Did Harvey Weinstein Once Pull ‘Good Will Hunting’ From Theaters To Avoid Paying Robin Williams?

At this point in the life of Harvey Weinstein people wouldn’t be surprised to learn of more and more despicable acts that were apparently a common practice during his producing days. The late Robin Williams may have had a bit of blame here since it was he who made a deal with Weinstein’s company to hop on board what was essentially considered an indie film at the time. This rumor is coming from director Kevin Smith who was an executive producer on the film and has a new book out where he discloses a lot of the behind the scenes stories. Seeing as how he was a part of deal there’s a good chance that Robin Williams got screwed over by Weinstein.

Did Weinstein Just Want To Mess With Robin Williams?

In a recent interview Kevin Smith told the story about Good Will Hunting being pulled from theaters at the orders of Harvey Weinstein. He kind of alluded to the fact that Harvey was trying to get Robin’s career to take a hit. That’s not all that likely, otherwise Robin, Matt Damon, and Ben Affleck wouldn’t have continued to work with Weinstein. What is true is that Harvey pulled the film from theaters to ensure less money went to Williams. Smith recalled,

“I remember 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?’

Money is King

There are so many examples in show business where it’s made abundantly clear that most people make movies for money. A lot of times people like Weinstein are extremely near-sighted, and greedy, that usually comes back to bite them in the end. Essentially Weinstein wanted to pull the movie because he was having to split the money that it was making in theaters with Robin Williams. The VHS and DVD sales though those would earn him more money. Smith recalls,

“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.”

Robin Continued To Work With Weinstein

What seems awkward in this story is that Robin Williams actually continued to work with Miramax, which was run by the Weinstein brothers at the time. On a couple of projects after being potentially cheated out of a major payday by the company during his Good Will Hunting days. Granted, he did a couple of movies that were low budget and ultimately didn’t amount to much. Such as, The Night Listener, in 2006. Potentially, other producing companies applied similar tactics, it’s just that everything Winestein has done has now become public.

Smith Coined The “Bennifer” Phrase

To end the story on a much more light heartened note, and to give more references on director Kevin Smith who disclosed the story about Robin Williams, and the Weinstein’s he was the director of the now infamous film Jersey Girl. The film was a total flop at the box office. However, that’s the film where Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez fell in love for real! Kevin Smith says that he is the true creator of the “Bennifer” mantra for the couple. He said in the interview on the Bennifer name,

“Most people out there, including Ben and Jen themselves, are like, ‘Thanks, a–hole.’ ”