production budget of $24 million. And Universal’s “Bridget Jones’s Baby” topped out at $24.1 million domestically on a $35 million budget. (The film, featuring the return of Renee Zellweger’s popular character, played significantly better overseas.)
Miramax controls a library with nearly 800 films released between the late 1980s and 2016.
The studio’s senior management team currently includes Al-Khelaifi, who is also Chairman of beIN Media Group and the parent of French soccer team Paris-Saint Germain; Zanne Devine, EVP Film & Television; Adrienne Gary, SVP Organizational Strategy & Administration; Dennis Hands, SVP Finance, Strategy & Business Development; and Joe Patrick, EVP Global Sales & Home Entertainment.